Nicola Foreman Quilts - BLOG

Four Seasons at Hilltop Cottage

6/7/2025

Originally published as a set of four patterns (Spring Cushion, Summer Cushion, Autumn Cushion and Winter Cushion) by the Australian designer Lynette Anderson, these patterns also have instructions for including all of the designs in a wall hanging - Four Seasons at Hilltop Cottage. They were later published in the book Lynette's Best Loved Stitcheries. Having initially purchased the set of 4 patterns back in 2014, I finally decided to stitch these designs just a few weeks ago. These were hand appliqued using a selection of fabrics also designed by Lynette, and the hand embroidery was stitched using a selection of DMC hand embroidery threads. Once I'd completed all four of these designs, I decided to add my own little twist, as I really didn't need a set of 4 cushions...

...rather than join them with patchwork as in the origianl instructions to make a wall hanging, I decided to frame them and make a piece of wall art. Each design was wrapped around a piece of stiff mounting board that had been covered with a thin felted polyester wadding. The four designs were then placed onto a large piece of mounting board that I had already cut to size. The designs were glued firmly in place, and left overnight with a pile of heac=vy books on top to alow the glue to dry. The mounting board was then signed, ready to be put into the frame...

...and here's my finished piece of work. The box frame is 41.5cm square and was purchased online from Hobbycraft. I can display on the wall of my sewing studio, along with some other framed pieces of my work.

Winter Cushion Stitchery

25/6/2025

The final season in this 4-part project is Winter Cushion by Lynette Anderson Designs - I'd originally bought this set of patterns back in 2014. Each pattern has instructions for making a cushion, and also includes instructions for making a wall hanging called Four Seasons at Hilltop Cottage, which incorporates all 4 of these pretty designs. I've used a different background fabric for each of the seasons, and this one has a festive theme to it. I've traced the design onto the background fabric using a Micron Pigma pen, and used a lightweight interfacing on the back. These four designs all incorporate a mix of hand embroidery (a selection of thread colours have been included with the pattern instructions) and hand applique. This cute little appliqued snowman has a hand embroidered scarf to keep him cosy...

...another hand embroidered alphabet is featured with this design too, and as these letters were quite small, I've just used one strand of embroidery thread for the backstitch and the tiny Colonial knots. The cottage has an appliqued snowy top on the roof, and embroidered snow on the windowsills too...

...and here's the final season - it felt a bit strange stitching such a really chilly scene during the summer in the middle of a heatwave! This just needs a final press, then it'll be ready for the next stage of my plan, as I'm not using these designs to make cushions or the quilted wallhanging, but I'm putting my own twist on it for something a little bit deifferent. As soon as that's completed, I'll share lots more pictures!

Autumn Cushion Stitchery

19/6/2025

The next part of this seasonal project is Autumn Cushion - it's the 3rd design in this set of 4 patterns by the Australian designer Lynette Anderson. I've used yet another "Lynette" fabric for the background, and traced the stitchery design using a Micron Pigma pen. A lightweight fusible interfacing is then fused to the wrong side of the background fabric. A selection of DMC stranded embroidery threads are used for the hand embroidery...

...as with the previous 2 designs from this series, very simple embroidery stitches are used. This alphabet is stitched using backstitch and colonial knots. All of the applique fabrics are from my "Lynette" box, and although I've used different background fabrics, I've used the same print for the cottage, roof and door for each "season" for continuity. Once the cottage was appliqued into place, the windows were hand embroidered along with the crow sitting on the roof...

...and here's the completed stitchery design - I really like these tendrils that curl across the pumpkins! There's just one more seasonal design to stitch for this project, then I can start to get really creative with how I want to display these designs.

Summer Cushion Stitchery

9/6/2025

Last week I prepared the background fabric ready for the next season in this set of stitchery designs. This particular pattern is "Summer Cushion" by the Australian designer Lynette Anderson Designs. The stitchery design has been traced using a Mcron Pigma pen - the ink is permanent, so you do need a very steady hand when you're tracing the design. I've used a pen with a very fine nib, size 005, in a pale brown colour. I'm using a selection of DMC stranded embroidery threads for the hand embroidery, in colours that were suggested in the pattern. The background fabric is a neutral coloured, self patterned fabric also designed by Lynette. A piece of lightweight fusible interfacing has been added to the wrong side of the background fabric to give it a bit of "body" to to prevent shadowing of the embroidery threads. I like using a wooden embroidery hoop to keep the fabric taut. The design uses very simple embroidery stitches, such as back stich, cross stitch, satin stitch and Colonial knots...

...and here's the completed design, with the hand applique also stiched in place. I've used scraps of "Lynette" fabrics for the applique too, and the cottage uses the same fabrics as the ones in the Spring design that I'd stitched earlier. Now this has been pressed, it's ready to store in my block keeper, to keep it ready for when all four stitchery designs have been completed.

