The Beaded Garden

17/01/2021

A cheerful, scrappy ‘postage stamp’ quilt, sent off to its new home in Manchester this week. I love this very traditional design, reimagined in my favourite bright prints.

03/01/2021

In Germany, a little boy now has this transport-themed quilt for his new bedroom...

03/01/2021

...and the other sister had this rainbow flying geese variant. Such a lovely thing to do for your granddaughters.

03/01/2021

Two little sisters in Bristol had very special presents from their grandpa this Christmas: he couldn't see them because of the virus restrictions, so he bought them each an 'heirloom quilt'. One got this improvised strips quilt...

03/01/2021

One of my favourites from the summer. A cheerful rainbow of scraps, bought by a lovely customer in Canada for her sister's new baby.

03/01/2021

A little doll-size quilt (15" x20") or table topper made from the scraps of the bespoke pinwheels quilt. Sent to Italy.

11/11/2020

I’ve been having lots of fun making some cute little zippy pouches recently. They do take a lot of work, and I hate putting in the zips!! But I love the end results...

There are more of these in production... if you’re interested, DM me for more info.

[id: a small zipped pouch made from a cheerful modern floral fabric. The top section is embroidered with a row of colourful flowers made from bright buttons.]

04/11/2020

I just had a lovely message from the customer who bought this from me on Etsy: “Hi Jane, just to say a huge thank you for the beautiful quilt / wallhanging and zipped pouch that arrived today. They are so beautiful and have made me so happy” ...made my day!

03/11/2020

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas down St John’s Street...

If any of you lovely followers are also members of We Love Bury St Edmunds group - and why wouldn’t you be?!?!? Could you kindly vote for us in Best Christmas window poll? Thank you kindly... we are open tomorrow 10am until... well whenever!!!!!! 🎄💖🌈

10/09/2020

Sweet and simple baby quilt. This one was personalised and sent directly to the new baby and mum.

31/08/2020

Just occasionally I make something that will be very hard to part with. That's how I feel about this little quilt.

It was a joy to make from start to finish. If you follow my page you'll know that I'm already obsessed with rainbows. I was naturally drawn to make several rainbow pieces of different sizes during the height of lockdown: they are so positive and life-affirming. And I hope they will all eventually go to brighten up different lives around the world.

But I think this one is my absolute favourite. It epitomises everything I love about making quilts from scraps. I had to make a conscious decision about where to place every single one of these 440+ tiny squares. I was happy to unpick a few that didn't work. I was happy to leave a few that aren't completely 'perfect' in terms of how the colours flow. That's what gives the quilt its personality.

For now, I hope that it brightens your day too... ###xx

31/08/2020

13/08/2020

Simple cross design, to welcome a new baby

11/08/2020

A fun I-spy quilt, now in California

23/07/2020

'Rainbow Chains'
The traditional Irish Chain design, reimagined in a modern rainbow. This throw has now gone all the way round the world, to a customer in New South Wales, Australia

18/07/2020

Wonky stars! One of my all-time favourite designs to make. I love how each star point is slightly different, so the whole constellation seems to twinkle. I love that you don’t have to have the middles the same as the points. I love how you can play with colour and patterns... I just hope the final effect isn’t too wild!?

The sun keeps peeking out from behind the clouds at the moment, so I have to keep dashing outside with quilts and camera in hand to sn**ch some shots. But I am slowly getting there in my quest to get all my (rather too many) finished quilts photographed and listed on E*t*s*y...

Hope you’re having a productive Saturday too? x

07/07/2020

Back out in the sunshine for more photos this morning. I had two quilt holders to help with this one... what I didn't realise is that one of them was wearing pink fluffy slippers! Thank goodness for digital photo editing...🤣

05/07/2020

So today has been a little bit frustrating. I've been trying to take some photos (long overdue) so I can get some more of my finished quilts listed. I'm embarrassed to say that I counted up the projects that are finished but not yet photographed and, including some table runners and wallhangings, I have over 20 waiting in the wings.

But I get kind of paralysed by taking pictures. Quilts are not easy to photograph. They're big and floppy.

It's hard to find a good background for them (it always seems to be too busy).

It's better to take them in natural light, but you're at the mercy of the weather. Today has been unseasonably windy. I had to use the quick fire shutter on my camera to take loads and loads of shots in rapid succession as the quilt just kept blowing about and making funny angles on the photo. At one point it blew right off the washing line: I had visions of trying to rescue it from the neighbour’s tree!

And then there's the light. The sun was either skulking behind the clouds (too dark) or glaring so brightly that all the colours burned out. But I got there in the end.

I’m actually pretty pleased with this little quilt. Never mind that I finished the top over a year ago and then it just sat there waiting for the perfect backing (a butter-soft Lizzie House lawn, in case you were wondering).

Every quilt has its little stories to tell, its ups and downs. Maybe that’s why I enjoy making them and sending them out for a new life in the world? I hope this finds a new home soon...

22/06/2020

Not surprisingly, I've been rather obsessed with rainbows in the past few weeks. The weather was perfect for photographing this little quilt yesterday evening.

There are over 150 different fabrics in this quilt. I cut rectangles from my scraps as I go along - a few at a time – then sort them into 12 different colour families in little packets.

