I’ve been making patchwork quilts for a very long time, and during that time I reckon I must have broken just about every rule in the book!
When I started making quilts I was a student on a tiny grant, with a ‘make-something-out-of-nothing’ attitude. I used old clothes, polyester, synthetics, poor thread and even synthetic toy stuffing to fill a quilt with. Sometimes I got away with it, and sometimes I didn’t – but experimenting taught me a lot!
The original hand sewn hexagon quilt I made aged 18 from old clothes. It had a red Poly-cotton border and was padded with synthetic toy stuffing!
Over the years I have produced a lot of quilts. Some for pleasure and some because I moved into a big old farmhouse and needed something to make the many bare bedrooms look appealing. I made them for myself, and I made them for friends and family. Sadly, I didn’t always photograph them, (especially in the days before digital photography), however below is a small selection of the ones I did. Some are simply ‘tied’, some have just minimal machine quilting to hold the layers together, (because it was just so hard to get the bulk of the quilt through my sewing machine) and some are hand-quilted (or even a combination of the two!). Needless to say, now that I have my longarm quilter my quilts will be properly quilted all over.
As I have grown in experience I have learned why many of the taboos are what they are. The experimentation was fun, but the amount of work that goes into a quilt demands good quality materials. I now use only 100% cotton for the tops, filling and backing (unless of course I’m using silk!) Some of the most important things I did learn are: to check the colourfastness first; make sure you have enough of each fabric before you start; never use silk or synthetic for a backing (the quilt keeps slipping off the bed!); use only good quality thread; and if it’s not right unpick it and do it again – otherwise it will always irritate you! Finally, a quilt is not really finished until it’s been beautifully quilted.
 Bears Paw Block Quilt |
 A hand-quilted ‘Christmas’ Quilt – Appliqué and Patchwork |
 Blue and White patchwork quilt |
 Navy Cotton & Polycotton Quilt |
 Green Silk & Synthetic Quilt |
 Green Silk & Synthetic Quilt |
 Kandinsky quilt |
 Peach-and-green-quilt |
 Brown and cream quilt |
 Pink Block Baby Quilt |
 Turquoise Silk & Synthetic Quilt |
 Turquoise Silk & Synthetic Quilt |
 Blue log cabin quilt |
More to come soon |
| I’m still collecting images | More to come soon |
| I’m still collecting images | More to come soon |
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