Spring Cushion Stitchery

26/5/2025

A new hand seing project is a set of seasonal patterns by the Australian designer Lynette Anderson. The first one is Spring - the stitchery design has been traced onto the background fabric (one of Lynette's neutrals) using a Micron Pigma pen in a sepia colour with a very fine nib - my favourite is a size 005. I've decided to use DMC stranded embroidery threads for the hand embroidery, in the colours suggested in the original instructions. The bees have been filled in with Colonial knots - I was taught how to stitch these by Lynette way back in 2010 when I did a couple of workshops with her at my local quilt shop. Sadly the shop closed down several years ago, but I've never forgotten what a patient teacher Lynette was...

...once the majority of the hand embroidery was completed, I added the hand applique. Both the house and the beehive have some surface embroidery, which was stitched after the applique had been secured into place. The original pattern has instructions for both making cushions, and making a wall hanging that incorporates all for of the "seasons" - although I've decided to do my own twist on this project, so watch this space as I need to complete the summer, autumn and winter designs.

Welcome Home Pillow

16/5/2025

This pattern, Welcome Home Pillow by Lynette Anderson Designs was purchased several years ago from Cross Patch here in the UK. I've used a piece of background fabric from my "Lynette" box of fabrics for the stitchery. A piece of lightweight interfacing has been fused to the back, and the design traced using a lightbox and a Micron Pigma pen with a very fine nib - my favourite is size 005 in a pale brown colour. I'm using a selection of DMC straded embroidery threads, in colours that were suggested in the pattern, with just a couple of substitutions. I always use a wooden hoop for my hand embroidery, to keep the fabric taut. This pattern uses very simple embroidery stitches, mostly back stitch, cross stitch, lazy daisy stitch. These sheep are filled with Colonial knots (I find these asier than French knots) which makes them look very woolly...

...the house, with it's embroidered veranda and windows, is hand appliqued into place. I've picked out 3 fabrics from Lynette's High Meadow Farm collection for the patchwork squares - these have been in my stash for several years so it was about time I put them to good use. These were also purchased from Cross Patch way back in 2017 as a bundle of fat eighths - they'd been packed away in one of my "Lynette" boxes of fabrics, and when I toook part in the Declutter Challenge earlier this year they were rediscovered - and this was the perfect project for them...

...the patchwork squares were machine pieced together and machine quilted using a dark green Aurifil 40wt thread. I've used a piece of fusible Vlieseline H630 for the wadding, that was leftover from a previous project. The embroidered panel was then pressed on a wool pressing mat with a warm iron, and hand appliqued into place on top of the quilted pillow front. I've used one of the feature prints from the High Meadow Farm collection for the back of the cushion - this has been lined with another print that was included in the bundle of fat eighths. As you can see, I've used the same neutral patterned fabric for the top half that I used for the stichery panel on the front of the cushion, and I've hand embroidered the name of the pillow, Welcome Home, along with my name...

...once the back and front were assembled with a zipper fastening, I've added a narrow double fold binding to cover all the raw edges. After machining this to the front of the cushion, the binding was then folded over to the back, and stitched in place by hand using a ladder stitch. I do love a stripey binding! This was constructed using a different method to the one in the original pattern, as I like to be able to remove my covers incase they need to be laundered...

...and here's my completed Welcome Home Pillow - I've filled it with a soft feather pillow. I always use pillow forms that are a couple of inches bigger than the size of the cover, to keep it looking plump. I'm hoping the recipient will enjoy this one as much as I enjoyed making it!

Woodland Secrets - Quilted and Bound

2/5/2025

Another quilt top that has been waiting to be quilted since the summer of 2023, is this pretty design by the Australian designer Lynette Anderson. This was originally purchased as a kit back in 2018 from Cross Patch - the kit included the pattern, and fabrics from Lynette's Peacock Manor collection. The hearts, which have been hand embroidered using a selection of Valdani variegated starnded embroidery threads, and the hearts were then hand appliqued onto the background blocks. I decided to keep the quilting very simple (arthritis doesn't allow me to do the more detailed quilting that I love) so machine quilted around each applique heart...

...then the blocks were all machine quilted using the stitch-in-the-ditch method. I've used Aurifil 40wt thread shade as it blends well with both the backing fabric and the fabrics in the patchwork blocks. The binding was machined to the front of the quilt, with neat mitred corners. The binding is folded over to the back, and stitched in place by hand using the same Aurifil 40wt thread that I used for the quilting, using ladder stitch...

...I'd bought the backing fabric, which is also one of the fabrics from the Peacock Manor collection, from Poppy Patch when the top was made in 2013, and had enough leftover for the quilt sleeve too. The picture below shows how I've pinned it in place, level with where the binding has been stitched in place. Once the top edge of the sleeve is stitched to the backing of the quilt, making sure that the needle goes into the wadding but being careful not to stitch through to the front of the quilt. Once the top edge of the sleeve is secured, the fabric is pulled up so the top of the sleeve is then level with the top of the binding, and the lower edge, along with the sides of the sleeve, are also stitched in place...

