We went to Istanbul back in February for my birthday. I loved it – gorgeous architecture, wonderful food, buzzing lively atmosphere, culture and history everywhere you turn – I highly recommend. Whilst there I bought some fabric in the market. Two different pieces – each rich and textured in a variety of reds. I didn’t have a specific pattern in mind but I had the idea of turning them in to a bed quilt.

I hold my hands up, this was not the best way to buy fabric. When I finally got around to tackling the quilt (gap between contracts meaning more time for crafting) I had a tough time deciding what to put my fancy pieces with/how to best show them off.

I eventually decided that I wanted to use the two fancy fabrics in big whole squares and then pair them with patch squares made out of plainer fabrics. I came across Sew Mama Sew’s method for making simple patch squares that look like windows – a small square in the middle, with contrasting strips around the side – and decided to go with that. So far I have cut out and sewn almost all the patch squares and have just started on the solid blocks.

I was beginning to lose the plot a bit trying to keep track of how many squares of each kind I’d done, so M helpfully stepped in and made a diagram 🙂

Siobhan xx