For the past few weeks I have been working on my second little quilted book – In the Garden.

It is a book about nurturing plants and growing a garden, at the same time as nurturing your soul and growing as a person.

“A seed of hope, planted with care, will burst into life. Slowly at first, but with a little support and enough light to flourish, a garden of contentment will grow.”

I wrote these words, while I was finishing my last basket. Our garden has given me so much joy this year, as I have begun to make our kitchen garden and have gradually cleared and added to the old perennial beds, that someone else once loved and cared for. It has given me the chance to reflect on the past seven years, of discovering that I loved working in gardens and growing them with my children. Of saying goodbye to one garden and discovering the secrets of another. Of finding restfulness there.

The sea has been a place of refuge and healing for me, since I was very ill in my teens. Since my youngest, Wren, was born, I have found another special place, amongst the plants and alongside the creatures that live in our garden.

l feel enormously fortunate and grateful that we have an outdoor space of our own, where we can connect with nature, on a very personal level and work with it and alongside it.

One of the highlights of my gardening year, for the past three years, has been growing Golden Hubbard Squash.

I feel the same childlike wonder, every time, as I watch a small seed grow very quickly into a huge plant, reaching out with its tendrils and growing up and up with its big umbrella like leaves.

Making this book, happened as squash season began in my garden, so it felt natural for my squashes to take centre stage.

The book is made out of fabric scraps, a pair of trousers and a shirt that I found in the local charity shop and some vintage silk thread that I found in the scrapstore in Dundee. The latter has been an absolute joy to work with and I will be keeping an eye open for more vintage threads in future.

I had the benefit of experience this time around, having already made my coastal book – A Moment to Breathe. So I felt confident that it would all come together. That is always a comfort when you are investing so much time into a project.

There was still plenty to learn though, and my skills at stitching words, in particular, have really improved with this project. In fact they improved so much, that I had to revisit the first two pages, to redo the lettering, so that it would match the later ones.

It is lovely to see the two completed books side by side on my worktable this week, honouring my two happy places – the coast and my garden, and I feel sure that there will be more books in the future. A book about motherhood is quietly forming itself somewhere at the back of mind, it has been such a precious part of my life so far. It surely deserves its own book.

For now though, my thoughts are turning to the other half of this project, which is a basketry sculpture based on the same words and I am really excited about it. I will be working with sisal for the first time and possibly some other garden twines as well. It’s quite an ambitious idea, but I won’t give to much away for now, I’ll let you enjoy seeing it grow.

I will leave you with some more images of the book, but if you would like to see a video of me turning the pages, you can find it on my reels over on Instagram.