Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 23 - 2017 i Today's Quilter

I know it’s still early, but the Today’s Quilter team is already in the throes of planning for Festival of Quilts in August. If they’re not already in there, the dates for your diary are 10th to 13th August (see page 46 for details). I feel as if my year pivots around this event, both professionally and personally. It’s a key time for me to meet in person all the designers and journalists I work with on a day-to-day basis over email and on the phone (I can’t walk the length of the hall without stopping several times for an impromptu hug and a chat!). But even more precious is the chance to meet readers, not just as an editor, but as a fellow quilter. Tell me which classes you’ve…

WE’RE THRILLED TO bring you a double gift this issue to create your own unique English paper pieced work of art. EPP is a beautiful way to piece fabric, with the chance to combine the trickiest of shapes (no need to worry about inset seams) and bring those shapes to life with fussy-cut fabric. Our Technical Editor Laura created this gift, from drafting the paper shapes and designing the layout, to sewing the finished piece complete with clever fussy-cutting. Laura used fabric by Dutch Heritage and Oakshott (see the pattern for more details) as the intricate prints and rich colours were exactly what she wanted for her design. However, you can use anything you like – you may have something already in your fabric stash just waiting for its moment…

It was, after all, a creative use of spare time in the past for many a nice leisured-class woman. As with many longterm quilters, my first patchwork was English patchwork, painstakingly stitched over papers, often joining awkward shapes like diamonds and hexagons in a decorative, but probably not too functional design. And why not? It was, after all, a creative use of spare time in the past for many a nice leisured-class woman. By the time I began doing patchwork it was seen as an economy craft, using up scraps to create something from nothing. The link was then made between English quilts and the American tradition, where it made so much more sense of recycling fabric and old clothes to rationalise the pieces into regular shapes like squares, rectangles…

“The quilt here was inspired by a small antique quilt that I had seen. It was just one block as seen in the colour sample blocks, right. It was fun and quick to make, but when I had finished it I felt that the block would look very fresh as a whole quilt or throw, hence sewing more and adding the sashing. The original quilt was made in plain coloured fabric, but I wanted to add more interest. “I choose to use a preprinted patchwork fabric from the Wiltshire Daisy collection from Riley Blake. The fabric is printed in patchwork squares and when cut up into the small pieces that this block needs, you get lots of different bits of the fabric showing. This is a great way to have…

You will need • One (1) Layer Cake or forty-two (42) 10in squares • Backing fabric – 52in x 70in • Batting – 52in x 70in • Binding fabric – ½yd Finished size • 43in x 61in Sorting your squares 1 Sort your Layer Cake squares as follows: • Thirteen (13) of the lightest squares for the background rectangles. • Twenty (20) for the bags. • Four (4) for the handles. • Five (5) are spare. Cutting out 2 Take the thirteen (13) light squares for the background rectangles and cut them in half to measure 5in x 10in. Trim them to create twenty-six (26) rectangles 5in x 9in. You need twenty-five (25), so one is spare. 3 From the binding fabric, cut six (6) 2½in wide strips across the…

Pippa Moss has won several prizes for her wonderful hand-quilted and hand-appliquéd quilts. I was thrilled to have the chance to catch up with her to find out more and to pick up some useful tips. When did you start hand quilting and how did you learn? “I first did some hand quilting in the early Seventies when I was a teenager growing up in the States – quilting is very special in America. I left it while I was going through college and had a young family, but got back into it 15 or so years later, by which time I was resident in the UK. I was using the stitch-and-stab method and although my stitches were small they were rather uneven, so I wasn’t very pleased with the…

“I love to play in my scrap bin. Bessy’s Sparkle Runner (page 77) was created from left over half-square triangles used to make a larger quilt. Bessy was my Auntie’s name, she was full of fun, her sparkle was my inspiration. Milly’s Garden quilt started with the Birds in the Air blocks, I loved the way the fabrics were so muted, they created a great border. To give the quilt more focus I created the appliqué design for the centre of the quilt.” – Sharon Keightley…

