Nicola Foreman Quilts - BLOG

Reverse Redwork Quilt Label

19/1/2021

This festive redwork design is "Snow Buddies" by the Australian designer Natalie Bird of The Birdhouse Patchwork Designs, This was purchased a couple of years ago from Cross Patch and the pattern includes both pre-printed calico and a traceable design too. I've used 2 strands of red embroidery thread and my favourite Hiroshima Tulip embroidery needles for the simple hand embroidery. I've used some bright red fabric for the backing, and decided to embroider a "label" directly onto the backing. Using a white fabric marking pencil, I've traced the design using a lightpad. I've often referred to this as "reverse redwork" as I've used a white embroidery thread on red fabric. As you can see, another one of Natalies designs has been used for the centre of the "label" as I thought this snowman was rather jolly! Now this just needs to be layered up and quilted.

Wish You Well - The Borders

17/1/2021

Wish You Well has been this year's mystery BOM by Gail Pan Designs and I really can say I have enjoyed every single stitch. At times this has been my salvation, my stress reliever, it's kept me sane during uncertain times. These pretty fabrics are from the Super Bloom collection by Edyta Sitar, and her fabrics really are lovely to sew with. I chose fabrics from this collection for the borders and binding, and all fabrics were purchased from Cross Patch...

...these blocks have been decorated with vintage linens and lace trimmings,. They have been hand embroidered with a selection of embroidery threads and hand appliqued - this really has been a labour of love. Now that the borders are on, this will be my hand quilting project for 2021. It will be hand quilted very simply as I've never tackled anything this size before!

Friendship Notebook Cover - Red

16/1/2021

One of my favourite projects to make for gifts are journal covers, and I particularly like the stitchery design on this one. The pattern is Friendship Notebook Cover by the Australian designer Gail Pan Designs. The hand embroidery was stitched using a variegated red Valdani perle thread, bought from Cross Patch. I've used a different layout for my fabrics, as I was trying to use up as many smaller pieces of these French General fabrics as I could!...

...once the strips of fabric were pieced together, I've used a felted polyester wadding (Pellon H30, also bought from Cross Patch) and added some vintage buttons and lace trimming. I've constructed mine differently to Gail's original instructions, as I have a tried and trusted method which I prefer! Before the sides are folded in and secured, the edges of the notebook are covered with a narrow binding which is hand stitched in place. I prefer to use spiral bound notebooks as they are so much easier to put inside the covers and are easily replaced when they're full of important notes!...

...and here's the finished journal cover - with an A5 sized notebook inside. These journal covers are a great way of using up smaller pieces of fabric, like this one, if you don't follow the cutting instructions in the pattern, and can easily be enlarged to fit any size of notebook. This one was posted to a special friend, Linda, who has been the recipient of my notebooks before - I hope she likes this one!
*I'd bought this pattern last year from Coast & Country Crafts and Quilts, and it's also available from Cross Patch

Friendship Notebook Cover - Mauve

15/1/2021

One of my favourite projects to make for gifts are journal covers, and I particularly like the stitchery design on this one. The pattern is Friendship Notebook Cover by the Australian designer Gail Pan Designs. The hand embroidery was stitched using a variegated mauve Valdani perle thread, bought from Cross Patch. I've used a different layout for my fabrics, as I was trying to use up as many pieces of these fabrics designed by Lynette Anderson Designs as I could!...

...once the strips of fabric were pieced together, I've used a felted polyester wadding (Pellon H30, also bought from Cross Patch) and added some vintage buttons and lace trimming. I've constructed mine differently to Gail's original instructions, as I have a tried and trusted method which I prefer! Before the sides are folded in and secured, the edges of the notebook are covered with a narrow binding which is hand stitched in place. I prefer to use spiral bound notebooks as they are so much easier to put inside the covers and are easily replaced when they're full of important notes!...

...and here's the finished journal cover - with an A5 sized notebook inside. These journal covers are a great way of using up smaller pieces of fabric, like this one, if you don't follow the cutting instructions in the pattern, and can easily be enlarged to fit any size of notebook. This one was wrapped and posted off to Gina earlier this week.
*I'd bought this pattern last year from Coast & Country Crafts and Quilts and it's also available from Cross Patch

Friendship Notebook Cover - Brown

14/1/2021

One of my favourite projects to make for gifts are journal covers, and I particularly like the stitchery design on this one. The pattern is Friendship Notebook Cover by the Australian designer Gail Pan Designs. The hand embroidery was stitched using a couple of variegated Valdani perle threads, bought from Cross Patch. I've used a different layout for my fabrics, as I was trying to use up as many smaller pieces of these fabrics, designed by Lynette Anderson Designs, as I could!...

