Four pink hearts and a hug

I’ve made another quilt as part of my quilting ‘stretch’ project this time using the March block from Sherri at A Quilting Life’s mystery block a month. As I said then I don’t know if I’ll manage to make a quilt a month, but I won’t really know unless I try…

I’m glad that this block was relatively simple to put together as time has been more challenging this month, perhaps the warmer weather or something else, I’m not sure quite why, but I only finished it after a concerted push last night…

My fifth donation quilt

As soon as I saw the centre block was a heart I knew that I’d be using pinks from my stash - but which ones! The pile of pinks on the right of this basket are (from top to bottom) from an old quilt cover, two old shirts, the old quilt cover again, a mystery plain pink and remnants of a much loved Boden sundress. I’ve no recollection of where the plain pink material has come from so perhaps it was part of a mystery bundle I picked up somewhere.

The paler pinks which I’m using for the hearts are likely to be much older and acquired at some point from mum’s stash, and the paler background is from the lining of the sundress. As you’ll see as this post progresses I also added some grey zigzagged material from an old duvet, which was also the backing on last month’s quilt.

Testing the block

As you know I’m making test blocks ahead of making the block for my mystery block of the month quilt and I’m making these blocks into quilts of their own. And this block has relatively few pieces compared to last month’s vintage star block, and was therefore much easier to put together, phew.

The part that required the most concentration was not to cut the wrong side of the sewn line, but I managed that successfully each time - and tbh it really wasn’t that hard, but that was the potential stumbling block (no pun intended) this month.

And in no time at all I’d added borders to the hearts, and joined the blocks together.

But I felt it wasn’t quite there yet, so left it overnight mulling over which fabrics to use for the borders. In the end I decided on a thinner red checked border before adding more of the multi-patterned pink material from the old duvet cover. I think it needed the bold checked thin border to make it work. I also knew that it needed the stripes to match as best they could to avoid it looking messy.

And with a little bit of luck that worked out.

I’ve also changed my mind on which backing to use, originally I thought it would be the multi-patterned pink fabric but I think any more of that would be too much, and so I’ve opted to cut up a paler pink single duvet cover which I bought a couple of years ago on eBay for £1.04 plus postage - as I discovered in the label I’d thoughtfully written for myself when I unfurled the fabric.

Finishing the quilt

I got the quilt to a finished quilt top level in a few days, then it sat for a while waiting for me to assemble it with the batting and backing fabric. In fact I snuck that part in ahead of waiting for family to arrive over Easter, which was a good use of time. Then after the bank holiday I set about quilting it. Remembering that the purpose of these quilts is partly to up my skill levels and to get myself comfortable with both piecing and quilting, as with practice comes a better crafter.

So rather than quilt this one as I have before I decided to quilt it in diagonal rows across the quilt, and then spent ages looking for some masking tape that I was sure I had,. I didn’t find that, but I did find some tape with marked lines on which was probably a better option, or it was once I worked out where to place it most effectively, and so I didn’t sew over it!

I also wanted to change the density of the quilting on the hearts. I considered a different colour thread, but in the end opted to add quilting lines closer together, using the same approach.

And I’m happy with how this quilting style turned out; the tape worked well and could be easily repositioned for each line of sewing. I didn’t have a plan for the spacing between the lines before I started and worked that out as soon as I started to plan the second line - they’re about 8.5cm apart. Yes they could be more precise, and ideally closer together but it was good to discover this process as I went.

It turned out well didn’t it? And four hearts and a hug seems the perfect title for this one.

You can see my other quilts which I’ve made to donate to Project Linus - a charity whose mission is to provide love, a sense of security, warmth and comfort to children, who are sick, disabled, disadvantaged or distressed through the donation of new, homemade, washable quilts and blankets, including those that are part of this ‘stretch’ project in earlier posts. I’m aiming to publish an update on my progress in the last week of each month for the remainder of 2025.