TEMPTATIONS Everything you need for Patchwork and Quilting. Hundreds of quality cotton fabrics, wadding, haberdashery, Brother Sewing Machines. temptationsbentham.co.uk HAZEL’S FABRIC CRAFT West Calder. Patchwork & Quilting supplies and workshops. Open Fri & Sat 9.30am–4.30pm, Sun 10am–2pm. hazelsfabriccraft.co.uk SEW AND FABRIC A lovely little fabric shop where we supply fabric, haberdashery, home crafted items, quilting & patchwork supplies and wool. sewandfabric@yahoo.co.uk THE QUILT SANCTUARY Professional Long Arm Quilting Service, including a selection of fabrics and wadding. Gwynedd, Wales. 01341 250809 / 07402 919194 thequiltsanctuary.co.uk CREATIVE CRAFTS Creative Crafts is an independent arts & crafts shop bursting to the seams with everything you need for your hobby. 01962 856266 SEW & SO’s Everything for the patchwork quilter, over 6,000 bolts in stock plus notions. 14 Upper Olland Street, Bungay, NR35 1BG…

BEHIND THE QUILT “I like to start my designs on a computer where I can easily move shapes around and try out colours, though I find this often changes when I start making and let intuition take over. When designing this wallhanging I wanted to create a slightly Bohemian feel, mixing Dutch chintz fabrics, which I’d not really seen used in this way, with bright shot cottons made in India. I love to stitch on the go and this project has visited foreign cities, jungles and beaches, keeping me company on my travels. I now see it as a celebration of my love of globetrotting and world textiles, and will display it alongside my travel books and trinkets.” – Laura Pritchard You will need • Assorted print fabrics* – approx.…

Lynne Edwards QUILTING ALLSORTS Lynne tackles the perennial problem of piecing blocks of different sizes into a quilt. See page 31 for her unique mix of wit and wisdom! Mandy Shaw A FRIEND FOR LIFE Mandy’s handy organiser on page 61 is absolutely genius – once sewn up and put to work, you’ll wonder how you ever managed without it. Jo Colwill DAISY, DAISY… We’re completely crazy for Jo’s stunning appliqué quilt on this issue’s cover. Find out how to plant your own delicate daisies on page 22.…

DIARY DATE Festival of Quilts It’s official, the Festival of Quilts 2017 competitions are now open, with £25,000 of prize money on offer. If you haven’t already, entry forms, competition rules and key information are available to download at www.thefestivalofquilts.co.uk/quilt-competition/. The closing date for entry forms is Friday 2nd June 2017 (Fine Art Quilt Masters closed 5th May). Standard entry fees are £12 (£9 for members of The Quilters’ Guild of the British Isles and members of the EQA). Good luck! FABULOUS FLORALS NEW FROM RILEY BLAKE Ava Rose is the latest collection designed by Deena Rutter for Riley Blake. This gorgeous collection is fresh and bold with a blend of coral and aqua tones. It comes in three floral prints, including large, detailed florals down to simplistic tiny daisies.…

“This fun design makes good use of the large squares in a Layer Cake and is a very quick quilt to make. The slowest part for us was to hand appliqué the bag handles, although the finished effect is great. You could, of course, machine appliqué, which would speed things up immensely. The quilt is made up of 20 handbag blocks, sewn together and simply framed with a dark binding. Each quilt will look unique as the shape of the bags will vary slightly and the handles can be appliquéd to form different curves.” – Pam and Nicky Lintott…

HELP! I get fusible bias tape tangled up as I use it, with the peeled-off paper getting in the way – any suggestions? Try this… I avoid this problem by pre-cutting sections of the tape, so I can work with shorter lengths. With the tape on the reel and the paper still in place, put the tape roughly in place along the length to be covered (the blue lines on Fig 16 show the marked paths to follow). Trim the tape to this length plus about an inch longer. Peel off the paper and ditch it and then use your iron to smoothly press the tape into position, covering the marked line. HELP! When I use a Bias Maker I often find that one of the seam allowances ends up…

