Blog Archives - Nicola Foreman Quilts

Snow Buddies

31/1/2021

I'd bought this pattern from Cross Patch a couple of years ago - the pattern is Snow Buddies by the Australian designer Natalie Bird of The Birdhouse Patchwork Designs - and I've been stitching it over the past few weeks. The pattern includes both a paper traceable pattern and a pre-printed calico panel. This has been hand embroidered using a red Cosmo embroidery thread shade 346. It was then layered with a lightweight fusible wadding (Pellon H630) and machine quiltered very simply. I've used a variety of different red fabrics for the "tongues" on the lower edge. The final flourish was one of my "stitched by" labels which I've hand embroidered directly onto the backing fabric.

Gingerbread House

30/1/2021

I'd bought this pattern from Cross Patch a couple of years ago - the pattern is Gingerbread House by the Australian designer Natalie Bird of The Birdhouse Patchwork Designs - and I've been stitching it over the past few weeks. The pattern includes both a paper traceable pattern and a pre-printed calico panel, which is what I've used. The has then been hand embroidered using a red Cosmo embroidery thread shade 346. It was then layered with a lightweight fusible wadding (Pellon H630) and machine quiltered very simply. I've used some very small red buttons as emberllishment on the gingerbread house along with a red button door knob. The final flourish was one of my "stitched by" labels which I've hand embroidered directly onto the backing fabric.

More Reverse Redwork

26/1/2021

A couple of years ago I bought a selection of patterns for festive wall hangings from Cross Patch, including this one - Gingerbread House by the Australian designer Natalie Bird of The Birdhouse Patchwork Designs. I'd completed the redwork embroiderywith a red Cosmo thread and added the borders. Before the backing fabric was added, I added my own little twist. After a rummage in my box of vintage buttons, I found the teeniest tiniest button to stitch in place on a decorative "quilt label" - I've hand embroidered directly onto the backing fabric for this festive wall hanging using white DMC embroidery thread.

Jolly Santa

21/1/2021

I'd bought this pattern from Cross Patch a couple of years ago - the pattern is Jolly Santa by the Australian designer Natalie Bird of The Birdhouse Patchwork Designs - and I've been stitching it over the past few weeks. This has been hand embroidered with a red Cosmo embroidery thread and quilted very simply around the !frame" of the stitchery piece. A quick rummage in my collection of vintage buttons (a much easier job now they've been sorted into colours) and couple of buttons have been added to the tabs. One of my "stitched by" labels has been hand appliqued to the back. I've got a few of these festive designs piled up on my cutting table just waiting for me to sort out out the border fabrics and more buttons!

Fabric Marking Pencils

20/1/2021

Following on from yesterday's post about the "reverse redwork" I've had several messages asking me about the pencil I've used to trace the design onto the red backing fabric. For tracing onto darker fabrics, I use a selection of different coloured fabric marking pencils, and prefer the cartridge ones with coloured refills. I've got quite several different brands in my "sewing essentials" - Bohin, Sewline and Prym (I used the Prym pencil yesterday as that was the one with a white refill in it). You can get refills in a variety of colours - white, yellow, ink, grey - they all work brilliantly, although my favourite is probably the white refill, especially if I'm using white embroidery thread. As you know, if I'm tracing on light coloured fabrics, then I'd usually use a light brown Micron Pigma pen in the finest nib size 005 although it is permanent ink so you need a very steady hand. I find that even 1 strand of thread will cover the lines of this size nib and use a light brown colour ink if I'm going to use coloured embroidery threads (the light brown ink ensures the colours of the embroidery thread stays true) and a red one for redwork.

Reverse Redwork Quilt Label

19/1/2021

This festive redwork design is "Snow Buddies" by the Australian designer Natalie Bird of The Birdhouse Patchwork Designs, This was purchased a couple of years ago from Cross Patch and the pattern includes both pre-printed calico and a traceable design too. I've used 2 strands of red embroidery thread and my favourite Hiroshima Tulip embroidery needles for the simple hand embroidery. I've used some bright red fabric for the backing, and decided to embroider a "label" directly onto the backing. Using a white fabric marking pencil, I've traced the design using a lightpad. I've often referred to this as "reverse redwork" as I've used a white embroidery thread on red fabric. As you can see, another one of Natalies designs has been used for the centre of the "label" as I thought this snowman was rather jolly! Now this just needs to be layered up and quilted.

