About Claire
Claire is a modern quilt designer and teacher, based in Stratford Upon Avon in the UK.
Claire has always had a love for sewing which was reignited when her children were born and needed a creative outlet for herself. It wasn’t long before quilts were the only thing she wanted to sew.
In 2020, during the pandemic, when Claire was stuck between never ending on-line lessons with her kids home-schooling, she designed her first quilt pattern, the Retro Metro Quilt. It was a way she could still channel her creativity when life wouldn’t allow much time behind the sewing machine. Since then, Claire has immersed herself into the quilt designing world and has had her work featured in Love Patchwork & Quilting magazine and justhands-on.tv videos.
Claire’s designs are Inspired by modern geometric designs and repeated patterns – – wherever she finds them – – including toilet tiles and the front covers of books. Claire is the designer behind Made Just Sew. Click her to see her bright, colourful designs.
Though not formally educated in art or teaching, Claire has excelled as a quilting teacher – – winning the Big Janome Skill Share in 2021. What makes her unique is her passion for quilting and a passion for sharing what she has learned.
Click here to watch Claire share her Walking Foot Quilting techniques in an episode of The Makers Studio.
Keep up to date and follow Claire’s quilt journey over on Instagram @madejustsew
Signature Technique
Quilting with a Walking Foot
Top Tips
- Pick your backing fabric first, then match your front colours to your backing. This works really well for those of us who love colourful printed fabrics for our backing.
- If you’ve struggled with quilting, use the walking foot. It makes quilting so much easier.
- Don’t be afraid to quilt straight lines across your patchwork. It gives your project enhanced depth and texture.
- Marking quilting lines with a hera marker provides a useful guide for your straight line quilting.
- Don’t worry about mistakes. We all do it! Remember, you can always unpick stitches and come at it fresh tomorrow.
- Use quilting gloves to help you guide your quilt under the walking foot. The sticky tips of the glove give you a little extra grip.
- If you want your quilting to stand out, choose good quality colour thread to contrast the top. Colour thread can look dominating when on the spool, less so when on your quilt.
Videos
Posts
From little acorns……
We are always so pleased that our videos and workshops inspire others to join the happy band of textile addicts; here is a lovely letter from a beginner who seems to have done just that:
I didn't have a sewing machine or knew how to use one just 6 months ago but have fallen in love with patchwork in the meantime and have bought myself a very basic, very cheap sewing machine.
World Quilt Show USA Winner from the UK
Christine Porter is the British Coordinator for the World Quilt Show, which takes place in the USA every year, This year she had 28 entries and she is thrilled to say that a British quilter (from Bristol) called Stephanie Crawford won the Best of the World award for her fabulous quilt, ‘A Chinese Journey in Three Parts’ - see below: She won $2,000.
A wander round Festival of Quilts 2014
Over 800 quilts to see but helping on the Creative Quilting stand meant that time to enjoy this was limited: two of the winning entries that caught my eye was the Traditional Quilt category won by Philippa Naylor – stunning appliqué and free motion quilting. and the Quilt creations category won by an amazing grandfather clock - so much detail that you would need a whole day to look at this properly; this category was sponsored by Vivebooks who are the publishers of a new E-book by Chris Porter entitled Sensational Circle Quilts.