Jo Colwill

Animals, the countryside and country life have inspired me since I was a young girl and provided endless ideas for sewing. This book offers some of those ideas in a collection of lovely cushions and quilts to enhance your home or to make as gifts for family and friends.

Inspiration is all around me on the farm where I live and work, including the glorious Cornish countryside, the day-to-day farming tasks and also my dogs and horses. I love the flowers in spring and enjoy capturing the lovely vibrant colours of buttercups with swallows flying low over them. Each season brings with it unique colours, skies and textures just waiting to be captured in fabric.

When I married I changed from dressmaking to home-making and made my first quilt over thirty-five years ago. This quilt led me into working in interior de- sign, where I learned about colour and how it can affect your mood. My passion for colour, texture and fabrics, both new and old, grew from making home items into quilts and using every bit of spare fabric to make a comfortable home.

Patchwork and quilting, and especially the materials and techniques, have moved on since I began quilting. Today it is easier than ever to learn the basic techniques and then take them in your own direction, and I hope the projects here encourage you to do that. We all see fabrics and colours in different ways, which is one of the reasons why patchwork is so exciting and addictive.

Recording your life story in stitches is good for the soul and so relaxing as you become engrossed in a project. So, have fun using the ideas in this book and like me, let one quilt or cushion lead to another, and another.