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
Don’t want to use Paypal?
Val: If you really hate the idea of Paypal (and we know many of you do) you can pay for your subscription, and indeed for your shopping by cheque. We can offer you membership at £18 for 3 months; £36 for 6 months and £60 for the whole year. You just need to contact us with the details, and we'll do the rest. We are never far away from answering the emails.
Now we are one
Val: Well here we are August 1st and we have celebrated our first birthday; and what a journey! Hard work but fun and we have learnt a lot from all those lovely tutors on the site. Of course Jennie and I get first viewing not only at the filming but also at the editing stage and we hope that you have been just as excited by the workshops and tutorials as we have.
What people say about us
Val: Here are some really nice comments we've received so far: INSOMNIA! Who cares. With this site I am happy as a pig in muck!
Just spent a very happy couple of hours, it's now 3.20 am so will try the bed once more. Thanks for helping to keep me sane! Julia My 14 year old granddaughter is taking Textiles as a GCSE subject and she and I are working on several home projects, so I'm sure the new additions to my stash will widen her horizons for choice of fabrics.