Journal quilt: March

This year my quilt group are making monthly journal quilts to depict what that month has meant to you. I showed you my quilts for January and February here.

For March, I took my inspiration from a few places.

The main one was this beautiful wrought ironwork on the pier at Southport. I loved the shadows it cast on the wooden walkway and it instantly made me think of quilting patterns. I almost used it for the circle category in the March Scavenger Hunt.

The second inspiration came from St Patrick's Day: shamrocks and the Irish colours of green, white and orange.

And finally, flowers: the daffodils of St David's Day; the miniature narcissi growing in my garden; the tulips I received for Mother's Day.

I simplified the ironwork to make it less fiddly to sew and made the flower shapes into orange tulips.

I did have to use some artistic licence for the centre of the daffodil as nothing looked quite right. In the end I found a piece of fabric in my stash which had circular patterns and the perfect colours to match the palette in the rest of the quilt.

The shamrock fabric was a lucky find in a discount fabric store and the only thing I bought. It's difficult to see in the photo but it's sprinkled with sparkly glitter :-) I've used it as the backing fabric too.

Ta dah!

I can't believe how much I'm enjoying this challenge. I haven't really designed my own quilts before so it's good to stretch my creativity and take me out of my comfort zone. Practising on such small pieces isn't quite so scary!

I'm off work now for 2 whole weeks and am so ready for it. At the moment we have no fixed plans, just a few vague ideas for days out. I'm just hoping this gorgeous weather continues but if not, I always have lots of creative projects to fall back on. Back soon. xx