Nicola Foreman Quilts - BLOG

Block Party Pieced Together

15/7/2019

On Saturday I attended another workshop - this time on Foundation Paper Piecing, held at KIS Quilting Ltd in Ipswich. I had tried this technique before, but the tutor, Helen Butcher, showed us her way of doing this which ensured there was much less wastage of fabric. She demonstrated it really well, and I was so pleased with my blocks. My foundation pieced blocks have now all been stitched together! This pattern is "Block Party" designed by Helen Butcher. I absolutely LOVE it - now to get it quilted!
If you want to try one of Helen's designs, and can't attend one of her workshops, her patterns are available to purchase from her website Little Patch Pockets, either in paper form, or as a PDF download. She has several designs to choose from!

FPP Workshop

14/7/2019

And so the workshops continue! I attended a fabulous foundation paper pieced workshop yesterday at Kis Quilting Ltd in Ipswich - taught by a brilliant tutor Helen Butcher. The pattern we used is Helen's design called Block Party, and has a great 3D optical illusioon to it. All 42 of my blocks have now been pressed and trimmed ready for assembly.
If you want to try this design and can't get to one of Helen's workshops, her pattern is available to purchase online from her website Little Patch Pockets as either a paper copy or a PDF download.

Dream Catcher Workshop

12/7/2019

Oh my goodness I have been well and truely pushed out of my comfort zone! On Monday I attended a workshop over at Elm Farm Studio in Essex with my friend Linda - the guest tutor was Vendulka Battais from OliVen, and were doing a Dream Catcher workshop. Prior to the workshop we prepared our background fabric - I used this VERY bright orange and pink batik - and quilted it very simply, so that on the day we could start straight away with free motion quilting feathers and making feathers with organza. I had such an amazing day!...

...we also learnt how to weave the perle thread onto a covered hoop, which wasn't as easy as I thought it was going to be! This has been hand stitched into place on the background piece. The feathers were going to be embelished with Marabu fabric paints, and I decided the more bling the better!! Beads were also added to the perle thread that the feathers were hanging from. Linda gave me a few beads that she'd brought back from a trip to India, and they were perfect for this project...

...a double row of piping was used as once again I couldn't decide which colour to use so used them both! Then a wide binding was added to frame it - unfortunately I didn't have any of the background fabric left to use for binding, so chose a darker shade of orange batik. A narrow quilt sleeve has been hand stitched to the back, and now it's all ready now to hang on the wall of my sewing studio. I really am thrilled with this wall hanging! Vendulka bought some beautiful samples of her dream catchers along to show us and they really looked amazing - have a look at her FB page and Instagram page if you want to see them too. She will be at Festival of Quilts this year, and I'm really looking forward to seeing her stall there.

Mandala Workshop

11/7/2019

I'm absolutely thrilled to bits with my latest project! On Tuesday I attended a "Mandala" workshop with Vendulka Battais from OliVen. Vendulka was teaching as a guest tutor over at Elm Farm Studio, and I had been lucky enough to get a place for 2 days (Monday's project is very much a work in progress so it may be a few days before that's completed). I needed a piece of "plainish" fabric for the front, and hadn't got anything except batiks, so rummaged around and found this one which I thought was really ugly and wouldn't be used for anything else - and I'm amazed how it's been transformed! The Mandala was quilted using a variegated quilting thread, then decorated using Marabu fabric paints. This was so much fun! This morning I've embellished it with a few sequins - and added a double row of piping. Vendulka is such an inspirational tutor, I shall definitely go to more of her workshops, and her shop OliVen is about an hours drive from where I live so will definitely visit there. Now I just need to add a quilt sleeve on the back and it will be all ready to display in my sewing studio!
*If you can't get to a workshop with Vendulka, there are kits available on the OliVen for the Mandala wall hangings these include a full sized (A3) pattern, written instructions, fabric for the front, piping and binding and 4 tubes of Marabu fabric paint.

*These are the tubes of Marabu fabric paints that I used for decorating my Mandela piece - the results are amazing and they're really easy to use. The full range of colours is available from OliVen - loving the "bling" this has added to my project!

Winning Tickets

7/7/2019

*Winning tickets* Here are the names of the 5 people who have won a pair of tickets for the The Festival of Quilts 2019. As stated in the original post, this was open to anyone who commented on my FB page, Instagram or my blog. And those 5 lucky people are as follows:
1. Sally Ryan (commented on my blog)
2. Youmeandmabel (commented on Instagram)
3. Sewjustinesew (commented on Instagram)
4. Sandra Anderson (commented on FB)
5. Alison Jane Plummer (commented on FB)
Please can the winners message me their addresses as the tickets will be sent to direct from FOQ and can be used on any of the 4 days of the show. Hope you enjoy your day out - there will be so much to see and do!

A Visit to The Shed

4/7/2019

As you know, my favourite online shop is Cross Patch, and I'd been sent a special invitation to visit Julia, the owner, and to see inside her amazing "shed"! I'm on my holibobs in Wales, and Julia was just an hour away from where we're staying so Mr F left me with Julia for the afternoon and went exploring with Alice, while I spent the aftnoon oohhing ahhing over all those goodies...

...as you can see, Julia's "shed" is bursting with all sorts of delights and it was like being in fabric-heaven! Julia does the most amazing kits, and has so many lovely things to choose from on her website - it's really lovely and I always manage to find temptation when I'm browsing her online shop! Julia also took me to visit the Woollen Mill that's near her too so I'll share some pics of that later.