So it took maybe a year to gather together enough pieces, but only a few days to arrange them, sew them together with the alternating white rectangles and finish the quilt off.

One of the hardest decisions with a rainbow quilt is what to use for the outer binding. I very often fall back on turquoise, as it sits near the middle of my graded spectrum and doesn't 'fight' with the other colours.

It's always hard to part with one of these quilts, but I'm hoping it will find a new home very soon...

17/06/2020

We are so lucky to live close to the seaside. Ok so it's the North Sea: the beach is grey and stony rather than golden sands, the water is generally freezing even in high summer and the seagulls are a menace. But it's our seaside and we love it.

One of the best things about the East Anglian coast are the rows of colourful beach huts. I love to use them as a backdrop for photographing my quilts. Here's one of several that I have made over the years, to celebrate the Great British Beach Hut.

Just sometimes, I imagine owning a brightly painted beach house of my own. Until then, I can dream...

14/06/2020

Cheerful rail fence quilt - on its way to a new baby in New York

05/06/2020

All of these finished quilts have now gone to new homes, some of them in faraway places.

03/06/2020

It's today, so I thought I'd show you my favourite photo of the best vehicle on the company fleet...

I bought this bike when I was a student in Cambridge about six million years ago. Daft really. It's ridiculously heavy (it's a Pashley) and has no gears. Which is all very well, as Cambridge is generally extremely flat. Apart from the fact that I soon discovered my college was actually uphill from the city centre. So there was quite a lot of late night pushing the beast up the gentle incline.

It's a wonderful machine though, and I wouldn't be without it. These days I feel like a proper Miss Marple when I ride it - extremely slowly - around the village. All I need now is the battered straw hat and a good unconventional murder mystery to solve.

My bike basket bunting has been extremely popular in lockdown. I've only got one string left, so tomorrow will be all about making more.

Tell me a story about your favourite bike...

27/11/2019

All the hard work... All the responsibility of choosing a great mix of stallholders... All the fun of working with my gorgeous studio buddy little swift, making miles and miles of decorations to create a festive atmosphere in the church... All the early mornings and late nights finishing stock... All the behind the scenes decisions and the thousand little things that have to be done... All, very nearly, finished... All for this...

If you get a chance to pop along, it's one of the best events in the Cambridge festive calendar (not that I'm biased or anything).

Come and find me. Give me a hug. I will be the one with the silly grin, having the very best time with my fellow CambridgeMade teamies HAH, Little Swift and Stabo... Whew!

15/11/2019

This weekend I'll be with lots of my lovely maker friends and colleagues at National Trust Ickworth for the March Hare Collective Christmas Fair. It's a beautifully curated event in a stunning location, with an NT cafe downstairs, lovely walks around the grounds of Ickworth House and almost 30 stalls of handmade loveliness. Do pop by and say hello ###

We think its time to start getting ready for Christmas! Start (or finish?) your Christmas shopping with the March Hare Collective Christmas Fair happening this weekend. Hand made artisan gifts from local crafts people - a fantastic opportunity to pick up something special for your loved ones! http://bit.ly/2q5ZSGm

14/04/2019

One of my very favourite fabric shops is having a birthday giveaway! Many Happy Returns Stitch X Stitch... can wait to come back in July to teach my beach huts quilt class. Xx

🎉🎉 BIRTHDAY GIVEAWAY 🎉🎉
We’ve had the lovely Ben with us today from Lewis & Irene showing us some of their amazing new fabrics coming out later in the year. We love their fabrics and it seems that our customers do too. Ben has very kindly given us a couple of Jelly Rolls to which we’ve added a few more L&I goodies.
For a chance to win a jelly roll, layer cake, charm pack or Bumbleberry Bundle please
LIKE our post
COMMENT on why you’d like to win or tell us your favourite Lewis & Irene collection; and
SHARE our post.
YOU’LL NEED TO DO ALL THREE TO BE ENTERED ~ there are 6 prizes to be won.
Winners will be drawn and notified next Tuesday.

We also have free Lewis & Irene patterns to give away to anyone buying L&I fabric in store (while stocks last).

31/03/2019

I love my daughters. They don't seem to mind at all that I am constantly embarrassing them by asking them to do loopy things in public, like posing with a quilt in a very, very crowded park on Mothering Sunday. Thank you my darlings... ###xx

14/09/2018

Another quilt finished. I'm very happy with how this one has turned out, especially as I had not a clue how I was going to quilt it. This one already has a new home, but I'd really like to make another one in a similar design... What do you reckon?

08/09/2018

OK I may have a slight problem... I just cannot bear to part with a single scrap of fabric. Thankfully this design uses pieces as small as 1" square. Although amazingly it hasn't made a very big dent in my snippets jar

03/09/2018

Perfect weather, perfect backdrop, perfect day... at Daisy Beach Hut Hire Walton and West Mersea

30/08/2018

The Beaded Garden's cover photo

07/04/2018

So what do you think of the orange binding on this one?

05/01/2018

Sneaky peek... this will be the first finish for 2018. I'll show you the whole quilt when it's done. PS: spot the cat!