Innholdsfortegnelse for 59 i Today's Quilter

Spring has definitely sprung in the Today’s Quilter office, even if the memo hasn’t quite made it to the outside world yet! And what a lovely welcome back after my year off on maternity. I have to admit, coming into the office on my first day back, when it was dark and wet outside, was hard. But what I found waiting for me inside our quilt storage cupboards certainly brightened up my day and filled my head with quilting ideas for sunnier days. As always, our talented designers have not disappointed this issue, coming up with projects that are sure to have you planning your stitching well into the new season. Deirdre Bond-Abel’s Garden Trellis quilt will keep your hands busy while the weather warms up. She has used 1930s…

SKILL BUILDING Simple appliqué Quilt designer, author and teacher, Janet Goddard, shares some tips from her new book, Simple Appliqué. Here’s what she recommends for those about to start their journey in appliqué… ■ There are many ways to stitch appliqué, by hand or machine, so try out different techniques on a simple shape and then find your favourite. ■ When applying one fabric on top of another, check that the fabric underneath doesn’t show through the top fabric. ■ If you are using fusible webbing, always use a light fusible rather than a heavy one, so that the appliqué does not become too stiff. ■ If you match your thread as closely as possible to the fabric being applied, you won’t notice it so much if your stitching is…

Linda Clements is a leading technical quilting expert, editor and writer who, for 25 years, has worked on many craft titles for David & Charles 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, Pam & Nicky Lintott, Pauline Ineson, Mandy Shaw and Lynette Anderson. Linda’s own book, The Quilter’s Bible, is the must-have guide to patchwork, quilting and appliqué.…

You will need ■ Assorted fabrics in pastel shades – approx. 4yds in total ■ Pale fabric for sashing/border – 2¼yds ■ Backing fabric – 4¼yds ■ Binding fabric – ½yds ■ Batting – 74in square Finished size ■ Approx. 70in square Fabrics used ■ This project used Grunge by Basic Grey for Moda Fabrics in the following colours: Cosmic, Lupine, Antique Rose, Honeydew, Curry, Nectar, Tea Rose, Key Lime, Freesia, Pool, Apple Blossom, Duchess, Cabbage. The pale sashing and border is Sugar Cookie. Visit www.winbournefabrics.co.uk Notes ■ Use a scant ¼in seam allowance throughout. ■ RS = right side(s). ■ WS = wrong side(s). A note on this project Piecing the diamonds for a Lone Star block can be quite tricky, so this block has been designed with larger…

1 Only buy a quilt if you love it, then if it turns out to have flaws it will at least have some qualities you can enjoy. 2 eBay is a good starting place, but availability is variable and information often inaccurate. The Saleroom gives online access to many different auctions www.the-saleroom. com . A few auction houses and shops specialise in antique textiles, but you will pay top whack. If you find old quilts through non-specialist dealers or shops, you will have to make a judgement about the price. 3 If buying online, enquire about the quilt’s condition. Ask for images of the entire front and back so that blemished areas can’t be hidden, and for close-ups showing typical fabrics and/or different quilting designs. Also make sure you ask…

Among the many quilters who have trusted Linda to ensure their books are both accurate and reader friendly, are Lynne Edwards MBE, Susan Briscoe, Pam & Nicky Lintott, Pauline Ineson, Mandy Shaw and Lynette Anderson. 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. She will then go in-depth, exploring the methods, taking them from the basic premise to their full technical and creative potential. You can cut out and keep this section to build your own bespoke technical handbook. ESSENTIAL GUIDE NEXT ISSUE: EQUILATERAL TRIANGLES In the next issue we learn how to draft, sew and…

“Creating flowers with this method is very new to me, but I had a lot of fun making this bag. Working out how to form the flowers and getting the size right was a challenge at the beginning; I now have a lot of flowers on my sewing room floor and I can see that a wall hanging is on the cards. You could play around with the size of your flowers and even make a headband or a tiny bloom for a brooch with a leaf or two added. I think the batik fabrics work fantastically well and really add a new dimension to the design as they fade from dark to light. If you’re feeling creative, you could alter the colours of your flowers to make a bag…

