Nicola Foreman Quilts
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Today I'm a Teacher

28/4/2018

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My sewing bag is packed and ready for teaching a class today at Kis Quilting Ltd in Ipswich. Hoping the ladies all have lots of fun!
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The Sopwell Ladies Basket Society - Making Steady Progress

26/4/2018

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I'm making steady progress with the applique for "Alice" the first block of The Sopwell Ladies Basket Society Quilt designed by Gail Pan Designs. This was bought as a kit online from Cross Patch in Wales, these gorgeous fabrics are from the Sequoia collection by and Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts for Andover Fabrics. All the applique has been stitched in place by hand, and apart from the bias strips, all the applique was made using the applique paper and gluestick method, along with Apliquick tools.
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Blue Butterfly Bag - Stitchery Prepped

24/4/2018

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I like to have a few different projects on the go, so I've always got some hand sewing that's easy to pick up and stitch in the evenings, and Blue Butterfly Bag by the Australian designer Gail Pan Designs is another one that I've prepared. This is such a super design. The pattern was included in the kit from Cross Patch in Wales, here in the UK. I managed to piece together the bag front over the weekend, and these fabrics are lovely to sew with - they are by Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts for Moda. I used a Schmetz Microtex size 60 needle for the machine piecing, along with an Aurifil 50wt thread in a pale grey, shade 2610. The stitchery design has been traced using a pale brown Micron Pigma pen (my favourite is the finest nib, size 005 but all I could find in my pencil case was a size 01 nib, which is still ok, and 2 strands of embroidery thread will cover this easily. I prefer to use a pale brown colour pen as this doesn't seem to affect the colour of the embroidery thread. Weaveline, a fine lightweight fusible interfacing has been fused to the back of the stitchery fabric - I did this after the design was traced onto the right side of the fabric. You can see that I haven't drawn the shapes of the lazy daisy stitches - I refer to mark a small "dot" where the stitch will start and stop, so I don't have to worry about the loop of the stitch covering the traced line. This has been packed in my sewing bag, and I'm ready to spend the evening with some friends - lots of laughter, chatting and even some sewing!
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The Sopwell Ladies Basket Society Quilt - Prepping Applique

23/4/2018

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I had a relaxing afternoon yesterday sitting in the garden, preparing some applique ready for my next large project, The Sopwell Ladies Basket Society Quilt. This was bought as a kit from Cross Patch in Wales, and included these gorgeous fabrics from the Sequoia collection by Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts for Andover. The kit included fabrics for the quilt top, borders and binding, and the pattern which is by the Australian designer Gail Pan.
I'm using the applique paper and glue stick method of applique for this quilt, along with Apliquick tools. As you can see, I've layered the applique just for the photograph. The handle has already been stitched in place with Aurifil 80wt thread. The bias flower stems will be next, followed by the basket, then the leaves and flowers, and finally the berries. All the applique will be stitched with Aurifil 80wt thread. There is lots of  hand applique along with machine piecing in this quilt, so I'm hoping to get a block completed each month. 
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Seaside Town - Ready for Quilting

22/4/2018

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Seaside Town is all ready to go off to J-Quilts, the wonderful longarm quilter that works her magic on my quilts. This was the mystery button club quilt by the Australian designer Lynette Anderson. I've made several of Lynette's designs - quilts, bags, cushions and sewing accesssories. This will be embellished with hand painted wooden buttons once the quilt is finishex - I've just laid them in place for the photograph! The lighting wasn't very good indoors this morning, normally I prefer to do my photoshoots outside. Mr F kindly dismantled my washing line as he's re-designing the garden - so worse than having nowhere to hang my laundry, there's nowhere to hang my quilts for a photoshoot!
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Seaside Town - The Outer Border is Stitched in Place!

21/4/2018

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Seaside Town was first launched back in April 2017 - it was a mystery button club quilt, by the Australian designer Lynette Anderson Designs. I'd signed up with Cross Patch in Wales, and each month the pattern arrived in the post along with a cute hand painted wooden button (these will be stitched place once the quilt is completed). The outer border has now finally been pieced together and stitched in place. This border consists of lots of small blocks - 16 patch, Snail Trail, foundation paper pieced houses...
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...and some really cute appliqued seahorses. After starting this BOM back in April 2017, Seaside Town is almost complete. I have learnt lots of new techniques whilst making this quilt - and discovered that I really enjoyed foundation paper piecing!...
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...those tiny squares in the 16 patch blocks are just 1" finished size! I'm really pleased that I remade the Snail Trail blocks - initially I had made several cream and blue blocks to resemble the waves and the ocean, but I think these ones look much better.
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Blue Butterfly Bag Kit

