The Cottage Orné Quilt

The Cottage Orné Quilt
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Saturday 13 August 2011

The Hunting Lodge

 I have just returned from the Festival of Quilts and am now catching up -  as you do!  It will take some time to process my thoughts so I hope you will enjoy something I prepared earlier!

You will have gathered by now that I love all types of  houses, gardens and I also admire the work of John Fowler (of Colefax and Fowler fame).  It's a treat, therefore, to combine these three and show you this magical little house set in its lovely garden which used to be the country home of  John Fowler.

 Just click on the link below to see some more -

 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/8663723/Celebrity-Gardeners-Nicky-Haslams-garden.html


It's called The Hunting Lodge and was left to the National Trust by John Fowler.  It is now in the care of another famous interior decorator, Nicholas Haslam who is a more flamboyant personality and decorator than John Fowler, as you will have gathered after watching the video?  He calls it  "the prettiest house in England" and though England is not short on pretty houses,  it must be a contender?

Of course in the forty years he has lived there, Nicholas has changed a great many things inside and out but he has also retained many of  the original interior decorations. 


This is one of the bedrooms as it was decorated by John Fowler in which he stuck a beautiful Mauny border on painted walls.  Nicholas has kept that but changed the bed drapes and cover - but I love the quilt - well this is a quilting blog!

It seems that John Fowler was fond of using old frame quilts on beds as they appear regularly in pictures of his work.  At that time (in the 40s. 50s and 60s) they must have been easily come by and cheap and so different, for it wasn't at all usual for a top decorator to use humble patchwork! 




4 comments:

Nicky said...

Must have missed you at FoQ But lovely little house it is! Love the topiary in the garden!

the running chicken quilting said...

Lovely to meet you at the FoQ on Thursday...went back today and bought your ebook! Can't wait to run the disk! Best wishes...

Liz said...

Hello Mary, it was lovely to meet you at the FoQ on Friday. I spent an enjoyable hour or so this afternoon looking at your ebook and found it really easy to use. I love handsewing too and hope to make one of the quilts fairly soon when other projects are finished!
Love the quilt in this post too!

ria vogelzang said...

Lovely pictures! And what a great quilt!!
Enjoy!