Discovering the Wallace Line Garden

* I was invited to the Gardeners’ World Live show and provided with a pair of tickets to the show, therefore all my posts will be marked as 'Ad’ though as usual my views and opinions are very much my own.

One of the things I like about the gardens at Gardeners’ World is the history or thinking behind the garden which is often the inspiration for the designers. In this case Dave Hodson Gardens, the designer for the ‘Wallace Line’ garden took inspiration from the naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace who travelled the Malay Archipelago collecting plants for scientific research for this formal central canal garden with a twist.

Wallace developed a therory of Natural Selection at the same time as Charles Darwin and also hypothesised about an imaginary line between otherwise close islands which seemed to have completely different species of plants and animals.

This show garden recreates a representation of this line in the long pool and features a Jungle style planting on one side of the line and a a Savannah/Desert style on the other, using the plants shown in the image below.

Now we know the Wallace Line is a result of Plate Tectonics bringing together areas on which Asian and Australasian species had developed separately, which just goes to show that quite often, or sometimes at least, we know what we know even if we can’t prove it at the time!

It’s an interesting approach for me as it shows how you can combine two distinct styles of planting in one garden, and the information board also said that it makes the point “that once you have crossed the line from one eco system to another, there is no going back” which when you think about it, it really makes you think.

I was keen to see how the two distinct styles worked together, and I think they do, as I’m still toying with the idea of three zones for planting in our garden, those being cottage garden style, a productive garden and more exotic plants. I can visualise it in my mind’s eye, but I need to work out a way to get it down on paper in a way that MOH and potential garden designers can also understand.

The ongoing and ultimate challenge! I know where I need help with my idea is how the spaces connect with each other without looking like three different gardens! I’ll get there, and I just need to spend some either drawing it out, or cutting and sticking various pictures - and I think the latter will be quicker, even though it won’t look as nice.

But as this garden demonstrates, it is possible to have a cohesive garden with two distinct planting styles - it’s also given me hope that while my idea may not be the ‘norm’, it’s something worthwhile pursuing. Wish me luck!

* With thanks to Gardeners’ World for inviting me to Gardeners’ World Live, it was quite a show! I’ll be sharing more from my visit to this year’s show throughout the year - I hope you enjoy them as much as I did the show.

My quilt plans for 2026

I do like a list, and so once again I’m setting out my quilting plans for this year. After setting out my plans for 2025 I’ve learnt it’s a good way to keep me (broadly) on track, and to remind me of the things I actually want to achieve and sew throughout the year.

Last year I also learnt that sometimes my list might be a little too long and ambitious, but that once I’ve set myself a challenge (ahem stretch project I’m looking at you) then I’m loathed to quit. I also know that while I will still sew charity quilts, I won’t be doing one a month this year as there’s so much more I want to sew.

I still have a long list…

There are always ideas and projects bubbling about my head, and often my craft room, and it’s still hard to turn down a beautiful quilt, but I’m trying to keep this list as achievable as I can (for a change), though even now I think I may be adding to what I thought was my agreed in my head list. Oops.

I’m also including the quilts from last year which I didn’t get to (with updates since my quilty update in early February), and I’m ok with that as they are still quilts I want to make, so here goes…

1. The teal flying geese

It was on the list last year and it’s here again this year. I have the fabric, and still love it all, and the idea of a flying geese quilt despite patchworking friends raising their eyebrows a notch or two whenever I mention it.

While I tested making many flying geese blocks in my first charity quilt, I didn’t find the method completely foolproof. I knew I had some flying geese rulers on my pegboard which I’d never used, so I’ve recently set myself a challenge to master these - and I have (I’ll share how I got on with these in a post hopefully next week), so now I think this quilt will be an absolute starter (and hopefully finisher) this year.

2. The jeans and pyjamas

Another one that remains from last year, and I think once it gets cut out then it’ll happen fairly quickly. I’m still planning to use old jeans and pyjamas for this, and its purpose will be to live in the back of my car. I’ve a feeling that this could be a condensed project for when I get a block of time to myself, and maybe secretly (or not so secretly now!) I’m willing that to happen.

3. My floral fancy

I still need my cutting boards back, but I also need a small collection of green fabrics and some more hours in the day. If I could get this central panel appliquéd I think I’d give myself a lot more confidence for starting the surrounding blocks.

4. My English Paper Piecing (EPP) blue diamonds

This was always a long term, slow sewing project - and let’s be fair it hasn’t disappointed! It remains on the list for this year as it’s always handy to have a hand sewing patchwork project to take to my patchwork group if needed.

5. Scrappy houses charity quilts

For this year’s charity quilts I’ve decided to make use of the scraps of fabric I already have, and those which I will create as I continue to sew this year. I’ve found a really cute ‘village’ quilt pattern by Sherri on A Quilting Life which I will use for these quilts, and I’ve already started to assemble my houses.

My biscuit tin of scraps cut to size is working well for me, I’m finding that knowing what size to cut scraps is a great discipline - and it means I’ll always have a project to grab and go to either of my sewing or patchwork group meetings.

I haven’t yet worked out how many houses I need in my village for each charity quilt, but I don’t think I’m that far off finding out. This year I’m not setting a number for how many charity quilts I’ll make, as I discovered last year by doing that I set myself a challenge which I didn’t want to not meet.

