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
Textiles Fair – Teddington Middx
Textiles Fair Teddington – more detail Diversity Textile Group This was such a fun few hours and I met some really interesting artisans; of course there was Lois Bellew and Julie Winter from Diversity (who we have met before) (www.diversity-textileart.com )who are mixed media textile artists; Made in the United Kingdom Golden Trees Bridget Skanski-Such who creates pictures of golden trees and magical landscapes – https://www.bridgetskanskisuchtextiles.com/
mine is in shades of burgundy but there were some in blues and turquoises; Vintage fabrics and Stitch for Home Decoration Zara Day who trades as Rosemary Rose (www.rosemary-rose.co.uk) who takes pieces of antique and vintage fabric and adds to them her own hand and free machine embroidery to create stunning pieces including upholstered chairs;and here's one that was made for me: Woven silk scarves and finally Nick Ozanne who creates wonderful woven silk scarves in his studio in Thrupp – (www.letoariadne.com) wonderful as a gift for the adult male in your life.
Worth checking out – and certainly a date for next year.
Don’t waste your selvedges
Myra and Valerie met at the Textiles in Focus exhibition at Cottenham Village College and here is a picture of the bag that she was using - great use of selvedges Myra.