Nottinghamshire's tropical garden

Yes, you read that right. A while back I spotted Honeytrees tropical garden in a local Facebook group, and my interest was piqued. It’s close to us, a little over ten miles away and never in my wildest dreams did I imagine anything quite so lush, or tropical so close by. I also spotted that they planned to open every weekend in August as part of the National Garden Scheme. As MOH has long had a hankering for including a banana tree in the plans for our garden it made sense to go along - we managed to get there on the last day of August, and their last day of opening for the year - phew.

It was amazing. Packed full of plants, and then some more on top of that.

And on this chilly December day I thought I could do with a burst of tropical colour. What I didn’t really expect to see though was some roses, but I did.

The garden was packed full of plants and structures including a viewing platform - and while it was a relatively large plot it wasn’t overly huge. It just goes to show that you really can transform spaces with some thought, and a lot of passion.

For MOH it’s the colour of the cannas, and the scale of the banana plants that appeal to him. For me it’s the multicoloured foliage and less than usual shapes.

And as we went around the garden, each turn wowed us more. I’m not about to turn my plot into a tropical garden - I’ve seen how much work goes into this garden - but I would like to incorporate some of the plants we saw when we visited.

Maybe not a monkey tree though…

With so many tropical plants and not so tropical winters, many of the plants needed to be sheltered at this time of year. There were a lot of pots, but also a lot of plants already in hot houses, which were already pretty hot back in August.

The work I mentioned before included lots of propagation, and I mean lots!

Some of the plants were for sale, and we were sorely tempted. But in the end we left empty handed but with a bit more knowledge about caring for the plants, and knowing that we’d be back again to visit and at some point likely to be ready to make a purchase too, but not until we’ve got somewhere to overwinter it properly to give it the best chance of surviving, and that could be a little while yet - no doubt much to MOH’s frustration.

Making my Mystery Block of the Month: October 2025

You’ll have seen that I plan to complete Sherri’s mystery block a month quilt and in my last post I shared the test blocks which I made into my twelfth charity quilt, today I’m sharing the centre block I made for my own quilt.

As I said yesterday I’m a fan of this block, and making it for my own quilt didn’t change my mind on that.

As it’s a ‘star block month’ that meant I’d be using the navy blue fabrics from the range I’ve chosen for this quilt, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to use a selection of the three available, or just one. I knew from my blocks yesterday, and from the examples from Sherri that the triangle next to the inner square looked best if it was a lighter colour, and so I branched out a bit and opted for a non-navy fabric.

With that decision made I decided to go for a single navy fabric for the block - my gut instinct was to use this green and pink patterned fabric as I felt I hadn’t used that much. And once I’d finished the block I knew that was the right call as laid alongside the blocks that will be closest to it, that fabric didn’t appear. Phew.

Not only did the block come together quickly, despite the numerous triangles, it was one that seemed to match and keep its points without too much work on my part - maybe that’s why I liked it?!

But it’s done, and pressed and is now hanging alongside the previous month’s blocks. There’s just two more blocks to go, and then the real work of assembling and finishing the quilt starts. I’ve read today that Sherri will be sharing more about finishing the quilt next week, as well as the final block, so it’ll be good to see what’s in store - and I must remember to factor in actually finishing this quilt into my quilt plans for next year!

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.

A Stitch in Time with The Quilters' Guild

One of the first galleries that we stumbled across and spent time looking around was hosted by The Quilters’ Guild who were displaying some amazing items from the Quilt Collection, featuring items from the domestic Homefront, to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War.

The items were displayed in chronological order starting on the eve of War with a range of items made during the 1930s and my favourites, and which I’m including here, are the patchwork pieces which show the typical fabrics and prints of the day.

Clearly the outbreak of war saw dramatic domestic changes with everyday life geared towards making what precious resources were available last as long as possible, and with fabrics and clothing rationed. As the war progressed and bombing caused destruction to homes and possessions charities such as the Canadian Red Cross Society became vital and thousands of quilts were sent over to Britain from anonymous needlewomen abroad.

At the end of the war patchwork and quilting became less popular as the were often seen as ‘making do’ and with the new age of fashionable style in clothing and domestic interiors becoming available it’s easy to see why these traditional methods were considered old fashioned. Alongside this more women worked outside the home as the decade progressed and therefore had less time, skills and inclination to continue tradition, and that’s when the ready made shiny eiderdowns and candlewick bedspreads came into their own.