Wish You Well - The Borders

17/1/2021

Wish You Well has been this year's mystery BOM by Gail Pan Designs and I really can say I have enjoyed every single stitch. At times this has been my salvation, my stress reliever, it's kept me sane during uncertain times. These pretty fabrics are from the Super Bloom collection by Edyta Sitar, and her fabrics really are lovely to sew with. I chose fabrics from this collection for the borders and binding, and all fabrics were purchased from Cross Patch...

...these blocks have been decorated with vintage linens and lace trimmings,. They have been hand embroidered with a selection of embroidery threads and hand appliqued - this really has been a labour of love. Now that the borders are on, this will be my hand quilting project for 2021. It will be hand quilted very simply as I've never tackled anything this size before!

Friendship Notebook Cover - Red

16/1/2021

One of my favourite projects to make for gifts are journal covers, and I particularly like the stitchery design on this one. The pattern is Friendship Notebook Cover by the Australian designer Gail Pan Designs. The hand embroidery was stitched using a variegated red Valdani perle thread, bought from Cross Patch. I've used a different layout for my fabrics, as I was trying to use up as many smaller pieces of these French General fabrics as I could!...

...once the strips of fabric were pieced together, I've used a felted polyester wadding (Pellon H30, also bought from Cross Patch) and added some vintage buttons and lace trimming. I've constructed mine differently to Gail's original instructions, as I have a tried and trusted method which I prefer! Before the sides are folded in and secured, the edges of the notebook are covered with a narrow binding which is hand stitched in place. I prefer to use spiral bound notebooks as they are so much easier to put inside the covers and are easily replaced when they're full of important notes!...

...and here's the finished journal cover - with an A5 sized notebook inside. These journal covers are a great way of using up smaller pieces of fabric, like this one, if you don't follow the cutting instructions in the pattern, and can easily be enlarged to fit any size of notebook. This one was posted to a special friend, Linda, who has been the recipient of my notebooks before - I hope she likes this one!
*I'd bought this pattern last year from Coast & Country Crafts and Quilts, and it's also available from Cross Patch

Friendship Notebook Cover - Mauve

15/1/2021

One of my favourite projects to make for gifts are journal covers, and I particularly like the stitchery design on this one. The pattern is Friendship Notebook Cover by the Australian designer Gail Pan Designs. The hand embroidery was stitched using a variegated mauve Valdani perle thread, bought from Cross Patch. I've used a different layout for my fabrics, as I was trying to use up as many pieces of these fabrics designed by Lynette Anderson Designs as I could!...

...once the strips of fabric were pieced together, I've used a felted polyester wadding (Pellon H30, also bought from Cross Patch) and added some vintage buttons and lace trimming. I've constructed mine differently to Gail's original instructions, as I have a tried and trusted method which I prefer! Before the sides are folded in and secured, the edges of the notebook are covered with a narrow binding which is hand stitched in place. I prefer to use spiral bound notebooks as they are so much easier to put inside the covers and are easily replaced when they're full of important notes!...

...and here's the finished journal cover - with an A5 sized notebook inside. These journal covers are a great way of using up smaller pieces of fabric, like this one, if you don't follow the cutting instructions in the pattern, and can easily be enlarged to fit any size of notebook. This one was wrapped and posted off to Gina earlier this week.
*I'd bought this pattern last year from Coast & Country Crafts and Quilts and it's also available from Cross Patch

Friendship Notebook Cover - Brown

14/1/2021

One of my favourite projects to make for gifts are journal covers, and I particularly like the stitchery design on this one. The pattern is Friendship Notebook Cover by the Australian designer Gail Pan Designs. The hand embroidery was stitched using a couple of variegated Valdani perle threads, bought from Cross Patch. I've used a different layout for my fabrics, as I was trying to use up as many smaller pieces of these fabrics, designed by Lynette Anderson Designs, as I could!...

...once the strips of fabric were pieced together, I've used a felted polyester wadding (Pellon H30, also bought from Cross Patch) and added some vintage buttons and ric-rac trimming (this was secured in place with a few colonial knots). I've constructed mine differently to Gail's original instructions, as I have a tried and trusted method which I prefer! Before the sides are folded in and secured, the edges of the notebook are covered with a narrow binding which is hand stitched in place. I prefer to use spiral bound notebooks as they are so much easier to put inside the covers and are easily replaced when they're full of important notes!...

...and here's the finished journal cover - with an A5 sized notebook inside. These journal covers are a great way of using up smaller pieces of fabric, like this one, if you don't follow the cutting instructions in the pattern, and can easily be enlarged to fit any size of notebook. This one was posted off to a special friend, Julie, who has been the recipient of my notebooks before - I hope she likes this one!
*I'd bought this pattern last year from Coast & Country Crafts and Quilts and it's also available from Cross Patch