the (less than) 24 hr quilt

 ok so it's not the largest quilt in the world but it was done from start to finish in less than 24 hours.

i'm impressed and quite frankly you should be too.

 a charm pack of the new heather ross briar rose landed on my doorstep yesterday. i'd seen a few glimpses of this and to be honest wasn't bowled over by it, thinking it was a bit bright and busy for my taste.

 i take it all back.

yes it is bright and busy but it is heather ross and i should have known better.

it is just gorgeous and the collection all works so beautifully together.

 because i didn't want to dilute the designs i decided to go for a simple patchwork using all the charms together and just a touch of kona solids - more because i needed a few extra charms and just to break it up a teeny bit.

i backed it with a fab Paul Smith pink
crosshatch that works really well pulling it all together. for the binding i chose a green candy stripe - just enough of something interesting without clashing with all the delicious fabrics.

i fmq'ed it with a random swirly pattern and if you don't look too closely at the varying stitch lengths i'm actually quite impressed in how that's come out.

i am sure there will be plenty of intricately designed quilts with briar rose in the coming months (swoons and wonky stars would work really well) but i'm generally a big fan of simple designs letting the fabrics do the talking and this range is definitely one of those times.

i also anticipate lots of beautiful summer clothing for little girls and am feeling a little sad i have no little girls to sew for. would it be wrong to start a collection for the potential grandchildren? my eldest is almost 16 after all...

on that note i'd better get this out of the house quickly...it's available right here.

Which room do you prefer?

This one?...

Or this one?...

Exactly! This is the only room in the house that has not been done and still possesses the characteristics of the family we inherited the house from. The stencilling - urghhh, the painted woodwork - puke... Maroon? Aaaghhhh!

One day we'll have saved up enough to make this room worthy of the rest of the house, but in the meantime it relies on the addition of some pretty soft furnishings.

There are a lot of things I love about this room. It's a great size. I love the fireplace, although the surround has to go. And the bay window has such a lovely aspect and cries out for pretty seating.

The pretty seating is a long way off but until then a couple of new brickwork cushions, a la Treefall Design will have to do. I love the design of these cushions. To me they work in a similar way to Log Cabins. They give the possibility of using an array of favourite fabrics in a simplistic design, letting the fabrics speak for themselves.

To be honest, when I look at this room, I struggle to see it's good qualities. All I see is the grotty decor, the dark receding colours, but at least now there is something in here that can make me smile and give me optimism that one day this room will be fit to sit next door to the one at the top.