The glorious world of fabrics and quilt making

I have always loved looking at fabrics and patterns. I regularly pop into White Stuff and lust after the pretty printed tops (and buy them too!), I ooh and ahh over Laura Ashley bed covers, and I can never walk past a Cath Kidston shop without going in and checking out the fabrics and lovely patterned accessories and bags.

I’ve recently discovered the huge range of patterned fabrics in craft shops and from online suppliers. How I didn’t know about these lovely fabrics, I just don’t know! Going into fabric shops when I was younger consisted of buying cheap poly cotton in bright colours for a school cushion project, and white cotton to tie-dye and to try out batik and sewing samples. It never occurred to me that there is such a huge range of lovely fabrics available to buy in so many different styles. I’m really loving the fabrics from Liberty, and some designs by Amy Butler and Tanya Whelan.  I haven’t even touched the surface of all the ranges out there…

Working in the city of Bath, I am very lucky to be near some wonderful shops, and even more lucky to be a quick 5 minute walk to a fantastic little craft shop called The Makery. The second that you walk in to this quaint little shop you are surrounded by beautifully laid out craft supplies, a great range of bespoke buttons, ribbons and fabrics…it's my idea of heaven! I am really hoping to go to one of the courses that they hold in the shop at some point in the future…

…I headed to The Makery on my lunch break last Thursday to buy some fat quarters…what is a fat quarter I hear you ask?…well after checking it out, it's fabric cut to about 20” x 22”!...I was on a mission to find some patterned fabric that I needed for a crafty day with one of my friends, Emelie. We both needed to get some fabrics together as we were kindly being given a day of teaching on the basics of quilting with Emelie's mother-in-law to-be, Andrea. So here are the fabrics that I chose to add to my fabric stash. All are sold at The Makery and some can be found on their website...

I love the red and blue piggy fabric with the odd pink pink in the pattern...and don't you just want to eat the apples!

Last Saturday, with my sewing machine and my fabric stash in hand, I headed to Emelie's house to start the day. Andrea, our teacher for the day, has had many years of experience as a quilter and has created the most astounding quilts for her home and given many as special gifts. Andrea’s style of teaching and passion for quilting instantly made me want to get stuck in and try everything! So after a cup of tea and a talk through the culture of quilts and seeing some of Andrea’s amazing designs, Emelie and I embarked on a day of learning! We were shown some of the basics of quilt making, how to cut our fabrics to the right size and how to piece together a basic log cabin square design.

Andrea helped me look through all of my fabrics to help me select the right fabrics for each stage of the design to make it work with the pattern we were trying to produce. I took the photo below while we had a tea break and we tucked into the homemade scones topped with clotted cream and jam. I was so pleased with the results of my log cabin square, I ended up making three by the end of the day!

I had such a great day, so thank you Andrea! The day opened my eyes to the variety of different techniques and styles in quilting, and the effect of how certain fabrics can look next to others to create an overall pattern. We haven’t quite got onto the quilting bit yet, but I’m loving it! I can already see that collecting fabrics and mastering different quilting techniques will be one of my new craft addictions!