Innholdsfortegnelse for 55 i Today's Quilter

It might be chilly outside, but don’t worry! The Today’s Quilter team is here to keep you feeling cosy and inspired this month, with lots of fantastic quilts to sew, columns and features to read, and of course, a clever new tool to try. To start off, we are thrilled to introduce Janet Clare’s brand new Block of the Month, Spoondrift. This stunning coastal-inspired series will give you two beautiful blocks to sew and join together each issue using Janet’s new nautical-themed fabric line for Moda, Ebb and Flow. We can already hear the waves crashing and the salty wind whipping our hair! And, speaking of new fabric lines, have you seen the dreamy Morris & Co. Bloomsbury collection from FreeSpirit? Angela Attwood has delved into this gorgeous range to…

You will need ■ Fabric 1 (Pimpernel Teal) – 1yd ■ Fabric 2 (Compton Teal) – ¾yd ■ Fabric 3 (Loddon Teal) – ¼yd ■ Fabric 4 (Willow Gold) – ½yd ■ Fabric 5 (Willow Chona) – ⅝yd ■ Fabric 6 (Gold) – ½yd ■ Fabric 7 (Malac Light blue) – ½yd ■ Fabric 8 (Balti Mid blue) – 1yd* ■ Fabric 9 (Serpa Dark blue) – ¼yd ■ Backing fabric – 3yds ■ Batting – 55in square ■ Template for fussy cutting triangles (optional – see Templates section) Finished size ■ 51½in square Fabrics used ■ William Morris Bloomsbury Collection (Fabrics 1-5) and Designer Essential Solids (Fabrics 6-9) by FreeSpirit. Notes ■ Seam allowances are ¼in throughout. ■ Press seams open where possible or to the dark side. ■…

Welcome to my new monthly column! I am absolutely delighted to be given this opportunity to talk about my favourite subject with you all on a regular basis. Many of you will know me from the quilts, cushions and the Block of the Month series that I’ve designed for the magazine. Here, I’m going to be sharing more about my current life and quilting history with you in bite sized chunks, along with advice and views on a number of different quilt related subjects. We’re going to start with something I am particularly known for, the use of colour in quilts. But first, I want to begin at the beginning… I was lucky enough to have a big sister who was a keen dressmaker, and who taught me to sew…

You will need ■ Pink/red prints – Three (3) Fat Sixteenths ■ Green prints – Three (3) Fat Sixteenths ■ Light background fabric – ½yd ■ Mid-tone background fabric – ½yd ■ Lining fabric – 14½in x 24½in ■ Fusible cotton batting – 16in x 26in ■ Lightweight fusible web – ¼yd ■ ¼in bias tape maker ■ 14in x 24in cushion pad ■ Appliqué templates (see Templates section) Finished size ■ 14in x 24in Fabric used ■ ‘Sequoia’ by Edyta Sitar for Andover Fabrics. Notes ■ Read through the pattern before you begin, assuming a ¼in seam allowance and a fabric width (WOF) of 42in. ■ FS = fat sixteenth. ■ RST = right sides together. Cutting out 1 From each of the red/pink print FS, cut as follows:…

“Star blocks are many and varied and this month we look at sewing some simple designs using easy techniques.” – Lin Clements STAR BLOCKS Star blocks, in one form or another, have been a staple in patchwork for hundreds of years. And no wonder, for they always make a striking statement, with their radiating design perfect to act as a focal point. Star blocks are versatile and can be combined with other blocks quite easily, you could even form a sampler quilt with other star blocks for a totally stellar look. They look fantastic in traditional fabrics and also in contemporary materials. Star blocks can also be used to great effect in borders and sashing. In this month’s Essential Guide, we look at how to create simple star blocks using…

“When designing a project for our circle tool, I wanted to display a different way of using it that was less obvious than cutting circles for appliqué. I aimed to create something three-dimensional, so I researched folding techniques used in papercraft, as well as various napkin folds – the one used here is known as a 'teabag' fold. Calling it a wreath may be using artistic licence, but it's an elegant way to brighten a door and welcome visitors into your home” –…

