Boat-wise I’m now constructing 41-52. Thanks to a suggestion from Sarah, my neighbour, they are going to hang in the bathroom; bunting stretching from the corners with mobiles hanging from the central light. The bathroom has odd indents and cupboards so there will be five or six strings of boats and, at a rough count, I’ll need about fifty. For the remainder of the hundred I’m going to branch out and make model and patchwork boats.

Many years ago I used to make stripey patchwork quilts from old shirts. A kindly contact in Jermyn Street gave me bags and bags of offcuts – beautiful cottons in an array of wonderful stripes. I have stopped making the stripey quilts but I still have masses of fabric, waiting  for the perfect project. It is ideal for boat sails. The plainer blues also make excellent sky. Each panel will be 6×8 inches so they’ll fit together easily. I’m not sure yet what I’ll make with them but a flotilla of fabric boats seems like a good idea. Unlike most patchwork they are not particularly portable as they need pinning and ironing to get reasonably sharp corners but that doesn’t matter; I can sit on my now-comfortable garden seat (see the Garden Bench Patchwork here) and sew.

Jane