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…

Deirdre Bond-Abel GARDEN DELIGHT Owner and designer of Hat Creek Quilts, Deirdre has come up with another gorgeous design for us. Turn to page 52 to see more. Lin Clements MASTER FPP Technical whiz Lin has created a precision piecing project (page 36) that came to her while walking in the woods collecting primroses. Sally Ablett FOLDED FABRIC FLOWERS Turn to page 79 to see Sally’s fresh take on a tote bag. Covered in gorgeous spring flowers, you make them by using folds of fabric!…

“Milkmaid’s Star is another oldie but a goodie from the Kansas City Star publications, which date back to the 1930s. The unusual shapes make this a good candidate for hand piecing, and the generous size of the block makes each block a pretty quick stitch. I’m a great fan of mixing hand piecing with machine piecing when it works to my advantage, and this quilt certainly fell into that category. I hand pieced all of the blocks, then attached them and added the border using the machine. “I selected my favourite blue palette and coordinated the prints, cutting all of the pieces (A, B, D) from every print then swapping them into the blocks to stitch. This should mean that every block features the same fabrics but in the opposite…

“This quilt has been in the pipeline for more than year, and there have been various experiments with colours and layout. I first imagined it in the pinks, golds and azures of summer, but the block reminded me of a primrose flower, so the colour scheme evolved into a reminder of spring walks with my grandmother through the beech woods of Devon. After hours of walking, we would arrive home with little bunches of bright yellow primroses, white snowdrops and sweet-smelling dog violets. A few weeks later, the woods would be carpeted with bluebells, contrasting with the fresh green of newly unfurled beech leaves. I confess that the quilt is a lot of work and needs some precise piecing, but I think the result is worth the effort.”…

“The fabrics used in this quilt are 1930s reproductions and I chose them because they are bright and cheerful and promise the freshness of spring – when I look at them, I see a fence with flowers and leaves growing through and around the trellis. For this quilt, I used 36 simple patch chequerboard blocks. Usually, these blocks are pieced with two prints, but I wanted to see colour flowing through the blocks in a random pattern to mimic the movement of flowers and leaves as they grow up the trellis. I also wanted to reflect the start of spring flowing into summer. I took some of the squares out of a few of the blocks and replaced them with larger areas of background for the appliqué flowers and leaves.…

“My inspiration for this quilt came from a very old book on Mennonite quilts that a friend bought me at a Glasgow School of Art library sale. The quilt in the book was more complicated than this design, with extra triangles in the background that required complex Y-seams. Obviously, the original had all been hand-pieced, and I soon realised that would have to be the answer when making a replica. Not wanting to make this such a slow project, I simplified the block to make a mini variation of a Lone Star (which turns out to be a challenging enough block!). “What attracted me to the design was the way the blocks look so different depending on the colour values used. Sometimes you see the big chunky star and other…

For information about heritage quilts, old fabrics and much more, visit the “Research” area of The Quilters’ Guild’s British Quilt Study Group’s website https://bqsg.quiltersguild.org.uk Les Quilts Gallois/Welsh Quilts by Jen Jones (2005, QUILTmania) includes quilting patterns and instructions for making Welsh quilts, as well as over 100 images of Welsh quilts. More recently, Jen has written the comprehensive guide Welsh Quilts (2016, Seren Books). Knowledge of printed fabrics is helpful when trying to date antique patchwork quilts. Carolyn recommends Wearable Prints, 1760–1860 by Susan W. Greene (2014, Kent State University Press) as a useful resource. Find out about Carolyn’s own work, talks and workshops, and her antique quilts, on her website www.carolyngibbsquilts.co.uk…

