Softly and gently does it................

Whilst we were on Sark, our hostess, Nigel's cousin Caroline, was very complimentary about Batik Baskets

Back in the late 70s and 80s she took an art/textile degree at Loughborough and subsequently she worked for Elizabeth Bradley Tapestries on Anglesey so she certainly knows her onions

She hinted that she'd love a quilt for her own bed but would never find the time to make one herself

I suggested that she might like me to make one for her and showing great delight at the prospect she also offered to pay me for it

To be honest she provided us with wonderful accommodation on holiday and would accept nothing in return so I reckon that any payment for a quilt has already been received

I did ask her what sort of colour scheme she would prefer

She intimated that, as her bedroom is all creams and beiges, a palette of soft subtle colours would suit it very well and she has a special fondness for lilacs and duck-egg blues in particular

So on our return I dug out some of my softest and gentlest fabrics to go with the creams and beiges

First a floral wreath with three tier flowers - I've made these flowers often over the years - given a considered colour placement they always look more than the simple shape they are

Also I'd rather like this quilt - which will be a large double bed square - to grow relatively quickly.

So as I'm also fond of Four Block designs, so I decided to work four of the wreaths for the centre

Then I interspaced them with scrappy flying geese - unusually for me there are no defining borders around the blocks - I'm not sure why I didn't bother because I virtually always do on a medallion quilt and I'm not totally convinced I'm happy with their absence, but I shall run with this as plenty of cream will give me open quilting spaces and help to keep the colour scheme light. The flying geese have worked out almost too randomly as there are some close neighbours in the same fabric but again I'm not going to change it - rather keep it as some naive cottagey charm

This is almost as much as I've done so far - the cream corner stones are now in the process of having similar single flowers but in different fabric stitched onto them

So what shall I do for the next round? - who knows, but again I'm resisting the temptation to add a coloured border before I work it