Carolyn Forster has been sewing, making patchwork and quilting for well over 20 years, and teaching for many of those years. You can find her quilts in a range of books published by Landauer Publishing (USA) and Search Press (UK). She blogs at www.carolynforster.co.uk or you can follow her stitching inspiration on Instagram. To get in touch with Carolyn about her classes and talks, you can email her at: carolynforster@hotmail.co.uk www.carolynforster.co.uk Carolyn Forster Quiltingonthego…

1 Lay a piece of fusible web (paper side up) over the boat templates and trace with a sharp pencil. Roughly cut the boat, sails and flag out with paper scissors, leaving a small allowance all round. 2 Place the boat, sails and flag paper side up on the reverse of your chosen fabrics and iron to fix in place. Cut the fabric boat, sails and flag out as carefully as you can on your traced pencil lines. 3 Peel off the backing paper. If this is tricky, scratch the middle with a pin and peel it away from there.…

Conquer curves with Lin Clements’ striking cable quilt • Position your blocks on point for Lynne Goldsworthy’s timeless design • Appliqué a Three Gulls block for Janet Clare’s Spoondrift sew-along • Delve into the history of memory quilts Your gift! Scrapbusters pattern book – 5 fabulous quilts to sew from your stash Issue 56 on sale 28th November NEXT ISSUE On Sale 28th November *Gift and contents may be subject to change…

Angela Attwood PERFECT POINTS Stitch this Churn Dash beauty with iconic Morris & Co. prints in teals and golds for a stunningly elegant lap quilt. See page 33. Alice Garrett ENCHANTING APPLIQUÉ Turn to page 44 to sew Alice’s show-stopping Liberty quilt, created from panels featuring fluttering creatures and colourful blooms. Nicola Dodd FESTIVE FRUIT Stay cosy at your sewing station this weekend to make Nicola’s beautiful cushion on page 59, featuring a seasonal pomegranate motif.…

“I absolutely love trying out new blocks, but it can feel risky to try something completely different. For me, this quilt was the antidote to so many of the challenges that crop up when stitching unexplored blocks. For example, what fabrics should you use for the blocks themselves? Often there are too many decisions to make when it comes to this. Luckily, only one fabric was needed for these blocks, so I used a bold navy-blue textured print, and then paired this with a neutral, off-white. In the end, the neutral fabric was what I ran out of, so I made do by using up other fabrics that looked similar, which addded a whole new dimension to the quilt. Using just one fabric made stitching the blocks a much quicker…

“I adore curling up under my favourite sofa quilt as temperatures begin to fall and this quilt is the perfect size. The traditional Churn Dash block can look quite aggressive with its spiky corners and sharp lines, so I set myself the challenge to soften or even disguise the block in a warm and cosy quilt design. It’s actually a very versatile block that I had fun playing with. Colour placement alone can offer numerous shape variations, but I particularly like the block ‘onpoint’, so that was my starting point. Having fallen in love with the decadent curves of the William Morris fabric, ‘Pimpernel’, I also wanted to design a quilt which would work with larger prints, therefore my two additional block designs are made up of fairly large pieces,…

"As glossy as a Christmas bauble and bursting with glowing, ruby-coloured seeds, the pomegranate embodies good fortune and abundance. First cultivated in ancient Persia, it has become symbol of fertility and immortality in many cultures and interpreted in woven, printed and embroidered textiles ever since. Designer William Morris used a pomegranate motif in his ‘Fruit’ wallpaper – still in print 150 years later – and an early watercolour sketch of that design, in the V&A collection, was the inspiration for my design. The warm, rich pinks in Edyta Sitar’s ‘Sequoia’ (for Andover Fabrics) were perfect for this project and even included a tiny pomegranate motif in one of the prints. I have combined a few favourite techniques; the striking silhouette of the fruits are pieced, while the leaves and branches…