Help! Some of the designs I like for kantha quilting don’t seem suited to many lines of quilting. Can I do anything about this? Try this… The amount of space needed for kantha quilting can be a problem if you start off with a motif that’s small, as this will limit how many rows of stitching you can fit in. Complicated designs with lots of twiddly bits can also be a problem. Sometimes you can simplify a design to give more breathing room. The design shown in Fig 11A was simplified to remove outer parts of the design, and then enlarging the remaining parts to make them easier to sew, resulting in Fig 11B. It could be simplified even further as in Fig 11C. The other trick to try is…

Sally Ablett has been happily making quilts for nearly 30 years. During this time, patchwork has developed from a hobby into Sally’s full-time job. She has a great deal of experience teaching courses and day workshops, and she gives regular talks using her own collection of quilts to demonstrate patchwork techniques and to pass on the tips and short cuts she has learnt throughout her years of quilting. Sally does freelance design work, and she works with Lewis & Irene to design quilts and produce patterns that are used to showcase its new fabric collections.…

BLOCK OF THE MONTH APPLIQUÉ TEMPLATE & MORSE CODE ALPHABET ACTUAL SIZE PLEASE NOTE: Appliqué template is reversed and does NOT include seam allowances. GARDEN TRELLIS APPLIQUÉ TEMPLATES PLEASE NOTE: These templates are available for download at www.gathered.how/todaysquilter PRIMROSE PARADE FPP BLOCK AND BORDER TEMPLATES ENLARGE 200% Includes seam allowances. BLUE BELLE HAND PIECING TEMPLATES ACTUAL SIZE PLEASE NOTE: Hand-piecing templates do NOT include seam allowances. ESSENTIAL GUIDE KANTHA QUILTING MOTIFS ENLARGE TO SIZE DESIRED 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…

Last year, on my way south from QuiltCon in Nashville, I visited the Gee’s Bend Quilters Collective and I’ve been quietly reflecting on the experience ever since. Up until then, the quilters of Gee’s Bend were women from the annals of American quilt history that resided on the shelves of my library. Sometimes, “once in a lifetime” experiences need time to percolate. These are the pages from my diary… It’s rained for three days solid and the State flood warnings can be heard on public broadcast as thousands of us pour out of Nashville’s Music City Center on the last day of QuiltCon 2019. It’s a four-hour drive south to Alabama on Route 28 and I’m getting closer to a place that’s been on my travel wish list since hearing…

THE BOOK LABOUR OF LOVE Besides being obsessed with fabric, most quilters are also thrifty creatures who amass enormous stashes of fabric scraps. Thank heavens for scrappy quilting! Sherri McConnell, quilt creator and fabric designer for Moda, has a fabulous book, Labour of Love (soon to be published), which features a dozen scrappy projects for your home, from throws to wallhangings. Sherri has also included a section on how to organise your scraps and choose how to use them. Labour of Love is published by Martingale and will be available to buy from July. For more details, visit www.shopmartingale.com THE PROJECT PRETTY BY HAND We’re loving this cute drawstring bag by Kristyne Czepuryk, the design star behind Pretty by Hand blog (www.prettybyhand.com). Made in interlocking triangles, it measures 7in tall…

This month’s subject can be controversial, contentious and some would say quite unnecessary – it’s quilt categorisation. I’m not really a fan of endlessly classifying quilts into genres – it seems to me that our pastime is niche enough without creating new smaller niches for ourselves. However, if you are going to enter your quilt into a competition it’s essential that you choose the right category, so this is an exploration of the main quilting genres, my feelings about them and how we use them. In the UK, our main source of quilting genre officialdom is the annual Festival of Quilts (FOQ) competition and the information on their entry form, which can be interpreted freely by quilters who choose a category to enter their quilt into. As all quilts entered…

■ Fabrics are placed on the back (wrong side) of the template, but sewing is done from the front (right side), along the marked lines. ■ Reduce your stitch length to about 1.5 when sewing FPP, to make it easier to tear the paper away later. ■ Add the fabric pieces in the number order shown on the template. ■ Continue the stitching line a stitch or two past the beginning and end of the line, unless otherwise instructed. ■ Once a piece is added, trim the work to a ¼in seam allowance, making sure that the paper template and the relevant fabric pieces are folded out of the way. ■ Remove the paper in the reverse order if possible.…

