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
How do you do an applique flower with 4 layers?
This was a question posed to us by Sandra: and here is my answer: The easiest way to do this layered flower is to put the first piece down - i.e. the largest, and sew all the way round; turn the work over and trim away the excess fabric (i.e. the background fabric) from beneath the flower leaving approx 1/4" (if you watch the tip for the grandmother's fan you will see what I mean;)click here:
then add the second, smaller flower, turn the work over and again trim away the excess fabric; and you then repeat for each of the layers - that way you keep the fabric from being very bulky and it is easier to quilt through - even by hand.
Iron Caddy Tote from Jo
Hi Val,
I made this iron tote bag last week, with the pattern (available from the shopping pages)plus the fabric from Creative Quilting, after being inspired by your piece on Just Hands On. Thanks for your great tips - it was a fun project and has been in use twice already! Jo Love the fabric Jo ! (a print from Makower - the Henley Studio) If you want to watch the video she refers to you can click here:
Embroidery (but not as I know it)
I don't know whether to feel inspired or depressed but they are VERY good. Hand embroidery by Cayce Zavaglia. Interestingly she thinks of these embroidered portraits as paintings - what do you think?
https://www.caycezavaglia.com/