Linda Clements is a leading technical quilting expert, editor and writer who, for 25 years, has worked on many fabric and craft titles for F&W Media and other leading craft publishers. Among the many quilters who have trusted Linda to ensure their books are both accurate and reader friendly, are Lynne Edwards MBE, Susan Briscoe and Pam & Nicky Lintott. Linda’s own book, The Quilter’s Bible, is the must-have guide to patchwork, quilting and appliqué, and includes everything she has learnt working with the industry’s best designers. For Today’s Quilter, Linda is working with the team to select practical and creative techniques to help you build upon your quilting and sewing skills. She will then go in depth, exploring the methods, taking them from the basic premise to their full…

“I must apologise to anyone who knows about boats, as I very much doubt this one is seawarthy!” I grew up on the coast, not far from the white cliffs of Dover, so I’m very familiar with ‘spoondrift’, although I didn’t know there was an actual name for it until very recently. I have always loved being by the sea. Not on hot, busy days, but rather on the blustery, windswept and bracing ones when we have the place to ourselves and come home feeling exhilarated with rosy cheeks and cold toes. Every few seasons, I design a fabric collection full of boats, whales and gulls in my favourite indigo, blue and cream colour palette, and the latest –‘Ebb and Flow’ – is just waiting to be made into ‘Spoondrift’,…

After completing a degree in fashion and textiles, Janet worked as a freelance designer for many years. Janet also creates lively designs for quilts and stitcheries that combine her unique joint appliqué templates and free-motion drawing technique. As an experienced speaker and teacher, Janet regularly host talks and workshops focusing on the design process and creative techniques. She’s also written five books, including Freya and Fred, Hearty Good Wishes, A Field Guide, Home Quilt Home and The Wordsmith. You can get in touch with Janet by emailing her at: janet@janetclare.co.uk www.janetclare.co.uk Janeteclare…

BLOCK OF THE MONTH APPLIQUÉ TEMPLATES ACTUAL SIZE PLEASE NOTE: Appliqué templates are reversed and do NOT include seam allowances. DELECTABLY DASHING FUSSY CUTTING TEMPLATE FOR BLOCK B ENLARGE 200% Includes seam allowances. POMEGRANATE CUSHION APPLIQUÉ TEMPLATE ACTUAL SIZE PLEASE NOTE: Appliqué templates do NOT include seam allowances. WINTER HARBOUR QST & HST TEMPLATES ACTUAL SIZE Includes seam allowances. CABINET OF CURIOSITIES APPLIQUÉ TEMPLATES PLEASE NOTE: These templates are available for download at www.todaysquilter.com Thank you for making this project from Today’s Quilter. The copyright for these templates belongs to the designer of the project. They work hard to create projects for you to enjoy, so please don’t re-sell or distribute without permission. Please do not make any part of the templates or instructions available to others through your website…

THE BOOK BLUE & WHITE QUILTS When in doubt, we like to keep things simple, and that goes for our colour combinations too! Blue and white is one of our all-time favourite pairings and, luckily for us, it is also the focus of a beautiful new book from Martingale called Blue & White Quilts. Bringing together thirteen stunning patterns from famed designers and collectors, it will captivate and inspire you to work with this humble two-colour palette to create harmonious quilts, just like many generations of quilters have done before us. Blue & White Quilts is published by Martingale and will be available to buy from the 2nd December 2019. For more information go to, www.shopmartin gale.com THE QUILT STARDUST Capture the beauty of a crisp, winter walk in fabric…

Carolyn Forster has been sewing, making patchwork and quilting for well over 20 years, and teaching for many of those years. You can find her quilts in a range of books published by Landauer Publishing (USA) and Search Press (UK). She blogs at www.carolynforster.co.uk or you can follow her stitching inspiration on Instagram. To get in touch with Carolyn about her classes and talks, you can email her at: carolynforster@hotmail.co.uk www.carolynforster.co.uk Carolyn Forster Quiltingonthego…

Angela Attwood discovered her love of sewing as a teenager. After working as an Art Director in advertising for over 20 years, Angela has recently made her passion for sewing into a profession. As a designer, she is heavily influenced by architecture and nature, appreciating a painterly-style textile as well as a perfectly pieced geometric quilt design. To get in touch with Angela about her classes, you can email her at: angelaattwood@sky.com angieattwood.co.uk AngelaAttwoodTextiles @angie_attwood…

