Nicola Foreman Quilts

Peace and Joy - Mr Snowman

26/9/2020

Peace and Joy is this years mystery button club by the Australian designer Lynette Anderson. The third installment is Mr Snowman and the pattern arrived a couple of weeks ago from Coast & Country Crafts and Quilts. The pattern includes full size sttichery design and applique templates to trace. The hand embroidery is sttiched with Valdani variegated embroidery thread, but you could substitute these for DMC threads if needed. You can use whichever method of applique you prefer, but I'm using the Apliquick method. There are lots of tutorials on YouTube demonstrating this method if you're not familiar with it...

...the first 3 blocks are joined together, and a narrow border of tiny squares has been added. A hand painted wooden button is included with each pattern, and they will be stitched in place when this has been quilted. If you don't want to wait for the postman, or haven't got a quilt shop near you that is supplying this mystery button club, you can sign up at Lynette's online shop Little Quilt Store, based in Australia, to receive PDF downloadable patterns (these are released each month) and then purchase the set of buttons seperately.

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Peace and Joy - Pine Trees

24/9/2020

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Peace and Joy is this years mystery button club by the Australian designer Lynette Anderson. The second installment is Pine Trees and the pattern arrived last month from Coast & Country Crafts and Quilts. The pattern includes full size sttichery design and applique templates to trace. The hand embroidery is sttiched with Valdani variegated embroidery thread, but you could substitute these for DMC threads if needed. You can use whichever method of applique you prefer, but I'm using the Apliquick method. There are lots of tutorials on YouTube demonstrating this method if you're not familiar with it...

...the hand painted wooden button is included with the pattern, and will be stitched in place when this has been quilted. If you don't want to wait for the postman, or haven't got a quilt shop near you that is supplying this mystery button club, you can sign up at Lynette's online shop Little Quilt Store, based in Australia, to receive PDF downloadable patterns (these are released each month) and then purchase the buttons seperately.

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Love a Cuppa

20/9/2020

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The pattern for this mug bag is "Love a Cuppa" by the Australian designer The Birdhouse Patchwork Designs. This was supplied as a kit from Poppy Patch and included all the fabrics, lining fabric, 4 skeins of Cosmo embroidery thread and the pattern. Yesterday morning I was up at silly o'clock and my brain felt like a computer with all the tabs open so I shut myself away with some sewing and hand embroidered this cute design which will be hand appliqued to the front of the mug bag...

..the bag itself is simple to make, and the fabrics are placed onto a piece of fusible wadding - so no seams to match! For most of my bag projects I use a thin Pellon fusible wadding, H630 which I buy from Cross Patch. It's also great for table runners and small wall hings too. The lining is added to the back, and then machine quilted very simply in staight lines. I used a variegated pink King Tut thread for this, then hand appliqued the stitchery design in place...

...handles are added along with a button loop. I had a rummage in my button tin and chose a blue button with a shank for stitching onto the front of the bag. These would make great gifts for friends, and you could pop a few sachets of speciality tea bags inside too.

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Lace Cushion

15/9/2020

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Over the past few years, I've managed to collect quite a large selection of vintage lace and trimmings. These have come from a variety of sources - charity shops, antique markets and bric-a-brac stalls. Friends often send me bits and bobs they've found too. My collection was overflowing, so I decided to use some of them and make a decorative cushion...

...I chose a cream fabric for the background, and layered it up with a piece of cotton wadding and backing fabric. Strips of lace were machine stitched in horizontal rows, stitching through all the layers, quilting it at the same time. A concealed zipper was added to the back, and I've finished it off with binding around the edges. I'm rather pleased with how this one has turned out!

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Little Sweetheart Cushion

13/9/2020

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Over the past week, I've been preparing these pretty hearts and I've appliqued all 49 of them in place on a pieced background. This cushion cover has been machine quilted very simply, and it's been finished with a stripey binding (I absolutely LOVE stripey bindings). All of these fabrics are from the Little Sweetheart collection by Edyta Sitar for Laundry Basket Quilts, and were originally purchased as a fat quarter bundle from Cross Patch last year...

