Making my mystery block of the month: April

You’ll have seen that I plan to complete Sherri’s mystery block a month quilt and yesterday I shared the test blocks which I made into my sixth charity quilt, today I’m sharing the friendship star block I made for my own quilt.

I had a feeling that this month would be another star block, after all there’d been the cute houses, the vintage star and then the heart last month - and I wasn’t wrong, was I? So I suspect that the alternate months will also be stars, and so I formulated another plan, in that I’d use the navy materials for all the stars using these blocks to ‘punctuate’ my quilts.

I don’t know if I’m right, but I do know that next month’s block isn’t a star, so I’ve a fifty-fifty chance when the next block is released at the start of June, haven’t I?

Anyway, with navy chosen and with my test blocks completed more easily than I expected, I was ready to get going. In fact so much so, that I only stopped to take a picture once it was completely assembled.

I’m about to blow my own trumpet here, but I was really pleased with how the points lined up with the centre square of the star, and I was keeping most things crossed to see how the outer points worked out when I added the outer borders.

Back to the original border fabrics

Last month I spent some time pondering whether or not to introduce new green fabrics into the borders, even drawing myself a scribbled plan. And that helped, a lot. It meant that this month I knew that this block was the first block on my second row of the finished quilt, and so the borders needed to be the original greens.

Though I did need to lay them out and double check that before attaching them.

Happy with that, and they were soon attached.

And look, I kept all the points too. I’m super happy with how this one turned out, points and all - though I’m sure this is more by luck than judgement, but also because the more I sew I seem to gain in competence and confidence.

Join me next month to see how I get on with the next mystery block, and check out my previous posts for my mystery block quilt or the charity quilts made from the test blocks.

Eat the City

* 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 sure it’s no surprise by now but gardens that feature edibles and flowers together always get my vote, and when the garden’s also called ‘Eat the City’ then it’s also got my attention. This garden, designed by Phoebe Walsh-Gamgee is inspired by the urban environment and puts into practice the edible-ornamental approach along with companion planting to create a beautiful space for both the community and the wildlife.

I did like the central feature which spiralled through the garden providing a focal point and a place for planting - and the succulents growing vertically out of one of the spaces between the planks was a nice touch. It was also good to speak to the designer, who had clearly been working hard to get the garden together. Saying that I liked how some of the succulents had escaped raised a bit of a panic as they weren’t supposed to be falling out - oops. But as I said only she knew that, and not even the judges who were due imminently would know for sure, but I did leave her to fix it. I can’t imagine the stress of putting such a garden together, and to be honest, I’m not sure I ever want to try that.

The show notes included something quite profound, but also so very true:

A neighbourhood, a city, a community, and a garden share the same habits - they must grow. You cannot build a neighbourhood any more than you can build a tree; you can only create the right conditions, plant the seed, care for it and wait.

Isn’t it a great little garden?

This is the last show garden that I’m planning to share from the 2024 show, it won’t be long before this year’s show opens and I for one can’t wait.

* With thanks to Gardeners’ World for inviting me to Gardeners’ World Live, it was just as good as I expected! I’ve shared more from my visit to the show - I hope you enjoy it as much as I have, this is the last garden I’m sharing from the 2024 show - it’s not long now until this year’s show, and I’m looking for to seeing what’s in store this year.

The Boy Friend: Outfit Illustrations

It’s only recently that I’ve realised I’ve got a bit of a thing for fashion illustrations, perhaps I always have, but after sharing those from the Biba Story and then buying those Vogue pattern catalogue pages which I intend to frame, well that’s confirmed it for me.

It won’t be a surprise then that I’ve some more to share, this time from the mini exhibition of The Boy Friend which was on at the Fashion and Textile Museum when we visited last summer.

These illustrations look to have more of a collage approach to them - the skimpy outfit above with treble clef motifs on the triangular-bikini like top, show this - though the headdress looks to be larger than the skirt, but maybe that’s a perspective thing, not just me showing my age!

The red outfit on the left below looks to have the text ‘The Boyfriend - Hortense - Barbara Windsor’ in the top right corner, which is intriguing. Hortense was the maid, and it’s only now that I’ve googled it, the part was played by Barbara Windsor, who would have been 34 in 1971.

The sophisticated white trouser suit top right in the photo above, was one of Twiggy’s outfits as the main character Polly Broome. They take wide legged trousers, and flares to a whole new level don’t they?!

Shirley Russell had a fondness for the 1920s, so The Boy Friend must have been the ideal project for her. Twiggy shared Shirley’s love of the era and often joined the Russells for film shows to watch Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers pictures. She also accompanied Shirley on trips to source original costumes, learning more about the costume history of the period, and started collecting clothes from the period too. I wonder if she still has them?

These last two illustrations are the pixie outfits for Twiggy as Polly Browne and Christopher Gable as Tony (the two main characters), though I’m not sure where these featured, as I’m sure in the finale fancy dress ball they were dressed as Pierrot and Pierrette, I need to find out more clearly!

But these illustrations reminded me of my part in the chorus, for the fancy dress ball I was the jester - thankfully there are no photos I’m willing to share, but my outfit, complete with jester hat with bells on, made in what I remember as itchy brown and mustard material, which also thankfully no longer exists!

Memories that may well have remained well and truly buried had they not been reawakened by these illustrations - I’ll let them off though, it was great to see these illustrations!