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 to sew 1/4″ seam allowance
The sewing of an accurate seam allowance is very important in patchwork; the standard is ¼” and several sewing machine manufacturers have made special feet to help this. However, if you don’t have one of these, don’t despair, this video shows you how to set your machine to do this.www.justhands-on.tv/videos/1/
Kim Thittichai shares her love of embellishing
Queen of Embellishing and mixed media, Kim Thittichai shares with you her great embellishing product called "Hot Spots"www.justhands-on.tv/videos/category/4/ And Mixed media textile enthusiasts will love Kim’s books ; Hot Textiles and Experimental Textiles
Changing your password
Val: If you have forgotten your password, you can ask the computer software to issue you with another one and in return you will get a series of letters and numbers, which are impossible to remember!! However, once you have logged in you can find a 'Change my Password' option at the top righthand side of your screen under the Members tab; so you can then type in something you can remember and is also easy to type!