Chris Franses wrote a new post, Books, books and more books 6 days, 15 hours ago
I like books! I collect books – all sorts of books, not just quilting books. I probably have more gardening books than quilting ones and if you add in the books about plants in general then I have way too many (is t…
Chris Franses wrote a new post, Doing a Runner 1 month, 2 weeks ago
It’s that time of year again – Christmas is looming, presents still to be bought/made, decorations to be found in the loft, rooms tidied away ready for visiting relatives and seemingly vast quantities of food to be…
Super! What a lot of lovely runners! I too have a round table-what about doing a cruciform one?
Guess what I’m making too? One down one to go … shush – don’t tell the family!
Chris Franses posted a new activity comment 4 months ago
Thank you, Ami. I had a lot of help – from the book I had and from my niece.
Chris Franses wrote a new post, A Wedding Stole 4 months, 1 week ago
Earlier this year my brother, a widower, announced he had ‘met someone’. Not only that but they were getting married the next month. Cue much family panic – insufficient time to buy an ‘outfit’; how grand a wedding,…
Chris, what a wonderful story, you are so clever to have made such a meaningful stole. I wouldn’t have known where to begin. Congratulations to your brother and his new wife.
Thank you, Ami. I had a lot of help – from the book I had and from my niece.
Chris Franses wrote a new post, Simple Shapes . . . 5 months, 2 weeks ago
. . . . Stunning Quilts – the title of Stuart Hillards’s new book says it all. The five main chapters each take a simple shape (or combination of those shapes) to make twenty very different blocks and quilts. Whe…
Chris Franses wrote a new post, Design your own quilt block Part 2 6 months, 1 week ago
Last month we looked at designing your own blocks by taking a traditional block and adding or subtracting a few lines. This month we will look at drawing what you might call ‘skewed’ blocks using graph paper with a d…
What a really fascinating and encouraging post! Thank you!
Chris Franses posted a new activity comment 7 months, 2 weeks ago
It boggled my mind when I first realised it was not only possible but ‘allowed’! Hope you enjoy playing around and being further boggled by what you can achieve!
Chris Franses wrote a new post, Design your own block. Part 1 7 months, 2 weeks ago
The simplest way to design your own block is to take a traditional block and add or subtract a few lines. The Ohio Star block for instance can be changed into Swamp Angel by turning the corner squares into…
WOW that just completely boggled my Mind!
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It boggled my mind when I first realised it was not only possible but ‘allowed’! Hope you enjoy playing around and being further boggled by what you can achieve!
Chris Franses posted a new activity comment 8 months, 1 week ago
Thanks, Juliet! I’ve had fun dreaming up different ways to put blocks together so students feel they are getting something new if they return each year.
Chris Franses posted a new activity comment 8 months, 1 week ago
Thank you, Teresa. Orphan blocks can be a challenge (and I have quite a few myself) but the settings can often bring quite different blocks (and colours) together.
Chris Franses wrote a new post, Sampler Quilts 8 months, 3 weeks ago
Sampler quilts are a great way to learn a lot of different techniques and still end up with something useful rather than a random collection of blocks stuffed in a drawer (or a folder with notes if you are truly…
Wow those are gorgeous!
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Thanks, Juliet! I’ve had fun dreaming up different ways to put blocks together so students feel they are getting something new if they return each year.
Some amazing ideas, particularly useful because I am in a group making charity quilts from sometimes donated orphan blocks.
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Thank you, Teresa. Orphan blocks can be a challenge (and I have quite a few myself) but the settings can often bring quite different blocks (and colours) together.
Yours quilts are fabulous, I have never made a sampler style quilt and you have inspired me to have a go when I have time
Chris Franses wrote a new post, Skimpy seams 9 months, 2 weeks ago
That moment when you are pressing a quilt top – from the back – removing stray threads and preparing to layer it up for quilting . . . and you find a seam that is hanging on by a few threads. What to do? There’s no…
Most excellent tip! Thank you
This is such a good tip and I will make sure that I remember it, I’m rubbish at keeping a consistent 1/4 inch seam, thanks for doing this blog!
Chris Franses wrote a new post, Drafting, Making and Using Templates 9 months, 3 weeks ago
There are many reasons for needing to make templates for cutting shapes. Some shapes simply cannot be easily cut with a rotary cutter and although you can buy acrylic templates for many of these shapes it can get a…
Chris Franses posted a new activity comment 10 months, 1 week ago
Thank you , Karin. It’s good to know that the graph paper is probably still available – I only have a couple of sheets left!
Chris Franses wrote a new post, Octagon quilts 10 months, 1 week ago
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…
Chris Franses wrote a new post, How to draft a block 10 months, 2 weeks ago
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…
What an interesting post! The Bramble Patch have certainly had the pads of 12″ square paper for drafting in the last year or so, as they used to send them out for their BOM projects for us to cut our own EPP shapes.
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Thank you , Karin. It’s good to know that the graph paper is probably still available – I only have a couple of sheets left!
Chris Franses posted a new activity comment 11 months, 2 weeks ago
Hi Ruth – my first reply to you seems to have been posted below Teresa’s comment. I must have pressed the wrong button. Story of my life.
Chris Franses posted a new activity comment 11 months, 2 weeks ago
I like ‘winging it’ much more than ‘frame quilt’ – it describes the randomness of it so much better.
Chris Franses posted a new activity comment 11 months, 2 weeks ago
I’d forgotten about those – Round Robin quilts we used to call them. Great fun! And, yes, they are frame quilts when finished. I don’t think I knew that either back when I was doing them.
Chris Franses wrote a new post, Frame Quilts 11 months, 2 weeks ago
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 bit…
Great article. I made a quilt from 4 orphan blocks from a friend, and then just added to it using scraps and corner stones & sashing strips, until I ran out of fabric, no real pattern in mind. Nice to know there was some method to my madness and it has a real name, rather than my name “Winging It”!
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I’d forgotten about those – Round Robin quilts we used to call them. Great fun! And, yes, they are frame quilts when finished. I don’t think I knew that either back when I was doing them.
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I like ‘winging it’ much more than ‘frame quilt’ – it describes the randomness of it so much better.
Lovely blog Chris. This is a great group challenge! We did this last year – put a block in a pillowcase and keep circulating it around so that several people add a mystery border to it. Some great results, and some not great results, but lovely to see how peolpe worked out their borders.
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Hi Ruth – my first reply to you seems to have been posted below Teresa’s comment. I must have pressed the wrong button. Story of my life.
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So easily done Chris
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UK Quilters
5 days, 13 hours ago
How nice! More access to books without buying and storing them. Bring it on! I will be eagerly awaiting your blogs.
4 days, 15 hours ago
Before I started doing Patchwork and Quilting again after a break of over 35 years I was an avid Cross Stitcher. I designed cross stitch embroidery professionally, and still have hundreds of resource books and art books. I have had a cull of all my fiction paperbacks and given those to charity shops, but I still have all the art books and all my quilting books left. I fear another cull is now necessary and that is going to be a toughie. The one book I will never give away is my Enid Blyton “The Magic Faraway Tree which Is from my childhood, which was a considerable time ago.