DesignMatters TV

Linda is adding the final touches to her latest fish quilt using fabric painting. See how it’s coming along.

See the box that Linda made inspired by chameleons!

Linda’s working on a new quilt featuring monoprinted fish. Take a look at the piece in progress and see how she’s adding the quilting and painting.

Take a look at an antique Drunkard’s Path quilt which caught Laura’s eye recently.

Laura demonstrates the Sketch module of Premier+ embroidery software to show how it can be perfect for creative quilting.

Laura talks about her recent digitising project and shares a few tips on how to translate a sketchbook design into stitch using software.

Take a look at how Linda’s been using a combination of commercial digital stitch designs, freehand quilting and hand painting to produce a composition.

Working from a photographic or sketchbook study as your inspiration, join Linda to use free applique to create a bird panel. Build layers with raw edged fabric scraps before using machine and hand stitch to add texture and detail.

So you’ve been working in your sketchbook and are really happy with the pages, but how can you translate that to fabric? In this two-part workshop Linda will show you how she creates a painterly study of poppies in her sketchbook then takes those pages as inspiration to create a quilted panel.

Discover how Linda chooses a fabric colour palette for a summer table runner inspired by a collection of hand painted ceramics. Follow our lead and be inspired by your tableware to make a perfectly coordinating quilted table runner. She uses stitch and flip technique in a quilt as you go method of piecing. This is an ideal project for making use of many coloured scraps.

Some detailed subject matter can be daunting to draw from scratch. In this workshop Linda will show you how it’s possible to use a subtle stamped shape as the base for your drawing. Take all the guesswork out of getting the shapes right and instead enjoy creating a design and drawing the details. Then building on the sketchbook work that Linda did using stamps and drawing, she demonstrates how it’s easily possible to translate those ideas to fabric to make a stitched piece.

Inspired by the stitch and repair notion of Boro and other textile traditions from around the world, Linda is constructing a textile using scraps and lots of hand stitching. To make the process her own, she’s chosen to needle-felt the fabrics making a strong fabric that’s a pleasure to stitch. In the second video see how she turns that fabric into a stylish and practical tote bag.

Inspiration is all around us, but we love to look to some of our favourite paintings to help guide our choices when selecting colours for our textile work. In this class Linda will show you how a colour scheme can be established by studying paintings and how she’s begun to select fabrics and embark on a new pieced quilt.

See how Laura’s finished bookwrap for the Summer Stitch Along turned out!

It’s the final week of the Summer Stitch Along. It’s time to finish off the bookwrap, bind the edges and get it fitted onto your book!

Quilt the pieced area of your bookwrap using embellishments with either tufts or beads!

Laura’s starting hand quilting her book wrap, take a look at the threads she’s chosen and how the stitching is looking so far.

Laura’s moved on to the printing stage of the project. In this post see how she’s made her print block and blended her printing with the appliqué.

This week let’s do some stitching – we challenge you to quilt or embroider your bookwrap with two stitches of your choice.

See how Laura’s approached the appliqué stage of her bookwrap for the Stitch-Along.

Choose a shape and work it three ways! This week on the Stitch-Along we’ll be using English Paper Piecing, Applique and Print. Today, it’s time for the English Paper Piecing, so grab your thimble and let’s begin!

Linda’s freehand quilting a recent drawing on fabric made using Derwent Inktense pencils.

Choose a shape and work it three ways! This week on the Stitch-Along we’ll be using English Paper Piecing, Applique and Print. Today, it’s time for the English Paper Piecing, so grab your thimble and let’s begin!

Choose a shape and work it three ways! This week on the Stitch-Along we’ll be using English Paper Piecing, Applique and Print. Today, it’s time for the English Paper Piecing, so grab your thimble and let’s begin!

Join us for our free Summer Stitch-Along to make a fantastic bookwrap. Let’s get started with sorting some fabrics for the bookwrap. We’ve intended this project to be a scrap buster and we hope you’ll be able to source everything you need from your stash.

Join us for our free Summer Stitch-Along to make a fantastic bookwrap. It’s week two and Linda shows you her starting point and colour choices for her bookwrap.

