I’ve stitched another block for my Secret Garden Quilt, well I have to keep my self busy when recuperating from sinus surgery! Stitching them one after the other like this does help my confidence with my free motion embroidery too, it helps to confirm that even wiggly lines disappear when the whole block is finished and if you look closely, some of my lines are very wiggly!

With free motion embroidery you don’t actually have to turn your fabric round to sew backwards, you can just move it in any direction you want, however I find I get a much neater line (and possibly better tension) if I turn the fabric so I’m sewing towards me. Clearly with little embroidery movements then I just move the fabric but for things like stitching round a shape I’m better turning the fabric.

My favourite bit of this block was the first thing to sew, I hadn’t even noticed it, but there’s a bee on the top rose…

… I might stitch a bit more with a slightly darker brown, so it doesn’t disappear into the rose!

I love the backgrounds with these designs, they are so varied but subtle too. I had a bit of a panic as the fabric in my kit didn’t match with the instructions so I whizzed a message off to Andrea, the designer, on messenger and she replied within minutes. Thankfully I realised just as she was replying that it was the instructions that had printed one page from another block. She quickly e-mailed me another set of instructions and I was sorted. That’s one thing I like with Andrea, she’s very available if there’s any problems or queries, usually replying within minutes.

This is the whole block with the bluetit and a sparrow.

This one sits above the goldcrest one, once I’ve stitched the two blocks together I’m planning to do a bit more embroidery to link the two blocks together, so the buddleia and the roses will have stems which follow on to the block below.

I’ve now finished the two sides of the secret garden with a gate post either side, I just need to stitch the centre panels now, two smaller ones for above and below and the man garden picture in the middle. I’m trying to decide how to personalise the quilt so it might take me a little longer. The pattern has a cat and a rabbit in the garden, I’m wondering whether to include dogs and a hen, if so then how many dogs! Is three going to look too many?? I’ll have a play….in the meantime here’s the blocks together.

If I’m whetting your appetite for this style of quilt, do have a look at Andrea’s website Raggedy Ruff Designs. She’s just going to start a new BOM with video tutorials available too, so if you find it easy to watch someone rather than reading instructions, it could be a perfect introduction. The quilt looks stunning too, it’s called Autumn Wreath.