Long before Karen Lewis became a Aurifil Designer, she was simply a maker discovering her path, stumbling into quilting during a career break spent raising three young children back in Yorkshire, and falling instantly, irreversibly in love. That chance encounter set her on a creative journey that’s still unfolding today. As the artist behind Karen Lewis Textiles, Karen has spent the years since carving out a design language entirely her own: simple, unhurried, and rooted in the same doodling instincts that first drew her to screen printing.
This year, we’re celebrating ten years of partnership with Karen. Her thread collections are never an afterthought… they’re curated with the same care and intention she brings to her fabric designs, offering makers the freedom to piece, appliqué, and quilt in whatever way feels most true to their own process.
Now, we’re delighted to introduce her latest collection with Andover Fabrics, Coastal Walk. Drawing inspiration from tranquil seaside moments, the range reflects Karen’s deep connection to the shore. “I am at my happiest when walking along the beach, through the sand dunes, or high up on the cliffs breathing in the sea air,” she shares. “Those moments were the inspiration for this collection.” Her coordinating 10-spool Aurifil thread set— a serene mix of Cotton 80wt, 50wt, and 8wt alongside Wool 12wt— brings that same sense of calm to every handmade detail. Read on to learn more about this new set and all about Karen’s own thoughts on thread and creativity.
HOT TIP: If you’ll be at Festival of Quilts next week, find Karen at the Stitch Table in the Aurifil Lounge! She’ll be stitching and chatting on Saturday at 11am! Details found by clicking HERE.
We’re certain that many of our readers are already familiar with your work, but for those who may be meeting you for the first time, can you share a little snapshot of how you found your way into this creative practice?
Hi Erin! Thank you for having me and I am excited to be sending Coastal Walk out into the world. So I didn’t actively enter the world I am now in but am very delighted to have arrived here! The short answer is, I took a career break after my three children were born and we moved back up to Yorkshire from London when they were still quite small. I set up an online business sourcing and curating handmade products from around the UK and whilst at a craft fair I met a quilter and rapidly became obsessed. I fell in love with hand printed fabrics and went on a short course to learn how to do this as I wanted to create my own fabrics to use in my projects. Before I knew it I was quilting and printing for a living!
This year marks our 10-year anniversary of working together— both you with Aurifil and the two of us collaborating! It’s been quite a ride. What do you love most about working with Aurifil thread, and what keeps you coming back to curate new collections with us?
Wow! 10 years! What a ride this has been. I discovered Aurifil threads along this journey of mine and fell in love with them. The quality of the threads, the range of colours, as well as the different thread weights make Aurifil a product that I just adore and love to curate coordinating sets to go with my latest fabric collections. And then there is all of you! You are just my favourite people to work with. What can I say!
You’ve been making for far longer than a decade. How do you feel your creative process has shifted or evolved over the years?
I think because I never consciously set out on this creative path, I have been evolving as I have gone along. At the beginning of my quilting journey I was in a hurry to sew all the things and it started out being about completing things. Trying different designs, techniques and quickly moving on to the next. Over the years I have definitely found my niche and what aspects of the process I most enjoy, which turns out to be anything done by hand, whether that be my hand printing, hand stitching and quilting. I just love the quiet mindfulness of creating by hand and enjoying the process even more than the end product. Using a variety of Aurifil thread weights for stitching by hand is part of that joy, particularly those that come on beautiful wooden spools!
Your start in fabric design was largely rooted in screen-printing. While your current fabrics may not be screen-printed, do you find that your designs still draw from that aesthetic or way of thinking?
Definitely. I am predominately a doodler and I love simplicity in both fabric and quilt design. I think screen printing accentuates the uncomplicated nature of my design ethos. I design in the same way whether it is for screen printing or my commercial fabric ranges. I often test my designs by screen printing first before I submit the artwork for fabric collections, as I love seeing how ideas actually look in reality and not just on paper or computer screen.
Your collections often feel deeply personal— from Blueberry Park to Wayside, Hampton Court, and most recently Conway Cottage. Do you find that your surroundings play a significant role not only in your fabric design but also in your creative practice?
100%. I am sure like a lot of creatives, I can not quiet my brain! I find inspiration everywhere and even if I am not actively trying to be creative, I always come back from a walk or an outing with new thoughts and ideas.
Let’s talk about your newest collection with Andover Fabrics, Coastal Walk. What inspired this range, and how does the color palette help tell the story behind it?