“The inspiration for this quilt comes from the Victorian love of collecting and displaying flora and fauna. The Victorians had an obsession with pressing and preserving flowers creating herbariums; the flora in my quilt is inspired by these displays as well as specimen drawings in vintage books. The idea for the butterflies and dragonflies came from visiting the Natural History Museum in Oxford where there are fascinating displays of framed butterfly and dragonfly species. I loved the idea of framing the flora and fauna as it would have been in a Victorian cabinet. The background is a rainbow, a theme which is often seen in my work as I love this way of arranging colour. I used the HST method to border the cabinet blocks and ordered them in a…

Did you know that one of the most unusual objects in The Quilters’ Guild Collection is a patchwork bikini made entirely from Sanderson furnishing fabric? The bikini was made in 1970 by Jean Amsden for a competition run by Sanderson, and was exhibited as part of the Women’s Institute Exhibition in June of that year. It captured the attention of the press, including the West Sussex Gazette and the Daily Mirror, which ran the headline ‘It’s the itsy bitsy teeny weeny Women’s Institute bikini’ on 30th May 1970. Read more in The Guild’s new 40th Anniversary book, Forty: The Evolution of a Collection (£12.00).…

Nicola Dodd has been quilting since 2010 after chancing upon a quilting website and becoming hooked. Having designed all her working life – as an architect and as a garden designer – the temptation to start designing quilts was irresistible and she established her pattern company, CakeStand Quilts, in 2015. She now has a successful blog, where she enjoys sharing tutorials, and is a regular contributor to the Moda Bakeshop. www.cakestandquilts.com cakestandquilts @nicolajdodd…

You will need ■ Fabric A (gold) – ¾yd, OR eight (8) 10in squares ■ Fabric B (purple) – Two (2) fat quarters, OR four (4) 10in squares ■ Fabric C (red) – Two (2) fat quarters, OR four (4) 10in squares ■ Circle cutting tool (supplied with this issue) ■ Low loft batting or felt – 20in x 40in ■ Ribbon for hanging ■ Embroidery thread (optional) Finished size ■ Approximately 15½in diameter Notes ■ This project uses the circle cutting tool that accompanies this issue. Cutting out 1 From each of fabric A and the batting/felt, cut eight (8) 10in squares. Fold each in half vertically and horizontally. 2 From each of fabrics B and C, cut four (4) 10in squares. Fold each in half vertically and horizontally.…

“This is a lovely quilt to show off a favourite Jelly Roll or fabric collection. If you start with the fabrics pre-cut, this project will come together very quickly, as half of the cutting will have been done for you. But if you want to use your stash, then cutting a selection of 2½in strips before you begin gives you a good head start. Making a sampler is a fantastic chance to try out new blocks and experiment with different fabric combinations that you might not have considered before. Feel free to arrange the rows of blocks as you like – dividing each pieced row with a solid strip of fabric helps show off the pieced rows, giving them some definition. I quilted this with Amish waves – which can…

A design wall or board can be quickly created by putting a piece of batting onto card. Fabrics can then be laid out, even without pinning, to check positioning before sewing. Check your instruction booklet, but for most machines you will need to lower the feed dogs and add a darning foot so it is ready for free motion quilting. A new needle is always a good idea. I find polyester thread more forgiving and less likely to misbehave than cotton for free motion, but try for yourself and see which you and your machine prefer.…

Two museums in England have purchased textiles by artist Ruth Singer, ensuring their preservation and accessibility for future generations. Ruth started her professional career working in museums after completing a master’s degree in museum studies, and although she made the decision to change careers and to make a living out of textiles, she still finds herself drawn to the textile and social history collections of museums as a source of artistic inspiration. Her Memorial Sampler is now part of the Gawthorpe Textiles Collection in Lancashire, and her Repeat Offender Quilt is in The Brampton Museum in Staffordshire. “I have worked in partnership with museums and heritage collections many times and still get a thrill of excitement when I discover new objects, collections, personal and community stories and buildings”, said Ruth.…