From Sewing to Sowing

* I was invited to this year’s Gardeners’ World Live preview and provided with a pair of tickets for the show, therefore all my posts will be marked as 'Ad’ though as usual my views and opinions are very much my own.

This is the perfect name for a garden isn’t it? I think the designer Annabel Davies should win a prize solely for that, and I’m sure she’s very happy with the Gold award that the judges gave her, but even so - or should that be sew?

But anyway, the garden reflects Annabel’s journey from sewing film costumes to gardening after she discovered a love of growing flowers and vegetables in 2020, which sounds like the perfect lockdown distraction too. And I think I’d love to see her costume designs if this is what her garden’s look like, don’t you agree?

But I digress, the garden is inspired by Arts & Crafts gardens and combines ornamental and productive planting - so no doubt another reason why it scored so highly for me. The show notes said that the garden uses a ‘varied textures of flowers and vegetables much like fabrics bring life to a costume design’.

And looking at this garden again a month or two after the show, that totally makes sense - the dense planting (another favourite of mine) meshing together to form the fabric of the garden.

All the while the plants are struggling to be contained by the raised beds and so spill over the edges with abundance.

It really is a garden, with planting that’s full of joy. Sigh.

* With thanks to Gardeners’ World for once again inviting me to Gardeners’ World Live, it was another great show! I’ll be sharing more from my visit to this year’s show throughout the year - I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

Modern Quilts by Mandy Munroe

It’s been a while since I’ve shared some quilts from this year’s Newark Quilt Show, so today I’ve got some brightly coloured modern designs to share. The quilts here are all made by Mandy Munroe for a variety of modern quilting magazines over the past twelve years or so, and it was great to see them all together. Mandy says this is just a small selection of her quilts, and I’d love to see them all, but for now I’m happy just seeing, and sharing, these - I hope you enjoy them too.

, MANDY MUNROE

The show notes also said that it took Mandy a while to get used to designing quilts six months ahead of publication, so making winter quilts in summer and vice versa, but with access to top-secret fabric prints pre-release must have been thrilling, even if they couldn’t be shared widely, just yet.

I love the colours in the next two square based quilts, but I’m under no illusion to the amount of work in either of these. The Happy Squares quilt below brings ‘doodles in [Mandy’s] notebook were brought to life’ against the colourful squared backgrounds. I’m not sure my doodles could be a quilt, or even if they’d ever be this structured!

HAPPY SQUARES, MANDY MUNROE

CHEQUERBOARD, MANDY MUNROE

And what’s better than a chequerboard - well a chequerboard within a chequerboard of course! This quilt was made from scraps, and the smaller chequerboards meant that using every small scrap was possible.

BUCKLE UP, MANDY MUNROE

Mandy notes that for the Buckle Up quilt above she’d had the bold repeat pattern in her notebook for a while, and with this fabric she ‘went large!’ - I like it, and I like how the shapes make your eyes keep moving over the design.

This next one appeals for the colours, and is an experimentation of different colour combinations pieced into square blocks, and I can see what Mandy means when she says the finished quilt looks like a summer garden with umbrellas (from above).

AL FRESCO SAMPLER, MANDY MUNROE

The brief for this quilt was colours of the Kasbah, and the design is based on a motif that Mandy saw everywhere in Marrakesh. It’s great isn’t it, and I love how the bright colours pop against the neutral background.

KASBAH STAR, MANDY MUNROE

Now this one is very clever, and uses a bundle of Dear Stella Intermix basics which clearly I now need to check out! The bold prints were used on the triangles and the paler prints used to create streaks across the sky - I’m definitely a little bit in love with this one.

INTERSTELLA, MANDY MUNROE

What also struck me though was not every quilt needed to be quite so detailed. These next two take repeating shapes and are no less impactful for it. The one below was for a ‘Monochromatic with a pop’ issue and Mandy kept the design minimalistic and graphic.

MONOCHROMATIC, MANDY MUNROE

STACK, MANDY MUNROE

The quilt above according to the show notes was ‘possibly inspired by containers loading at the docks’ - and now I can’t unsee that, it just goes to show that inspiration is everywhere if we take time to notice it.

WINDOWS AT KEW, MANDY MUNROE

This final quilt was inspired by the brickwork surrounding the windows at Kew Palace, and is based on a photo that Mandy took and then simplified. And if you let your imagination wander it’s perfectly possible to imagine the flowers reflected on the glass.

They’re all brilliant quilts, and I’d be hard pressed to choose a single favourite from them, but what about you - is there one that speaks, or sings to you?

Post Comment Love 18 - 20 September

Hello there, welcome to this week’s #PoCoLo - a relaxed, friendly linky which I co-host with Suzanne, where you can link any blog post published in the last week. We know you’ll find some great posts to read, and maybe some new-to-you blogs too, so do pop over and visit some of the posts linked, comment and share some of that love.

Please don’t link up posts which are older as they may be removed, and if you see older posts are linked then please don’t feel that it’s necessary to comment on those. If you were here last week it was great to have you along, if you’re new here we’re pleased you’ve joined us.

We were in East Grinstead last weekend and stumbled upon their Vintage Car rally which took place in the High Street. There were plenty of highly polished cars to admire, but unusually it was a motorbike, or rather a scooter, which caught my eye - so that’s the photo I’m sharing this week. I think it’s safe to say they can clearly see what’s behind them… and with those lights what’s ahead too!

We also had what I think was the worst pub roast dinner ever, or mine anyway. My whole meal was covered in a very strong, thick and consequently salty (likely) instant gravy. It was not the best, and I’m sure it’s taken me a day or two to recover from. I have nothing against instant gravy by the way, I regularly use it myself, but in much reduced quantities.

Let’s all hope for better roast dinners, have a great week.

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