I am at my happiest by the sea and always wanted to do a collection based around the coast. To me the coast is all about the calmness of mind and I wanted to illustrate this with the colour palette, hence the more quiet palette that I chose for Coastal Walk. The fabric collection gives me the vibe that I feel when I am by the sea and I hope it does to those that use it too.
Your coordinating Aurifil thread set was curated to complement Coastal Walk and features a beautiful mix of Cotton 80wt, 50wt, and 8wt along with Wool 12wt. What do you love about combining different thread weights in one collection?
This is one of the things I love most about curating a thread collection with Aurifil. I love that I can bring in a variety of weights into a collection. I personally don’t use just one and I love that I can offer people the choice of using the set for multiple projects and multiple parts of projects. I don’t use my fabrics in a single way and want to be able to use a thread collection for all of these, from piecing by hand or machine to finishing off again by hand or machine. The versatility of a collection is so important.
Can you walk us through how you personally like to use each of those thread weights, and what they bring to a project when used together?
I do a lot of hand appliqué and EPP and Cotton 80wt is just perfect for that. It just melds into the fabric and becomes almost invisible. To be honest even if it isn’t totally invisible, I am fine with that as part of the joy of a hand pieced item is to see that the hand has been there. I don’t want to hide that part of the process. I want it to shine and be something to be proud of.
The Cotton 50wt threads are perfect for not only machine piecing but also hand piecing, which has become my favourite child of sewing by hand. Don’t tell the others! Although I am pretty fickle and it can change with the wind!
I am a huge fan of texture in my quilting and so the Wool 12wt gives that extra dimension that I really love to see when I hand quilt. It adds a gentle softness that I just adore. The new Cotton 8wt threads add such a special touch with hand quilting, adding further definition to the stitches. I love using them all together in one project to accentuate different elements. I also include the wools in a project with them to add extra details.
Because the set has been curated around the fabric collection it all works together so beautifully, with both the threads and the fabric, to all be seamless and symbiotic.
For readers who may be newer to working with multiple thread weights, what’s one helpful tip you’d offer for each of the threads included in your set?
If you are new to a certain weight of thread or to the techniques using them, I would suggest trying them out in a tester piece before you embark on a big project. Like everything, it takes time for us to be competent at a technique and you want to make sure you are before you set out on a full blown project and realise you don’t like how you are executing it.
We loved seeing you at QuiltCon earlier this year and know you had a full class schedule. What techniques are you teaching these days, and what do you enjoy most about sharing your craft with other makers?
I loved seeing you too… it is a highlight of Quiltcon! I mainly teach hand techniques. A new class I had this year was couch stitching, which was so much fun. That is another wonderful technique for using Cotton 8wt. Combine it with any of the other weights and you have a variety of finishes with just his single box. It is such a joy teaching at Quiltcon, as well as other in person classes. I love to see the realisation of people when they master something new. And people are so creative themselves, even when they think they aren’t. I just love seeing them use my classes as jumping blocks and taking the techniques and projects in completely new directions that I had never thought of. I always learn something new and come away completely inspired when I have spent time with other makers.
What’s next for you this year? Where might our readers be able to find you teaching, speaking, or sharing your work in the months ahead?
I am online with The Thread House with our Academy. We have just started our fourth year and Jo, Lynne, and I just love the community we have built. Check out The Thread House via the button below to see all we have on offer.
Next June I am heading to teach in France for the first time. I have found an idyllic place in the Dordogne where we will be doing slow stitching and hand printing. It is going to be amazing! I would love to have your readers join me there! https://walnutbarnretreats.com/event/slow-stitching-and-printing-in-the-dordogne-with-karen-lewis/
And on a fun personal note— we happen to know that alongside your creative pursuits, you’re also an avid runner with some big races ahead this year. Why is it important to you to balance physical and creative practices as part of a full life?
It is actually amazing that I sit still long enough to sew! It just shows what a meditative and mindful process it is. As a child I never sat still. I was always playing sport or doing gymnastics in the garden. My parents bought me a tiddly winks game called Ants in your Pants, where you had to flick the ants into a bucket shaped like pants! And nothing much has changed. Running is my go to activity these days. I love the fact that I can completely switch off when I run and not have to think about anything. By the time I am done, I am reset and am all in for focusing on creative tasks. It has become a very important part of my well being and balancing the creative with the physical benefits both and makes me a much nicer person to be around!
HUGE thanks to Karen for joining us and cheers to 10 years!!