#customisingyourquilt

Nicola

Mar 16, 2020

From my sketchbook: Paradise Found

EDIT: You can now buy this pattern as a PDF here or as a Paper Pattern here. One of my favourite aspects of quilting is the way that block designs gently evolve over the centuries. Each maker's hands adapt, interpret and amend them as their imagination is sparked by the work of the women who went before them. And their work, in turn, will be the spark for future makers. This evolution is captured in the names that quilters give their blocks, often referring them to an object,

Nicola

Oct 2, 2019

PATTERNS

From my sketchbook: Winterlilies

Issue 54 of Today's Quilter is on your newsstands tomorrow and it is full to bursting with amazing Christmas projects, so I feel very honoured to have my Winterlilies quilt in such wonderful company. This is such a fun quilt to make: simple enough in its construction for a beginner, but flexible enough in its layout to engage more experienced quilters. The block is based on a traditional log cabin design - with a twist - so I looked to antique log-cabin quilts to inspire some

Nicola

Aug 6, 2019

PATTERNS

From My Sketchbook: Roosting Birds

If you have the latest copy of Today's Quilter - issue 52, with Jo Avery's beautiful appliqued quilt on the cover - then you may have seen my newest project, Roosting Birds, which is an exploration of the Tree of Paradise block. Like lots of classic blocks it goes by multiple names, so you might also know it as the Pine Tree, Christmas Tree or Tree of Life block. Many traditional blocks, like the Tree of Life block, were inspired by the things that early quilters saw around t

Nicola

Jul 21, 2019

TUTORIALS

Moda Bakeshop Summer Camp...

This is the second year that the Moda Bakeshop have hosted their wonderful Quilter's Summer Camp and this year we're at the beach. Since June the Bakeshop Chefs have been sharing their beautiful blocks along with their favourite seaside memories. Today is my turn and where else would I whisk you off to but Cornwall? Photos from our trip to St. Ives earlier this month... My block is based on that perennial British favourite: the Beach Hut. The place where we wriggle into sandy

Nicola

Apr 25, 2019

PATTERNS

Spring has sprung...

...the bird is on the wing. Or busy nesting by now, I should think! If you're doing a little nesting yourself, or making a quilt for newlyweds, I may have just the thing: a new quilt in issue 48 of Today's Quilter called Nesting Birds. EDIT: You can now buy the Nesting quilt as a Paper Pattern here or a PDF Pattern here Designed as a traditional frame quilt, the central motif is composed of pieced hearts surrounding an embroidered monogram and this is surrounded in turn by ga

Nicola

Feb 20, 2019

PATTERNS

Everything in the Garden's lovely...

Whilst I'm always excited to see my Postman deliver the latest copy of Today's Quilter, this month I've been waiting rather impatiently because I couldn't wait to share my latest project with you: the Kitchen Garden. Image shown with the permission of 'Today's Quilter' When my lovely editor, Fiona, suggested a row-by-row quilt on a garden theme I immediately thought of walled gardens and old-fashioned allotments. My friend Lou, on Instagram (@thelittleredrobin) has created a

Nicola

Jan 17, 2019

TUTORIALS

The Sailing By Sampler...

Welcome to a new Petit Four tutorial: my finishing instructions for the Sailing By Sampler quilt. As before, the tutorial is for those of you making all eight blocks but, of course, you can double up your favourites or substitute other Petit Four blocks to your quilt. The design for the blocks and the setting evolved together and I loved the idea of the Whale and the Lighthouse 'escaping' from their squares. As I mentioned in my last post, the blocks remind me of happy holida

Nicola

Jan 5, 2019

IN OTHER NEWS

Your favourite posts of 2018...

This seems slightly self-indulgent of me but, two and a half years and seventy-odd posts in, I was interested in finding out which topics you enjoyed most last year. When I started this blog my main aim was to introduce myself and support my customers with tutorials. It also gave me the chance to talk in more detail about my design inspiration, offer some ‘behind-the-scenes’ musings on running a small craft business and share ‘new-to-me’ tips and techniques. I was surprised t

Nicola

Jan 1, 2019

PATTERNS

From my Sketchbook: Homeward Bound...

At the darkest time of the year, it's lovely to stay warm and cosy inside making a quilt that looks forward to bright spring days ahead. And I have a project in issue 44 of Today's Quilter that does just that. Homeward Bound combines a colourful cottage block, a simple, graphic garden block and a border of bunting constructed from flying geese. When I designed this quilt last spring I originally had the beautiful border print in Edyta Sitar's Something Blue collection for Mak

Nicola

Jul 3, 2018

IN OTHER NEWS

Rainy Day Runner workshop...

Never was a workshop so poorly named. It was a gloriously sunny day when I taught a group of lovely friends from my local quilting group, the Shropshire Quilters, how to make my Jolly Brollies quilt. Our venue was the light and airy studio at the Castle Court quilt shop in Whittington and I took along a Lemon Drizzle cake - I do like a theme - to keep us all going. I put together a special edition of the Jolly Brollies pattern: a Rainy Day Runner. Although some of the class a

Nicola

Feb 6, 2018

TUTORIALS

Spellbound...