Join us for our free Summer Stitch-Along to make a fantastic bookwrap. It’s week two and it’s time to establish a colour scheme for your project. See how we’ve started to find a collection of colours that work and follow our steps to do the same with your own inspirational source.

Join us for our free Summer Stitch-Along to make a fantastic bookwrap. It’s week one, time to choose the book you’ll be making your wrap cover for, take some measurements and make a pattern.

Grids can provide you with an excellent basis for your quilting. Linda will show you how to quilt grids with a walking foot and shares her tips for success with this method. Next, with that grid in place, you’ll see how you can work within it using freehand quilting to add beautiful patterns.

Work along with Linda to make a fabric art diary. During the project she’ll demonstrate a wide variety of techniques you can use to record daily events and inspiration including stamping, stencilling, appliqué and drawing.

Up-cycle quilted fabric to make beautiful vase wraps and wall pockets. These easy to create items make perfect gifts.

Discover how to sew geometric designs with English paper piecing. Laura guides you through the simple steps for this satisfying method of patchwork that works beautifully for piecing even small shapes with accuracy.

Join Linda to use stencilling techniques on fabric to create a beautiful floral wall quilt. She’ll show you how to use paint sticks such as Markal to stencil your design to fabric for a painterly effect. Next she’ll talk you through how to approach the stitching to add detail and interest. There are two workshops in this collection.

Learn how to create a circular opening that can be cleverly sewn into a patchwork project, think funky porthole that enables layering of colour with glimpses through to underneath layers, or a circular feature that can be added to a garment as a decorative or functional pocket. There is lots of creative potential with this fun method. There are three workshops in this collection.

Whether you’re new to patchwork or an avid piecer, we think you’ll find these three fast methods are essential. Learn how to quickly and efficiently sew some of the most useful blocks in patchwork and you’ll speed up your quiltmaking time no end! In this archive collection of three video workshops we’ll show you how to fast piece Half Square Triangles, Flying Geese and Tumbling Blocks with our favourite machine sewn methods.

In this archive collection of 2 video workshops join Laura to design and piece and quilt your own millefiore or mosaic patchwork. This project is beautifully intricate, but surprisingly easy to design and sew following Laura’s simple steps.

Work with Laura to create a Drunkard’s Path design using faux piecing. She’ll show you how to use your own hand dyed fabrics (maybe you dyed some using her Exchange Dyeing video workshop), but you can use any of your favourite fabrics from commercial cottons to hand painted cloth.

In this archive collection of 3 videos Linda demonstrates a wide variety of creative techniques using stencilling to produce beautiful and unique designs. She describes her favourite products and explains every step of the process to make a really attractive wallhanging. Finally she explains the hows and whys of completing the work with machine quilting. Linda proves that you can achieve lots of very different results using just one stencil. All of the techniques she includes could be used in many different projects.

In this collection of four videos you’ll discover some of the techniques Linda and Laura use to introduce fascinating texture, colour and pattern to their quilts. You’ll see how they use basic utility stitches on their sewing machines in innovative and unpredictable ways and how hand worked embroidery stitches can be used to bring exciting, painterly colour effects to an art quilt. Forget free motion machine quilting and simple running stitches for a while – this is an unmissable collection of creative ideas that will increase your repertoire of art quilting techniques!

Work along with Linda to sew a traditional Attic Window patchwork quilt with a twist! Add your own applique shapes, quilt and add details with acrylic painting. Along the way, take a look at her quilt Precious Things.

Discover Kantha style quilting and make a beautiful decorative item for your home.

We just love hand dyed fabrics, there’s no better way to create just the colours and colour combinations that we want for our work. In this video collection we’ll show you how to dye your own fabrics and then use them in painterly appliqué and patchwork projects.

Linda looks to the traditional textiles of the Banjara for inspiration. Join her to look at some examples and to study the colours, techniques and patterns of these decorative and heavily stitched cloths. Using them as inspiration, Linda demonstrates how you can start your own stitched cloth in the Banjara style.

Work along with Linda in this two-part workshop to create a fabric collage seascape.