How to Make a Quick and Easy Quilted Patchwork

Periwinkle Patch Faux Patchwork

Sewing patchwork by hand is known to be a great stress-reliever. 

And, although I've never joined a patchwork/quilting group myself, I can well imagine that getting together to work on a communal quilt would be both relaxing and convivial!

However, there may be times when we would like to create something in patchwork, for a gift maybe, but we don't have hours and hours available to sit and sew. So I'm going to show you a way around that, using Faux Patchwork!

BHS Duvet Set

Faux Patchwork is enjoying something of a revival at the moment, though it never really goes out of fashion. 

Here's a duvet set I bought for myself not long ago -

And there are plenty more on the British Home Stores website!

Aren't they gorgeous!

My love of patchwork often leads me to create a faux patchwork pattern when I make a new pattern collection. 

Apple Blossom Faux Patchwork
Tablecloth from Zazzle

I use them to create pillows/cushions for sale on Zazzle and other similar print-on-demand stores - and also table linen, shower curtains, all sorts of homeware and fashion accessories such as Messenger Bags - and more recently, fabrics, by the yard, swatch or fat quarter.

In fact I recently sold a smartphone case with one of my faux patchwork designs:

Green Shamrocks Faux Patchwork Samsung Galaxy S5 Galaxy S5 Case by poshandpainterly  

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And here are the pillows or cushions I've made so far -

Click on the image to see the whole Collection of Faux Patchwork Pillows

.............

Egyptian Faux Patchwork Pillow
from Zazzle

I sent my daughter one of these Faux Patchwork pillows recently, as part of her birthday present. 

And while we were talking about it, the idea came up that it wouldn't be too difficult to quilt the fabric by adding some batting and stitching along the lines in the pattern. With all the awkward angles, it might be easier to do it by hand than by machine, I think.

But then, the internet being an incredible source of 'how to' information, I came across a very useful blog post. The article below gives you all you need to know about making a faux 'Faux Patchwork' using a sewing machine!

Faux Patchwork Cheat Sheet

from Craftsnob.com

So, in case I've sparked your interest in making a quick and easy Faux Patchwork, I've created a Pinterest board with all of my faux patchwork fabrics that are available from my Posh and Painterly Zazzle store - so far! I'm sure I'll be adding more from time to time - everything from pretty pastel florals to bold ethnic patterns.

I've worked out that a yard of 54" wide fabric is enough to make three 16" pillows or cushions, allowing for generous seams. But here, too, is a very useful article about the standard sizes of other common quilts -

Common Quilt Sizes

So now you know how to cheat at patchwork quilting!

Have fun!

.........

You can purchase my faux patchwork fabrics, 

as well as many other fabrics, 

from my 

Posh & Painterly 

Zazzle store

Some of them are also available

 from

Woven Monkey 

and I'm adding more whenever I get time!

February's Work in Progress -

The time-consuming health distractions that beset me in January have continued into February with a very bad back and then concerns about my blood pressure meaning that I've spent more time in my doctor's waiting room than I would have liked. Thankfully I've now been told that my blood pressure isn't actually anything to worry about and my ECG was also fine. That's a relief but it's all been time-consuming!

So I'm quite surprised at how much 'work' I've managed to complete since I my last 'Work in Progress' blogpost, a month ago!

First there were the birthday cards for two of my teenage grandsons . .

 

 . . . and one for their mother, my eldest daughter, somehow completed and sent off in time - 

I've also finally finished a hand-painted paper collage to illustrate a quote that's been sitting in my ToDo file for at least a couple of years!

It's probably my favourite definition of a really good friend -
but I've found they are hard to come by
so I focus on trying to BE that friend to others!

And while all the messy collage stuff was out of its box, I made a couple of little friends for Finnegan the Fish - Freddie and Fiona. 

I hope I'll have completed some Greeting Cards for the Persian New Year with Finnegan and a pattern with all three fishes by the time I'm writing next month's Work in Progress blog post.

