6 January 2016
New Videos Every Friday Workshops Our Mystery Quilt with [...]
18 December 2015
New Videos Every Friday Just a week to go before [...]
Gift Ideas for Christmas 2015
Are you rushed off your feet trying to [...]
Christmas Wreath idea from Paula Doyle
Don't you just love it when a simple idea works - this wreath is so simple and easy, and anyone can do it - so get the whole family involved! It's a no-sew project which uses up lots of plain fabric, plus a pinking blade for the rotary cutter and some tacky glue. click here for the pdf instructions: Thank you so much Paula for sharing Happy Christmas
4 December 2015
New Videos Every Friday Well here we are – just [...]
Busy filming week
Well we were out and about this week to get some great stuff for you to view early in the 2016! We started off at Henley on Thames filming the textile exhibition Structures which Kate Findlay organised, and which was sponsored by Lady Sew & Sew (who are also based in Henley). Kate was our hostess for the day so we got some great insight into the pieces that were on display. AND we got to see her Hadron Collider Quilts again - so that was a lovely bonus.
20 November 2015
New Videos Every Friday [...]
Same pattern different quilts.
One of the enduring joys of patchwork I think is that the same pattern, using different fabrics ends up creating such a different quilt and I wanted to share with you my latest favourite scrap quilt. Here it is made up three times and just how different can they be! Their destination is the charity Momentum (based in Kingston upon Thames) who look after and suppport children with life limiting illnesses and their families, and also to St.George's children's ward (where one my students is the nurse in charge!) My thanks to Lynne Goldsworthy for the original pattern which is featured in the Sept/Oct 2015 issue of Quilting for You entitled Sherwood Forest - I did make one quilt using her instructions and then rescaled for the three above down to a 6" block.
How NOT to make half-square triangle units.
As someone who thinks the rotary cutter is the best bit of kit ever invented for patchworkers, I am open to any idea that is quick and easy. BUT that doesn't mean throwing caution to the wind and the current trend flooding the internet to completely ignore the grain of the fabric when making quilts, fills me with horror (and I know lots of quilts that will be horrific too!) The current issue of Love Patchwork & Quilting shows a stunning quilt on the cover designed by Amanda Castor, but when looking at the making instructions all the half-square triangle are off-grain, and then the blocks are set on point, and then the edges are cut - for a beginner this is a nightmare scenario and if you haven't someone to ask, you will wonder why everything goes wobbly when you try to quilt it - and applying spray starch is not the answer.
6th November 2015
It may be Bonfire weekend but the countdown to Christmas [...]
Magic 4 Patch quilts by Valerie Nesbitt
Here are a couple of quilts that I just couldn't resist making! The first used lovely Lewis & Irene fabrics that were also used to make a cushion (see Anne Baxter's workshop) and the other was made with fabric scraps given by a quilting friend as leftovers from her own quilt.
Update 16th October 2015
Workshops Today we are joined by Anne Baxter and she [...]
Quilt by Karen Nicol in the Habby Dept of Liberty’s London
Karen Nicol (one of our contributors) has a quilt now hanging up in Liberty's which you can all go and see; it's in the haberdashery dept. Here are some pics and more info: To celebrate their 140th anniversary, Liberty's chose Karen ,Lou Gardiner, Amanda Fatherazi, the Shoreditch Sisters and the Darlings to each produce a quilt. The shop was built from the wood of two ships so the theme for the quilts had to be sailors tattoos...brilliant!
Forgotten Heros?
Many of us make quilts for our military hero's but one of our viewers, Dr Jacqueline Jeynes written an amazing book entitled 'Forgotten Pensioners of War; FEPOW's and their stories'; she was inspired to write this by her own father The book is a testament to everyone affected by the long, savage imprisonment of our military personnel in the Far East 1941-45, many of them like my father, just teenagers.