Sewing can be a rather messy business, no matter how tidy I try to be, so I sometimes imagine having a tiny troupe of helpers in my sewing room, who would appear magically at the end of the day - when I’ve left my worktable and turned off the lights - to tidy away the snippets of thread and ribbon and pick up the pins I’ve accidentally dropped.
I’d reward them handsomely with biscuit crumbs and shirt buttons...
The mice are back! Last autumn's Country Mice will be joining us in the sewing room once more. Quite literally, because this year the mice are busy gathering up buttons, balancing on spools and generally making themselves useful, just like the helpful mice in Beatrix Potter's Tailor of Gloucester.
The Button Mouse blocks are machine pieced and this year are delightfully decked out in a Fat Eighth bundle of Tilda's new Sanctuary collection, combined with their gorgeous new Mira blenders. The pattern uses my favourite snowballed corner technique, with some optional touches of embroidery to add tiny tails and little faces.
When I was looking for the perfect backdrop for my pattern cover, there really was only one place that would do: the world’s prettiest sewing room, which can be found at the Willow Cottage Quilt Company in Okotoks, Canada, at the home of my dear friend Andrea. She will be offering deliciously curated Button Mouse kits that can be pre-ordered here. Aaand with every kit pre-ordered there's a rather fabulous gift, shared in Andrea's Instagram Live today. I had the best fun working with Andrea and her talented colleague Laurie on this one, so if you missed it you can watch the replay on Andrea's website here.
The cute (as a) Button Mouse pattern booklet will be available, along with a PDF version, on the 1st of October, when Sanctuary goes on sale and when we'll all be looking forward to retreating to our sewing rooms and making a bit of a mess :-)
Nicola xx
PS: Would you like a little sneak peek? Of course you would! Here’s Grandpa Button looking very dapper in Tilda’s Creating Memories…
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