Shortly after Christmas, Zazzle added fabrics to their wide range of products - excellent news! But at about the same time, they put in a new algorithm for searching the Market Place and that has meant a lot of extremely tedious work for us shopkeepers! (Oh for a team of minions - or at least a willing Creative Assistant!)

So I'm still working with the 'Heffalumps' that featured on my grandson's birthday card, making a pattern collection for products on Zazzle, encouraged by having won a category prize in the Zazzle Fabrics competition. *see foot of post.

This will probably become a Pillow/Cushion

I can imagine this pattern on a little boy's pyjamas,

with a different coloured background, maybe.

I had planned to spend most of my 'zazzling' time putting my existing designs and patterns on the hundreds of new products that have been introduced since I opened my Posh & Painterly store in August 2013. I've managed to do quite a lot of that, most recently working on the 'Spring Sunshine' collection - but not as much as I'd hoped!

Daffodils Pillow or Cushion: Faux-patchwork by poshandpainterly

I never thought I'd do this, but in a 'mad moment' one afternoon, I actually put a design on some chocolate brownies and shortbreads! The thing I've learned about selling online is that you never know what people are actually going to buy!

Welsh Costume and Emblems St David's Day Brownies Rectangular Brownie by poshnpainterlycymru
 

 

And I've also made a start on creating gifts for St Patrick's Day, featuring my 'Shamrocks' collection!

Dark Green Shamrocks Pattern Small Gift Bag by poshandpainterly
 

So I've been pretty busy - and even when I'm relaxing in the evenings, watching my favourite WhoDunnits, I haven't been entirely idle. I don't know whether it's a result of spending so much time on the laptop, creating products and greeting cards that don't actually exist until somebody actually orders them.

But I've had a real yearning to make things, using my hands, real things, things you can actually handle!

A friend sent me a paper bead necklace for my birthday last year and it fascinated me. Apart from anything else, it appealed to me because I already have everything needed - scrap paper, glue and cocktail sticks. 

So I made a start, rolling strips of magazine paper around cocktail sticks, moving on to newspaper, junk mail and my favourite so far, wallpaper. I'm not very good at rolling them evenly yet but I am improving and I find it actually quite therapeutic!

I just KNEW I'd find a use for that plastic insert from a box
of biscuits - NEVER throw anything away!!!

Strictly speaking, paper bead making doesn't require expensive materials or tools and that's always a plus for me, especially when it also uses up junk mail that would otherwise have to go in my recycling bag. But as you can see from the assorted shapes of the bigger 'beads' above, I'm not very happy with the evenness of my rolling so I've sent away for a paper bead roller which I'm hoping will improve my technique sufficiently to make something really wearable. What I shall do with them if I succeed, I have no idea. I already have more necklaces than I know what to do with. 

Maybe it'll be making for making's sake?

I made the mistake of searching for Craft Ideas on Pinterest - now there's an occupation to while away those long winter evenings! I'm just dying to get back to some papier mache and some salt dough craft. I'm also attracted to the idea of Shrink Plastic, mosaic and decoupage on bottles - though I'll have to make some Coq au Vin and a Boeuf Bourgignon to liberate some wine bottles first!

I've made hand-sewn patchwork quilts in the past. Here's a nice bright cot-quilt I made a while back - the design is an Islamic one:

But now I'd like to try my hand at applique . . . 

So many ideas, so little time!

Watch this space . . .

*My winning pattern in the Zazzle competition 

Rangoli Flowers, Polka Dots on Turquoiose Fabric by poshandpainterly
   

Patchwork and Quilting at the Abergavenny Food Festival!

Last weekend people poured into Abergavenny in droves for the annual Food Festival. 

It’s definitely not a time to attempt any serious shopping in town as main roads are closed and café tables spring up all over the place!

It’s difficult to move through the throng. And because the cost of most of the ‘attractions’ is somewhat high for me, I usually give it a miss and stay at home. 

But this year I had seen posters in town for an Exhibition of Patchwork and Quilting – admission free!

It was held in a church where the quilts could be spread over the pews and hung from the gallery - which didn't always make it easy to take photos.

