Today I have been preparing for lessons this week. As we are revisiting colour theory I started looking through my sketchbooks. One of them has the original designs and ideas behind the Derwent Quilt. It started as a design exercise for patchwork templates for my City & Guilds students. I was so taken with it I developed it further into the final Derwent quilt.
Growing up on the shore of Lake Derwentwater it was inevitable that one of my designs would be named after it.
Lake Derwentwater is one of the main lakes in the English Lake District. Growing up in Portinscale, a village on the edge of the lake, we spent most summers swimming (before wild swimming became a thing) and sailing on the Lake. We would regularly swim from Hawse End to a small island, which we called lone tree island, and occasionally to St Herbert’s Island. We also would cycle and walk around the lake. We have such fabulous memories of a “Swallows and Amazon’s” childhood.
The Derwent Quilt is a bold design, fitting for a place which holds such wonderful childhood memories. Below are some pictures I took from the launch landings at Keswick and one from the hill side above Hawse End.
This pattern has been available as templates for several years, and I have now updated it for 2022 as a foundation paper piecing pattern. It will be available on my website soon.
Happy Quilting
Bev