Ollie is a local gentlewoman who sometimes works with me in the shop and who rarely used a needle and thread.

All that was to change, as Ollie came to the conclusion that working in a quilting shop should encourage her to do “something”. Perhaps nothing too adventurous, but something.

She therefore decided to look at how a basic block was built. Start with a log cabin or similar said I.

So, she did. She gathered some fabrics and decided on a suitable colour scheme with complementary fabric patterns. She measured and she cut (even including the seam allowance) and put the fabrics together to give her an end product of roughly a 12″ square.

“But, Can you sew it for me as I can’t sew”. After some cajoling, Ollie herself sewed together her square.

Brilliant – now what? She decided, having got this far, to make a quilt made up of the same square repeated. I’m getting seriously impressed here.

And so she continue, part-time, over several days and weeks to construct the basis of her quilt top. She put all the squares together and found the overall pattern she liked, and between us we joined them up for a finished top.

We tried several border ideas, came up with the best match and again as a team we made the border. Wadding and a simple backing were added and all were joined together and attached as one.

Wow, Ollie had a quilt and as pleased as punch.

Quite right too – first ever effort and a grand result. The actual quilting itself I did with her help, just simple stitching to keep it all in place with nothing elaborate that might detract from her colour scheme, her fabrics, her design and her work:

Ollie's Quilt

Ollie's Quilt