Fear-Less Quilting
Courageous Improvisational & Modern Quilt-making
turn your fear of modern quilting into a courageous quilt ⟶
share your story in cloth
embrace your own creativity, do away with perfectionism & make something delightfully joyful ⟶
This course might just change your life! I found when I started this process for myself it re-set my thinking about all my creative making.
Courageous quilting is about taking a leap of faith to create something beautiful, mindful, practical yet speaks of your personal story.
It’s Fear-Less & improv quilting, using instinct, art-making & a whole lot of joyful moments having conversations with your cloth & thread.
This course will probably be unlike any quilt-making course you’ve taken, because I’m about doing things our own personal way, breaking rules & making some things up as we go.
Courageous & Fear-less quilting is a way to make useful yet artful quilts, without all the fussy cutting or perfectly joined seams.
Many years ago I wanted to make a quilt, but what I saw in the modern quilting world made me scared that I would make a mistake, do it all wrong, and that my messy wonky stitches wouldn’t match up with what a ‘quilt’ was meant to look like.
Of course, I know that to be a ridiculous thought-process, but I also know it’s something many of us do in this modern crafting world, with Pinterest perfect makes.
One day I sat down and took my ‘embrace wonky’ ethos, with my knowledge of hand-&-machine stitching and I created my first Fear-Less quilt (you can see it here). Since then I’ve gone on to explore, experiment, break rules, make up my own way of doing things and I’ve made a whole lot of beautiful wonky useful and artful quilts that my family loves to use and people admire.
You can do the same! This course shows both machine and hand stitching options, depending on your personal preference, I share how to make a quilt without using a pattern, or even knowing what fabrics you’ll use in the whole thing.
I will give you the skills, but more importantly the courage, to create a quilt. Because let’s be honest, a quilt is simply a lot of pieces of fabric sewn together to make something to warm our bodies and our hearts.
Let’s do it together!
Course curriculum
A combination of downloadable PDFs, videos & worksheets this is shared in a way as if you’re right beside me at the kitchen table.
More content, quilts & techniques coming in Sept & Oct 2021
The foundations of an improv quilt
choosing your fabrics, including a colour palette and different materials to work with
freehand cutting - no rulers or exact measuring needed here
create a whole quilt by handstitching
or make your quilt top with machine
to bind or not - I offer both options
Making art quilts
for me, quilt-making is a way to combine my love of fabrics, natural dyes, hand painted / printed materials and the process of a large scale textile artwork
you’ll learn how to make an art quilt that is both useful and beautiful
embrace your imperfections and work around the mistakes that will ultimately happen - learn how to fix them without the fear
Hand stitching for texture, detail & mindfulness
I love the process of hand quilting or stitching back into my textile works, I’ll share:
multiple stitches for pattern-making
quilt binding
large hand stitching for quilting
& lots more
Testimonials
embrace your own creativity, do away with perfectionism & make something delightfully joyful ⟶
FAQs
Here’s some common questions about my quilt-making course, if you have anything specific, please send me an email. General faqs about all my courses can be found here.
What will I learn?
You’ll learn how to take fabric scraps and turn them into a beautiful, useful quilt - but on your own terms. My version of quilting is called Improvisational Quilting, which means there are no set specific patterns but rather than quilt evolves as you work - like a conversation with your fabrics and creativity.
I’ll show how to work with the design process, to tap into your inner creativity and trust yourself. As well as the practical things like how to sew the pieces together (by machine or hand stitching), how to ‘quilt’ your quilt (by hand), how to finish your quilt (either with a traditional binding or a non-traditional finishing technique).
Plus I share other little techniques as I make them in my own stitching practice. Such as inset circles, applique, fixing errors, mending holes and lots more.
When can I start?
The course is available for immediate access, and you can watch the videos whenever you want for as long as you want.
What tools & supplies do I need?
You’ll need:
fabric - the amount you need depends on what size quilt you want to make, but I show you how to start with what you have and then add more if you need as you go.
You can use almost any fabric, but I suggest working with wovens to begin with such linen, cotton, silk, hemp.
something to put in the middle of your quilt - such as batting / wadding or even an upcycled woollen blanket
needles and threads - a combination of different types is good from regular sewing thread to embroidery or Sashiko threads (and appropriate needles)
sharp sewing scissors and small embroidery snips / scissors
pins and quilting (safety) pins
a sewing machine is optional
Do I get a pattern to make a quilt like yours?
Improv quilting is such that there is no pattern, but more like a conversation or collaboration with your materials. I show you how I made my quilts and offer insights into that process, but I encourage you to make your own versions.
This is the art making of quilts combined with the craft of the how-to.
Is this beginner or advanced?
This is mostly for beginners-to-intermediate quilting and stitching, with step-by-step process of how to start if you’ve never done any quilting at all.
My videos and downloadable stitching sheets will show you the whole process. I am also available via email to help in any way that I can, and via comments on your student portal.