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
Update 15th August 2014
Workshops Valerie continues with her series on appliqué – this [...]
Ipad Upgrade meets with approval
If you want to know what the upgrade was all about: click here Some of the comments we have received since the upgrade came into effect: Your new website is brilliant. I have been frustrated for many months because I just could not access the site properly and since my husband pays the subscription fee was considering cancelling it. No longer - I love the fact that I can access everything on the ipad and it's given me much pleasure. I've just watched among other things,this evening, the video on making the reindeer appliqué together with my five year old grand daughter whilst on holiday and when I go back home I've been asked to make it for her.
Well done and thank you - the new website works brilliantly for me.
Regards Irene
I have just watched Jennie on Safari much much better, thank you.
Best Regards
Ann Very very pleased that I am now able to see vido on my iPad. Just great will be able to use it all Many thanks for getting that up and working - Marian Thank goodness I don't have to use Puffin anymore on my iPad, quite often the script was all broken up and impossible to read.
Love this site and I return to it often to watch your tutorials..
Regards,
Maureen Hurrah!
What’s this bit of my walking foot for?
Question: I have an attchment for my janome machine which enables me to do measured straight lines. I haven't used it for years, and so have forgotten how ! ! It consists of a metal bar about 3 inches long with a right angle prong at the end of it, and 12 years ago it was fantastic for quick quilting diamonds or squares. Have you any ideas please of how I used it?