Meet our latest Create Academy  instructor:

Julius Arthur

In celebration of his first-ever course with Create Academy, we meet the House of Quinn founder who swapped menswear for quilt making.

Textiles are a huge part of our everyday lives - we wear textiles all day, we have them all around our home and we seek them out when we need comfort. They also have the ability to hold onto incredibly evocative memories and remind us of treasured moments. Read on to learn about contemporary textile designer and founder of House of Quinn, Julius Arthur, and the inspiration for his work.

Brighton-based Julius Arthur, inspired by a youth spent crocheting and sewing with his mother and a summer job at Truro Fabrics, decided to trade in his Masters in Fashion Design and instead begin fashioning his fabric remnants into quilts. Since his transformational decision to leave clothing behind and build his textile practice, his emerging label House of Quinn, a place of exploration in craft, has gone from strength to strength.

Launched in 2016, House of Quinn specialises in creating abstract, one-of-a-kind quilts, cushions and soft-furnishings, each made by the hand of Julius’ Brighton studio using sustainable fabrics. Growing up in Cornwall, memories of childhood and a sense of home and belonging intersect in Julius’ work. Many of his collections have a Cornish name; one of the latest, En-tir, meaning ‘of the land’ draws inspiration from the historical mining landscape.

Julius is now part of Toast’s prestigious collection of five New Makers - embarking on a mentorship program which supports emerging makers working in contemporary crafts around the globe.

‘I find quilting to be an amazing way of capturing these memories and connections we have with certain textiles, combining fabrics to create something truly special and unique to you’. Julius claims creativity is a powerful thing - and that so many of his fondest memories are centred around something that was made for him, a creative activity he partook in or lovingly crafted quilts for a loved one. Julius hopes that in taking his online course, Guide to Contemporary Quilting, you too will be able to create your own imaginative memories to cherish.

In his course, grounded in uncomplicated materials, Julius will run you through the steps required to make your very own quilt - from designing and making the quilt top, to assembling the quilt layers, creating the signature quilting stitches and finally binding the edges for a neat finish.

‘I find quilting to be an amazing way of capturing memories and connections we have with certain textiles, combining fabrics to create something truly special and unique to you.’

The good news is that quilting doesn’t require a lot of tools and it can be done from the comfort of your own home, as and when you can find the time. It can be enjoyed when you have a quiet Sunday afternoon, or during a cosy evening in front of a box set.

A finished quilt will become a functional piece within your home - one that you’ll love to use every day. Through the fabrics you use, the colours you choose and the shapes you create, it can also be a vessel for storytelling and a way of communicating and connecting with your own memories and giving them a permanent space within your day-to-day life.

Discover a new-found appreciation for a traditional craft form with Julius’s Guide to Contemporary Quilting. Sit back and relax as Julius guides you through his processes of inspiration, reuses found materials in patchwork quilts and empowers you to design your very own quilt top using a combination of fundamental and improvised patchwork skills.

Watch a free lesson from Julius’s course by subscribing to our newsletter here.