A quilty update - June 2026

It was only March when I set out my quilt plans for this year, and to be honest it seems like yesterday - but one of the things I want to do more consistently this year is my quilty updates, even if there isn’t that much to share.

I’m being harsh on myself, there are some quilt updates to share but while last year’s stretch project took over a bit, I’m finding that without that structure I’m not quite so productive. I’m sure I’ll work it out, but hopefully when the weather’s not so warm!

So how am I doing?

1. The teal flying geese

2. The jeans and pyjamas

3. My floral fancy

The update for all of these is there is no update, so that was easy!

4. My English Paper Piecing (EPP) blue diamonds

There is progress of sorts on this one, albeit small. It’s become my project to take to my monthly Monday evening sewing group, and so it has had an outing and a small update. I’ve even moved it into an organised bag so I don’t need to think about getting it all together before I head out, the issue has been life - and I’ve only managed two out of five of the monthly meetings, but then again this was always going to be a slow burn project.

5. Scrappy houses charity quilts

I have completed my first village quilt, and I’ve almost got enough houses for the second one, so that’s real progress. I’m really pleased with how it’s turned out, especially as these are all pieces of fabric that were leftover from other projects (mostly the stretch project) and might have been deemed on the small side for keeping. And I’m sure whoever the recipient is won’t mind about that one bit.

6. Wonderland meets Moda

7. Word Star

Again, there is no update on these.

A couple of bonus quilty updates

1. My mystery block of the month quilt has been playing heavily on my mind, but now the quilt top is finally finished. After I joined the monthly blocks together and added the sashing between those blocks, I spent some time pondering the borders - or specifically how wide they should be.

I wanted them wide enough to add some width to the quilt so I can use it on a double bed, but not so wide that it looked silly. In the end I settled on increasing each border by an inch, and ahead of adding the final border I did the sensible thing and took it to my patchwork group for confirmation and reassurance, and the use of the floor in the village hall to check it out once and for all.

So the quilt top is now done - yay! Now it needs basting, quilting and binding which for the size of the quilt is no small job.

2 The second bonus quilty update is another quilt, but not one made by me. Mum decided to use up some of her charm packs and make a quilt to donate to Project Linus, which I’ll take along with me when I donate mine.

Isn’t it bright and cheery - I love it (but will still donate it, honest)

So there has been quilty progress against my long list, and none of it has been a chore - I just need to work out how to do more with my sewing time, and to make time for more sewing time!

My garden in May

Following last month’s influx of plants after a visit to the Newark Garden Show and pots (as ever) being at a premium I decided to ease my pain a little by buying three new pots. That helped a bit, until I popped over to the garden centre for some more compost and left with a few more plants, and then we went along to the Gardeners Market at West Bridgford, and yes, I left with more plants.

But I had a genius plan to deal with this, except it’s been scuppered by the warm (actually very hot - it’s been in the 30s here) weather. My genius plan was to create a flower bed, and use that for the plants that I know will end up in that part of the garden, thus planting out plants directly or freeing up pots for new plants.

But there was no way I was digging in those temperatures, in full sun. So that plan, while still genius is on hold for the moment. But the new pots do have my tomatoes in, and the new compost!

And the eager eyed amongst you will spot that there’s an old pot in the shot above (second from the top) - I’m running a completely non-scientific test here. I have two tomato varieties the same and I’ve planted one in my usual terracotta pot and the other in one of the new plastic pots, it’ll be interesting to see how both fare - hopefully both will do well!

But anyway, more of that in a future update - let’s see what else has been going on this month (spoiler - it’s a lot!).

I rediscovered the rhubarb crown that dad gave me over the winter (or maybe before), which I’d put in the garage for safekeeping. Lucky I found it when I did as it had started to grow in the dark of the garage, though as I discovered quite quickly it was growing upside down - argh! There was no time like the present, and after a few days of rainfall I decided that now was as good as time as any to dig a hole, but what way up should I plant it. That was the quandary, but I did the best I could with the shoots that were between an inch and two inches by now. I hoped it would right itself once it got settled in to its long term home.

I remembered that I’d bought a large pot the previous year at the Newark Garden Show, and realised it would be a perfect temporary home for the new rhododendron, so that and a lot of compost (plus some old soil and crocks) filled that pot. It looks great flowering against the black trellis, and I know MOH has enjoyed viewing it from his window but ultimately it will live at the other end of the garden, though now I’m wondering if I should have got two, ah well maybe next time!

