"I like flowers and that"

So said Richard from work when he asked me to make him a quickie laptop sleeve. "I like that stuff where you put lots of material together in bits". Flowery patchwork do you mean, luv? About as far removed from my idea of fun as you can get. However, I figured if I mixed in a few bits of graphical print too then all was not lost. The fabric selection ended up as so:



We have a bit of Liberty print (6th from top, grey triangles) some Paul Smith cotton shirting (red and white stripe, grey and white stripe), some bits and pieces picked up from Ray Stitch from their sale section and some black needlecord.

It has been a while since I've done any patchwork and it was tricksy getting back amongst it. I found it incredibly difficult to sew straight lines - I mean, they were sort of roughly in the right place but were going slightly downhill at one end. It made me realise that my freeform denim quilts are very forgiving because wonkiness is part and parcel of their charm. I've really got to crack on and practice my technique.

Anyhoo, after many false starts and a bunch of practice pieces that drove me insane, I finally got something that I was OK with. Not perfectly happy with, but bearable. And it took me 3 whole weeks to get round to finishing it. So I ended up with a flowery side and then something a little more sensible and corporate.





I love this little bit of sass on the corporate side:



And Richard is very happy with it, and his favourite side? The one with 'flowers and that'.