20/4/2018

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Ohhh I have admired this bag for simply ages. This is the Blue Butterfly Bag - pattern is by the Australian Designer Gail Pan Designs - and this gorgeous kit arrived in the post this morning from Cross Patch in Wales. The kit includes the pattern, fabrics, ric-rac, AND a skein of Cottage Garden Threads for the hand embroidery. I've suddenly become very distracted from completing my chores!! This will be the perfect gift for my mother-in-law's birthday in the summer. I've already made her quilts, numerous cushions and a bag for keeping her knitting in, so this will be perfect for when she's just popping down to the shops!
​If you fancy getting yourself one of these kits too, follow this link Blue Butterfly Bag Kit
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Seaside Town - Seahorse Blocks

19/4/2018

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I was going to say here's my shoal of seahorse blocks (afterall, they are fish) but Mr Google informed me the correct collective noun is a herd of seahorses. Whatever they are, they really are cute! These have been hand embroidered with variegated Valdani Threads (two strands of thread have been used for the embroidery) and hand appliqued using the applique paper and glue stick method along with Apliquick tools. These are all ready to be added to the outer border of Seaside Town, the mystery button club quilt by Lynette Anderson Designs.
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Bloom and Bliss Fabrics

17/4/2018

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A few days ago I spotted some rather lovely fabrics on Instagram - Bloom and Bliss by Riley Blake Designs and just HAD to get them! These were bought online from You, me and Mabel - anyway, they arrived in the post on Friday and they are absolutely GORGEOUS. I have a few ideas on what to make with these, but for now I'm still just admiring them!
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Seaside Town - More Snail Trail Blocks!

16/4/2018

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I spent a very productive Sunday morning in my sewing studio, stitching more Snail Trail blocks for the outer border of my Seaside Town quilt. I'd made a selection of blocks for the outer border a few weeks ago, and I really wasn't that keen on the colourway I'd used. These blocks are quite small, 4" finished size - so this involved lots of precision piecing - using a straight stitch needle place, Schmetz Microtex size 60 needle and Aurifil 50wt thread in shade 2610 - and I'm happy to say that I'm MUCH happier with the colourway of these blocks! Once I'd picked out my selection of fabrics, I cut all the squares/triangles that I needed, and chain pieced the blocks together to save time. These look much more like the blue/green blocks Lynette uses in her original quilt, and definitely look better than the ones I'd previously made!...
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...after a quick break for lunch, the 10 blue/red Snail Trail blocks for the outer border were completed too. All that's left to do now is to finish a couple of applique seahorse blocks, then these will be added to the foundation pieced houses, 16-patch blocks and the Snail Trail blocks pictured above. I'm hoping to get all the components for the outer border pieced together next weekend - then I can finally share a picture of the completed quilt top. 
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    About me...

    Hi - welcome to my quilting blog! My passions are my family, my dog, my friends and sewing, not necessarily in that order! 
    ​​I live in Suffolk, not far from the coast, surrounded by the beautiful countryside.  
    ​If you want to share or pin any of my pictures, please link back to my blog.

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    Blogs I follow

    A Quilt Lady
    A Quilting Life
    Abyquilt
    Anne-Grethe's quiltblog
    Anne Marie Quilt
    Bente Malm Quilte-Design
    Bloom
    Cinderberry Styitches
    Daisy made it
    Dilly Dimple
    Karis Quilterier
    Evas Quilterom
    Erickaeckles
    Fantasia Yarns
    Gail Pan Designs
    Hanne's Quilt Corner
    Halfpenny Home
    I'm a Ginger Monkey
    J-quilts
    Just Jude Designs
    Kviltstina
    Leanne's House
    Liv Aagots Quilteblogg
    Lily's Quilts
    Litamora's Quilt & Design
    Lynette Anderson Designs
    Merete's Quiltestue
    Mona's quiltblog
    Pam's Paradise Stitching
    Pia Si Sia
    Random Ramblings
    Sigrun's blog
    Sølvi's blog
    U-handblog
    ZewNice

     UK shops

    These are the UK shops that I use to purchase my quilting supplies - fabrics and threads etc.
    Bramblepatch
    Buttonberry
    Coast and Country Crafts
    Craft Den
    Cross Patch
    Emma's Fabric Studio
    Fiona's Fabrics
    Glenroy Designs
    Halfpenny Home
    Hulu
    J-quilts
    KIS Quilting
    Patchwork Chicks
    Quilter's Cloth
    Quilters Haven
    Sew and So's
    The Eternal Maker
    The Fat Quarters
    The Quilt Room
    U-handbag

    Australian links

    Cookies and Cream Craft
    Homespun magazine
    Little Quilt Store
    Quilt Fabric Delights
    Under The Mulberry Tree

    Scandinavian links

    Lapp-Elisa Quilts HB
    Lappedesign
    Lappedilla AS
    Myquilt
    Northern Quilts
    Quiltegården
    Quiltekroken
    Quiltemagasinet
    Quiltespecialisten
    Sy-Sammen