...once the strips of fabric were pieced together, I've used a felted polyester wadding (Pellon H30, also bought from Cross Patch) and added some vintage buttons and ric-rac trimming (this was secured in place with a few colonial knots). I've constructed mine differently to Gail's original instructions, as I have a tried and trusted method which I prefer! Before the sides are folded in and secured, the edges of the notebook are covered with a narrow binding which is hand stitched in place. I prefer to use spiral bound notebooks as they are so much easier to put inside the covers and are easily replaced when they're full of important notes!...

...and here's the finished journal cover - with an A5 sized notebook inside. These journal covers are a great way of using up smaller pieces of fabric, like this one, if you don't follow the cutting instructions in the pattern, and can easily be enlarged to fit any size of notebook. This one was posted off to a special friend, Julie, who has been the recipient of my notebooks before - I hope she likes this one!
*I'd bought this pattern last year from Coast & Country Crafts and Quilts and it's also available from Cross Patch

Friendship Notebook Cover - Blue

13/1/2021

One of my favourite projects to make for gifts are journal covers, and I particularly like the stitchery design on this one. The pattern is Friendship Notebook Cover by the Australian designer Gail Pan Designs. The hand embroidery was stitched using a variegated red Valdani perle thread, bought from Cross Patch. I've used a different layout for my fabrics, as I was trying to use up as many small pieces of these fabrics from the Super Bloom collection as I could!...

...once the strips of fabric were pieced together, I've used a felted polyester wadding (Pellon H30, also bought from Cross Patch) and added some vintage buttons and lace trimming. I've constructed mine differently to Gail's original instructions, as I have a tried and trusted method which I prefer! Before the sides are folded in and secured, the edges of the notebook are covered with a narrow binding which is hand stitched in place. I prefer to use spiral bound notebooks as they are so much easier to put inside the covers and are easily replaced when they're full of important notes!...

...and here's the finished journal cover - with an A5 sized notebook inside. These journal covers are a great way of using up smaller pieces of fabric, like this one, if you don't follow the cutting instructions in the pattern, and can easily be enlarged to fit any size of notebook. This one was delivered to a special friend, Helen, who has been the recipient of my notebooks before - I hope she likes this one!
*I'd bought this pattern last year from Coast & Country Crafts and Quilts and it's also available from Cross Patch

Friendship Notebook Cover - Brights

12/1/2021

One of my favourite projects to make for gifts are journal covers, and I particularly like the stitchery design on this one. The pattern is Friendship Notebook Cover by the Australian designer Gail Pan Designs. The hand embroidery was stitched using a variegated red Valdani perle thread, bought from Cross Patch. I've used a different layout for my fabrics, as I was trying to use up as many small pieces of these fabrics as I could!...

...once the strips of fabric were pieced together, I've used a felted polyester wadding (Pellon H30, also bought from Cross Patch) and added some vintage buttons and lace trimming. I've constructed mine differently to Gail's original instructions, as I have a tried and trusted method which I prefer! Before the sides are folded in and secured, the edges of the notebook are covered with a narrow binding which is hand stitched in place. I prefer to use spiral bound notebooks as they are so much easier to put inside the covers and are easily replaced when they're full of important notes!...

...and here's the finished journal cover - with an A5 sized notebook inside. These journal covers are a great way of using up smaller pieces of fabric, like this one, if you don't follow the cutting instructions in the pattern, and can easily be enlarged to fit any size of notebook. This was wrapped and posted to a special friend, Vanda - I really meant to get this finished and posted to her for Christmas, but I'd completely lost my motivation, so I hope she doesn't mind that it's a bit late!
*I'd bought this pattern last year from Coast & Country Crafts and Quilts and it's also available from Cross Patch - both shops have excellent websites.

A Collection of Journal Covers

11/1/2021

One of my favourite projects to make for gifts are journal covers, and I particularly like the stitchery design on this one. The pattern is Friendship Notebook Cover by the Australian designer Gail Pan Designs. These ones have been hand embroidered with a selection of variegated Valdani perle threads, and have an A5 sized notebook inside. These journal covers are a great way of using up smaller pieces of fabric if you don't follow the cutting instructions in the pattern, and can easily be enlarged to fit any size of notebook. These have been wrapped and posted off this morning to some special friends - I hope they like them! I'll share some more more pictures over the next few days showing close ups of these pretty journal covers which have been embellished with vintage buttons, lace and ric-rac.
*I'd bought this pattern last year from Coast & Country Crafts and Quilts, and it's also available from Cross Patch

Murphy's Law for Quilters

10/1/2021

Buttons Buttons Buttons Galore

9/1/2021

My collection of vintage buttons was taking over! They were in an assortment of tins and plastic bags and I could never find just the right one. So a large Really Useful Box with sections was the perfect solution and now they're all sorted into colours so it's much easier to find the perfect one!