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
Wedding present from Marie
Dear Valerie and Jennie I thought you might like to see the quilt I made for my Niece’s wedding present, it is curved pieced rather than appliqued and based on a quilt I saw in a book by Judy B Dales. Kind regards Marie
Quilt for Teacher wins award at Quilts UK Malvern
I do so love it when the younger generation get involved and their contributions and of such a high standard too. Quilt for Mrs Brodie: Children at Kingswood Primary School in Gloucestershire won the Village Fabrics Award for Under-16 Group Entry at the Quilts UK show in Malvern during May with a quilt made for their former headteacher. Mrs Carol Brodie retired from her role as headteacher in December after 26 years at the school, but the gift of the quilt made by the children came as a complete surprise to her.
National Patchwork Championship June 2011
Lots of our contributors were found this weekend at the National Patchwork Championships at the Sandown Racecourse, Esher Surrey – Mandy Shaw (whose pinkeeper workshop went up this month) , Sue from Daisy Chain, Claire from Hannah’s Room, The Stitch Witch (Lynette Harris who has given us a great tip about using the twin needle when stitching bias stained glass patchwork),Pauline’s Patchwork, Hilary of The Silk Route (contribution coming soon), Maggie Davies, Sylvia Critcher, Helen Deighan, with her multicoloured outfit: Dawn Cameron-Dick (who has done the brilliant lecture on threads and needles for us as well as the Invisible Machine Applique technique; her new Pocket Tutor book is now available) , Colouricious – the list goes on!