Edit: All of the posts & tutorials from 2018's Spellbound Sew-along can be found here. I've finished my Spellbound Sampler Quilt at long last. I've really enjoyed hand quilting it over the past few months, although it was frequently put aside while I tackled Christmas gifts and magazine commissions. After stitching around the motifs I chose a zig-zag for the individual block backgrounds, echoing the border. When it came to binding I chose a delicious coral stripe from the fab

Nicola

Jan 8, 2018

PATTERNS

Present and correct...

I love making Christmas gifts but the secrecy required nearly kills me, so it’s really good to finally share what I was making in December...and it all began last Easter... In April Mark, the boys and I spent an idyllic couple of weeks in Anguilla and Antigua with Mark’s family. I took my Pennine Star quilt with me to make a start on the hand quilting and it will forever remind me of lazy days sitting under the veranda, gazing out over Barnes Bay as I stitched. There may have

Nicola

Dec 23, 2017

TUTORIALS

It's all about the timing...

We rarely have snow in Shropshire, but this month it arrived right on cue as I joined the Moda Bakeshop chefs in their Countdown to Christmas. Each day in the run up to Christmas we have been posting a fun festive block, to be used together in a sampler quilt or individually in smaller projects. Sort of like an advent calendar without chocolate...which is slightly disappointing but it does involve fabric, so that’s OK then ;-) My design was inspired by a sprig of Holly and I

Nicola

Nov 14, 2017

PATTERNS

A Festive Table Runner...

EDIT: You can now buy this pattern as a PDF here or as a Paper Pattern here. My subscription copy of Today's Quilter arrived last week and I was looking forward to opening it even more than usual, because this month I'm a contributor *insert much dancing around the kitchen* and my Festive Table Linen project has been included in the latest issue. I met editor Jenny Fox-Proverbs when I attended one of her classes at a quilt retreat in London a few years ago and she was as love

Nicola

Jul 25, 2017

TUTORIALS

Simple Hand Quilting Ideas...

A warm welcome if you've joined me from the marvellous Moda Bakeshop. Here, as promised, are my favourite tips for those of you considering hand quilting your Woodruff Quilt. Or any quilt, for that matter. I love hand-quilting and find it very relaxing. I particularly enjoy the transformation of three separate layers of fabric - feeling their weight draped over my palm - to one continuous piece of quilted fabric, which somehow takes on a life of its own, feeling lighter in m

Nicola

Jun 30, 2017

TUTORIALS

Honeybee Block...

One of my dearest friends approached me a few weeks ago to ask whether I could help her customise one of my patterns. Her work colleague was injured in the Manchester Arena bombing and she wanted to raise funds for him by making a special quilt to raffle. The block she wanted to include was a Bee. The industrious Worker Bee has been a symbol of the city of Manchester since the C19th and, since the terrorist attack, has been adopted as an emblem of unity, strength and positivi

Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside...

Nicola

May 16, 2017

TUTORIALS

Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside...

I've been chatting to my lovely friend, Jackie (you can chat with her too, on Instagram, she's @jacki_nash ) about her wonderful, customised Cornish version of To Skye. She has spent many happy holidays in Cornwall and wanted to add a Dinghy block from Make Sail - the blocks are the same size - and turn the Scottish Tystie into a Cornish Seagull. Easily achieved, just by changing the fabric placement. So when I came to make a sample quilt of To Skye for my Festival of Quilts

Nicola

Mar 31, 2016

TUTORIALS

Take an umbrella, just in case...

I had always planned to include a couple of blocks from my patterns in my Keep Calm and Carry On quilt. The cakestand block from Vintage China fitted a treat, but the umbrella block from Jolly Brollies was a tad too small, so it was back to the drawing board or, rather, the computer to tweak the size of the template. The block is based on a Dresden Fan block. I have always loved the look of those beautiful 1930's Dresden quilts, but I didn't love using the fiddly templates,

Nicola

Mar 28, 2016

TUTORIALS

Slow and Steady Wins the Race...

I finished my Keep Calm And Carry On quilt this morning and I'm a little bit sorry. I've thoroughly enjoyed making every single block, possibly because they've all been slightly different and all had their own little challenges. And there's been plenty of opportunity to procrastinate over fabric choices, which is one of my favourite parts of quilting. Because, truth be told, I rather like a quilt to go together slowly. There's a luxury in taking my time and enjoying the proce

Nicola

Mar 6, 2016

TUTORIALS

Keep Calm & Carry On...

Thanks to Storm Imogen and a rather wet and windy weekend in Cornwall I've been whizzing through my Moda Bakeshop Birthday Sew-along blocks. Some letters are slightly more challenging than others, so I eased myself in with a couple of 'E's *ahem* before moving on to the trickier blocks with diagonal sections. And I couldn't resist tweaking a couple of the letters. I had larger pieces of some of the prints in my Avalon Jelly Roll, so I constructed my 'M' and 'Y' with triangle-