From the tutorial booklet included with each kit and also a version published in Patchwork and Quilting magazine, 1998

Materials list

Overview - and how long it will take

The materials you need are:(all provided in your kit)

• Cotton fabric in three colours (for the background) in sizes 6"x6"four pieces, 20" x 20"four pieces, 19" x 14" one piece.
• Cotton wadding 29" x 22"
• Lining fabric, 29" x 22"
• Multi coloured hand dyed silk satin sheath 45" x 10" (satin is a weave which has a sheen on one side and is quite heavy)
• Transfer adhesive or Bondaweb 1 piece 8" x 15" & 1 piece 45" x 10"
• Baking parchment
• Templates or stencils
• Harmonizing threads, metallic or silk.
• Invisible thread (to use in bobbin)
• Tacking thread

You will need the following tools:

• Iron and ironing board
• Blanket
• Small & large sharp scissors
• Sewing machine with zig zag stitch
• Large machine needle (the metallic thread will shear on a small needle)
• Buttonhole or embroidery foot (any foot that allows you to see where you are stitching)
• Hand stitch needle (chenille- large eye sharp point).

You will be using two basic needlework techniques - appliqué quilting and freestyle embroidery. The appliqué quilting enables you to create a large piece of work fairly quickly, while embellishing with embroidery can add exquisite detail and interest. You will need to use either a basic zig zag stitch on your machine or any hand embroidery stitch such as cross or chain stitch.

It doesn't take long to get the hang of machining slowly around a curve. It's a good idea to practice on a scrap of fabric first. Draw around one of your templates onto the fabric and then cut it out. Appliqué it to another piece of fabric, working slowly around the shape. You may want to create the entire piece using hand stitching. If so use cross stitch buttonhole or chain stitch around the edge of each shape, and embellish using twisted chain and French knots.

Overview and time estimate

To help you to plan your work and give you an idea of the stages of making up your quilt, here is an overview of the estimated time you need for each stage. Times are relevant to an experienced stitcher, but I hope it will give some idea to all.

1. Assemble the base - 1 hour.
2. Making the templates - 30 minutes.
3. Iron transfer adhesive to the silk - 20 minutes.
4. Draw around the templates and cut out the silk shapes - 1 hour.
5. Arrange silk shapes and iron on to backing material - 1 hour. (Although I leave mine overnight and have a fresh look the next day)
6. Tack around the shapes - 2 hours.
7. Sew round the shapes - 6-9 hours.
8. Embellish with embroidery - a year and a day!

1. Assembling the base.

Cut eight one-inch (2.5 cm) strips from the small sheet of transfer adhesive. (Transfer adhesive looks like greaseproof paper with a fine mesh on one side.) Laying the fine mesh side onto the fabric, iron one strip of the adhesive onto one edge of each long border piece and onto two edges of the squares. Don't worry about getting the strip right to the edge of the fabric - you'll be trimming it into a straight line next.

Using large sharp scissors cut a straight line through the fabric, adhesive and backing paper. You are now ready to assemble your quilt base. Lay the middle section onto a blanket on a table or the floor. Peel off the backing paper from the long border pieces and arrange them around the middle section with the adhesive side down (figure A).

Figure A.

Check that the distance apart is the same all the way down. Iron over the edges where there is transfer adhesive. Peel off the backing paper from the squares, arrange them as in figure B and iron as before.

The quilt base is now assembled. Roll it up and put it aside.

2. Making the templates.

Cut out the templates from the card with a pair of sharp scissors. Try to include every corner and curve it is often the details that make the animal shapes look right. Don't forget any interior holes.

3. Preparing the silk.

Iron any creases out of the silk. You are going to make a three-layer sandwich. A. Lay the transfer adhesive (grease proof paper with fine mesh on one side) onto your ironing board with the fine mesh on the topside, the papered side underneath. B. Put the coloured silk on top of the transfer adhesive SHINY side up, and then- C. Lay the sheet of greaseproof paper on top of the silk. With the iron on the "silk" setting, gently iron over the whole area thoroughly, then turn the whole sandwich upside down and iron the other side. LEAVE THE BACKING PAPER ON THE SILK Keep the greaseproof paper - you'll need it again at stage 5. Cut off any part of the greaseproof paper that gets bits of glue on from the transfer adhesive.

4. Selecting colour - making the silk motifs.

The silk will now be easy to cut and will have a crisp edge that won't fray. Lay the silk down with the paper side up. Place your card templates onto the paper. You are going to draw round the templates onto the paper and then cut them out - so spend some time looking at how the shapes lie and what colours you'll have in the silk shapes when you've cut them out. It's easier to lay out the bigger shapes first - the smaller shapes you can fit in around them to pick out the colour areas you like. If you hold the silk up to a window you can place the templates behind and select the colours you prefer. I quite often use the areas of changing colours. Use a felt-tip pen or a soft pencil to draw round your shapes onto backing paper. Cut your shapes out of the silk/paper. Small sharp scissors are the best for keeping to every curve and angle. If your animals look a bit childish, trim off one millimeter all the way around the edges to return to an elegant shape. Cut a collection of squares circles or triangles. These will be used to create a border.

