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@seam_collective and the prompt for day 16 is technology.
For me the most technologically advanced thing I use for the activity of sewing is my sewing machine.
This one I saw in a shop this week, but I do have similar and older at home. And most of them have been used at some stage by me to stitch patchwork.
They are not what I use on a regular basis, but there is really no reason why I couldn’t. They all do an amazing straight stitch which is all you need for patchwork.
It doesn’t mean that I didn’t buy myself a new machine this year for teaching when I travel though 😆. Yes I wanted an automatic needle threader and the up and down needle position, and an automatic thread cutter, but that was the sum of what I needed technology at this stage to do for me! And even on my home machine, more all singing and dancing, a lot of it I never and probably will never use!
#septtextilelove #vintagesewingmachine #carolynforster
@seam_collective and the prompt today is Celebration.
I do think every quilt made is cause for a celebration 🎉. All the time, effort, thought and love that goes into a quilt should never be taken for granted. Many of the quilts we see in museums are only there because they were saved for best. But really quilts are made to be used, and it’s those tatty ones that might not get their museum place which I think are the most celebrated. Having fulfilled their destiny daily on beds in homes.
The quilt in the picture in two colour ways is my latest celebration share with folks in class’s and with the pattern and templates that you can use to stitch and celebrate your own!
Twirling Stars is available from me , £25 UK postage included. Just email via my website , and sign up to my newsletter to see what’s happening this autumn!
#twirlingstars #twirlingstarsquilt #handpeicedpatchwork #handpiecedquilt #carolynforster
@seam_collective day 13, Rethink.
Yesterday was a bit of a re set rethink day here where I gave myself a sewing retreat day! Yes I know, a staycation but with stitching. I’ll pay to go on these, and love every immersed minute, but yesterday I did it myself! Although I’m pretty much stitching what I fancy most of the time, I don’t often give myself the time to do what I call the ditsy things. I spend a lot of time looking at other folks work, even buying their pieces, needle books, pincushions etc.. as they are so clever and covetable.
But really I could stitch my own, if I rethought it and gave myself the time.
I usually view it as time away from the patchwork which I love, but often when I’m stitching these fun ideas other thoughts marinade and ideas pop to the surface.
So not only do I get to stitch all the fun little bits that I save my scraps for, but I get new quilt ideas too!
So yesterday I stitched sewing bag charms and today I work on completing the first stage of a quilt but with ditsy bits to accompany me 🤓🪡🧵
#septtextilelove26 #stlday13 #carolynforster #sewingbag
@seam_collective , day 11, language.
No matter what language you speak we all understand the meaning behind making and sometimes giving a quilt. We all understand what draws each of us to stitch and share our joy of stitching.
#alphabetquilt #patchwork #scrapquilt #carolynforster #septtextilelove26
Day 10 @seam_collective and the prompt is Low Impact.
The making of patchwork quilts has often been associated with the using up of fabric scraps and worn clothing, and I try to keep this in focus with a lot of my quilts. I do buy new fabrics and I try to look out for any environmental tags to do with dyes, dying and ethical production.
I also try to use every last piece, and these fabric beads, charms or mini pin cushions are pretty true to that.
I re use old embroidered table linens in some of my quilts and these tiny pieces that come from the cutting out are always kept. Then when the mood or the idea strikes, they come into their own.
#reusereducerecycle #fabricscraps #pincushion #septtextilelove #carolynforster
If you’d like a little treat, use code BOOKS14 to get a free trial over on @halfyardsewingclub ! You’ll be able to use all the offers on their book club, including some of my books! You also WIN two of my book too 😃.
And there are lots of free tutorial, so don’t miss out! You know you deserve a treat!
@searchpress #halfyardsewingclub #carolynforster #debbieshore #debbieshoresewing #searchpress
@seam_collective day 9 and it’s the question of is it art or craft.
Let me say that I’m not that deep, for me it’s always about the process and if what I’ve made at the end of the process is art in someone’s eye then I am flattered. I also view it from the point that many things we view as art now were made by folks long dead, and perhaps that is what art can be, something we can see from a long view, it’s been with us a while and now we can appreciate it as something worth savouring. I really don’t know.