...this has been machine quilted very simply using a variegated pale pink King Tut quilting thread, a quarter inch from all the seams. This smart stripey binding is from the same Little Sweetheart fabric collection. The front and back of the cushion were layered together, wrong sides together, and the double fold binding was added the same way as binding a quilt, hand stitched in place on the back. I've used 2 more fabrics from the Little Sweetheart collection to make the back of the cushion cover, and a zipper has been added to the back to make the cover easily removable for laundering. A plump feather pad has been inserted and it's ready to be displayed in my spare bedroom.

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Forty Nine Hearts

12/9/2020

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All those hearts that I've been making over the past week (all 49 of them) have been hand appliqued in place. I didn't use a pattern for this project, I simply cut out a very basic heart template, as mentioned in my previous post. These fabrics are from the Little Sweetheart collection by Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts, and were the larger leftover scraps from a bundle of fat quarters. (That project is currently with Daisy May Quilting - all will be revealed in a few weeks!). Normally my scraps are resigned to being donated to quilty-friends, but these were so pretty that I decided to actually use them myself! This has been layered up with a piece of wadding and backing fabric, ready for some simple machine quilting.

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Little Sweetheart Hearts

11/9/2020

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Some slow stitching has been happening over the past week. A simple heart shape was cut from template plastic, which I drew around onto applique paper with a pencil, then using the Apliquick method to make 49 hearts. These pretty fabrics are from the Little Sweetheart collection by Edyta Sitar for Laundry Basket Quilts, (purchased as a fat quarter bundle last year from Cross Patch in Wales, here in the UK), and were some of the left over trimmings from a recent quilt project. Now these have been prepared, they just need to be appliqued into place onto a pieced bachground.

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Hexies Hexies and even MORE Hexies

7/9/2020

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Hexies really ARE my nemesis. I'd prepped about 120 of these half-inch hexagons ready for the next stage of the Stitching Circle Basket - (pattern by Lynette Anderson Designs). This was going to be my next project, until I took a nasty tumble when I was out with the dog yesterday, resulting in a sprained wrist. So they're packed away until further notice along with the rest of my sewing plans!

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Little Sweetheart Fat Quarter Bundle

6/9/2020

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I needed to make a new quilt for my spare bedroom, and a favourite quick and easy pattern is Turning Twenty by Tricia Cribbs. This design is really great for using up fat quarter bundles of a paricular collection of fabrics, and these fat quartes from the Little Sweetheart collection by Edyta Sitar for Laundry Basket quilts, were just perfect for what I wanted. These were suplied from Cross Patch, and this collection really was irrisistable.I wanted this quilt to be a bit larger, so it drapes over the sides of the bed, and used 25 FQ's of these gorgeous fabrics. The blocks are really easy to cut and piece together, and a quilt top is made in a matter of hours! I delivered the quilt top to Daisy May Quilting yesterday morning, and picked out a backing fabric (Val and John have a very impressive collection of extra wide backing fabrics) decided which all over quilting design I wanted and chose the same bamboo wadding that I'd had in a previous quilt as it drapes so well. While I'm waiting for the quilt to be completed, I might make a couple of cushions with some left over scraps!

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Wish You Well - Block 9

5/9/2020

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Here's the 9th block of Wish You Well - it's the 2020 I Stitch Club design, which is a mystery block of the month, designed by the Australian designer Gail Pan Designs and is available from her website as a PDF download. This combines a mixture of hand embroidery and applique (you can use whatever method of applique you prefer). Each month you're sent an email with a PDF download with the pattern instructions, colour picture of the completed block and a full size traceable stitchery design. You also get a bonus project each month. I've used a GORGEOUS selection of fabrics for this project, that are from the Super Bloom collection by Edyta Sitar, which were purchased from Cross Patch an online shop based in Wales here in the UK...

...the stitchery has been hand embroidered using a selection of DMC, Cosmo and Valdani embroidery threads. One of the appliqued circles has been made with the embroidered part of a linen napkin - I'd already used part of this naoki in a previous block. As you can see, I've also used some vintage lace trimming on this block too. Only 3 more blocks to make, then these can all be pieced together!
If you want to take part in this BOM, click on the link on the sidebar of my blog to take you to Gail Pan's website where you'll get all the details.