If using a frame or hoop, make sure the area of quilt in the hoop is loose enough to manipulate. If it’s drum tight, quilting is virtually impossible. Remember, a knot to start and a knot to finish. Above and below hands should cooperate and work together. If your stitches are too large, you are probably being too vigorous; yes, the needle goes up and down, but the needle tip only gets a very slight push each time. Don’t unpick; examine the stitches on the needle before you pull the needle through – if the stitches aren’t good enough, pull the needle back out of the work and try again. Don’t worry about the reverse side at first – it will improve with time and practise (but will never look…

1 Trace flower pieces onto the paper side of your freezer paper using the templates provided. For each flower you will need one freezer paper template of each pattern piece. Cut your freezer paper templates as accurately as you can (Fig A). Your flowers will look the same as your freezer paper templates, so if you have bumps on your templates you will have bumps on your flowers. Long, smooth cutting strokes, and moving the freezer paper NOT the scissors helps make the freezer paper edges smooth. 2 Place your freezer paper template with the shiny side up, onto the wrong side of your flower fabric. Use a pin to keep your freezer paper in place. Cut the fabric around your flower shape with a ¼in seam allowance (Fig B).…

BLOSSOM & SHINE APPLIQUÉ TEMPLATES ENLARGE BY 200% Cut out the individual shapes for templates, add ›in seam allowances when cutting the fabric. BLOCK OF THE MONTH FOUNDATION PIECING TEMPLATES ACTUAL SIZE Includes seam allowances BLOCK OF THE MONTH FOUNDATION PIECING TEMPLATES ACTUAL SIZE Includes seam allowances DANCING WITH DAISIES APPLIQUÉ TEMPLATES ENLARGE BY 200% PLEASE NOTE: Appliqué templates DO NOT include seam allowances Use a combination of these to build up your appliqué design, referring to the project diagrams QUILTER'S FRIEND APPLIQUÉ TEMPLATES ACTUAL SIZE PLEASE NOTE: Appliqué templates DO NOT include seam allowances and have been reversed where necessary QUILTER'S FRIEND APPLIQUÉ AND POCKET TEMPLATES ENLARGE BY 200% PLEASE NOTE: Appliqué templates DO NOT include seam allowances and have been reversed where necessary Thank you for making this…

Helen celebrated her 50th birthday by asking friends and family to contribute to making a special quilt. In the interview, she talks about organising the quiltmaking, the messages she got back on the paper templates and her husband Simon’s role in the project. Helen is a consultant midwife and works with the stop smoking midwifery team, where she has introduced a “Quilt to Quit” project for pregnant women in Sheffield. She talks about how the project works and her hopes for the project in the future. Other topics discussed in the interview include how she was taught hexagon patchwork as a child, getting family involved in quilting and how quilting has helped her husband overcome some of the symptoms of Huntington’s Disease. Here’s an extract from Helen’s interview – to…

THE QUILT EUPHORIA The title quilt from Deborah Kemball’s book, Euphoria Tapestry Quilts, is an astonishing celebration of nature’s beauty. It is made up of 40 different appliqué motifs over 14 individual panels, which were joined on completion with seams disguised by insects and embroidered tendrils. As a result Euphoria looks as if it is worked in one piece. It’s an exclusively handmade, hand drawn design, hand appliquéd, hand embroidered and hand quilted, taking an entire year to make with thousands of hours of work. A labour of love but worth every minute! THE SHOP PIGNUT New brand Pignut is “inspired by the British countryside and informed by its character”. Named after a small perennial herb popular with pigs, we’ve been drawn to their informal yet quality driven ethos. Their…

“Daisies are one of my favourite flowers and I have used them in much of my work, possibly I am better at reproducing them in appliqué than growing in the garden – they decide where to grow! While driving down Cornwall last June the road to Truro was a massive avenue of happy dancing daisies gently blowing in the morning sun, which gave me the design idea. Several of my students used this design last year in many colourways, but it was just before Christmas when the lovely landscape fabric Heartswood arrived from Makower, which has a clump of trees just like one on the A30 before Launceston. Bringing a glimpse of light on a dark day I just had to start the Dancing with Daisies quilt for myself, with…

