Hello everyone. Happy Monday. Chris English was a delight to interview. For any of you who wish you had more fabric or simply want to use what you have, there is so much good information here on how to up-cycling your fabric.
A kindred spirit! Since 2009 I have purchased so much fabric I had to buy a shed. LOL but in a recent move I packed up all of my fabric in 9 x 12 book boxes so they were easier to move. About 150 boxes all totaled. But I have come across clothing that I have accumulated now knowing it was because I loved the fabric, color and texture. I absolutely love going into thrift stores and gathering up beautiful gems For future projects. It’s so exciting, like a treasure hunt. I really like this video. Keep on trucking Chris.
Fascinating how as the interview progresses, Chris ‘s passion is revealed with more and more enthusiasm . Thank you Karen ! You are very skilled at interviewing your guests and letting them shine :)
In the very early 80’s I taught an adult quilt class. I live on a remote island with no quilt shop even in our next town on another island. The first night I showed how to make templates out of folders, not even acrylic yet, no rotary cutter and no mats, no eBay or Amazon!!, I knew no one had fabric, certainly not store bought. I explained that the pioneer woman had no fabric shops, but she recycled clothing. I asked everyone to bring shirts, blouses, pillowcases, sheets all cotton, not to worry about color but clean. The next week I had a table full of fabric! We had a lot of fun with the fabric for 8 weeks. I just spent the morning upcycling all the flat double sheets I had for quite a while with no double beds. I think they’ll be great as quilt backs. In any case, a lot of fabric just laying there. I also cut the elastic around the fitted sheet, squared it up and left it whole for now. Mind you these are old, but not too worn. Plenty to work around. Perfect for boat quilts. Don’t be afraid to buy these at Salvation Army or second hand stores. For my boat quilts I’ve even purchased mattress pads, hot water&bleached, hot dryer. Then trim everything but the pad. These are excellent if you make potholders or placemats. Nice heavy quilts.
Cindy - I recall my late mom doing the same thing (rural Alberta) and she always loved that class and said it was always her very favourite. Thank you for sharing as I had forgotten this until reading your comment. Brought a huge grin to my face ❤️🇨🇦❤️
My parents made quilts for the poor in Tijuana, Mexico after my father retired. He'd come home with discarded curtains and fabric. Where he got them, I have no idea. My mother would layer and sew the fabric together, then yarn tie them. Once several quilts had been made, he'd drive them down to Tijuana and drop them off somewhere. My father was a very hard, stubborn man, but he had a soft heart when it came to the poor and needy struggling to survive. I believe it must have been because of all the poverty he saw during the Great Depression. Before he passed away, he made a very substantial monetary donation to a well established Christian charity here in San Diego that helped the poor get back on their feet. Until I watched this interview w/ Chris English, I had forgotten about my parent's "upcycling" quilting days. :-)
@@SewAndTellwithDori Oh dear heavens, Dori, that is an amazing memory. So glad you brought it back from the archives of your mind! Your father sounds like mind. Stubborn often comes to mind, but yes, he had that stubborn shell to protect is marshmallow soft interior. Men are kinda amazing like that.
Karen, thanks so much for this fantastic interview! I love Chris’ free-wheeling fabric choices, the whole upcycled fabric ethos, and his “just try it and see if it works” attitude. So inspiring!
Chris English is delightful! He's the kind of person I'd gladly share a pint with. I admire him for using upcycled fabrics to create beautiful quilts from fabrics that might otherwise be discarded--something that shows great respect for our planet Earth.
What a lovely interview again, and he is right, you can't beat a full English lol, I love brown sauce too. I have to say I'm sad I have not been able to get my sewing room up and running through the pandemic because I think I have missed out on some opportunities with quilt guilds. Thank you Karen for a great video.
What a refreshing interview! Chris was fascinating to listen to. Loved his quilts and use of recycled materials. Excellent choice of subject....Thank you Karen and Chris.....From Suffolk UK.
This was a great interview with Chris English. I love his creativity in using recycled fabrics. That 9 patch looks so cool. I definitely want to try it. I was inspired.
Thank you Karen and Chris for the lovely interview. I enjoyed it so much. Chris the quilts are so gorgeous! Scrap quilts are my absolute favorite to make. I made my first quilt at 16 for a school project. It was a baby quilt The main fabric came from a blue and white shirt of my sister. You both are amazing!😊 Keep on quilting!!!💕
How did I miss this interview when it came out??? I love Chris's quilts. That orange and blue quilt is fantastic! I love his practicality in sourcing his fabric and his no holds barred approach. And I would love to be back in England enjoying a full English breakfast with tea with Chris!