I can remember having my eiderdown as a child, and I definitely remember the candlewick bedspreads - in fact I can remember when duvets, or continental quilts as they were called then, became the rage, but I digress!

The quilts in this part of the show were amazing as pieces of needlework, and then even more amazing for the time in which they were made.

War, Peace and Needlework

The colourful mosaic patchwork quilt top below was made from 1 inch squares of printed fabric arranged in a ‘Trip around the world’ block design, and according to the notes alongside the quilt, it still has the thick card templates attached in the reverse.

SMALL SQUARES TOP, 1930-1939, MAKER UNKNOWN

Although the quilt has been neatly finished at the edges, it doesn’t have a backing. A closer look at the fabrics reveals some of the details of the fabrics used, which includes 1930s dress prints and furnishing fabrics.

SMALL SQUARES TOP, 1930-1939, MAKER UNKNOWN

This colourful log cabin patchwork was made during the 1930s and again uses dress fabrics and furnishing fabrics to create the light and dark tones for the log cabin block - and if the block looks vaguely familiar and you think you’ve seen here before, then it was probably my charity quilts which use log cabin borders that jogged your memory.

LOG CABIN COVERLET, 1930-1939, MAKER UNKNOWN

These log cabin blocks though were sewn by hand, joined together and the seams have been opened and flattened on the back, then the seam allowance has been sewn down with a herringbone stitch - so this quilt wasn’t going to come apart.

This next quilt is an example of mosaic patchwork which is complex and individual in style. The central circular medallion is thickly padded with a coarse open weave fabric on the reverse holding the wadding in place. It is thought that the maker originally intended to make a cushion but then extended it into a larger coverlet.

MOSAIC PATCHWORK, 1930s - 1940s, INA MACRAE

This was made by Ina MacRae who used materials from her scrap bag, recycled garments and remnants from the family’s haberdashery business. Ina never married, although she was engaged for a short time during the 1940s. The family story is that she broke off the engagement, and presumably lost enthusiasm for her patchwork project, leaving it unfinished with papers intact.

The quilt below is a Canadian Red Cross Society quilt and is made from alternate 16 patch squares and plain squares of orange floral print cotton, and was one of five given to Miss Alice Treeby’s family after she had returned from evacuation.

MISS TREEBY’S QUILT, 1939-1945, CANADIAN RED CROSS SOCIETY

FRIENDS WAR VICTIMS RELIEF QUILT, 1939-1945, MAKER UNKNOWN

This striking stars in square block quilt includes stars which are ‘crazy patchworked’ using various cotton print fabrics and bears the label of the Friends War Victims Relief Committee, an official arm of British Quakers set up to relieve civilian distress in times of war. The group has a long history dating back to 1870 and with five revivals, the last being in 1940, before its name was changed to the Friends Relief Service in 1941.

FRIENDS WAR VICTIMS RELIEF QUILT, 1939-1945, MAKER UNKNOWN

Crazy patchwork blocks feature again in this quilt - and that makes a lot of sense with materials hard to come by, but it could also indicate that it was made by a group of women in the Canadian Red Cross. Blocks were often made at home to standard sizes at home, then brought into the Red Cross premises to be joined together and finished off with materials supplied in bulk by the society.

V for VICTORY QUILT, 1939-1945, MADE BY CANADIAN RED CROSS SOCIETY

This one has been machine stitched, and uses ‘Patriotic Prints’ - look for the white V on the red/blue background - in the V there’s morse code printed ‘dot dot dot dash’. These prints were printed with various wartime themes and often endorsed by female celebrities to increase their popularity and made into clothing, and as we can see above incorporated into quilt tops.

This quilt was give to the donor’s mother-in-law who lived in West Croydon where her house was damaged 5 times during the bombing raids, and it was during that time at some point that she was given this quilt.

The whole exhibition was full of poignant stories, alongside the fantastic historical quilts, which made me look at our lives today and realise how very fortunate we are that such sacrifices were made for us. We all know of stories from the First and Second World Wars, but somehow seeing them through these quilts gave a perspective that is rarely seen.

If you enjoyed this post from my visit to the Festival of Quilts 2025 then please do check out my other posts from the show. Even though my mind was blown by the sheer volume of quilts on display, I’m pretty sure I’ll be going again!