MIAMI in Somerset

I stopped off in Somerset, en route to Devon for a week in the rain to see my friend Joan Taylor. It's always inspiring catching up with Joan, seeing what projects she has on the go and admiring her horticultural and sewing skills.

When I last visited her, this chair was an upholstery work in progress. Joan is a real perfectionist and she spent hours fiddling about with different fabrics and re-doing her work if it wasn't up to her discerning eye. The final result is a really great patchwork-style chair. This is a great way to use up those odd pieces of fabric and creates a completely unique bespoke piece.

Joan has been working on a small quilt. She meets with a group of friends to do sewing projects together and they decided to try convergence quilting in their session last week. This machine quilting technique involves sewing two or more strips of fabric together, then these are cut and pieced again. She's going to send me some instructions, so when she does I'll share them with you on the main website.

I also enjoyed looking around Joan's garden. She's self sufficient in vegetables from her large veggie plot, which provides her with plenty of fruit and veg to freeze, eat fresh or preserve in her delicious jams and chutneys.

and she also has a lovely cottage garden, full of flowers, shrubs and herbs. She wasn't happy that I took this photo as the lawn has been suffering from the lack of rain recently. Let's hope it's greening up again nicely now - it certainly poured while I was in Devon.

I look forward to having a go at convergence quilting myself soon.

Have you visited our main website? www.makeitandmendit.com

Clare F

Abundance Fruit Day

On my riverside walk this morning I spotted some posters advertising the Abundance Fruit Day this weekend here in Chiswick.

When I got home I googled it and found Abundance is an movement that started out in Sheffield and now has branches here in west London, and in Brixton, Haringey, Hackney, West Ealing and Manchester. They are mapping fruit trees - in a similar way to the chaps we highlighted on the website recently who are mapping foraging locations.

The West London Abundance Fruit Day sounds fun - there's a 60 litre fruit press which will be pressing local apples all day, apple games, fruit swaps, a jam-making workshop at 2pm, craft stalls and a bicycle operated smoothie maker so you can feel virtuous when making your own! More info here

It is really heartening to see how many initiatives there are now to encourage growing and sharing produce. We also recently highlighted Crop Swap, which is building up a national fruit and veg swapping databaase. Story here

Clare F

My first London Grapes

They may not be huge but they taste pretty sweet - my first crop - on a vine planted 2 years ago.

Clare F