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
4th July 2014
Happy 4th July to all our American cousins. If you [...]
Quilt Retreat weekend at Midhurst, W.Sussex
House is full! Teachers this weekend are Jennie Rayment, Valerie Nesbitt and Sarah Soward (from Pauline's Patchwork); we know we are going to have a great time - lots of sewing, good company and good food. Sorry you missed it?! - well why not join us next year; the dates are 12-15 June 2015 and for a booking form just click here.
National Patchwork Championships at Sandown 2014
Had a great time with lots of visitors and both Jennie and I enjoyed meeting so many of our viewers - thanks for taking the time to stop by. Also bumped into many of our contributors, but a couple of new people we will be following: first Shirley Bloomfield who is an embroiderer with a new bok out Beyond the Applique Garden, which we will be featuring on the site as well as a delightful tablerunner - so keep an eye on the shop: and Nancy Adamek, who is passionate about paper piecing (!); lovely work and a new supplier to the patchwork world: here is an idea from her stand (it's just 7" across) and if you want to know more, and/or order paper pieces just visit her website: www.linapatchwork.com (we love to support home grown industries)