DesignMatters TV

Join Linda in this set of two videos where she demonstrates how basic block printing techniques can be combined with traditional patchwork to simplify the piecing and create visually complex designs. We think these ideas can be applied to lots of different designs and will appeal to anyone who would like to add a really individual touch to their traditional quilt making.

Join Linda in two videos where she demonstrates how to make useful and attractive embellishments for textile based mixed media work using a packaging material which is often simply discarded. You will probably already have most of the bits and pieces you’ll need to make the beads she uses for jewellery or to attach to hand made books as a decorative bookmark. Finally she distresses Tyvek to make fernlike appliqué motifs to upcycle an empty chocolate box.

Folded inserts such as prairie points are a fun way to add texture and embellishment to your quilt making, but they can also be much more. Join Linda for a workshop on how you an use them to create an intriguing new dimension to traditional blocks.

Quilts: Resurgence, an exhibition of quilts selected from The Quilters’ Guild Collection and co-curated by Pauline Burbidge features a quilt by Laura.

Laura’s working on a minimal waste project that will be a home for all those unusable scraps from other projects. Take a look and be inspired to find something similar to sew yourself.

Take a guided walk through the process of digitising a stitch design from an image. Laura will show you how she’s turned a hand drawn motif into an embroidery design using mySewnet software.

Take a look at how Laura quilted her Faded Railfence quilt that featured in a recent workshop.

Use up your scrap fabrics with these fantastic, quick to sew, stitch and flip coasters. They are ideal for brightening up your home or giving as gifts!

It’s done, take a look at the last bits of quilting on the Strippy Scrappy quilt that Linda’s been working on recently.

Join Laura in the studio for a step-by-step demonstration on how to bind a quilt and add a hanging sleeve.

Take a look at how Linda’s completed the quilting on the piece she started in the Strippy Scrappy video workshop.

Laura’s tips for squaring up your quilt before adding binding or a facing.

See Linda’s latest English Paper Piecing project, the perfect technique for garden sewing!

So you’ve invested weeks, even months making a quilt? The final stage is the own up to it! Sign your quilt and label it to start a little quilt history of your own. Join Laura as she shares some ideas and tips for how to label your quilt.

Scrap quilts are a lot of fun to make and so satisfying, but it’s not just a case of anything goes. See how Linda’s carefully working with value to organise her fabric placement in a Rail Fence quilt and experimenting with different layouts.

If you’ve tried any of the quick piecing techniques that we’ve featured on DMTV, then it’s likely you’ll have quilt tops that need quilting! Fear not, Linda has some ideas to help you quilt the piecing and those tricky empty spaces in blocks. Join her to discover how she chooses the quilting designs for her strippy patchworks. She uses hand techniques to stitch a cushion front and then creates a completely different look with machine quilting to enhance a beautiful hand painted garland in the on point squares of a little quilt.

Slice up your scraps and use them with quick piecing methods to make beautiful quilt tops. This is a great stash buster and will quickly make a dent in your fabric pile!

Inspired by watercolour and pen drawings in Linda’s sketchbook, Laura demonstrates how you can take a successful sketchbook page and translate it into stitched textiles. From Linda’s lilac painting she creates a free appliqué with machine stitching.

A range of simple folded inserts can add such interest to art quilts. Every seam is an opportunity to add something extra! In this workshop Linda will show you some of her favourite choices for adding pops of colour and texture including prairie points and faux piping.

Applying what you know about design to your quilting can help achieve great results. Join Laura to see how you can add shapes to your quilting pattern by clever use of line and filling patterns. Follow her methods to discover ways of suggesting shape and pattern within your overall quilting design.

Presenting small textile works can be tricky. How can you show off the things you’ve made to their best advantage? Luckily there are quite a few options you can consider. Join Laura today to see some of the presentation methods she loves to use and discover some of the pros and cons.

Put a twist on traditional crazy patchwork with this mini cushion worked in a sheer and semi sheer fabrics. Embellish with hand worked embroidery stitches and add beads.

There’s much inspiration to be found in architectural sources. In this three part workshop join Linda to see how she worked from windows, grilles and other architectural features from a nearby church to create pages in her sketchbook filled with pattern and design information before interpreting the ideas into a stencilled and printed design on fabric.

Take inspiration from traditional patchwork designs to make a quilt with Laura. Instead of piecing the design, we’ll bring some contemporary style by hand printing the design to fabric before adding machine quilting to complete the project.

Laura has made many poppy quilts. Join her in this video to find out more about the final design decisions in the making of two which use digital print, drawing and lots of stitch.

Learn how to add a decorative beaded edge to your bindings. This beautiful finishing touch is ideal for quilts, cushions, brooches and bags!

Don’t throw away those precious scraps, make them into beautiful embroidered brooches instead. They are quick to make and are perfect as gifts.

Learn about the different templates for English paper piecing and how you can easily make your own.

We love working with English Paper Piecing. Is it a technique that you’d like to know more about? In this article Linda answers lots of commonly asked questions.

English paper piecing can be quite a slow and time consuming process. Using smaller sections of EPP as part of a larger quilt is an idea full of potential. Combining techniques into a successful piece of work is one of our favourite challenges. Join Linda as she demonstrates how she’s mixed English paper piecing, painted fusible web and free machine quilting in a single small quilt.

Sometimes asking yourself the question ‘what if?’ as you work is the best way to come up with new ideas. In this workshop Laura will show you what happened when she did just that. See how she’s explored alternative methods for creating the Drunkard’s Path block and how this in turn resulted in the development of the technique into an exciting design with lots of potential for a quilt.

