Stuart Hillard

We were delighted to welcome Stuart Hillard as our May speaker.  He originally became famous on the first Great British Sewing Bee, and his career has been on an upward projectile ever since! 

He was a very amusing speaker, and kept us in fits of laughter.  He told us about his life in textiles, starting from learning to knit aged 3!  Then he showed many of his gorgeous quilts, some from his fabulous book '100 Scrap Quilts'.  I took my copy for him to autograph, and many members bought their own copy on the night.

Chris said that I never get my photo on the blog, (quite rightly, I'm always on the other side of the camera) so took a photo of me with Stuart. Such a great sport.

 

Stuart was staying over to teach his method of doing cathedral window by machine the next day.  This is his sample for the class.  The subtle colours give this design a very different look. 

 

Every one was very keen to examine his work at close hand after his talk.  

It was Di's birthday, and she had chosen to come to Piecemakers on the day and celebrate later.  That's dedication for you!  We bought some flowers for her and Stuart kindly presented them to her.

The show and tell started with this stunner, which Nik had made for Linus.  Perfect.
And she had also made this cute heart quilt too.  Thank you, Nik.

 

Here is a lovely quilt where the design had originally been made for the quilter's mother.  Unfortunately she passed away, and the maker gave the quilt away to her sister. Afterwards, she regretted it, so made herself a replacement.  Lovely.

Ann found this beautiful fabric remnant, and made this bag from it.  I love the way the curve of the flap echoes the design.

Paula made this golden quilt at a class.  She extended the design with the heart border as she wanted it bigger.  It's a shame you can't see the quilting as it's gorgeous.

This is a top I made from one of Stuart's patterns, called 'Tilt'.  I promised my son a housewarming quilt for his new flat, and this is the pattern he chose.

Di made this smart bag using a Sarah Fielke house pattern.  She was going to have more houses on the back, when she realised she could just quilt outlines of the houses on the back and save the extra houses for another bag!  Clever.

Here is a lovely play mat Di made from Aldi fabrics.  Some people get a bit sniffy about the well-priced fabrics which are sold in Aldi, but since they're 100% cotton, I can't see what the fuss is about.  We all like a bargain!

Di also made this quilt from a magasine pattern.  She thought it would be a great design to use up scraps.  Making the diamonds was easy, but she found the sashing and side triangles very complicated.  She's not planning to make that design again!

This quilt was 'just' made from Flowerfairy panels, or so the maker said.  I don't think there's any 'just' about it, as it's gorgeous!

Here is a stunning medallion quilt.

The next day, Stuart ran a workshop on his technique for making cathedral window by machine.  Lots of people were keen to along, and here are some of the finished articles.

Everyone was delighted with their progress - most people finished their cushion/runner in the day.

 Here is a better picture of the completed designs.

 If you missed Stuart's talk or would like to do a workshop with him, then he will be back in the area at Rocheberie Quilters next May, and we are currently arranging for him to teach another workshop.  Exciting times !