I used to do a lot of patchwork – hand-stitched both at the piecing together stage and the quilting itself. It was a great way of using up the snippets of fabric left over from the dresses I made for myself and my young daughters in the late Sixties and Seventies. 

My patchworking basket, with all the little bits of equipment I use, is still sitting on top of a bookcase and I’d love to start a new quilting project.

One of my favourites!

But unfortunately my stash of fabrics is hidden under a pile of boxes and other things that need sorting in a corner of my studio! 

One day . . .

So meanwhile, I braved the crowds and enjoyed looking at other people’s quilts and chatting to the quilters.

Some of the quilts were for the group's own use, others were for sale to raise funds for the hospice, with those left unsold at the end of the weekend being donated to the children’s hospice.

One thing the quilters were keen to impress on me was that, although we know that patchwork and quilting is much more popular in the US, it actually started in the UK and was ‘exported’ to the New World, when the Pilgrim Fathers settled there.

I hope you enjoyed this little taster of my trip into town as much as I did!

Patchwork - Pretty and Practical!

These remind me of the fabrics I used for my daughter's dresses when she was a toddler!

I’ve just finished making ‘Presentation Boards’ from all the design motifs that arose from the first Module of the Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design course.

I hoped that by putting them all together on a Pinterest Board, some sort of ‘Signature Style’ would immediately jump out at me. Alas, it didn’t – but I can identify two main styles in the patterns I’ve created so far and they're just about as equal in number as they are different from one another!

There’s my bold, bright, colourful style, often based some collage I’ve made.

Another one based on the 'postcard' stripes I made in Week 1!

And then there’s what I’d describe as my ‘Granny Print’ style – pretty mini-prints, ditsy florals, reminiscent of the fabrics I used to make my daughter’s dresses in the late Sixties, obviously unintentionally influenced by Laura Ashley.

At the opposite extreme in terms of boldness, brightness and colourfulness!

Laura Ashley swatches - from the archive

Of course, there were a lot of scraps left over from these sewing sprees. I don’t remember where I got the idea – maybe from a BBC programme about quilting and its power to relieve stress - but I used my leftover snippets to make patchwork in the Seventies.

I made cushions and tea-cosies and an outsizzed pocket on a plain apron. But most of all I made little pram quilts for friends who were just getting around to having their second and third babies!I have some photos of them somewhere, but at the moment they are eluding me. They were not unlike these New Baby Congratulations Cards, except that they had a frill of white broderie anglaise all around the edges and the hexagons were tiny!

         

Later, in the Nineties, when the grandchildren started to arrive, I again got out my patchwork! But this time I made larger cot-quilts that could also double as a play-mat. And I based most of my designs on Islamic patterns and used bright, full chroma colours!

            

These are photos of two of the quilts

Since I started sketching/doodling in the evenings I haven’t had time to make patchwork by hand. The last quilt I made was in the winter of 1997-98, when I had just moved to Hereford. The Victorian terraced house I bought needed a huge amount of drastic ‘refurbishment’ and until the builders had finished, I couldn’t unpack much. So, although the house did have a functioning heating system, it had skirting board radiators and they were behind all my boxes so it wasn’t worth turning the heating on just to heat my boxes!

 

I managed to get at a box containing fabric remnants and I started a full-sized quilt for my bed. As the evenings grew colder, the gradually growing quilt kept me warm as I sewed, and I didn’t need much heating, proving that the art and craft of patchwork and quilting is truly a way to save money, in more ways than one!

This door curtain that I made with the sewing machine more recently, didn’t save me money, apart from hopefully saving on the fuel bills by keeping out some of the draughts!

I bought most of the fabrics rather than using up scraps because I couldn’t find one fabric that had all the colours I wanted for my curtain. It took me much longer to make than I expected and it didn’t keep me warm in the evenings. As for being a stress-reliever, I think it was the opposite – trying to get all the corners to lie flat, using the sewing machine wasn’t easy!

But I’m pleased with the way it solved the problem of combining all the colours I wanted!

Patchwork to the rescue again!

 

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