With MOH out of action and recuperating on ‘light duties’ and absolutely no lawn cutting, that became my biggest task of the month. Well maybe not the biggest, but most definitely the newest. The only thing was that there is apparently a knack to starting our current lawnmower, and MOH was pretty sure (and probably right) that I wouldn’t have it. So there was only one thing for it - a new lawnmower.

We knew were going to buy a Stihl battery mower as I’ve long time been impressed with them, the company and the tools we have. There were a couple of stockists, one being the large tractor shop on the A17. And by large tractor shop I mean a big shop and huge John Deere tractors, so me walking in and saying I wanted a domestic lawnmower was quite amusing.

They had four to choose from and eventually they took me seriously and we had a sensible conversation about lawnmowers, we left with one which they also helped me load into the car - and they gave the lawnmower a quick dust before they did. I told you they warmed up in the end!

But first I needed to tackle the weeds in the grass I was reliably informed by MOH - well that took three attempts over consecutive days due to rain stopping play, and if I’m honest complete boredom. But I dutifully carried on, almost half filling the garden wheelie bin with my efforts - only for MOH to say that I’d been more thorough than he would have been. Thanks dear, useful information after I’d finished!

But the grass got cut and the new lawn mower did its job, and the wheelie bin was well over half full. MOH even said I’d passed my level 1 grass cutting award. Great! I suspected that meant I’d need to do it again before the month was out, and I wasn’t wrong.

It was around the middle of the month that I noticed our yucca plant in the outer border was forming flower buds, how exciting. And we went to visit another garden, this time the Walled Garden at Flintham Hall, and once again I left with more plants.

Then we found ourselves visiting the monthly Gardeners Market at West Bridgford, my main reason for going was to finally catch up with Arbor Farrow, who I’ve followed for a while and am absolutely in awe of her work. I left with these steel plant supports and a stronger resolve to buy some of her more ornamental orbs when the time is right.

Throughout the month the yucca has been developing its flowers, it’s not quite out yet but with the warm weather surely it can’t be too long now?

Elsewhere in the garden there’s been lots of potting on; the dahlias from Flintham Hall are now in larger pots and two peonies, also from dad around the same time as the rhubarb crown, have been potted on with more soil and larger pots. I’ve used canes to try and contain them, but when they’re in the garden I’ll be getting some peony supports for them from Lincolnshire Plant Supports who we met at this year’s Newark Garden Show, and who are based in a couple of villages along from my brother.

The roses have really enjoyed the sunshine, especially when it coincided with the warm temperatures. I think they’re having their best year here yet, but you’ll see that later on.

The rhubarb crown seems happy too, despite the heat - this is it about a week or so after planting out. It now has seven stems growing from it, though we’ll be leaving those to feed the plant rather than us this year. But next year I'm hoping to have plenty of rhubarb crumble. I’ve planted it among the shrubs in the border opposite the garage, in a spot where a plant hadn’t survived, so it feels a good use of space. I’ve another rhubarb to plant - the one we brought with us - but that needs to wait for cooler weather.

I also overwintered two amaryllis in the garage - also from dad, he’s a great plant supplier! - and I wasn’t sure how they’d fare. But both plants have a flower bud on them, this is the largest of them. The other looked very dead so I’d moved it out of the light and that is now a dwarf amaryllis, oops.

In my quest to maximise pots, the succulents are now sharing more than they were before. With that and the dead aeonium I had two pots free for my new strawberry plants - and I think I rather like how the sharing succulent pot has turned out.

Ah yes, my new grass cutting skills were once again required. The garden bin was full of grass and weeds, and super heavy to move out to the kerb. I’m glad I thought about that in advance and moved it away from the fence before it got too heavy to manoeuvre.

The lavender bushes are starting to flower and are looking glorious, well all of them bar one which isn’t faring quite so well with a large dead section which I’ll need to sort out. But in more promising news the one that I’d pulled from the crevice between our border and the pavement is doing well, so that’s a free plant - but a good few years behind these.

Still not flowering. But look at that blue sky!

