For me, a big part of the fun of Christmas is the preparation. Making the cake. Organising the presents. Finding and taste-testing new recipes and shop-bought goodies. And, of course, making my Christmas quilt tops ready to quilt next year.
(And no, you can’t see this year’s quilt yet. You’ll have to wait for the next Amy Hammond book, Echoes, which is being published on the eighth of January, and which happens to be my favourite one to date…)
It won’t surprise you to know that Amy and I have a lot in common when it comes to quilting. Sometimes, we like complicate patterns, but mostly we like simple ones with lots of room for hand quilting. The sort of quilts that belong in children’s books illustrations and are being made to be loved and used. Mostly, I make sofa sized ones for my loved ones to snuggle up under, and I like the thought that my Christmas quilts go to become part of other people’s traditions.
So here are this year’s two. One is simple, classic and two colour. The other is some pre-cut squares I found when I was sorting out my stash of fabric last year, much as Amy did in ‘A Stitch in Time.’ When I bought them, my mum was alive and my babies were babies rather than into their twenties, so I’m going to call it a vintage quilt.
That’s the great thing about craft. It waits for you to be ready for it rather than demanding to be done now. Or sooner than now. So, as this is my last post this year, all I need to do is wish you a Merry Christmas without too many people chivvying you and a Happy New year which looks as you want it to.
And, most of all, I want to thank you for making my dreams come true this year. I am now selling books all over the world, and making money from them so I suppose I’m a ‘proper’ writer, which is a very long held ambition.
Comments