Natures Threads

Patchwork Fabric for Fun Gifts

Patchwork fabric lends itself to all sorts of projects including kitchen craft items which are ideal to donate to your local craft/school fair.

Simple Gifts with Country Chic

In my earlier post I showed you the butchers apron I had made using spotty patchwork fabric. I have now added to that apron and using the same fabric I have made a storage bag to keep carrier bags in as shown below.

A Matching Collection

I have also made a pair of lavender filled oven gloves in the same fabric, and I’ve sewn some matching labels to a set of three pastel spotty tea towels. so I now have four matching gifts to donate to my local charity craft show.

Quick & Easy to Make

These items are quick, easy & inexpensive to make, you could easily make some lovely items like these either as gifts or to donate to the school Christmas fair.

If you would like more information on both sewing directions or availability of fabric I am happy to help.

Plastic Bag Store

Lavender Oven Mitts

Spotty Tea Towels

Tags: Add new tag, Christmas_gifts, patchwork_fabric

Versatile Patchwork Fabric

Patchwork fabric can be used for all sorts of different crafts. It is 100% cotton and lends itself to most projects including childrens  clothes, small home furnishings, card making and country gifts.

Easy Sew Cotton

Because the fabric is cotton, it is easy to sew with and very easy to launder as well as being available in thousands of different eye-catching designs from country stripes to spots, to florals, etc.

Kitchen Collection

I am making a collection of kitchen items from the same fabric to take to my local school fair.

Butchers Apron

Here is the butchers style apron I made from spotty fabric. YOU can use any good quality fabric to make house hold items like this and they make great items to donate to your local charity.

Free Instructions Available

If you need help to make this apron, please contact me, I am happy to supply you with instructions to make this lovely apron.

Tags: 100% cotton, apron, card making, country gifts, fair., florals, patchwork fabric, spotty fabric, stripes

Season of Mists…

We’re having such a cool August that it feels as if autumn is already here! I’m drawing my curtains earlier every evening and recently I’ve been reaching for a jumper for the evening!

This unusually cool weather makes me think of autumn and the coming seasons, so I thought I’d better get cracking and make some items for the autumn craft stalls.

Autumn Tea-Towels

I wanted to make something effective, but because time is scarce these days it had to be quick, so I bought some tea towels from a local linen store - they weren’t expensive - you could buy them from anywhere really, kitchen shop, home store, even the supermarket, and I attached some card making  labels to the bottom of the tea towels. I thought they looked  good.

Well that inspired me to go to the next stage! so having bought more tea towels, I sewed some Christmas labels to the bottom and I’m really pleased with them.

Christmas Cheer

They’d be fantastic to donate to your local Christmas craft show or to give to someone as a small gift. I’m going to bring mine out on Christmas day and put them in the kitchen to jazz it up a bit!

Now is the best time to start sewing for the autumn and Christmas craft fairs and there are so many different items you can make quite quickly and simply using these lovely labels.

Tags: Add new tag, autumn, christmas, craft, crafts, gift, gifts, labels, tea towels, xmas

Combat Chills

At present it’s warm & sunny, the sun is shining, the days are long and we’re all enjoying the weather.

Rising Fuel Bills
The papers are telling us that our fuels bills are going to rise enormously, but at the moment that all seems a long way off!

From Cold to Cozy
But it won’t be long before the nights are noticeably drawing in, there’ll be a nip in the air and we’ll all start feeling chilly. Rather than going straight to the heating controls, you could make yourself ( and other family members) a lap quilt like this one!

A Lovely Lap Quilt

When you’re sitting down in the evening, whether on the computer, watching t.v., sewing or reading, you can just drape it over you. It’s wonderfully light and it will save you from having to turn your heating on too early. When the temperatures drop again, you can use your lap quilt to keep you warm, so that you can keep your thermostat down, and so save on your future fuel bills!!

Simple Skills

You only need basic sewing skills to make this quilt as it only has 3 blocks, a nine patch block, a square in a block and a daisy block , as you can see from this picture.

I chose to make this quilt in fresh spring colours, but if you choose fabric that matches or co-ordinates with your living room, it would look lovely draped on the back of your sofa!

I have patterns to make this quilt on my website!

Happy sewing

Tags: Add new tag, blocks, colours, daisy, fuel, lap quilt, patterns, save money, spring, warm

Origins of Patchwork

Originally patchwork quilts were made out of old clothing and old bedding, anything that could be used was used.
People were poor and times were hard, they couldn’t afford new bedding so bedclothes and quilts were made from the less used part of worn out clothing. During the depression, patchwork quilts were even made from old feed sacks!

A Beautiful Feed-Sack Quilt

Don’t Throw Your Favourites Away

These day, most quilts are made from new fabric especially designed for patchwork & quilting. However, often the most attractive quilts are made from odds and ends, little pieces of fabric new or old all sewn together to make what is often referred to as a ’scrappy quilt’.

Being Economical Too!