6. Wonderland meets Moda

This one is new for this year, and as ever it’s not quite as straightforward as it might be which you may have guessed by its name.

For a while now I’ve had the Alice’s Wonderland Sampler Quilt book, which contains ‘100 quilt blocks to improve your sewing skills’ and it’s a gorgeous book, which will result in a gorgeous quilt. The blocks in the book use 100 Liberty Tana Lawn fabrics, and there are kits available to make the quilt, and I know they are stunning.

However I’m not one for taking the easy route and while I like Liberty fabric, I much prefer bolder designs. At last year’s Festival of Quilts Show I picked up a ‘Petunia’ fat quarter bundle by Moda just because I liked it, and then when I got home I realised I already had a charm pack of the same range - I knewI liked it!

On holiday last year in the US I picked up a couple of fat quarter bundles which also turned out to be Moda (Pivot and Bird is the Word ranges) which also ‘fit’ quite well with the Petunia style, and so I’ve decided to use these Moda fabrics for the Alice in Wonderland sampler quilt, like you do.

I will have a reduced number of fabrics, roughly about half, so there will be more repetition than in the original design, but that’s ok. When I was initially working out if my idea for this quilt would have a chance of working I painstakingly went through all 100 blocks noting when and where the 100 fabrics were used; some are used in as many as four or five blocks, where others are used in just one so I think I can make it work. Or in other words it’s this year’s ‘you don’t know unless you try’ project!

7. Word Star

This is the project that seems to have snuck onto the list at the last minute. It may not actually be sewn this year, but who knows it may be. I’ve recently been smitten by some more fabric - the Type/Ography range by Lori Holt for Riley Blake. Well the smitten bit happened a while back, but each month my to do list reminds me to buy it, or actually my reminder was to buy a charm pack. When I looked the other weekend the charm packs were sold out, which I found more disappointing than I expected, so I looked online for another supplier. All I could find were the 10 inch layer cakes, which were obviously a bit pricier than the 5 inch charm squares.

More searching online found the cheapest option, but something made me hesitate and think on it overnight. I can’t tell you what or why, but I’m so glad I did. The next morning I received an email with a 20% discount across the site from the original supplier who I’ve bought from regularly, saving £25 and postage on the cheapest option I’d found the night before. It was clearly meant to be, so the fabric was quickly ordered and even more quickly delivered.

And it’s just as good as I’d hoped.

I seem to have thing for words on fabric as not that long ago I bought a set of ‘Spread the Word’ fat quarters, which I’m hoping that at least some of will be a good fit with the rainbow of colours I have in the Type/Ography sets I’ve just bought.

I don’t have a firm plan for them yet, but on my long term ‘to make’ list is a Lone Prairie Star quilt, and if I’m lucky then my Word Star quilt may just be the thing. We’ll see.

And one to finish, and more

Of course there is one more, and that’s to completely finish the Mystery Block of the Month quilt. The blocks are made, and the internal borders are cut and I have a plan for the outer borders, binding and even the backing fabric - just don’t ask about the quilting yet!

I also want to do plenty of ‘other makes’ including making myself some more dresses, I’m still thinking about what exactly that list looks like, but having a list for quilt projects for the year worked so well that I’m planning on doing something similar for everything else - watch this space!

Just for the joy of sharing

I hadn’t realised that the quilts with the ‘Joy’ labels and in the category ‘For the Joy of Sharing’ were quilts that simply want to be seen and not judged. What a great way for quilters to share their quilts, without the constraints around quilting style, or any other rules, apart from not being no more than 3 metres in any direction.

But don’t be fooled, these quilts were just as detailed and eye catching as any of the other quilts in the show.

A RAINBOW OF HEXIES, COLETTE DUNNING

These two had plenty of colour, and look more closely at the one above and you’ll spot plenty of English Paper Piecing (EPP) hexagon flowers, and flowers galore in the many sized squares below.

MY SISTER’S GARDEN, CLAIRE BAXTER

I liked the connecting hearts in this one, as well as the colour fade throughout the design.

ALL THE LOVE, K CARPENTER

FLOWER POWER, MELISSA ATCHISON

The fabrics in the Flower Power quilt above call to me, and the more I look at this one I alternate between seeing flowers and crosses, and I love how you can work out how it’s constructed.

These curve studies though are night and day, or rather day and night - aren’t they great?

CURVE STUDY, KAT MOLESWORTH

I’m in two minds about this one, it’s clever and there’s a lot of work in this but I’m not sure it’s a quilt I’d want myself.

DECONSTRUCTED TOILE, KARIN LISHER BRIDEN

Unlike this one, I love it’s bright sunny disposition - and I love the pattern too.

BARBICAN ON A SUNNY DAY, CATHERINE HUNTER

It’s the Happenstance pattern which I’m planning to replicate when I get around to my Jeans and pyjamas quilt. I know mine will look different to this, but I’m hoping that it will (eventually) look as good as this one.

If you enjoyed this post from my visit to the Festival of Quilts 2025 then please do check out my other posts from the show. Even though my mind was blown by the sheer volume of quilts on display, I’m pretty sure I’ll be going again!