After completing her degree in textiles and fashion, for many years Janet worked as a freelance designer. She now works from her home-based studio, designing a range of lively and quirky quilts and stitcheries. She is also an experienced speaker and teacher, and has written five books (four self-published – see box above). You can find out more about Janet, her designs and patterns, and workshops on her website. You can also follow her on Instagram. www.janetclare.co.uk Janeteclare…

1 Trace each of the pattern shapes in the required quantity onto the dull side of the appliqué paper. Flip the template to create left and right facing shapes. Cut the shapes out carefully along the line. 2 Iron these shapes onto the wrong side of your chosen fabrics, making sure you have enough space between each shape for the seam allowance (Fig A). Cut around each shape adding a ¼in seam allowance. All inward curves need to be clipped up to the edge of the paper (Fig B). 3 Paint starch along the edge of the fabric or paper and then roll the seam allowance over onto the paper and press it down firmly (Fig C). It’s best to work on small areas at a time because the starch…

“Kantha quilting is an easy form of hand quilting that can bring an eye-catching and distinctive look to any piece of patchwork.”– Lin Clements WHAT IS KANTHA QUILTING? Kantha quilting, sometimes called Indian quilting or embroidery, is a type of hand quilting originating from Bangladesh and West Bengal in India. It is characterised by multicoloured rows of running stitches and is used to decorate all sorts of items, including clothing, wallhangings, decorative objects and household textiles. Kantha work features highly-decorative motifs and patterns, including gods and goddesses, the tree of life, flowers, plants, birds, animals, fish and geometric shapes. In its simplest form, kantha quilting is worked on multiple layers of fabric, originally recycled sari fabrics, where rows of running stitch often fill a motif. Designs can be highly elaborate…

You will need ■ Felted wool fabric for bag outer – ¾yd ■ Lining fabric – ½yd ■ Batting – ¾yd ■ Scraps of batik fabrics for flowers and leaves ranging from light to dark ■ Fine cotton fabric for the backing of flowers – one (1) fat quarter ■ Small scraps of lightweight sew-in interfacing for the leaves Finished size ■ Approx 16in x 18in (bag body) Notes ■ RS = right side(s). ■ WS = wrong side(s). Cutting for each flower 1 From the fine cotton fabric for the flowers, cut six (6) 5in squares. 2 The flower is made up in four parts. For each flower, cut the following pieces: ■ One (1) 2¼in square (flower centre). ■ Five (5) 2¼in x 3in (for round 1). ■…

‘I stitched a secret message into the second block (on page 88): it‘s from a book about a voyage and is about trusting in yourself and knowing that inside you is all the strength you will ever need... You will need ■ Starfish Dark Ocean – 2½in x WOF ■ Stripe Pearl – ¼yd ■ Seabirds Sky – 34in x 2½in ■ Seaweed Sand – 6in x 7in ■ Starfish Ocean – 11½in x 8½in ■ Seabirds Sand – 17in x 2in ■ Fusible web ■ Soluble canvas ■ Templates – see Templates section Finished size ■ 12in square Notes ■ Before proceeding with any cutting, please read through all the instructions. ■ Consider the orientation of your prints, the appliqué templates and any sections you may wish to fussy…

SHOPPING ACCESSORIES Triangle Drawstring Pouch Pattern  www.fatquartershop.com Rose Window Pattern  www.sewandquilt.co.uk 01736 362 253 FABRIC COLLECTIONS Vintage Happy 2, Atelier, Winterbourne House  www.eqsuk.com 01162 710 033 Oakshott Shot Cottons  www.oakshottfabrics.com 01452 371 571 Fine and Sunny  www.amitie.com.au BOOKS Simple Appliqué: 25 Quick and Easy Projects to Make  www.thegmcgroup.com 01273 477 374 Quilts from Tilda’s Studio  www.davidandcharles.com Labour of Love  www.shopmartingale.com…