quilting blog Archives

Posted on December 10, 2019 December 10, 2019

Day 10 quilting of the 31 day blog challenge 2019

Day 10 quilting means I am a third of the way through the month of the blog challenge 2019. It’s been great to participate so far and I am enjoying reading the quilting blogs of the other quilters taking part. There are great quilts to see and lots to read. Today I have decided to introduce you to more of the bloggers. You can follow them all here

31 day bloggers

Let me introduce you to a few bloggers on Day 10 quilting. The challenge was initiated by Muppin and quilter Cheryl Sleboda who has a fun take on quilting. Cheryl loves texture and creates tactile textiles involving manipulation. She was instrumental in getting over 60 people to sign up to the 31 day blog challenge.

Pamela has some very beautiful quilts in her blogs. Her UFO on Day 6 is amazing. A BOM, Quilt Along is definitely something I must introduce next year. I have been experimenting on the quiet with blocks. Check out her day 4 on Fancy Feathers.

Tuning My Heart Quilts is a totally different style of quilting and that’s what I love about quilting, you can make it all so personal. Choose your style and technique, add a bit of you and it’s like magic. I love the Xmas makes on Day 4.

Creatin’ In The Sticks is something totally different again. Check out the Xmas star ornaments on her blog

Top Quilting Books

Best quilting books I would recommend would be in no particular order

Anything by Brian Haggard, I love these books and the style of quilting. His latest one is Blended Embroidery that I reviewed a little while ago.

Anything by Jean Wells, boy I love her style. Her design techniques are superb. I have also reviewed her books. Her latest is Intuitive Color and Design.

If you are into free motion you can do no better than Angela Walters. I particularly like Shape By Shape. She really is the Queen of free-motion quilting. I wish I could do this, I need lots of practice.

Sandra Meech is a fabulous quilter and I am lucky to have met her too. Her books are incredible. Her exhibition at the Festival of Quilts 2019 was wonderful to see.

If you want to be a quilt artist, look no further than Paula Nadelstern. She is impressive to say the least.

Finally, check out my book reviews because I review quilting books on a regular basis. I’ll be back tomorrow with more.

Posted on December 6, 2019 December 6, 2019

Day 6 quilting of the 31 day blog challenge

Day 6 quilting of the blog challenge brings you my oldest UFO. My one and only UFO. Yes I have only one. Every day brings a new blog for the 31 days of December, so don’t miss any.

UFO or Unfinished Object

Day 6 quilting – what do I have that is unfinished? In this case, a full sized quilt. An early project that I tried to stitch in the ditch on my small domestic machine at the time without a walking foot. I learned that lesson. That was one not to be repeated. It all went so horribly wrong and some of the stitches are very tight. Why is it still unfinished? It’s so much easier to start a new project. Unpicking takes so much longer than sewing. Day 6 quilting promise to myself is to finish it asap. I was hoping to finish it this year but a few things have gotten in the way. It is on my to do list.

How Old Is It?

I started making the quilt in August 2017. It was easy to put together. I just fell down on the quilting. The fabrics I was using were much older, they had been in a drawer since 2008!

At least I can now stitch in the ditch perfectly (more or less). I also bought a walking foot. So there should not be any more unfinished quilts on this patch.

Do you have any ufo’s? Work out why and fix it. All quilts deserve to be finished, sooner or later.

My Xmas Gift To You

At the same time as the 31 day blog challenge, I am running an advent calendar Christmas countdown, with a special offer every day. Today, there is a special offer on my hand dyed fabrics. Take 10% off the advertised price. The hand dyed fabrics are all dyed by me, most are cotton including quilting cotton (calico and fat quarters) and hand dyed cotton scrim suitable for textiles, but there are still a few velvets, silks and linens as well as muslin. Some are available in packs. If you cannot see what you want, just let me know.

All the fabrics can be found here

Words work and images copyright Karen Platt 2019

Posted on December 4, 2019 December 4, 2019

Day 4 Quilting of 31 Day Blog Challenge

On Day 4 Quilting I hope you are enjoying all ‘behind the scenes’ quilt know-how and tips. Today I am bringing you more of what I love and more discounts. Great ideas for gifts today for the quilter who has everything.

Hand or Machine

On Day 4 Quilting are you hand or machine quilting today? I tend to do both. Even my machine made quilts are finished by hand with the binding stitched to the back by hand. It gives a good professional finish. Although hand stitching takes longer, I find I can relax with it in the evening, and it hardly seems like work.

Cathedral Windows Quilting

One of my favourite methods for hand stitching is Cathedral Windows. I love the rhythm of folding back and stitching in place. Apart from basic patchwork, this was how I got into quilting. Last year speaking at quilt shows, one lady was amused by how my samples were nearly all Cathedral Windows. I was speaking on my favourite design topic – colour but I had taken mostly samples of my Cathedral Window quilts.

