I haven’t made a patchwork quilt since my daughter was a baby. It was heaps of work and in the end, I only made a quilt the size of  a cot.

The other day, while I was walking my dog in the park, I went inside a shop that sold everything related to patchwork. I only went in to browse, but my eye was drawn to a shelf in the corner of the shop where rows of gorgeous Japanese prints were lined up. They were sumptuous. I would even call them delicious – like looking at a plateful of the most beautiful chocolates. I wanted to buy them all.

I came out of the shop with a meter each of my  6  favourite patterns, a new pair of scissors, a reel of cotton, a sheet of plastic to make a template, and lots of inspiration.

I plunged in headfirst, like I do when I write a novel, without any overall plan. After several days of trial and error I came up with the squares that you see in the photos below. Once all the squares are sewn together, I will put batting inside, then a backing material. After that comes the quilting where you stitch through all the layers of fabric.