Lavender & Twine Quilt is Here!

When I was a teenager, we lived in a bunch of caravans on 100 acres a few hours north of Sydney. The property was a weekend horse-riding retreat that was sold off in a divorce - horses, camping gear, caravans, and an old Land Rover all included. There was no running water, no electricity, and no flushing toilets. When my parents bought it, I thought they were the coolest people on the planet, brave and adventurous. My dad built a log annex with a verandah off the main caravan and it would become our kitchen and living area. The other caravans were for our bedrooms. We found an old bath lying around and placed out the front of the verandah and my mum grew the most beautiful bougainvillea which reached up over the bath and along the roofline. We would heat up water on the fire or later with the kettle, fill the bath, and enjoy the view or the stars and those stunning flowers. I loved those flowers.

Making these flowers reminded me of those flowers. That feeling of being lost in something beautiful. Of the world feeling warm and welcoming. Of all the other worries being still. Of not having much but feeling like I had everything. It’s my hope that these flowers make you feel that way too.

This is Lavender & Twine, inspired by the 1930s bouquet quilts made by women who stitched the most beautiful things in the hardest of times. I really, really loved making it! First, the scrappy diamond ‘bouquets’, stitched from my favourite pastels. Then the centre ‘stars’ made from brown stems and a cream background. The sweet bouquets sewn around the stems, and then, the border units with the pretty purple ‘berries’. With only 13 blocks and a handful of half blocks, it’s so simple and so beautiful.

Making quilts in ‘chapters’ like this is one of my favourite things - the feeling of progress that comes from each chapter being easy, and from each chapter building on the last. Some English Paper Pieced quilts make you embrace the slow pace, to let go of the need for progress and just be with the rhythmic stitches. This quilt didn’t ask that of me. A little like the experience of making a sampler, once I started to get restless with one step, it was time to move onto the next one.

After the blocks are hand-stitched, the paper templates are removed, the blocks pressed and trimmed, and then machine sewn together with sashing! After a lovely couple of months stitching these flowers around New Zealand and in my home, it was fun to put it all together in a day!

And Hurray! Lavender & Twine is now in the shop! Buy Lavender & Twine now and get 15% off until Monday!

While you’re there, grab one of these limited edition Lavender & Twine starter packs! Featuring over 3 metres (approx 3 1/2 yds) of beautiful Ruby Star Society prints, they’ll make it so easy to dive in. I started my quilt with these, and then added some favourites from stash.

Lady Bird Johnson once said, “Where flowers bloom, so does hope.” I like to think these flowers can be included in that promise, don’t you? Like the bougainvilleas of my childhood, may these flowers make you feel warm and welcomed.

We'll be sewing Lavender & Twine together from mid-June! Grab your EPP kit now and meet me there?