A friend persuaded me to enter a mini quilt into a local quilters group exhibition to be held towards the end August.

The requirement is for a mini quilt, A4 paper (UK) size, portrait or landscape, depicting a house or a home.

Three layers, and any technique, with a hanging sleeve and a label giving make details..

I have made some quilts before, but just for family, utility, or to use up some fabric bits and pieces, so no reason why I should not do a mini quilt, she said! I hasten to add that I have no prior experience of entering a quilt competition.

I decided that ‘the old woman who lived in a shoe’ would be my topic. I found a vector free picture of a house shoe online and used that as inspiration.

Some time ago I had made some patchwork squares with 1.5 inch squares of fabric (yes 1.5 inch squares). I thought that this would be fun, but it very quickly became a chore. I used some lightweight fusible interfacing, and ironed all the little squares on and then stitched the seams using the sewing machine. These little squares of fabric had been in a box for some time, and this was a good way of making a larger piece of fabric. I think they were all little sample packs; some were patterned, and some were solid colours.

I cut the shoe house shape, and the tree shapes from these patchwork squares. The roof and the tree trunks are from other scrap pieces. Then I appliquéd these pieces to the background; I used the sewing machine for this, and a little glue to stabilise the pieces while I stitched them. This is a raw edge appliqué, rather than a turned edge process. I added a few shapes to indicate windows, smoke from the chimney, and a door. Then I added some batting, a backing, minimal echo quilting, and bound it with some spare bias binding.

I was quite happy with the finished piece, and posted it to the contact for the little exhibition.

I have been to Orkney main island with my family for a holiday. We went there in 1994, and ’93, and we stayed on one of the smaller islands at that time. I really looked forward to going back. Mainland Orkney has changed quite a lot since then; there were lots of tourists and many visitors from cruise ships, and all the popular neolithic sites were very busy. But, I enjoyed our visit very much, and we visited many sites off the tourist trail. This copy from a gravestone in St Magnus cathedral reminded me that women are special, there were many more, but I loved this one – short and to the point.

I saw a wonderful tapestry in St Magnus cathedral, that was gifted by Norway to the people of Orkney, and presented by the King of Norway to the late Queen Elizabeth, in 1987, on the 850th anniversary of the foundation of St Magnus’ Cathedral. The tapestry is so beautiful, and my photo does not do it justice. The cathedral is a wonderful building.