...and here's my finished quilt, ready to display in my sewing studio. I still need to stitch the quilt label, so Ill be doodling some ideas for that over the weekend.

Anna's Lille Veggteppe - Finally Quilted

23/4/2025

My project for the past week has been to machine quilt this top that I'd pieced together back in 2022. The pattern is Anna's Lille Veggteppe, by the Norwegian designer AnnAKa, and wa spurchased as a kit from Lappedilla in Norway, way back in 2011. It was already layered with wadding and backing fabric, and I picked out a few Aurifil 40wt threads for the machine quilting - shades 2610, 2312 and 6010...

...using Aurifil thread shade 2312 for the top thread, and shade 2610 in the bobbin to match the backing fabric (along with a Schmetz Mirotex size 70 needle) I started off with a simple cross-hatch design. I didn't want to stitch over the hand embroidery, so there were lots of stops and starts. Once the cross-hatch was completed, I decided it really need a bit more quilting. so machined an outline around the birds, branches and leaves...

...I used the same style of quilting for the panel with the hand embroidered birdhouse. The patchwork blocks were quilted very simply, diagonally across each block...

...the fabric for the binding was included in the kit. I cut strips of fabric 2.25" wide, and joined them together using a diagonal seam. The binding was folded in half, and the raw edges lined up with the raw edges of the wallhanging. I've machined the binding in place using a 0.25" seam, then folded the binding over to the back of the quilt. The corners have neat mitred corners...

...the binding is stitched in place by hand using ladder stitch, using a single thread of the same Aurifil 40wt thread that I used in the bobbin for the machine quilting. I've used a piece of the backing fabric to make a very simple quilt sleeve. This was cut at 9" deep, and an inch shorter than the width of the quilt. The sides were folded in and machine stitched to neaten them, then the long edges were machined together, before hand stitching the sleeve in place. Some people machine this in place along with the binding along the top edge, but I prefer to add the sleeve once the binding is finished, as I don't like hand sewing through all of those layers...

...and here's the finished wallhanging, which measures approx 29" x 45". I still need to design a label for this one, so I'm doodling ideas for it, along with sorting out which fabrics to use. Luckily there are several pretty scraps that were leftover from the patchwork blocks, so I'll be spoilt for choice!

Zip it Up - Lil' Dinos

7/4/2025

I've had these cute fabrics, Lil' Dinos and Lil' Biasplaid - both by Michael Miller Fabrics - for simply ages, and they're absolutely perfect for a project I wanted to make for a very special little boy. The pattern is Zip it Up 2.0 by ByAnnie which was purchased from Oh Sew Sweet Shop here in the UK. I've used Soft and Stable wadding for the main body of the bag, and a lightweight fusible wadding Vlieseline H630 for the pockets. I've quilted both the main body of the bag and the pockets very simply, using Auril 40wt thread in co-ordinating colours...

...this bag has several zippered pockets - I've used continuous zipper by the metre purchased from Zipper Station in a tan colour to match the fabrics. Once the main part of the bag was constructed, along with both internal and external pockets, bias binding is added to cover all the raw edges. I've added a cute "made by nanny" labels to the front of the bag...

...inside the bag there's a large mesh pocket and two smaller clear vinyl pockets. The edges of the mesh and the vinyl are neatened with binding before they're attached to the zippers...

...the larger pocket will be perfect for storing colouring books and a drawing pad. I've used a couple of different green fabrics from my stash for the lining and the binding. The binding is machined into place on the inside of the bag, then folded over and I've hand stitched the binding to the front of the bag...

...I've used green webbing for both the handle stabiliser and the handle. The back of the bag has a large zippered pocket...

...and there's also a large zippered pocket on the front of the bag. This will be perfect for my little grandson Rory to use to keep his colouring books, pencils and crayons in! Now I just need to find some suitable fabric to make one for his little brother Alfie!

Declutter Challenge 2025 - Day 21

4/4/2025

The final day of the Declutter Challenge was originally on 21st January, but I've taken rather longer than the predicted 3 weeks to complete it, mainly due to housesitting for 5 weeks, and being busy looking after our groandosns. But MY day 21 is finally here! Excess bags, boxes and containers have been sorted out, and many donated to local charity shops, have been recycled, and a couple of boxes have been repurposed for storing some of my grandsons' toys. This challenge was certainly very therapeutic and I am so glad that I took part in it. My studio is so much tidier, and although it's quite a small room, now feels more spacious. And I have resolved to keep on top of my projects and future purchases, so that when I take part in this challenge again next year, hopefully I won't have much to declutter at all!

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