Basket of Flowers

29/6/2019

A couple of weeks ago, a very parcel filled with some beautiful kits arrived in the post from Cross atch, an online quilt shop based in Wales, here in the UK. One of the kits that was in that very large parcel was "Basket of Flowers" by Lynette Anderson Designs. I've been using some gorgeous Valdani perle threads recently, from the Cross Patch Favourites collection, and used some of them for the hand embroidery for this project too. These threads are really lovely to use, I think I prefer them to the Valdani stranded threads!...

...the front of the cushion has been quilted very simply in a cross hatch design using grey 40wt Aurifil thread. This has blended well with these gorgeous fabrics. I added a few more to the kit, and linen borders to make the cushion larger. The embroidered piece has been trimmed with vintage lace and appliqued onto the centre of the cushion, with some self-covered buttons added as the sunflower centres. The feature print from the Peacock Manor collection was included in the kit for the back of the cushion. As I prefer to use a zipper enclosure for cushions, I used teamed it with some Tilda fabric, and inserted a hidden zipper...

...and here's the completed cushion. Adding the linen borders has made it a much more useful size, and this linen works really well with the soft muted tones of Lynette's fabrics. It's been filled with a plump feather inner, and is all ready to be wrapped and given as a special birthday gift for my mum. I hope she enjoys it as much as I enjoyed making it!

Vintage Sewing Collage

26/6/2019

Several weeks ago I'd bought this pattern Vintage Sewing Collage by the Australian designer Gail Pan, from Cross Patch in Wales. Along with the pattern, which includes the full-size traceable sheet and very easy to follow instructions, Julia had included some tape measure ribbon and ric-rac for trimming it with. After deliberating for absolutely ages about what colour thread to use for the hand embroidery, I decided to use one of the beautiful spools of hand dyed Valdani variegated perle thread that is part of the Cross Patch Favourites collection. I used the P11 colour and teamed it with a piece of linen. The design was traced using a lightbox and a very fine tipped Micron Pigma pen (my favourite is the 005 size nib in brown). This Valdani perle thread was a delight to sew with and this picture really doesn't do it justice as it looks even better in real life...

...I've added some colonial knots to the ric-rac trimming, using another one of those gorgeous hand-dyed Valdani perle threads from the Cross Patch Favourites collection. A good rummage in my enormous button tin produced some antique buttons that have been stitched into place...

...for the background of this piece, I used some "vintage sewing-themed" fabric that had been in my fabric box forever. Unfortunately it was only a fat quarter and the selvege with the fabric information on was missing, so I have no idea of designer or fabric collection that it's from.The tape measure ribbon has been "coffee stained" to make it look older before being machine stitched in place, along with some sewing themed bits and bobs for embellishment...

...a quick trip to my local Hobbycraft store for some more supplies (I love their white box frames) and I was ready to get it finished. The embroidered linen was machine appliqued into place on the background fabric. A layer of polyester felted wadding was fused to the wrong side of the background fabric, then it was quilted very simply. A piece of thick card was covered in another layer of felted polyester wadding, and the background fabric was wrapped around it and secured into place with a layer of craft glue. Now it's been framed in a Hobbycraft deep box frame, and it's ready to display on the wall in my sewing studio!

Stitching Pouch

24/6/2019

A few weeks ago I had a lovely parcel arrive from the Little Quilt Store in Australia. This pattern is called "Stitching Pouch", designed by Lynette Anderson - also included was a vinyl sewing-themed flap. I pulled a few fabrics from my "Lynette" box for making this project - the pattern suggests using strips of fabric for the back, but I preferred to use this piece from one of the feature prints from Lynette's Hollyhock Cottage collection. This has been machine quilted using a variegated King Tut quilting thread, in a very simple cross-hatch design...

...I used a piece of linen for the front of the pouch, which was then hand embroidered using a selection of Valdani Perle threads from the Cross Patch Favourites collection. The vinyl sewing-themed flap was hand stitched into place on the back of the pouch, and folds over to close with a popper fastening...

...inside the pouch there's a plastic zippered pocket which is perfect for storing some sewing bits and bobs and a pocket for a small embroidery hoop and pencils and pens. There's even a small pincushion for keeping needles safe and secure...

...this stitching pouch is ideal for putting my latest hand sewing project in, and will be packed in my suitcase when I'm off on my hols next week as I always like to have a sewing project or two with me for the journey!

Festival of Quilts 2019 - Discounted Tickets

23/6/2019

**GIVEAWAY** exciting news as well as having five pairs of tickets to give away for the fantastic Festival of Quilts 2019, I also have a discount code which is NICOLA19 and gives £2 off standard advance adult tickets/ £1 off advance concessions (£14.50 instead of £16.50 adult advance/£14.00 instead of £15.00 concessions), plus £1.95 fulfilment fee per transaction. This discount is for advanced bookings only and can be redeemed before 23:59 on Wednesday 31st July.
Tickets can be booked online at https://www.thefestivalofquilts.co.uk/tickets/ticket-options/ or by calling 0844 581 1319 and quoting the discount code. Remeber to comment below if you'd like to be in with a chance of winning a pair of free tickets! Good luck in the giveaway and I'll announce the winners of the free tickets on Sunday 7th July.