When the pandemic hit in 2020, like a lot of people I suddenly found myself with more time on my hands as all my teaching and events disappeared. I hit my sewing machine hard for about the first and second week but as the situation got worse my motivation for the machine waned.

I found solace in watching the spring begin to unfurl around me. For a long time I had an idea to create something based on wildflowers but hadn’t managed to get around to doing anything. Now, there was nothing to stop me as time was plentiful.

I began to make some sketches and formulate some designs. I found that working on the sketches gave me a great deal of satisfaction. It was a good antidote to the frightening news going on at the time. I made a number of different sketches of each wildflower using different medium. I was using my art supplies and enjoying myself.

Not wanting to stop I then created a landscape to go with each of the twelve wildflowers that I had chosen, along with some other ideas. It was quite a while before I got anywhere near to turning any of these pages into fabric and stitch. It was easy to just pick up a pencil or some paint and do a few minutes here and there. It didn’t take too much concentration or at least not as much as I usually require when I am working with fabric. This suited me just fine at the time.

Needless to say I did eventually get around to making a quilt based on these wildflower sketches. Here is a peek of one of the finished blocks. I am finding it hard to get good photos of the whole quilt. Probably because of the dark background fabric I chose to use, but if you were at the Festival of Quilts a few weeks ago and you came by my stand you might have seen it.

The plan is to offer this as as a free block of the month. It might begin later on this year or the beginning of next. I am not sure yet, but I am looking forward to it. Each month you will get a wildflower block and a small landscape based on the flower that month.*

If this is something you think you might be interested in sign up to my newsletter so that you don’t miss out on it’s announcement. NOW CLOSED.

*UPDATE:

It has been a while, but I am going to be offering these patterns for sale in the near future.