Hurrah! I’ve found something else I can show you which isn’t top secret!
Firstly, a little update on the chickens. The line-up has changed somewhat over recent months, we lost Priscilla (to a tumour) and Betty (fox) within a few weeks of another, which was really upsetting (softie over here shed a few tears…) and meant we were down to just two. It probably would have stayed that way – they were confined to their coop much more often due to fox-paranoia, and I didn’t want to cram more in and overcrowd them. However, a couple of weeks later my neighbour knocked on the door – “I can’t keep my hens anymore. I’ve found a home for two, please will you take the last one?”. Not being someone who could say no to a lonely, single hen in need, I took her in and Joan became the newest member of our family. Just a few days later the neighbour was at my door again with another chicken under her arm, saying the other person only took one, and just like that I was back up to four! Audrey, Myrtle, Joan and Beatrix.
Staying true to my plans of not overcrowding the ladies, we set about building them a new, larger run. Hubby indulged my mad idea of upcycling an old greenhouse, and thanks to friend’s dad donating one for free, we had a new weekend project. It took about 5 hours just to disassemble the bloody thing, and the whole project took about 3 weekends in the end, but I’m pleased to say my mad idea paid off and their new run is much larger, half of which is covered, and makes a lovely feature in the garden. Now I don’t feel so guilty if I can’t let them out to free range, and don’t have to panic when I see a fox in the garden (which is very regularly at the moment). Shout out to Jubilique and Louise who custom made the amazing sign which makes me chuckle every morning.
Right, back to quilts!
It might surprise you to hear that in the years I have been quilting, I have never made a quilt for myself! Everything I make is commission based or goes into my Etsy or Not on the Highstreet shops. Although we had a guestbook quilt at the wedding – blocks for this are still (a year later!) in the hands of friends and family who didn’t sign it on the night (you know who you are!), so this remains a UFO/WIP for the foreseeable future. Actually, I started making the blocks for this so long ago that we’ve since changed the whole colour scheme of the house and it will no longer match anyway. Of course I’ll still finish it for sentimental reasons. Someday.
Earlier in the year we repainted our bedroom and I wanted to make something for the bed to bring in a splash of colour and cosiness. I had been hoarding quite a few of my favourite prints for a while, and back in June I had a spare couple of days before jetting off on holiday, and decided just to bash them all together into a super-quick (I literally pieced, quilted and bound this in a day and a half!) large-block quilt. Indigo and grey are my two colour obsessions so most of my favourite prints already coordinated, and thanks to a little bit of orange in our bed linen, I threw in some of that too for an extra pop of colour. There are a lot of Carolyn Friedlander prints in here, as well as Karen Lewis, some Cotton+Steel, Liberty and some random ikat and floral prints, to name just a few. A hodge podge of everything really. It’s not going to win any awards, but I am completely and utterly in love with it. Sometimes simple and easy is the best.
Of course it never made it’s way onto the bed. After snuggling with it on the sofa one night, Kira claimed it as her own, and now it is rarely seen without a stripy cat atop it – she was quite put out to find it in the garden for photography so I couldn’t possibly move it up to the bedroom which is Norton’s territory (our cats are not buddies). At least my living room is indigo and grey too so it looks just fine there. And now I have an excuse to make us another!
Funny detail – I did a bit of a slap-dash job of basting this quilt and so the selvedge of the backing fabric made it through. Considered appliquéing over it, but I’m actually really amused by the irony of the ‘made by Ikea’ label on the back of my lovingly handcrafted item…!
L x
For more regular updates, follow me on Instagram – @lauradimplestitch
Dimple Stitch - The Blog 