Nicola Foreman Quilts - BLOG

Garden Gnome Needlebook

5/7/2020

This cute Garden Gnome Needlebook and Scissor Keeper is designed by Lynette Anderson, and was bought as a kit from Poppy Patch. The kit included the pattern, all the fabrics and a cute hand painted wooden button gnome. A wool needle keeper has been hand stitched inside the needlebook, and there are pockets for storing packets of needles and threads. A "pocket" thimble holder has been embellished with a covered button, which has also been hand embroidered...

...the embroidered panel has been appliqued onto the front of the needlebook, and embelllished with the hand pained wooden button gnome. All of the hand embroidery has been been stitched with a selection of variegated Valdani threads (I have quite a collection of these, bought from Lynette's online shop Little Quilt Store). The matchig scissor keeper has also been hand embroidered, and the scissors are attached to the keeper with cord and a tassel, also made with Valdani embroidery threads in colours to match the fabrics...

...this is such a cute set. It gives me a lot of pleasure to stitch things which are useful as well as pretty, and these ones are particularly pretty. Now these are ready to out in my sewing basket, it's time to finish another project that I started recently.

Sew What?

4/7/2020

I had such a surprise yesterday morning when this arrived in the post from a very special friend and colleague. This will have pride of place hanging in my sewing room! These stitches are so tiny and neat, they are so much better than mine, and I absolutely LOVE it!

A Birthday Poppy

3/7/2020

Sitting in my garden this morning with an early morning cup of tea before work, I spotted this gorgeous poppy. It seemed very fitting that this one appeared in my garden this morning, as it would've been my mum's birthday today. She loved poppies and over the past few weeks several poppies have appeared in my garden when I've least expected it. I'm so glad I took this photograph early this morning, as by late afteroon all the petals had blown away and this beauty was gone forever.

Secret of Love

1/7/2020

Back in May I shared a picture of this embroidery project that I was stitching - the pattern is called "Secret of Love" by the Australaiin desiger Natalie Bird, of the Birdhouse Patchwork Designs. This was stitched with a selection of DMC stranded embroidery threads, on a pre-printed calico panel, which I bought online from Cross Patch last year...

...the stitchery design is quite small, just so it didn't take too long to do the hand embroidery. Once the embroidery was completed, I wrapped it around a piece of thick card, ready for framing...

...as it would be tricky to embellish this piece of embroidery with one of my usual labels, I've just signed the card that the embroidery is mounted on. I've used a rectangular A4 sized frame for this project, available from Hobbycraft, and it's all ready to display in my home. The frame can either hag on the wall or be free-standing, so it's really versatile.

A Selection of Quilt Labels

30/6/2020

During the month of June I've been taking part in a FB group I belong to (In Stitches With Lynette Anderson) to post a picture of a different project every day either made with one of Lynettes patterns or fabrics. I couldn't decide which project to share for the last day of June, so here's a picture of my "Lynette" quilt labels instead. All of my larger wall hangings have had a hand embroidered label appliqued on to the back, and I try to incorporate the theme from the quilt into the label.
Can you guess which projects they're for?

Kimono Lady Journal Cover

27/6/2020

The Kimono Lady Journal Cover is a design by the Australian designer Lynette Anderson, and this kit was bought from Poppy Patch, here in the UK. The kit included the pattern, all the fabrics, and the hand painted wooden button. I used the Apliquick method for the applique, and used an 80wt Aurifil cotton thread for hand stitching the applique into place...

...I used a different construction technique for making the journal cover to the original pattern instructions, and also made it slightly smaller than the original instructions, to enable an A5 sized journal to slip inside. The notebook can easily be removed and replaced when it's full up...

...the hand embroidery has been sttuched with an assortment of DMC and variegated Valdani threads, and embellished with the hand painted wooden butterfly button. Here's the finished journal cover, all ready to be gifted to a colleague later this afternoon. I hope she likes it!

Hydrangea Panel

26/6/2020

Hydrangea Panel was a workshop I'd attended with Alexandra Waylett at Kis Quilting Ltd back in the summer of 2018. This has been created using real hydrangea petals and lots of free motion embroidery both around the hydrangea petals and also filling in the gaps. I didn't manage to complete at the time, and after sorting through my project boxes I decided it was time to complete it...

...anyway, I'd made a huge mistake on my work. So I sat and cried. And swore. A lot. Then chopped off the "wonky" bit. And I've just spent a morning being "arty" and hey presto!!! It's now completed, mounted and framed. Just goes to show what you can achieve when you push yourself out of your comfort zone!

*If you fancy having a go at one of these panels yourself, have a look over on Alexandra Waylett's website and you'll see an assortment of project boxes that are available.

Centre Tulip Block

25/6/2020

I'm absolutely loving the centre tulip block! This pattern is the Spring Tulip Table Topper which was designed by Julia Roworth and bought as a kit from Cross Patch. Now the table topper has been pieced together, I'm just deliberating over the quilting!

A Very Posh Afternoon Tea

24/6/2020

So this time last week we had a very posh afternoon tea after we said cheerio to a very special person. I'm sure she would've approved as she loved a slice of homemade cake. I spent a busy day last Tuesday baking, and here you can see a Victoria Sponge, filled with Tiptree strawberry and champagne conserve, lemon drizzle cake, and some very delicious cream horns!

Another Friendship Journal Cover

22/6/2020

This is my favourite stitchery design for friendship gifts - the pattern is the Friendship Notebook by the Austrakian designer Gail Pan, and the patter was bought ages ago from Cpast and Country Crafts. I've used a variegated Valdani perle thread for the hand embroidery, shade M32 which works perfectly with these fabrics that I used from the Katie Jane collection, by Makower. The fabrics and gorgeous thread were bought from Cross Patch last year. I've used an A5 notebook to slip inside the cover, that can be removed when it's full up...

...and here's the finished journal cover, complete with notebook inside. I've machine quilted this very simply with a silver grey King Tut machine quilting thread that blends into the colours of the fabrics. This is proving to be my favourite colour quilting thread - I need to stock up from Sew and So's as they have a super collection of King Tut threads! This was posted off at the weekend to a very special friend - I really hope she likes it!