Shared garden spaces and connections

* 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.

This garden, to give it it’s proper title - Family, Nature and Neighbours, had plenty to make me smile and plenty of inspiration too. It’s designed by David Blythe and won a Silver Merit award at the show and focuses on the connections we create with our families and neighbours through the garden spaces we share.

David based his design around the shared boundary, using the low dry stone wall filled with planting pockets and a fence with vertical herb planters, along with a wildlife highway.

I loved the idea of planting herbs in this way, though it’s not right for my current garden which is a shame.

The garden uses companion planting with pollinator friendly plants which helps to create a space where we can connect with nature using our senses - sight, sound, smell and taste are all covered in this small space, and it really does make for a beautiful border in every sense.

But it was the wildlife highway that made me smile; the hedgehog house and the hedgehog shaped hole in the base of the fence. I couldn’t help but chuckle though when I peered into the hedgehog house, which of course has its very own green roof!

The hedgehog wasn’t the only addition to make me smile, perhaps your garden already has lego figures in, or perhaps they’ll be something you’ll build into your plans for this year, who knows.

It’s great to be reminded of the connections we make with a space, and how we can share them - but most of all it’s great to be reminded that gardens are also places for fun.

* 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.

Treasures from another age at Coleton Fishacre

Following on from a look at the gardens in winter, today I’m sharing some of the items which caught my eye as we looked around the 1920s Arts and Crafts house, the country home of the D’Oyly Carte family and a must see for anyone interested in that era, and with a love for the elegance of Art Deco.

What I like about the house is that there’s always something new to see, our visit this time was before Christmas and the house was dressed for hosting a lavish party, with plenty of feathers used on the dining table and in between the branches of the Christmas trees.

At first it was the shape of this side table which caught my eye, and then I noticed the well-read books…

And my eye kept being caught as we moved through the house, what with the vanity sets, the tiles in the bathroom and the concoctions on the shelf below the mirror!

I even found a sewing kit, and a grand looking one at that. I couldn’t see what was in the containers, but I did approve of the glass alongside the gorgeous wooden box!

They really do evoke opulence and belong to a different age don’t they?

Then we headed downstairs to the ‘downstairs’ part of the house, which in this case is actually on the ground floor, but there were plenty of ‘downstairs’ items on display - note the blanc-mange recipe on the pudding basin, which of course would be upside down if you were actually using it as a bowl.

In the dining room I was met with the opulence of feathers and crystal - it looks like it was going to be a good party!

Moving into the library a couple more things caught my eye, including somewhere well used for all those telegrams and a nifty looking decoration on the tree made from a playing card - now that’s some inspiration isn’t it?

It’s often the little things you notice that makes these properties come to life, and it’s no different with the treasures on display during this visit to Coleton Fishacre.

And I really do need to work out how that tree decoration goes together….

Making my Mystery Block of the Month: December 2025

You’ll have seen that I plan to complete Sherri’s mystery block a month quilt and in my last post I shared the test blocks which I made into my fourteenth charity quilt, today I’m sharing the centre block I made for my own quilt.

It’s the final block of the month, and it’s a star as I was expecting - and another scrappy star at that. It’s similar in shape to the April and August blocks, but this time there’s triangles cutting across the edges of the centre square, which gives the effect of having the remaining central square set diagonally.

It’ll make more sense when you see it, but first I had to choose which blues to use for this month’s block. I have three navy fabrics which I’ve been using, but now the quilt assembly is within touching distance I have my eye on having enough of one of those navy fabrics for a border.

So I used the blue fabric in the centre which reminds me of Portuguese tiles. I know it’s not much and it may not save me anything at all, but my mind is in conservation of fabric mode, so the combination above is the one I was the happiest with.

And it’s a great block to sew, in fact I forgot to take any pictures until this point. Oops.

And of course having paused for a photo, when I restarted sewing and added that final row I was a little more off with my seams than I was happy with, so out came the unpicker…

Thankfully I was much happier with my second attempt and so next came the borders, and I’m back on the original greens for this block.

SEE WHAT I MEAN ABOUT THE CENTRAL SQUARE SET ON THE DIAGONAL?

I know now that switching greens when I did, back March, was the right call as I have very little left of the outer green with white circle fabric left. Phew - but I did ponder on that a fair bit at the time!

So now I have twelve completed blocks, but not yet a quilt.

Next up is finalising my plan for adding the borders and sashing between each of the blocks. I know that I want to use the borders to give the quilt as much width as I can without it looking daft, and I think that I’ve got a plan - I just need to check that I have enough fabric to do it.

As I’m a spatial learner, and like to see how things will work out, that’s likely to mean laying all the blocks and rough measuring the fabric alongside them. I’ll be using the kitchen floor for that!

Look out for a post soon sharing all the blocks together - I haven’t laid them out yet, but I’m pretty sure it’s going to be good!

This is the last mystery block now the work starts to assemble the quilt top, you can also check out my previous posts for my mystery block quilt or the charity quilts made from the test blocks.