5. Composing the colours and design.

You need to arrange your own design the on the base. Think of your silk shapes as a bunch of beautiful flowers that you are about to arrange. Lay the base material out flat, and place your silk motifs onto it. If you leave the paper on the silk shapes, it is easier to slide them around on the material until you are happy with the design. Begin by placing the larger shapes then fit the small insects/flowers in between. Then arrange your squares, triangles or circles on the central panel overlap. Stand well back and take a look. DIAGRAM 3 Nobody needs rules to be able to see whether a design is working! Trust your own judgement, you will know instinctively if something is wrong. Try to keep the shapes evenly spaced. Be aware of how you use the colours, I generally use clusters of similar colours. Look at the brochure for ideas. Then rearrange the whole lot! If all else fails ask a small child, mine give me surprisingly good advice! Working with colour is fascinating. The more you look the more the eye picks up on subtle variations in colour. Observe the effects of setting colours against each other. A favorite combination of mine is a light lime green silk next to a wisteria blue/violet blend in the silk. You may find your own favorites as you work. Allow yourself plenty of time to do this. I often leave my arrangements and come back to them later. Seeing them suddenly I might notice two insects pointing in the same direction or a cluster of the same colours that would look better more evenly balanced. When you have all your shapes positioned, peel off the backing paper one at a time and place them glue side down. Hold the greaseproof paper up to the light and make sure that it has no glue left around the edge. Place it over the shapes, and press them down with the iron on the "silk/cotton" setting. When you start stitching the shapes, pieces might lift off. Iron them back down with just the tip of the iron to prevent flattening the wadding.

6. Tacking.

Lay out the pale lining material. Put the wadding on top and your base material with the shapes on top of that. These materials need tacking together before you can machine or stitch around the shapes. Trim off any excess wadding. Be careful to tack evenly round each shape, about a half an inch away, or you will find that the machine will drag and pucker the material as you try to sew around the shapes.

7. Stitching around the motifs.

If you are going to use your sewing machine, use a zigzag stitch (1.5mm long & 1-2 mm wide). If the stitches are to wide or to close together you will get a heavy line which from a distance looks cumbersome. Use the coloured thread on top (metallic or rayon) with a large needle & the invisible thread in the bobbin and sew around the edge of each shape. Alternatively use silk thread and cross, chain or buttonhole stitch to outline the shapes by hand. It is very important that you lift the foot of the machine as you turn. It is tempting to pull on the material as you go around a curve but this tends to pucker the material. Work slowly! Take out the tacking when you have sewn around the shapes. If you don't want to embellish the base you can hand quilt it at this stage. If you want to do this use a thread of similar colour to the base fabric and dot tiny stitches 1.5cm apart working around each shapes in an uneven brick work fashion so that you don't create tram lines.

8. Designing for embroidery.

By hand or by machine it is possible to turn your quilt into an ornate and exquisite treasure with embroidery embellishment. Freestyle embroidery can be learnt fairly easily if you have an eye for simple design and can do a couple of embroidery stitches and some wiggly lines with your machine. No frames are needed.

Historical textiles all over the world can be found with embroidery embellishment. All sorts of patterns and shapes have been added to bedspreads, clothes and quilts. The V&A in London have a fascinating collection. Almost any repeated pattern works well. As long as its not so large that it makes the quilt design look insignificant, or so small that the quilt design looks too bold. Beads and shisha mirrors can be added and gold thread can be couched on to the work.

Follow these simple steps and see how easy it is.

1. Take a piece of plain paper and draw around some of the templates. Repeat on two more sheets.
2. Doodle a collection of patterns- circles, squares, triangles or any other patterns that you like onto the shapes. Cover all three sheets with pattern.
3. Doodle some squiggles and patterns onto the background areas of the paper. From the three sheets you should have some patterns that you particularly like. You may want to choose the best of these and cover another sheet of paper until you have your final designs.
4. Copy your designs onto a scrape of fabric using machine and/or embroidery stitches. Don't worry about copying them exactly. Freestyle embroidery is a little like painting. Each person's style will be unique.

When I am stitching in this way I find that if I am enjoying myself the stitching works out well, but if I'm stressed or cross the stitches seem to follow suit! Keep repeating this exercise until you are happy with the results on the scrap fabric.

Alternatively follow the included embellishment details on the templates. Again don't worry about being very accurate. Simply applying the threads to the silk looks attractive just keep the stitching light.

9. Embroidery embellishment. Stitching onto your quilt. If you want to embellish using your machine use metallic or rayon threads on top and invisible thread on your bobbin (invisible thread is cheaper). Now that all the fabrics are securely stitched together you can pull quite hard twisting and turning a line. You need to stitch at a fast speed. Keep the zig zag stitch light (not to close together or to wide). Otherwise you might over power the quilt with heavy lines. You can build up to a lot of stitching overall but it is better to build it in layers of fine work. I like to use a mixture of machine and hand embroidery. The embellishment is definitely my favorite part. It can be added slowly layer upon layer. I may add spiral patterns to the whole quilt, and then add a layer of couching in between the spirals. I could then decide to add French knots inside the spirals. This is what I mean by layering. If you want to stitch by hand use French knots or cross stitch as spots on insect wings and flower centers, twisted chain to create swirling lines on the animals or on the base fabric. The finished wall hanging can be trimmed with black bias binding or tassels.

I hope you have enjoyed creating your work. If you have any comments, suggestions or queries I would be very happy to hear from you.

Best Wishes Natasha

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