Quilters and Patchworkers

One of my dearest friends has lost her husband and when it came to that sad time of sorting out his clothes She kept his shirts to make the most beautiful quilt so that she could remember the wonderful years they had shared and bring back all of those precious memories

I am new to patchwork, does anyone know of a patch working group I live on the coast near to Whitley Bay and I cant find one locally.

One of the projects I am working on is fiddle or fidget rugs and cushions. They give the people in care homes something to look at and feel, and keeps them warm.

Would love to swap ideas

My goodness, yes, he is rather young to have his own interests, but I doubt you can go wrong with dinosaurs and tractors, in fact anything with wheels!

Thank you Lisalou, I am collecting, found some today and have asked PWk group for scraps too. He's only 5 months so don't yet know his interests, but I'm guessing dinosaurs and tractors etc. I'm giving myself plenty of time ! I love choosing fabric, very therapeutic.

What about collecting your own I spy fabrics, based on dgs' possible interests (you dont mention how old he is)?
I say this because i don't particularly like packs myself. It seems to me that it has all been done for me. I much rather buy small amounts of all sorts of fabrics that i want for a specific quilt. More or less, based on the pattern i have in mind, if that makes sense. I find it is much more fun like this

I would like to make an I Spy quilt for new DGS , I need pictorial squares 4-5 ". Does anyone know of I Spy packs of suitable fabrics ? Have looked on eBay but the ones on there don't look brilliant quality. I reckon I have about a year to collect them before he's ready for it.

I would love to be able to do this and one day, when I have time, intend to learn. As an aside last year I went to The Great Texas Show near Dallas and I was blown away by the wonderful quilts on view in the handicrafts section. Awesome, as they say.

I have to agree, about too many quilts. My family and friends including myself are all nice and cosy now with all of my makes, but still can't resist making more. I too have a very large stash of fabric, but have you found that when you have something special in mind , you never seem to have the right colour to hand and end up buying more

There is a colour wheel tutorial at photolesa.com/tutorials/picking-perfect-palette which goes into more detail of that. No need to study it as though there will be an exam, but it is very interesting. Basically it is about how to choose colours that harmonise with each other and are effective and - the most useful part - there is a wheel with similar colours together and contrasting ones opposite, so you can pick a selection which will look good together.

Those of you who don't trust your colour sense - could you find an image of a painting or even an advertisement that you find attractive, and choose your colours from that. If there is a lot of one colour in your chosen pic, use a lot of that, then a medium amount of a few colours from the pic which are quite similar to the main one, and a small amount of one which is a contrast to those.

I should have added that a fat quarter is one of those four squarish bits.

A fat quarter is a metre length of material cut in to four squar(ish) pieces, rather than a quarter length which would be long and narrow.

What is a fat quarter, please?

I use Pinterest for quilting ideas and have a board for blocks to try and for colours as I am rubbish at colour. I'm struggling at the moment with some beautiful pieces of material bought in New York thirteen years ago and still not made up. I have a board for ideas for them alone !

I'm relatively new to this so have bought some jelly rolls and layer cakes. I too look at Pintrest and am amazes at the quality of some of the quilts shown there. I have lots of ideas but have a big problem with colour. I have no sense of style and whilst I love others quilts, my colour combinations don't look nearly as good.

I'm lucky in that my quilting group leader sells fabric from her spare bedroom. She taught a group of us to quilt and now we meet there regularly. Whenever I'm there and need a bit of extra fabric she always has a vast choice. Plus I can get everyone's opinion on what to choose. It'a amazing what other people will pull out to go with my fabric - patterns or colours I never would have thought of, but which go really well.

hello - Fabric Guild is a good cheap place to buy, as is Doughty's. I buy a fair aount of material from the Quilt shows, and was told that if you really like a fabric - buy a metre!

Usualyy buy for a project, but sometimes just can't leave a gorgeous fabric behind..

Yep, definately agree Indinana - the fabric has to feel right. Every time I've been to Tavistock I missed the market! Must do better next time...!

Stansgran, I collect quilt pictures on Pinterest (and other craft/sewing ideas) but get overwhelmed like a kid in a sweet shop! Too many lovely designs, I want to make them all!

I tend to scour the internet for clearance sales and then buy some with a particular project in mind. It might be for crafts or, more likely these days, for dresses, dungarees, rompers etc for my baby GD. I have several lengths put by for summer dresses and matching knicks. I also pop into fabric shops when visiting different towns to see what's on offer. Hobbycraft is a good source of cheap fat quarters for simple craft projects - bunting, soft toys and so on.
I have to confess, though, that I do buy fabric randomly, just because I see something and fall in love with it, and convince myself I will think of something I want to make with it. An example is a metre of lovely cream fabric printed with black musical notes, which I found in Tavistock market. It's 100% cotton and beautifully soft. That's where the internet falls down - not being able to feel the fabric before buying.

Ah, like the redicut rugs? Of course. I never thought about stair carpet though... My parents used to make a lot of those when I was a kid. Mum made all sorts of much needed stuff from something entirely different, it was necessary in those days and I think most people were innovative. All very different now...

I expect she's taking it one step at a time M0nica

Mollie A lot of carpet canvas, precut carpet wool and an old fashioned carpet hook. Whenever she is sitting down, she is sewing so the carpet lives beside her chair in the living room so if she sits down she starts carpet making. She is single, with no attachments, so her time is all hers to do things as she wishes.

I have quantities of fabric bought usually for projects I haven't had time to start yet. I found a great shop in Scarborough last summer during the lunch break when we were at a cricket match.

Oh I have hundreds of ideas. So many quilts so little time. I have a wish list of patterns downloaded on my iPad.