Hey There! I’m Polly Louise. Welcome to my kitchen studio!

Quilting is my hobby. Its my creative outlet on a weekend to destress from the pressures of a week in the office, running my home and organising my family. Its my form of therapy, that enables me to process my emotions through the tactile act of making with my hands, through the sense of touch and expression through colour and design. It offers me opportunities to practice the art of problem solving in my safe space when my compositions or techniques falter. It gives me a sense of focus and control in a world that often feels messy and chaotic. It offers space to reflect. It provides me with a community of like-minded creatives, and a true sense of accomplishment is achieved when a project is finished.

In sharing my quilts with you, it is my hope that you too, can experience the comfort, warmth, and joy that a unique homemade quilt offers.

They are a wonderful gift to yourself or to a special someone. A gift that is practical and durable, but also beautiful. It is a gift that will keep on giving for many years to come, one that can be used, loved, cherished and shared. A gift that you can snuggle on the sofa under, or you can take with you on a long car journey, a gift that you can wrap your child up in when they are feeling unwell and a gift that adds colour and form to your home.

When creating my quilts, I endeavour to be sustainable and incorporate remnant fabrics from past projects and upcycle old clothing and other textiles in an effort to echo and reflect the history and traditions of patchwork quilting.

Take a look at my Quilt Shop to see my currently available quilts and past projects.

Or, if you have a particular design or colour theme in mind and would like a custom quilt created, get in touch via my contact form and we discuss your ideas!

My Quilting Journey…….

My love of quilting started around 14 years ago when I decided on a whim, that it would be a lovely idea to make a Patchwork Quilt as a wedding gift for some close friends. I had never patchworked or quilted before, but I love challenging myself and love to be creative, so I grabbed a couple of quilting books from the library, watched a couple of online tutorials, raided my mums stash of fabrics in the loft, and off I went!

I didn’t follow a pattern, as at this time I had no idea how to follow patterns! I had a rough idea of what I wanted it to look like in my head and so the design and making of this first quilt grew organically.

I had no technical skills or experience; no specialist equipment; no idea what a half square triangle or a flying geese unit or a log cabin was; no idea how to finish or bind a quilt; and I only had a small and very old Toyota sewing machine!

But none of that stopped me, as the thought of gifting a friend something homemade and unique as a wedding gift was so special.

I finished the quilt on time (just!), with the help of my mother-in-law who showed me how to bind the quilt, and I was so proud of what I had accomplished! And I think the recipients loved it too!

I have definitely travelled a long, long way on my Quilting Journey since my first attempt. And with the help and inspiration from the enormous online quilting community, I have developed invaluable knowledge, skills and experience, and am now a confident and skilled quilter, but continue to learn more and more every week. have a look at my shop for past and current projects.

Stitches in time…… A little quilty history!…….

The history of patchwork and quilting, its origins, its uses, and social importance, fascinates me.

But what I love most, are the common threads, interwoven into the social history of patchwork and quilting throughout time and across the world, and that is the sense of community and family and traditions being passed down through generations. Patchwork quilting has a long tradition of bringing groups of people together. Quilting Bees originated in the 19^th century and provided a social space for women to gather and talk , connect and make friendships, while simultaneously expressing their artistic capabilities. The shared efforts of the group were often of the aim of producing a quilt for a special event such as a wedding or birth of a baby in the family, but just as many quilts were made together through necessity, whether that be warmth and protection, to carry messages on the Underground Railroad , to be an easily transportable record of family history – a story quilt – or to be sold for a charitable cause.

These themes continue in the quilting communities today, with the development of modern Quilting Guilds, large Quilting conventions and online groups where skills are shared, stories are told, and women and men alike sew a long together creating personal projects and community quilts.

But in addition to these practical and decorative uses, the design and making of patchworks and quilts throughout history has also been an instrument of storytelling and historical and political documentation from which, we have been able to learn about the lived experiences of the makers and the communities around them.

The art of capturing a moment of history within a quilt is still true today.  For example, you can find images of many beautiful quilts on-line from the last few years, made by both individuals and communities, which depict and document life through COVID 19 and the impact of Lockdown and many more that have been inspired by the Black Lives Matter Movement. These amazing quilts will be seen and studied by future generations and will give added meaning and create lasting threads of connection to the lives of the makers and the social, economic and political climates of our time.

Don’t forget to have a look at my Quilt Shop