@russelljamesbarratt and @ninagronwlewis both had interesting things to say on this, and I agree with both, so that sort of sums up my on the fence view about the question 🤷♀️.
In the meantime, here’s a quilt in progress, before and after the border blocks. Now waiting to be quilted and for me it consists of lots of inspiration from the summer of 2026. No doubt if I put it in a judged show it would be assessed as bland (as was a quilt that I hung at this years festival of quilts), but then again when I’m dead it could be art 😆🧵🪡.
#septtextilelove26 # #carolynforster
Day 8 @seam_collective and the prompt is inspiring exhibition.
A few years ago I visited one on Japanese textiles at the @soas_gallery put on by @karuncollection .
I’d seen lots of other exhibits before on similar textiles but this one had so many really interesting small pieces, including the rice bags.
In the years since then I’ve played about with the simple basic construction adding and subtracting things. I’ve always kept the project useful, like the little thread catcher pots that I’ve made endlessly 😂.
I love sharing all the things I’ve learnt, all sparked by this exhibition.
I’m teaching a class based on the projects in Bristol this autumn, why not join me?
Details @naomialicec
#stlday8 #septtextilelove26 #japanesericebags #japanesericebag #carolynforster
Day 7 @seam_collective and the prompt is Historical.
As many of you may already know, my inspiration comes from the study of old quilts. I’ll see one I like and then wonder about making it. Not exactly the same but using it as a springboard for my stitching.
This current WIP is pretty typical. I saw a crib quilt in a book or online which was a vintage piece. It was small, it being a crib quilt, and stitched in red and white.
So although my piece will be a lot bigger, and I’m using browns and low volumes, you get the idea! Mine will have a wide appliqué border too, so we’re a long way off a finish.
#stlday7 #septtextilelove26 #quiltingonthgo #onepatchquilt
Day 6 @seam_collective and the prompt is experiment.
I seem to have ticked this box on a few counts as I’ve even done a clumsy attempt at a reel to try and show the book unfolding!
I’ve been looking into making books for a good few years now mostly so that I can do one in textiles. There are loads of great tutorials out there and I’ve played around with a few.
But the work from @hazelcmonte in a recent post of hers really inspired me. Some chicken scratch stitching was to hand and the making of folded patchwork fell into place very easily. I even taught myself the faggotting stitch to join the pages!
This will inspire me to look at yet more paper folding techniques for simple book making, and who knows where that will lead me!
#stlday6 #septtexilelove26 #carolynforster #fabricbook
A number of things rattling around in my head have been coming out into the world of stitch over the last few weeks . Some get onto my stories but today is a mini round up here on the grid, as they say!
Some of these are long term projects that you will see more of over the months to come, and some bits you will see if you are stitching with down in Bristol in November. You can check out details for those over at @naomialicec .
One is a quilt top that’s now in the autumn queue for quilting ☺️🪡🧵.
#quiltingonthego #patchwork #chickenscratchembroidery #carolynforster #quiltinprogress
Day 4 @seam_collective #septtextilelove is story telling.
For me string quilts are the best story tellers. They use all the bits left over from making the other quilts, they use selvedges and rescued fabrics .
They were often the hardest working quilts historically as they were made to be used and not admired from a distance. The old ones are weathered and worn, patched and handed down, so for me hold many stories in their working lives of keeping folks warm.
The string quilts I made definitely reflect the other quilts I have been stitching, and although they are new now, hopefully will have long and useful lives too!
#stringquilts #stlday4 #septtexilelove26 #carolynforster
Day 3 @seam_collective #septtextilelove is colour.
This one is easy, I just seem to love it all. I’ve always envied the posts you see and the feeds where it all blends and is consistent with colour and print choices. Then I look at mine and it’s all over the place. I’m now using the word eclectic to describe my fabric and colour choices 😆.
It really depends on what strikes a chord when I’m delving into a project. I do my colour pull piles and the see how I feel. Many of my quilts have lots of colours as I sometimes think the more I throw at it the less I have to think about when I’m stitching!
#stl26day3 #septtextilelove26 #carolynforster #scrapquilts
Day 2 for @seam_collective #septtextilelove is hand and /or machine?
I’d like to think I can have my cake and eat it, so I’m going with both , equally.
