Set in Stone Quilts

Here’s my chance to share an area of quilt making that I have become really interested in and developed over some time, fuelled by my own passion for the floor tiles that emulate patchwork all around the world. I am not alone in that passion of course; Christine Porter, a friend of many years and a truly brilliant machine quiltmaker, shares this with me, but it’s interesting how her direction runs alongside my own, but very differently. We admire and approach the concept from opposing starting points.

Chris threw herself into the floor tile concept by adapting the tile designs as real pieced patchwork, creating patterns for quilters who needed seam allowances added and step-by-step instructions for the sequence of piecing – brilliant stuff. My own interpretation is very different. My initiation was via a huge pictorial calendar brought back from a trip to Italy by my beloved sister-in-law, which showed photos of various floor tile designs from St Mark’s in Venice. So well-known now that they have become almost a visual cliché, but not to me at that time. I pinned the calendar up for the year in the hall in Chelsworth where I did all my classes. I have to say that the calendar is still on the wall there; when I got to the end of December, I just turned back to January again to enjoy the glories once more, and the date on it initially was the year 2000…

After a year or so, I continued to admire the photographs while making tea in the Chelsworth kitchen and

• Background fabric – 12½in x 12½in • Three (3) fabrics (tile pieces) – 9in x 9in each• Fusible web – 12in x 12in• Thread for Blanket Stitching that is slightly thicker than regular machine thread e.g., stranded embroidery thread – one (1) or two (2) strands