Day 4 Quilting Discount is Kits

Day 4 Quilting Discount is on all my quilting kits. The kits can be found here. They include a 16 patch Cathedral Window kit, Brights Cathedral Window kit, Ice Quilt kit, Spring Quilt kit, Summer Quilt Kit, Autumn Quilt Kit and Winter Quilt kit. Some of them might be in limited supply, so buy early and again this 15% discount is for one day only. Please check back tomorrow for a different discount. I look forward to seeing you. Meanwhile pop along to Minion to see the other blogs involved in this 31 day blog challenge.

Word, work and images copyright Karen Platt 2019

Posted on December 1, 2019 December 1, 2019

Day 1, 31 Day Blog Challenge

31 Day Blog challenge as set by a fellow quilter. On that website you can see all the other quilters who are taking part in this blog challenge. Welcome to Day 1 of the quilters’ blog challenge.

What I Hope To Do

I’ll be using the 31 Day Blog Challenge to give tips, techniques, wip, ufos and all things quilting so pop along every day to make sure you do not miss anything. At the same time I have an ‘advent calendar’ of discounts on items from my quilting website. Each discount will last one day only, the discounts vary from day to day. Some items are unique and one only, others are available to more than one purchaser. So keep tuned as we go through the next 31 days. I am currently working on 3 new quilts.

31 day blog challenge 2019 — my new scrap quilt design

Day 1

A little introduction for people who do not know me. I am a hands on quilter and teacher in the UK. I design all my quilts from scratch. I tend towards the more modern side of quilting, but enjoy all styles and techniques. I write my own patterns. I teach online, so it does not matter where you live. Quilts can also be purchased. You can see all my work so far on this page of my website.

Today’s Special Discount

Every day there will be a different discount. The discount runs until the launch of the next blog post on the following day, so make sure you place your order without delay. Day 1 on the 31 Day Quilters’ Blog Challenge is 15% off a one and only unique quilt. The for sale price has been put on the website. The higher price was marked from when the item was listed to 30 November 2019, it will revert back to the full price on 2nd December when discount 2 is launched.

discount on quilt — This fab quilt is discounted today

#31dayblogchallenge2019

Words, work and images copyright Karen Platt 2019

Posted on November 25, 2019 November 25, 2019

New Work Quilting, Inspiration and ebooks

It really has been a bumper week with new work and it would have been even more splendid had not the dreaded carpal tunnel syndrome not visited. I am no stranger to this, but have kept it at bay for years. This week I overstepped the mark with new work quilting, knitting and on the computer (the worst for my wrist and hand). It is the scourge of all crafters, so a few tips if you are a sufferer. It is of prime importance to rest. Pain is your body’s way of telling you something is wrong. Exercise might help, they take time, clench a fist and release, splaying the fingers. Buy a wrist support. Do not try to keep on doing what you are doing. Rest, rest, rest.

Quilt a doodle do

I am loving my new work in the quilting arena. Just putting wonderful colours together. A colourful scrap quilt, something new out of next to nothing. It’s looking good and I am pleased. A quick and easy quilt to make. It was a bit like doodling with fabric.

Knit wit

Oh yes, I have fingerless mitts and flip tops. Can life get any more exciting? Love these. The pattern is going in the Peak Collection Knitting Pattern booklet – it’s nearly there. This will launch on my Ravelry Store.

New ebooks

Two ebooks almost finished. Inspiration Book 11 Pattern Circles with almost 300 images and Inspiration Book 12 Pattern Repetition with over 500 images. Now you know why I have the carpal tunnel syndrome 🙂 I promise I will get book 10 finished too, it got left behind. See all the inspiration books and more here

Coming Up

Starting next Sunday, 1st December 2019 I shall be taking part in a 31 day blog writing challenge organised by Muppin. Lots of quilt bloggers are taking part, so come and read all about lovely quilts and quilting. I’ve got some special offers too throughout December, so don’t miss the daily posts. There’ll be lots of inspiration taking you through to 2020.

Words, work and images copyright Karen Platt 2019

Posted on October 7, 2019 October 7, 2019

Creative Quilting and textiles, travel and inspiration

Creative quilting and textiles are two of the loves of my life. Knitting and photography are two others. Everything is an inspiration, it’s just the way you see it, or often don’t see it that makes all the difference. Learn to look anew.

Creative Quilting and Textiles

Often with a subject such as quilting and textiles, it’s all about interpreting that source of inspiration. Taking something ordinary and turning it into the extraordinary. It’s not about copying, it’s about you. What speaks to you? This is the essence of my latest ‘Creative Textiles’ programme that you can join here

A 12-month inspirational ecourse to learn wherever you are. Discover how to interpret your world and be more creative. It will help you build your own style by exploring different methods of interpretation. What could be better?