The roses are flowering though, the Gertrude Jekyll is full of blooms and the Mottisfont is catching up. The paler peach/white Claire Austin which was a little crispy last month is recovering well and looks much healthier, it doesn’t have buds yet but I think it will definitely flower this year, just a little later than normal.

One of the stranger additions to the garden was this lump of sheep fluff. We think it arrived in one of the overnight storms, rather than being left by its owner - though there are a field of sheep two doors up so it didn’t have far to blow.

I also planted out some geraniums that we brought with us, and which we’d brought from my FIL’s garden. I thought I’d lost these last summer but found them happily surviving (just) in another pot that had remained under a shrub. I decided to split those into two plants as I know how fast they can grow - they’ve rewarded me already with a flower on each new plant, so that’s good to see.

The ceanothus, or Californian Lilac started to flower towards the end of the month proving to the lavender it’s not the only blue flower right now. And joy of joy my philadelphus, or mock orange, is also flowering - it’s the first time I’ve seen these actually flower here, so I’m happy. MOH less so as these make him sneeze, rather spectacularly too at our wedding reception which we held in our London garden, so some quick on the spot pruning was needed by the bride!

Just before the end of the month I was pleased to see that the tallest amaryllis was almost flowering, then looking again I noticed I wasn’t the only one pleased to see it. Something has been nibbling, and hollowing out the stem, so now while it may flower it will be unlikely to stand on its own. The dwarf amaryllis is also suffering the same fate, though the flower of this one is also being eaten, so I’ll have to look to see what’s so hungry.

So quite a month, but a month in the garden I’ve loved. I’ve even more jobs than I thought I had at the start of the month, and I can’t wait to get going. It’s been a while for me to feel this way about gardening, perhaps it’s the weather, perhaps it’s finally time to get my hands muddy again, or maybe the pot shortage is really getting to me after all, who knows?!

A blue chandelier

It’s been up a while now, but it still makes me smile every time I see it. So I think we chose well - but it did take us a while to decide. When we moved in a light for the stairwell wasn’t our priority, but we knew it would need - and could take - something pretty spectacular. Our stairs double back on themselves, and so have a half landing - so while it’s not a big space because it is the full height of the house, it’s a very tall space, and our choice needed to do the space justice.

When we moved in there was the standard white fitting with a lightbulb on the tiniest length of cable. The electricians were here soon after we moved in and we said to them about it and they admitted they were waiting for us to call them to fit a light. So that was good to know, but it was a while before we called them back.

I’m not sure why though as I’d pinned the light we actually ending up buying soon after we started to think about what would work, though to be fair it was one of many coloured chandelier type lights and I’d originally opted for the jade version, as that’s much more our usual colour scheme.

Our final choice was helped by the large artwork we spontaneously bought on a trip to Nottingham, when we intended to look at a new sofa - oops. Anyway we had the picture hung by experts (and it was well worth it) and they also helped us plan its position in relation for the likely chandelier we knew we’d have at some point.

In January I was on the Dunelm site and thought I’d look at the chandelier I’d pinned so long ago again. It was THIRTY PERCENT OFF. I hadn’t expected that, but it was worth pursuing, and quickly as there were only a few days left of the sale. We tried to find a shop that had it on display, and I went all Beattie from BT calling shops but it wasn’t in our local and local(ish) branches. So we took the plunge and ordered it, hoping that if we really didn’t like it then Dunelm would come good on their promise of hassle free returns.

Thankfully we didn’t need to test that, as it arrived and it was gorgeous. Phew.

But it needed putting together, and there were many, many parts. The parts were labelled and there was a diagram, but it wasn’t always obvious.

But I got home from yoga one week, and with the electricians scheduled to come later in the week, to find MOH already making good progress with the blue crystal jigsaw we’d bought. And between us we got it all in mostly the right place.

With it successfully assembled it lived on our dining table, propped up by packing materials until the electrician’s arrival.

It made quite the centre piece!

And then it was up - with MOH assisting the electrician in the final stages - and thankfully without any ‘Only Fools and Horses’ moments, and it looks great.

No doubt it’s clear now why blue was the obvious choice.

It’s a stunning light, and works well in our space which is always likely to stay white. It was also a great price - even better with the sale discount, and despite looking like it probably isn’t, it’s just about reachable from a tall stepladder for any bulb changes, but hopefully that’s a long way off!