I love the production line working of much of the machine piecing that I do for my patchwork. When I’m sitting at a machine I can produce a lot really quickly and the ideas become a reality fast.
But then that same project will probably be hand quilted and take me another six months of totally absorbing quilting that I can take with me wherever I want.
I love the portability of hand piecing and quilting, and so try to use both the methods to my advantage. And there are so many more blocks to stitch when you don’t restrict yourself to the sewing machine.
When I was asked to write a beginners book for patchwork and quilting, it ended up as two, one completely for hand stitching and the other focussing on machine piecing, because they are very different, but by having knowledge of both you really open up the creative doors 🤓. Hence my two current projects to piece in the first picture, one by hand and one on the machine!
#STL26day2 #septtextilelove26 #quiltingonthego #carolynforster
Today is the first day of @seam_collective and the September textile love challenge. It’s introductions/background.
I know some of you have been with a while here and others are relatively new, and there’s no harm in a refresh 🤓.
I’ve sewn since I was a child and came into teaching, book writing, magazine patterns and textiles travel through my love of patchwork and quilting. Although I fall down rabbit holes of embroidery and anything stitched with fabric, especially bags, I’ll always be quickly drawn back to the patchwork.
If I’ve met you through my teaching, thanks for letting me share my passion with you, and if I’ve yet to meet you in person, it will be fun I promise!
#stl26day1 #seamcollective #quiltteacher #carolynforster #quiltingonthego
And out of nowhere a new quilt top is emerging. I didn’t see this one coming, but the block had been one I’d stitched for a different (secret sewing 😆) project a few months back.
After a broad fabric pull for it I figured that sewing a block wouldn’t hurt 🤷♀️.
And then just like that I’m on the way 😂. Do quilts ever start for you like that, just giving a block a go and then you’re sucked in !
#quiltblock #quiltinprogress #patchwork #quiltingonthego #carolynforster
Well here’s a project I forgotten I had 😂. I had a a tidy out of one of my cupboards this morning and among the bits and pieces I found four wallets with the booklets and pieces I had cut and prepped. Then I hen I looked, I could see that some of the blocks are actually finished 😃🧵🪡.
So it looks like twenty five years later I will actually complete this quilt!
It came out in 2001 in a set of four booklets which all had bonus projects in too. It’s from @blackbirdalma Blackbird Designs whose fabrics and patterns I still love although they stopped designing the patchwork a while back.
This will be an unexpected. Bonus to finish this off.
Do you have projects still waiting from that long ago?
#applique #handapplique #blackbirddesigns #tulipfarmquilt
The coming together of lots of input from the last months and years! I visited the @foundlingmuseum yesterday and saw some of the tokens that have fascinated me for a long time. That and the ideas coming together for some fun slow stitched bag charms and the constant inspiration from @jessiechorley 😍🪡🧵. It’s a slow process sometimes, mentally if not physically, but the ideas seep through and come together eventually into something meaningful , for me anyway 😂. It’s the same for my quilts, lots of input and the slow seep 😂😂. #slowstitch #handstitching #handstitched #carolynforster
Sharing a random selection of pictures of textiles all from the @karuncollection. These are all textiles of Afghanistan origin and are on show at the @soas_gallery in London. Such a lovely and inspiring show, each time I walk around something new would catch my eye. Some nice pieces of Uzbekistan origin which brought back nice memories of my trip there a few years back. The last two pictures are some of my favourite, capturing some of the unexpected, the back sides and the mended pieces 🤓. As always Karun Thakar has been so generous in the sharing of his collection 🙏. So worth visiting if you are in London and on until 19th September . #karuncollection #afghanembroidery #embroidery #textileinspiration
Scratched yet another stitching itch this morning ☺️.
I’ve been stitching this bag in various sizes and handle options for years now. Inspired by the simple Japanese ones and sewing them initially from 10in pre cuts (for my Layer Cakes Quilts and Gifts book), this design will never disappoint me!
Today’s offering is from 9in squares as that’s what fitted out of the vintage cloth that I had and I included a pocket in the lining. The handles are cut 9in x 5in, and yes I re embroidered the little laundry mark on to a piece for the bag, so I’ll remember that always ☺️.
Now for what to put in it 🤔🧵🪡.
#japanesericebag #carolynforster #simplebag #usefulbag
