UK Quilters
The octagon and its tessellating square was a popular design in tiled floors as well as quilts – the kitchen floor in my last (Victorian) house had such a design with terracotta octagons and black squares. In Hannah Hauxwell’s collection of quilts was a red, white and blue one made from large octagons and squares.…
Where to start?! In my last blog about re-creating a quilt I looked at the stars quilt I had made using lots of left-over bits and explained how you could deconstruct it to work out how it might have been made. I lightly tossed in words like ‘Variable Star’, ‘Sawtooth Star’ and ‘Ohio Star’ and…
A good thing about belonging to a patchwork and quilting group, apart from the social element of spending time with like minded people, is that you end up doing things you wouldn’t otherwise do. Of course it depends on the group. I joined the Beartown Patchwork & Quilters group about three years ago and it…
This one is a little long, for that I apologise but felt I wanted to share the following. I work two days a week in a very high pressured business, on top of my editor work for British Patchwork and Quilting. They have been trying an idea to see if it helps with managing the…
Now, as I have spent more time quilting, and as I have learned how to do it better, I find I want to make less and less of a statement with it. It’s really important to quilt your quilt, as it’s not complete without this joining-of-layers and adding-of-texture… Many of my recent quilts are simply…
Now, I was asked to make a quilt from a pack of Oakshott Fabrics Starshott, which is a slightly odd, subtle coloured selection.. I wanted something simple, and improvised, of course, and trimmable, without doubt.. So, here’s the thing – three pieces 6 by 7 inches, on the mat Right Sides Up, and with two…
Making a quilt is not just about cutting up perfectly decent fabric into tiny bits and then sewing it back together again – despite what our other half may think – there is a lot more to it. The first thing we need is either a pattern or an idea. Then we need to find…
This block (Three Becomes One) was probably the first truly “Improv” block I taught – and it is still a favourite Sorry for the small images – I had these prepared, they vanished, I swore, these will Just Have To Do… Start with three squares of nice cotton quilting fabrics. You really need some contrast…
Loving something with its “warts and all” is loving it in spite of any obvious blemishes or scars. Sometimes you make or receive a quilt that isn’t quite perfect, or even a long way off perfect, but it can still be loved, warts and all. I consider myself an average quilter – I can, if…
When is a frame quilt not a frame quilt? When it is a medallion quilt. In fairness the terms are interchangeable, although ‘frame’ is often used to describe British quilts made using fabric scraps and left over bits of patchwork stitched around a centre while ‘medallion’ seems to be applied to more ordered quilts with…
One of my most favourite quilts that I have made, because of who received it. A woman I had never met but had heard a lot about. My friend Katie was personally driving a 7.5 Ton lorry with her friend Jill, as part of an Aid Convoy to Kosovo, with a charity called Hope and…
4 years faithful service. Thankfully not my sewing machine, but a severely scored cutting mat with a vertical great big open hole. RIP my 60 x 45cm (24 x 18″) OLFA green rotary cutting mat. So sorry you cracked under the strain, but I suppose our break up was somewhat inevitable, given our passion for…
Chris Franses
Ruth Garner
Helen Kent
Helen Howes
Corinne Curtis
Teresa Barrow