Join Laura for a workshop of experimental piecing. She’ll work with a digitally printed panel and explore options for cutting, rearranging and piecing it back together. It’s time to forget being precious about your fabric and get out that rotary cutter and ask ‘what if?’!

Laura demonstrates step-by-step how you can sketch designs for quilting your next project. See how to work directly on photos of you quilt, create a colour palette and draw your design ideas. This workshop uses Procreate which is a paid-for app available on the App Store, an iPad and stylus such as a Pencil.

So you created a design on your iPad, but what next? Join Laura in this workshop to see how to get your designs off the screen and into your work. She’ll show you how she’s interpreted her design inspired by Hawaiian appliqué in a variety of techniques.

Inspired by paper-cut Hawaiian appliqué designs Laura will show you how to use the Procreate app on your iPad to create digitally designed versions and audition your fabrics.

Learn a fast and easy method to design for your quilts using strip piecing inspired by Seminole Patchwork. Laura will show you how to work directly with your fabrics for the design process so you can be sure ideas in your sketchbook pages will translate well to your quilts.

Discover the story behind Linda’s quilt Paintbox II. She’ll talk in detail about her thread choices and thought process when quilting the piece. 

Video Workshop – Take a look through a selection of Laura’s quilts which feature portraits and see how she’s tackled the tricky issue of quilting faces. Laura will share her tips for success and ideas to think about when deciding how to quilt a face.

Video Workshop – Respond to your painted fabric and add stitch to enhance the colour and add texture to the surface. Linda will work with hand embroidery onto her Inktense painted cotton fabric, but you’ll find this approach can work on top of other painted fabrics or printed designs.

Are you looking for new ideas to help with your quilting? Knowing how to quilt a piece can be one of the hardest parts of a project. In this workshop Laura will demonstrate a creative technique for quilting your work that introduces texture and colour by cleverly combining free motion quilting with reverse appliqué.

Linda demonstrates how you can use compressed sponge as a stamping tool. This easy to use product makes stamps with a lovely texture that’s highly decorative on both paper and fabric.

Join Linda in the studio to see how she’s interpreting recent pages in her sketchbook with a new small quilted panel. She’s using simple piecing together with sponge printing and of course, quilting.

Join Linda in the studio as she talks about the changes and finishing touches to her quilt Wolf Moon.

Read here to discover how Linda has started a quilt using scraps and a screen print she ‘found’ in her studio. A totally unplanned piece out of the blue.

See how Laura sews up the Broken Dishes piecing into cushion covers with a pompom trim.

Join Linda in the studio today as she chats about the motivation behind her new quilt Wolf Moon, and works on it live on camera to add paint to the surface.

Laura’s piecing her indigo fabrics with white to make Broken Dishes blocks.

Laura demonstrates how to use bonded appliqué as the logical technique to translate sketchbook collage ideas into a quilt. See how fast and easy this method is for creating your next appliqué quilt.

So often we create beautiful fabrics and then think about how to quilt them. In this workshop Laura turns that on its head and adds colour after the quilting is done. Join her to see how you can accentuate the fabulous texture of your stitching with paint.

Learn how to combine hand painting with your quilting (either digitally stitched or free motion) as an exciting way to introduce colour and pattern to your quilts. 

We love to layer techniques in our art quilts and that means stitch too! Combining machine, digital and hand quilting can work beautifully in a single piece. In this workshop Laura shares some examples to illustrate her tips for success when layering stitch techniques.

In this workshop Laura shows you how to explore different design ideas for piecing based on hexagonal grids. She’ll show you how to draw them using good old graph paper and a pen, but also with your iPad.

Have you got a quilt top ready for quilting but you aren’t sure where to start? Join Linda to see how she works on a recent piece to add texture and stitched and painted motifs to a simple pieced art quilt. Linda’s quilt features mono prints, linoblock prints and rubbings all brought together by stitch and paint.

Join Linda and Laura in the studio as they discuss Linda’s newest quilt tops which are put together from scraps from the stash and hear them chat about how to quilt them.

Linda explores the eternal appeal of circles set in a square for her latest quilt top. See how she uses a range of techniques including appliqué and stencilling.

See how one of Laura’s samples from the recent Bonded Appliqué video workshop turned out.

Laura demonstrates different ways to deal with the raw edges of bonded appliqué that quilt the project at the same time, using both invisible thread and regular sewing thread.

The tessellating shapes of mosaic patchwork pose questions when it comes to finishing the edges of your project. Join Linda today to see how to draft shapes to complete your project and some the design ideas you might consider.

Be inspired by graphic sketchbook drawing and achieve something similar with your quilting! Join Laura to see how to use just thread to create your design and replicate that pen-drawn look on fabric to make a small stitched panel. She’ll provide you with a pattern or you can use your own sketchbook page as a reference.

Don’t bin those greetings cards. Re-purpose them for English paper piecing.

Sort your fabric stash and get through those scraps!

I’ve finished quilting my Fast Flying Geese and made them into a cushion.

In Archive 3 you’ll find a lively mix of some of the very first shows we taped for DMTV. Ranging from discharge printing, through altered books and free motion quilting, there’s lots to inspire.

I love to quilt by hand and have finally got a grip on using a hoop and a thimble. I don’t think there are any rules, this is just what works for me. For this quilt I’m using cotton poplin front and back. That’s perhaps not the best choice, poplin has a high thread count so it’s not the easiest …

A quick guide to how we hang our wall quilts.