Thanks so much for this interview series. What a fun treat to "meet" quilters from around the world in this new era of Zoom. I love how you set your guests at ease and let them shine. Makes for a cozy, informal, informative, inspiring view.😁
Mr. English is a delight to listen to also. Great interviewer, great interviewee! Passion and enthusiasm coupled with actual creating is wonderful to see, and upcycling is great.
Thanks for this Karen - how funny, I've only just found your channel, I'm a dressmaker but love all things sewing & I live about 20 minutes away from Huddersfield , thanks for introducing me to a local lad. I can confirm that brown sauce & sausages are a marriage made in heaven 😉
A heart attack on a plate! I haven't had one since I was in Ireland in the 90s. I love that he's just like "Yeah, it's fabric! Use it!" My first quilt was nothing but old clothes, and like his orange one, it was huge and heavy. What fun! Really enjoyed this. Thank you, both of you. Stay well!
Your wonderful interviews are great. You have the knack of being very comfortable with your guests allowing them to just naturally open up. I have loved all I have seen and the interviews are so very interesting. Thank you.
What a fabulous guest! I loved this video and found it very inspiring. In fact I think it warrants a second (or even third!) watch. Thank you Karen for superb content as usual x
Another hidden treasure, Karen! The next time someone asks me, "If you could have dinner with anyone in the world, who would it be and what would you discuss," my answer will be "Chris English" and "everything about quilts, color, inspiration, and top 10 quilting successes you'd like to achieve." Would love you to do a future follow up interview with this artist. Thanks for all you do!
Chris you and I would be great friends! I look at everyone's clothing with my I love fabric eyes! I am a big fan of ReUse. ReCycle and UpCycle. Don't get me wrong. I have a stash to go with my UpCycle stash...Thank you for letting me know I am not crazy! I LOVE YOUR QUILTS.
I've found some great vintage fabrics in thrift shops and yard sales. I've also looked for shirts made in 100% cotton shirts, dresses with fabrics I love and cut them up.
Hey Chris, I’m just down the road in Hull lol. It’s been great seeing you and learning about your quilting. Thank you too for informing me/us about the guilds and shows available here in the UK! Happy quilting 👍😁😁
The lamest sentence from my mouth to my husband BROOOO my favorite you tuber is interviewing my favorite instagramer about my favorite type of quilts. Blech haha. But i mean it im SO EXCITED.
Interesting man 👍 I haven't quilted for long but I have from the beginning shopped second hand and mixed my fabrics, but stopped that, so I'm feeling super inspired again. Thank you for sharing your amazing quilts. I made a quilt for my Granddaughters Christmas so the machine is out, there are fabric bits everywhere, I'm good to go. Chris English that was fab!
Loved. This. Edition! What a refreshing, charming and inspiring individual is Chris English. Love his practical, not-so-precious approach to quilting & love his love of finding inspiration in books. Looking forward to picking up a couple that were mentioned. So enjoying this series,KB.
🥰💕Love the scrappy crumbs quilt process. Maybe that would be good to join all scraps at the end of each month into 12 inch blocks. then after 12 months you have a quilt top! Great idea! Always inspired! 🥰💕🧶🧵🏠👍👍
I enjoy making scrappy quilts from thrift store finds or relative's old clothes and have had many comments about not following patterns and such. Now I can just say I'm following the Chris English method. This interview has me excited enough to put sewing on my daily to do list.
So enjoyed this interview. Such interesting people you find and I agree you have a talent for interviewing....getting them to release information and enthusiasm they have. Thank you so much for sharing. Another delightful person like Sugaridoo was last week. Wish I had 1 % of their imagination.
I loved the crumb quilts and the idea of doing them as quilt as you go in sections. I quilt all my quilts on my 30 year old Janome. I'm currently going through a denim quilt phase and have been poking around in op-shops (that's the Aussie equivalent to thrift shop) buying up as many different shades of denim jeans as possible.
I am in Pittsburgh, PA and I am currently hitting all of our Goodwill stores for men's denim and corduroy pants. Going to spend my winter deconstructing them and making quilts with them and my cast offs. This video was great and incredibly inspiring 👏. Chris English bravo. Was inspired to think about now using that box of old curtains and bed sheets...non-cottons in quilts.
@@debrastevens1858 I actually enjoy the deconstructing part! I use a seam ripper to take them apart and have separated into various parts to reuse......zippers, waistbands, pockets, even the material under the zipper which if you unfold has an interesting pattern due to fading.