You don’t necessarily need to buy large quantities of fabric, if you have some fabric that you’d like to put to good use, or if you have two or smaller pieces of fabric that don’t quite work, then all you need to do is, buy small packs of co-ordinating or contrasting fabric to make up the necessary amount and to help blend the fabrics together.

You can buy packs of fat sixteenths from me ( 10 pieces of fabric each approximately 9″ x 11″), in various colours and designs.

Here is a pack of fat sixteenths in pastel florals

This quilt I made from a selection of scraps plus 2 fat sixteenth packs.

Inspiration Is All Around

There are many many quilts and wall hangings to be made from left over bits & pieces, so save them all up and when you have plenty lay them all out and I’m sure an idea will spring to mind!

Tags: patchwork fabric, quilt, scrappy_quilt

All too often I am greeted by unhappy quilters who are searching for fabric to finish a project, fabric that has sadly become unavailable!

So, when buying fabric for patchwork & quilting it is important that everyone is aware that there are two different types of patchwork fabric.

Each fabric house produces it’s own range of solids (plain colours) and semi solids often referred to as blendables. They tend to have either a very small all over pattern or just a splashing of colour or a clouding of colour. e.g. Moda marbles, Benartex’s fossil ferns, Makower’s Spraytime & Kaufman’s Fusions.

They are chosen for their ability to blend with their other fabrics and because they add a little more detail than a solid colour would. These fabrics come in plenty of colours and are available for many years.

Here is an example of blendable fabrics.

However, all other fabrics are fashion fabrics and are only avaialable for a limited time, in some cases less than a few months!!

Here is an example of fashion fabrics

If a particular range of fabric is popular, the shop keeper may only have it on the shelf for a few weeks, often it can’t be re-ordered, and unless you are particularly prolific it takes more than a few weeks to make your quilt.

Therefore it is wise to buy more fabric than you think you may need. It is much better to have a few extra pieces of fabric in your stash(after all if you love it you’ll use) than it is to have a quilt spoiled by not having enough fabric of your choice!! Or an unfinished quilt because you can’t bear to continue without the exact piece of fabric!

I’m sharing this with you, in the hope that it might prevent others from being desperately disappointed when the can no longer find the fabric to complete their masterpiece!

Tags: Add new tag, benertex, fossil ferns, fusions, kaufman, makower spraytime, marbles, Moda, patchwork fabric, quilt, Quilting

Here’s an idea to use up all those scraps from your patchwork and quilting.

I always find I have lots of little snippets of wadding leftover from when I have trimmed a quilt prior to attaching the binding.

I store them all up and then when I think I have enough, I make a cushion pad out of a spare piece of calico or even an odd piece of curtain lining.

When the pad is made I leave it open for a little while slowly adding all my wadding trimmings, then when the pad is full and is the right shape( I don’t like my cushions too firm) I slip stitch it closed.

Here’s one I made this week.

A home made cushion pad is a bit plain and so I then rummage through all my little odds and ends ( I hardly ever throw any fabric away), and using several small pieces I make an appliqued cushion cover for the pad.

Like this one here.

Tags: Add new tag, cushion, cushion cover, fabric, wadding

New comers to patchwork & quilting frequently ask me for advice in choosing fabric for their first project. Often they have enrolled on a beginners course and been asked to bring a selection of fat quarters to their first class.

I always suggest that they choose two colours they absolutely love ( e.g. pink & green) and select two fabrics from each colour then build more colours around them, until they have enough for their class. Like this selection below.

Alternatively, I suggest they choose one colour they love and one colour they dislike,( pink & grey) and again build on that, they are often amazed at the wonderful contrast created by putting their favourite, and least favourite colours together. Below is a less obvious combination, but the contrasts between the rich red, tans and greens works very well!

I know sometimes beginners to patchwork feel less than confident in choosing their colour schemes, which is probably why they play safe and choose fabric bundles that have already been colour coded & selected for their balance!

Perhaps they feel that they may choose the wrong combination? There is no wrong combination- if you love it then it’s perfect!!

If the colours work for you, don’t hesitate, go with them and enjoy creating something you’ll love and treasure for ever!

Tags: colours, fabric bundles, patchwork

A quick tip for all those quilters who can’t bear to throw useful left-overs from a project.

Cut them into strips say about 2 1/2″ wide and then sew them into one continous length.

It doesn’t matter if they are different colours, you can place reds creams & blues next to each it just adds to the charm of it. It probably is a good idea to place clashing colours a little distance apart though.

When you have finished, roll it all up into a ball like knitting yarn and put it in a safe place.

Next time you need some binding for a scrappy quilt, you have it already there!

It’s so simple, economical & time saving.

Here’s one in the making.

I’ve already used some of it on this simple country quilt constructed from 6″ square blocks.

My son loves it, and so it lives on his bed most of the time.

Your loved ones will also take comfort from a quilt made by mum.

Tags: Add new tag, Quilting, Quilting_tips