West Dunbartonshire Council’s Sewing Machine Collection and Singer Archive encompasses over 800 examples of sewing machines from over 130 different manufacturers, from lightweight domestic machines to large-scale industrial machines. It also includes photographs, memorabilia and records that document the history of the Singer Manufacturing Company’s Clydebank sewing machine factory. A British patent was issued to Thomas Saint in 1790 evidencing the first machine capable of making a chain stitch. French tailor Barthélemy Thimonnier patented a chain stitch machine in 1830. He opened a clothing factory making uniforms for the French army much to the anger of his competitors, who rallied together and destroyed the factory in a fire. In 1833 Walter Hunt reportedly invented a lockstitch sewing machine. Isaac Merritt Singer’s machine was granted its American patent in 1851. The…

Tell us about your sewing background? I have always loved crafting and sewing. I began quilting about five-and-a-half years ago and started a blog at the same time. I worked in a local quilt shop and currently teach sewing and quilting classes. How did you start sewing?› Who taught you to sew? I started sewing when my first two children were still small. It was a lovely way for me to relax and express my creativity. I am largely self taught, though I have two very accomplished quilters in my family that give me help, tips and lots of encouragement! What’s the first thing you made? I remember doing some blackwork embroidery when I was about eight. I also used to make and sell scrunchies at school, such an 80’s…

You will need • Main fabric (red) – 10in x 22in • Lining fabric – 10in x 22in • Heavy weight interfacing – 10in x 22in • Red dot fabric – one (1) fat quarter • Green cord – 11in x 22in • Red floral fabric – 11in x 22in • Plain green fabric – 6in x 22in • Multi stripe – ¾yds • Red and white stripe – 11in x 22in • Calico for faces/hands – 5in square • Brown cotton for hair – 3in square • Brown ric-rac – 3yds • Brown velvet ribbon – 1yd • Seven (7) 5mm buttons • Two (2) 10mm buttons • One (1) large button • Two (2) 10in zips • Clear plastic (the plastic from toiletry bags is suitable) – 4in…

WALLHANGING MILLY’S GARDEN QUILT You will need • Four (4) light print centre background fabrics – one (1) fat eighth of each • One (1) main background fabric – ½yd • Sixteen (16) print fabrics in blue, brown, pink and yellow – one (1) fat eighth of each • Scrap of fabric for appliqué stems – 12in x 1in • Backing fabric – 32in square • Batting– 32in square • Binding fabric – ½yd • Fabric basting glue • Appliqué templates (see Templates section) Finished size • 24in square Fabrics used • Scrap fabrics from Sharon’s stash. Notes • This quilt uses ¼in seam allowances throughout. Fabric width 40in. • Use a ¼in bias tape maker to make bias stems. • Please read through all instructions carefully before beginning your…

At the start of summer our field really comes to life. Buttercups and speedwells cover the orchard, purple vetch twines around the long grass, giant hogweed and yellow flag iris gather by our stream, and thistles and yellow ragworts appear everywhere. The shape of the ragwort flowers are very appealing to me and I have attempted to re-create them using FPP for the variation block. But the real stars of the show this month (and in our field) are the wild orchids. Before we arrived here the field had been regularly “cleared” by a neighbouring farmer and only really used to drive quad bikes over. From the start we wanted to encourage as much nature as possible so we let the wild flowers and grasses take over. And amongst them…

SHOPPING ACCESSORIES Vlieseline crafts@stockistenquiries.co.uk  0145 388 3581 Church Window Hexagons Kit www.quiltersguildshop.org.uk  0190 461 3242 Scheepjes Sewing Set www.scheepjes.com/en/shops Oakshott www.oakshottfabrics.com  0145 237 1571 FABRIC COLLECTIONS Ava Rose for Riley Blake www.eqsuk.com  0116 271 0033 Blue Sky by Laundry Basket Quilts www.makoweruk.com  0149 157 9727 BOOKS Sew and So www.sewandso.co.uk  0800 013 0150 Roundhouse Group www.roundhousegroup.co.uk/shop  0127 360 3717…

Indulge yourself in all things quilting! Meet prize-winning quilter Judith Wilson • Alice Garrett talks to Jane Rae about her passion for Liberty prints • Margaret Lee mixes embellishments with wool for a show-stopping quilt • Discover the latest quilting news and reviews FREE! 44-page supplement celebrating the classic Log Cabin block Issue 24 on sale 22nd June…