This was such a fun interview to watch. And I love “silly mistake” stories! We all have them. I want to make a crumb quilt next, I think I have enough scraps collected and now I am so motivated. Thanks so much for this!
I love listening to Kate, and hearing what she is up to. She inspired me to bake scones, which I have not done for 20 years; and they turned out brilliant!
THank you Karen for these videos. Your guests are all very nice people . I like the idea of using second hand fabrics, but here in Italy we almost don't have this kind of shops . It was so exciting to go in second hand shops in London back in the early 80 s, when I went for the first times in England . Elena , Italy
My favourite way of quilting! Thank you for bringing Chris to my attention. I look forward to perusing his IG page during our newly imposed 2wk lockdown here in South Australia.
I've always been fascinated by how creativity works. I used to paint (oil painting) and there would be days when the minute I held a brush, I knew I should stop and go for a walk before I ruined what I had done thus far. Now I am a quilter and (although it does not happen often) I sometimes cannot get anything righ... Just the other day I cut a load of fabric with the wrong measurements so I now how to rethink the design of my next quilt. It's fascinating, really ..
Oh this is wonderful. This is my aesthetic! I got into quilting specifically because I loved the idea of getting as much mileage out of re-used and thrifted fabrics as I could, while making something beautiful. I was intimidated by talk of jelly rolls and charm packs and Tula Pink (I googled the last not long ago, so at least I know what people are talking about now). I am so happy to hear someone else expressing my feelings on quilting. I feel so much more confident to play with the craft in my own way now. Thank you for featuring so many different voices.
Another wonderful interview. Thank you for introducing me to Chris English. As a Canadian living in the UK, I’ve learned that brown sauce is HP sauce , what I used to call steak sauce 😀
This was an awesome interview. I just love this out of the box platform of you interviewing so many artist. You yourself, is just have a down to earth and your interviews are the same, that relaxes your interviewers. This is especially uplifting for your audience. Sugeridoo, loved her, was watching her before. I applaud your mind! Thank you!
I loved this interview with Chris English. A few months back we sorted out some cotton dress shirts my husband never wore because they never fit right. I thought - that is new fabric! And I cut it into 5 inch squares but really didn't know how to feel about it. Apparently I should feel great! I have a pretty good stash of fabric - from my mothers scraps, my scraps and from a friend who is getting rid of her sewing things, including fabric. Oh, and I have bought some fabric too, of course. So my goal is starting now and through next year to sew what I have. I may need to buy some backgrounds, and we'll see about backing, but I'd love to see what I can accomplish by focusing on what I have. I gave myself permission to buy fabric occasionally if is something that is so striking that I just can't resist. A quick mental review of my stash makes me think I might get 10 quilts out of it...time will tell.
I’m making a quilt I’m calling “shirts I never have to iron again” with my husbands blue and white shirts, some of my blue and white fabrics mostly stripes. My granddaughter said, “I’ve never seen a quilt so bland from you”. I would much rather use brights, fuchsia, purple, turquoise and my favorite color lime green and black.
@@allyryde I did and it’s a beautiful quilt. I got my idea from “passionate patchwork “ by kaffe fassett. He used 2.5” squares, I used 6.5”. I added color in corners and strips. It’s 12x12 squares.
I’ve been saving some of my child’s clothes with the idea to make a quilt out of them. I’ve been trying to build a crumb quilt top right now and I started to worry that different types of fabric wouldn’t work. Chris thanks because now I’ll just try it.
It was sew much fun watching and how inspiring to make pieces of quilt and then joining them, have always thought it would be easier to quilt and rounded corners is the best idea ever for a quilt ;). thank you Karen for a wonderful Monday.
Chris was a very interesting fellow. Thanks for introducing him to us and his different ideas. I loved the way he quilts in big square sections. I think I will try that method myself.
Thanks you Karen and Chris. As a long- time subscriber to Karen’s You Tube channel, it is so inspiring to see the different styles of quilting in different countries. I am originally from Walsall in the U.K but didn’t start quilting until a few years ago after having lived in the U.S for a good many years. I love the hobby and can see myself quilting for years to come.
Watched your interview today with Chris English. What a delight it was to hear you both speaking so passionately about the art and craft of quilting. Chris seems a very modest man with so much talent and many ideas to share. Thank you so much Karen for sharing this with us. Having a look at the books was a real treat! I am putting one or two on my Christmas list Fingers crossed! P. S. I love his name pun Suits well.