Inspiration

I have written a lot about inspiration from patterns to the more unusual sources. As well as ways to interpret those sources from drawing, photography, painting and more. For me it usually starts with a photo and I like to play with photo manipulation. However, the same source can be interpreted in so many ways. It’s all about seeing and working with what you have. Let’s look at this church doorway.

You could interpret it in many ways – play with a photo, slice, collage, manipulate, draw, paint, embroider and so on. What do you see? The columns and Norman style are obvious.

Pick up on the pattern on the doors. Isn’t that a glorious pattern? What could that become if we play with line? A few ideas follow from my half hour playing this morning in Photoshop.

The final is never truly final. I could change colour, placement, the central piece of work, the background, the size, shape and so on. This was just a 30 minute exercise to demonstrate the possibilities. I could now start to draw, make paterns, think about colour and so on.

creative quilting and textiles — final interpretation

Resources

I have written many books on inspiration from gardening to textiles, available as pdf ebooks to download. My latest ebook is about ready to launch looking back at the sources of my quilting inspiration, more next week.

On the theme of this particular topic, is Inspiration Book Seven, which can be purchased along with the other Inspiration ebooks here

They make excellent gifts. Doors of Tunisia is also of interest if you love doors.

Art inspiration ebook — An Art inpsiration ebook

Learn more about photo manipulation in my ecourses, the shorter photo techniques ecourse is now on offer. These and more ecourses can be purchased here

Words, work and images copyright Karen Platt 2019

Posted on September 20, 2019 September 20, 2019

Drunkard’s Path Classroom Tutorial Back To School Blog Hop 2019

A huge welcome to my Drunkard’s Path Classroom Tutorial for the Blog Hop hosted and arranged by Sam Hunter’s Design Studio. I am a hands-on quilt designer and pattern writer with a big interest in textiles and knitting too. I am a fully qualified and experienced teacher.

Drunkard’s Path Classroom

Do you struggle with curves? Can’t work out the best way to sew them? The struggle is over with my techniques and tips for perfect Drunkard’s Path curves. This easy way makes your quilting life a whole lot simpler. At the same time it gives you the wonderful versatility associated with the many ways of putting Drunkard’s Path shapes together.

Cutting

Cutting accurately is important. My number one tip here is to keep as close to the template as you can. Holding your marker upright and not at an angle helps. The inner half circle can be cut with a rotary cutter. The outer can too, but much more care is needed. You might slice into the template. You can also use a pin to mark the fabric enough to see a clear line for cutting with scissors.

Templates

You can cut from card, mylar or paper but for a template that will be used over and over again, a good transparent template is ideal. The ones photographed here were free with a magazine and I have used them twice, but the amount of material left above the curve after the seams are joined is negligible and I believe a deeper margin is better.

Sewing Circles

Accuracy is necessary for the semi circle and the outer to match up. In the Drunkard’s Path camp we have pinners and non pinners. One thing of note is never to stretch the fabric. Some fabrics stretch more than others, so that is something to beware of when choosing fabrics and using a non pinning method. Larger templates are easier than small ones. It just gets fiddlier.

As a beginner I suggest you pin. All you need is three pins.
It is the way you pin it that matters.
It is also when you remove those pins that matter.
Find the centre of each part.

If after making x amount, you feel like going pin free, try it.

When you remove the pins is also important.

Secure the first stitch and remove the first pin.
Work to the centre pin and remove as you approach. Never stitch over a pin.
Hold that last pin there until the very last second to keep the edges together.

The Fun Part

The fun in Drunkard’s Path comes in all the different ways of putting those pieces together, so use a design wall and play. Once you have them perfect, it makes play easy. You can join them in circles, half circles, diagonals, and so on to create great patterns.

For a list of other tutorials in the Back To School Blog Hop 2019 see the list here and many thanks to Sam Hunter for organising this and giving me the opportunity to be a part of it.

Share, with your friends, sign up to our newsletter at the bottom of the home page. My quilting blog comes out every Monday. You can follow my quilting page on Facebook for daily news and Instagram for great pics.

Posted on August 12, 2019 August 12, 2019

Blog Quilting News – New Quilt, Workshops and Blog Hop, Website Registration

All the quilting news in one place. This is just for this week, it is getting so busy here.

New Quilt

My first quilting news is that I have just finished the new quilt, the second in the River Series Quilt patterns. I am so struggling with double vision, but hoping to move on to another new quilt design today.

New Workshops

My most exciting quilting news is that I am leading many workshops at the West Country Quilt Show in Bristol from 29 August for three days. Check out the show and workshop details on their website

Thursday 29th August 2019, 12.30 pm I am teaching how to make a Landscape Quilt, at 14.00pm scrap coasters – I’ll be showing lots of examples and how to do them and at 15.00 pm I’m doing Cathedral Windows with a difference.

