SUPPOSING Miss Seraphine’s doll-friend Clementine were to write and say she was coming on a visit next week. Wouldn’t you be in a fix with no nice bedspread for the spare bed, because you were reading that book instead of attending to the dolls’ spring cleaning? You will have to see about a new bedspread quickly, and you can make one that will be very pretty, with just a few little pieces. Here is where those scraps that Grandma gave you the other day will come in usefully.

We are going to make a patchwork quilt. It won’t be as large as the one Grandma has, but Clementine doesn’t require a very big one to cover her. First, let us just see what pieces we have got together. Some unbleached calico, some pieces with roses and rosebuds on, some dark ones with leaves and bunches of grapes, one piece with a little pink flower all by itself, a few flowery bits, and some with different kinds of spots. There is just enough here to make something really lovely, and I shouldn’t wonder if when Clementine sees it she doesn’t want to change bedspreads with Seraphine.

But to get to work. We must think out a little scheme of how we are going to arrange the pieces. Whatever you do, don’t put the dark ones on one side, or throw them away, because they are just what you will want to show up the light ones nicely. We will decide to have our design in squares. A little square of the pink flower could come in the centre. Then to show it up, a dark square with leaves and a bunch of grapes could come above, below, and at each side of it. You might have four little spotty patterns at the corners between two dark bits, and above the top and below the bottom dark piece might be a little fancy pattern. At the four corners left, we will put a rose or rosebud. Look at the picture of a patchwork quilt, and you will see how we have arranged them all. Then we might have a border of the unbleached calico.

Before we go any further, do you know what makes this so attractive and pretty? It is the dark pieces—the pieces you wanted to throw away—and the plain border. These darker pieces throw up the pretty light designs, and make them look even more pretty, whereas, if you put all light together, you could not so easily pick them out.

If you haven’t done any patchwork, you will wonder how to get the little squares even, and to join them together. This is how it is managed. You want 15 squares of stiff paper, each measuring 1½ inches each way. Stiff old letters will do beautifully to cut up for this. Get a piece of cardboard, 1½ inches each way, and cut your papers by this, taking great care that they are perfectly even and true. Cut out your 15 pieces of material in squares, which should measure 2 inches each way. That will allow you ¼ inch on each side for turning the end over the paper to make it neat. Tack a piece over each square of paper, as in the picture. When the 15 squares are covered, join them all together on the wrong side with oversewing stitches, arranging them as we decided. You will see how to do oversewing on page 28.

For the border, cut a plain strip of unbleached calico, 2 inches wide and about 37 inches in length. On each side of this strip tack down ¼ inch. Now, leaving about 2 inches, start sewing on the border at one corner of the quilt, on the wrong side, with neat oversewing stitches. When you come to a corner you must mitre it. From the corner measure along your border twice the width of the border, i.e., 3 inches. Mark with a pin or thread. Now pleat your border strip so that the pin comes just on the corner. If you have done this quite neatly and evenly, your corner will be quite square. On the wrong side you will have a crease across the diagonal of the border. Stitch along this firmly with run and back-stitch. Then cut away just beyond the stitches, and oversew the raw edges to keep from fraying. When you come to the corner from which you started, you must join the two ends of the border, and this is done just the same as the other corners, by first creasing and then stitching on the diagonal.

On the quilt in the picture a little fancy stitch has been worked in coloured “Star Sylko,” and this is a great improvement. This is worked from left to right, with first a little horizontal stitch then a long slanting stitch, and below the slanting stitch another horizontal stitch. Bring your needle up from the wrong side. Take a few threads of material, bringing the needle out on a line with the first place at which you brought it up, but a little to the right of it. Bring it out under the stitch just made, and carry it down in a slanting direction and make another little horizontal stitch in the same way, this time, however, keeping your needle above the stitch. Then up again, and so on. The little pictures will make this stitch clear. When you have gone all round the border, you can take out all your tacking stitches and pull the paper away from the little squares.

Now all that remains to be done is to line your quilt, and this is done by taking a piece of white sateen 7¾ inches wide by 10¾ inches long. Turn in once and then tack ¼ inch all round, and hem it neatly to the counterpane, as you were shown how to line the sachet on page 39. Be careful not to let the stitches come through to the right side of the quilt. If you want to make it extra warm you can put a layer of cotton wool in between the quilt and the lining. It is now quite ready for the spare bed.

But perhaps some little mother says: “I haven’t got any pretty pieces like those in the picture. I have only got plain pink, blue and white.” Well, you can arrange these to look pretty, even if they are only plain colours. Put a square of pink in the middle, have a white square above, below, and at each side. At the four corners, where the spotty bits are, have blue. The four outside corners could be pink, and the top and bottom centre ones white. Then you could have a white border with blue stitching on it. This is only one suggestion for plain colours. You will soon think of plenty more. There is ever so much you can do with a few pieces and a little patience.