Nicola Foreman Quilts - BLOG

The Spooky Set - Wall Hanging

13/10/2020

This little wall hanging is part of "The Spooky Set" - pattern by Lynette Anderson Designs. I'd bought this pattern, along with a pack of "My Halloween" raw wood buttons a couple of years ago, and only just got around to making it. This has been hand embroidered with a selection of variegated Valdani threads and hand appliqued. These fabrics are from the Happy Halloween collection, that I bought from Lynette's stall at Festival of Quilts back in 2014 - they were perfect for this project! Finally this has been embellished with a few raw wood buttons. I really love the border, which was made with lots of tiny 1" squares!

Kismet Pyramid Pouch

10/10/2020

This Kismet pouch is a really easy project to make! This pattern is by Helen Butcher (Little Patch Pockets) and the finished size is 6" x 4" x 2" and the addition of a carabiner style clip to the top loop makes it even more versatile. This pouch is perfect for my husband to clip on his belt loop for keeping a few dog poo bags in when he takes our black lab for a walk! I bought this as a kit from Little Patch Pockets (this is the Moondance colourway) but you can buy just the paper pattern or you can dowload a PDF version. This really was very quick to make - I'll definately make a few more. They would also be useful for storing a few face masks and a small bottle of hand sanitizer too.

Sewing is Good for my Soul

9/10/2020

After a rather stressful week, I just needed half an hour of peace and quiet in my sewing studio. I'd already completed blocks 9 and 10 of Wish You Well by the Australian designer Gail Pan Designs and couldn't resist putting them together. These gorgeous fabrics are from the Super Bloom collection by Edyta Sitar bought earlier this year from Cross Patch

Wish You Well - Block 10

7/10/2020

Here's the 10th 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...

...as you can see, I've used some vintage lace trimming on this block. I've got quite a collection of vintage lace trimmings and ribbons, moustly sourced from charity shops and vintage markets. The stitchery has been hand embroidered using a selection of DMC, Cosmo and Valdani embroidery threads. You can click on the pictures below to enlarge them if you want to see them in more detail. This is such a pretty BOM, I'm really looking forward to seeing these blocks all pieced together!
If you want to take part too, 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.

Stitching With New Glasses

5/10/2020

I made a start on the embroidery for block 10 of "Wish You Well" by the Australian designer Gail Pan Designs at the weekend, as I was trying out my new occupational varifocals! These embroidered blocks have been stitched with an assortment of embroidery threads, including DMC stranded cotton, Cosmo stranded cotton, and a variegated Valdani perle thread...

...these pretty background fabrics are from the Super Bloom collection by Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts. I'd bought a fat eighth bundle of these gorgeous fabrics from Cross Patch back in February, and these 2 particular ones are perfect to be used for the hand embroidery...

...now these embroidered mini-blocks have been pressed and trimmed to size, they are ready to be transformed into Block 10 of the 2020 I Stitch Club quilt.

Festive Hexie Flowers

3/10/2020

About 10 weeks ago these Hexie Flower templates arrived in the post from Cross Patch. Life was a bit hectic, and I was overwhelmed with "stuff" so didn;t have a chance to use them until last weekend. These templates were designed by Julia Rpworth, and they're really simple to use. Her instruction boolet is filled with colour photographs with lots of ideas for different layouts too. I chose a variegated Valdani perle thread, shade H202, to use for some big-stitch hand quilting...

...these festive fabrics are from the Scandinavian Christmas II collection by the Australian designer Lynette Anderson, and worked well for this project. I've used the lalrgest size hexie flower template for this, although all 3 sizes are included...

...unfortunately all of my festive accessories are packed away in the loft, so I just had to use whatever I could find for a photoshoot!

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.

Peace and Joy - Pine Trees

24/9/2020

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.

Wish You Well is Coming Along Nicely

23/9/2020

Wish You Well is the 2020 I Stitch Club mystery quilt, designed by the Australian designer Gail Pan. I signed up to this a few months ago, and each month the pattern is emailed as PDF download along wth a bonus project. I'm using a selection of fabrics from the Super Bloom collection by Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts, bought from Cross Patch here in the UK. I really love these blocks, and couldn't resist putting the first 8 blocks together to get an idea of what it's going to look like - it really is coming along nicely. As it's a mystery quilt, there may still be a few surprises from Gail before the final block is revealed in December! There's still time to sign up to this club, all the info is on Gail Pan's website - you just need to click on the I Stitch Club tab, or you can click on the link on the sidebar of my blog.

Love a Cuppa

20/9/2020

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.