The Kitchen Garden at THE PIG

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

I’m a sucker for a kitchen garden, as you may have realised from previous posts such as The Chef’s Table by Adam Frost, Challenging what kitchen gardens can be and the garden at River Cottage HQ to name a few, but there are many more posts here on my blog - just search for ‘kitchen garden’! And while I’d already seen and enjoyed Adam Frost’s garden at the show, I was in for another treat with this kitchen garden, complete with its very own large pig.

The garden was designed by Ollie Hutson and Fran Chilet-Olmos for The Pig Hotel, who admit that at THE PIGs they have an obsessive commitment to homegrown, local produce - which obviously isn’t a bad thing. I hadn’t realised until this garden that what they can’t grow or rear themselves, they source from local farmers and suppliers and it forms the basis of their 25 mile menu, and that is something to celebrate - and I bet it tastes as good as it looks.

One thing I’ve realised as I think more about how to add our own stamp on our garden here, is I’m a big fan of dense planting, and mixing edibles and flowers together - actually that’s two things, but it’s good to know that about myself. I think what’s holding me back in my own garden plans is how those tie in with a relatively low maintenance garden, or if I’m setting myself up for a challenge, or worse a fail - some more research and thinking is definitely required.

While I love the ordered structure of growing vegetables in straight lines like those I’ve (not literally) drooled over at Heligan and in the potager at Cheverny, I know that’s not really my growing style - I don’t have the patience, or the skill to replicate what I’ve seen there. This jumbled together approach is much more my style, but I’m not fooled into thinking it’s necessarily easier! But the results are fantastic, aren’t they?

Though I think I could probably manage to grow some basil in blocks like this - and I love the use of a crate for this too.

The chairs in the seating area caught my eye, I think partly because of their lived in look but also because they reminded me of my many years ago eBay purchase, which are still going. I was going to add strong to that sentence, but that might be a stretch of the phrase - they’re still in use though, in fact only this weekend they were put to good use as part of a ‘crochet blanketed fort’ by the youngest members of the family visiting for a barbecue. It’s amazing isn’t it, that three chairs and two crocheted picnic blankets can provide such fun - let alone when you throw in a tube of ‘bubbles’ to blow!

I told you the pig was adorable didn’t I, and I’m sure is more than happy with their surroundings!

So plenty of food for thought for my future garden in just a few photos, which have also evoked so many memories of other kitchen gardens, all of which will I’m sure help inform that part of my new garden - eventually!

* With thanks to Gardeners’ World for inviting me to Gardeners’ World Live, it was just as good as I expected! I’ll be sharing more from my visit to the show - I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Blossom and magnolias in the gardens at Gravetye Manor

Last weekend we had a family lunch at Gravetye Manor - it’s a great place and the food is even better, but taking a wander around the gardens afterwards is equally as good. A while back I shared more of the Kitchen Garden here, and the pretty blue and while tiles in the loos, which are still the same though it was all about the tulips on our most recent visit. I didn’t make it to the kitchen garden on this visit, but I did enjoy a stroll around the garden full of blossom, and tulips as you’ll see.

We were lucky with the weather, which meant that although we didn’t get up to the kitchen garden, we did spend a good amount of time wandering around the gardens without the need to hurry.

The spring bulbs were very much in evidence, both in the garden and throughout the interior and on the tables in the restaurants. The restaurant makes extensive use of their kitchen garden (as you’d expect) and that clearly is the ethos for the manor house and hotel too.

While I’d walked through these gardens before, it was the first time I’ve really spent any time here and for them to be the main focus of my post here. I explored new-to-me paths, all the time my route bringing me closer to the blossom-laden trees.

And it was worth it.

Not only was there plenty of blossom, there were magnolias of every colour.

And the scent. Just fantastic.

The lichen also caught my eye - no change there then! - but also look, the giant snowdrops were still flowering too. Definitely a joyous overload of spring bulbs and flowers, and absolutely gorgeous.