Friday 30th at 10.30am I am teaching the sunflower quilt – this can be a 12″ pictorial wall hanging or quilt block. The rest are as above all 3 sessions. 4 sessions in total today.

Karen Platt quilting news — Karen Platt Sunflower Quilt

Saturday 31st is the same times and topics at the Friday. 4 sessions in total.

I hope to meet many quilters. I will be providing fabrics and teaching instructions. The fabrics might differ slightly to those shown. The Landscape is a smaller version. If you want to bring your own fabrics or bring scraps for other quilters, that would be fine. The booking form is at the bottom of the page on their website.

New Blog Hop

Welcome to my first blog hop, arranged by Sam of Hunter’s Design. On 20th September as part of the hop. I’ll be doing ‘Drunkard’s Path Made Easy’.

New Website Registration

You can now register on my website, and receive discounts an extra special goodies and pre-notifications. The Sign up is at the bottom of the home page, so make sure you scroll down. As a special thank you there is a mini ‘Inspiration’ pdf booklet that will be emailed to you.

If you missed the Festival of Quilts blogs – there is a 6 part series for 2019 highlighting many of the quilts on display. Just scroll on the menu to the right on the blog page to catch up.

Posted on June 10, 2019 June 10, 2019

Quilting Blog Hands-on Quilt Designer

In the quilting blog this week is my progress with the FOQ 2019 quilt, appearances and workshops.

Quilting Progress

For the FOQ quilt it was a case of leave it until I realised what was bugging me about it. That took 6 days. Never think designing a quilt happens in minutes and is then just sewn together perfectly. What is on paper, if you are designing from scratch, often changes when you are stitching when you realise a) it does not work b) it would work better another way or c) something else entirely will work better.

Something had been bugging me about the quilt since the second section. I just could not see what it was. When I finally realised I kicked myself, not only because I had not followed my gut feeling about piecing, but because I had to unpick. There might be six letters in that word but it really is a four-letter word to quilters. It not only means tedium, but is time consuming. However, it is all done now and the next section is also pieced. Just the final section to go and I am there. I have two ideas for that running around my head. I might not use either of them.

What’s New

Whilst I was waiting for things to click, I started cutting another quilt. I am playing with ways to piece this.

Quilting Workshops

Finally I believe the workshop bookings are open at the West Country Quilt Show, so you can book any three of the workshops I am offering.

Quilters’ Guild Members Discount

If you are a member of the Quilter’s Guild, you’ll also see I am offering 10% off purchases online. You can also see my online page on there and ask about booking me for a talk or workshop in your region. You can see all my work on my website here

Join me next week for the quilting blog, when I hope to have that FOQ quilt nearing completion.

Posted on April 15, 2019 April 18, 2019

Competition Quilts British Stitch and Quilt Show April 2019

Competition quilts are what so many visitors to shows come to see. This small show with a village atmosphere does not disappoint. There were many competition quilts on show and I just want to share some of them with you.

I am going to start with one of my favourite competition quilts at the show in the Traditional category. It is a ‘Dear Jane’ quilt by Francis Meredith. I wonder what your favourite is? This is so beautiful and the kind of quilt I would want on my bed.

Competition Quilts Dear Jane by Francis Meredith — Francis Meredith

The next one is also a favourite and was so realistic it looked like you could just walk into the church. Applique and some cut-outs. Michael Fitchett was a deserving winner with the Heart of The Midlands Group entry.

competition quilts Michael Fitchett's group entry Heart of The Midlands — Michael Fitchett

This was stunning but it was not lying flat ‘Egyptian Dahlia’ by Alison Francis.

Alison Francis competition quilt 'Egyptian Dahlia' — Alison Francis

‘Autumn Leaves’ are always a good theme and colourway. This was made by Anthea Stokes.

'Autumn Leaves' by Anthea Stokes. — Anthea Stokes

If you like that theme, you might find my own design I created last autumn of interest, it is available as a pattern

The quilt itself is also available for sale and I have another autumn wall hanging quilt kit

Heather Hasthorpe was a winner with a group entry quilt based on baskets. It was long armed.

Kathy Unwin 'Plastic Ocean — Kathy Unwin

Kathy Unwin’s ‘Plastic Ocean’ above, which I believe was shown at FOQ 2018 and below Susan Brown’s ‘Log-A-Rhythm’, also a winner.

Michelle Whitby’s ‘Woodland Peaks’ – a masterpiece in quilting.

Woodland Peaks by Michelle Whitby — Michelle Whitby

Last of all here are the quilts in the Miniature category. My own design is the hydrangea blue one. This will shortly be available as a kit.

Join me for the next quilting blog, every Monday. I write about various aspects of design plus anything else that fits in with quilting. copyright Karen Platt 2019