One Piece at a Time

S’Mitten Quilt

OK, OK these mittens are just too fun. After I was done stitching them I just walked around with a big smile on my face. I used my last nine blocks to make this little lap quilt. Now if the temperature would just go down a bit I might even use it!

You can make one too! Here are the directions.

Download S'Mittens Quilt directions

Happy Friday everyone one. Oh dear, I just realized it's August 12th and I should go get Tweet #8 ready for next week...my Christmas bouquet quilt will just have to wait.

S’Mitten Table Runner

I would like to thank blog readers Marilyn and Pam for coming up with the names Smitten for Mittens and S’Mitten for this freebie pattern…I just love those names.

The first thing I did with my S’Mitten blocks was to make myself a shiny new (well not shiny actually) table runner. It’s very simple, just three blocks set on point! I think this is really putting me in the mood for Christmas here. Too bad I have to wait almost four months.

If you want your own S’Mitten table runner you can download your directions here:

Download S'Mitten Table runner directions

Check back tomorrow to see what I did with my other 9 blocks!

Mittens…the pattern

Happy Friday everyone. I’ve made a download of my mittens block to share with you. I kinda went crazy with the mitten making so now I have enough for a small quilt AND a table runner. I’m hoping to get the directions up for these FREE Christmas projects sometime next week…provided I don’t accidentally fall through the bathroom floor (read previous post for enlightenment).

Meanwhile, enjoy the download.

Download Mittens

By the way, can anyone think of a better name than Mittens for these projects…the naming part of my brain is having a fart. Sorry I said fart on my blog…blushing.

Free Project: Posy Needle Case PART 2

To download a copy of the Posy Needle Case in printable form click   here.

After the appliqué is all done I cut the background down to a 4 ½” x 8 ½” rectangle.

Place this right side up on a piece of batting and trim the batting to the same size as the background.

Place another 4 ½” x 8 ½” piece of background fabric on top of this sandwich right sides together with the appliquéd piece.

Sew ¼” ALL the way around.

Fold this in half to find the center.

Make a small cut with a seam ripper in the center of the fabric. Be really careful to only go through one layers of fabric.

Carefully cut a slit along the center, starting and stopping ½” from the stitching.

Trim the corners.

Turn the whole unit inside out through this slit and press.

Now take your 1” x 3 ½” piece of fabric and apply some fusible web to it. I’m using Steam-a-Seam 2.

Center this over the slit and press.

Cut a piece of felt 3 ¼” x 7”. I’m using my Olfa pinking rotary cutter for this.

Center this piece of felt on the inside and stitch down the center.

Now you have the cutest little needle case to keep you nice and tidy.

Have a lovely weekend.

Free Project: Posy Needle Case

To celebrate summer and school being out here is a very simple little needle case to keep your Florabunda threads nice and tidy. As my family can tell you, “Nice and Tidy” is my middle name. They will also tell you that I have an evil twin called “ If you’re not tidy I’m not nice”. Anyway, digressions aside, this little case fits nicely in the pocket of my Appliqué Block taker for easy sewing on the go. I will have the free download up tomorrow so for now it’s just the how to.

Here we go.

When I am making a flower that has inner points like this I like to press these points first

After I have all the points pressed I CAREFULLY press the out petals down…see how close my fingers are to the iron…YIKES

When it’s done it will look like this on the back.

Then I pre-assemble my flower . I then place the appliqué on the right side of the background fabric and sew it down.Use whatever method of applique you enjoy for this part.I’m using hand appliqué here because it’s easier for me.

Here it is ready for the next step.

Be sure to check back tomorrow for the rest of the how to.

Posy Potholder Part Two

Now try saying that five times fast. On second thought, only do that if you think it’s funny to say “poo” (can you tell I have a teenage boy?)

Anyway, potty humor aside, here is how I finished up my little project.

Once you have your flower placed onto the background it’s time to stitch it down. I could have used invisible thread, but I didn’t have any so I just used the thread I use for hand appliqué. Here is a picture of the stitch I’m using. I shrank the size down so that each time the needle jumps over it only grabs a few threads of the appliqué shape. Each machine is different so you might need to play around with this before you start on your project.

I have a Bernina and the foot I really like for this is the #20 foot. I move the needle over to the far right position and line the inside edge of the foot up with the appliqué.

Here is the completed flower

I added a little free motion stitching to the leaves to give it some interest

Now to make the Stable Stuff dissolve I dunk the whole thing in water

And lay it flat on a towel to dry

Once the potholder is dry I trim it to a 9” square

Now all you have to do is add the binding and it’s done. Here’s a shot of the back.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY and HAPPY SPRING

I'll be back Monday with some thread painting insights and maybe a thread painted bird.

Happy Mother’s Day/ Happy Spring Project

To celebrate Mother’s Day and Spring I’m giving you this fun little project along with a new appliqué technique to do it with. This is so simple that it actually took me twice as long to write the blog-post then to actually make it. I hope you like it.

Here we go

You can download the project  here.

For this method of appliqué I’m using Ricky Tims’ Stable Stuff Poly. This is great for doing machine appliqué because you can make you appliqué shapes with it, sew it to your quilt and it will dissolve when you get it wet and make your shape poofy (is that a word?). You can find it here.

To do this you simply trace your appliqué pieces onto the Stable Stuff

Cut them out

To add your fabric your just use your Stable Stuff shape as a template to trace onto the back side of your fabric

Cut that out and clip any inside points

The next step is to use this glue ( don't forget to get washable)

And apply it to the edges of your shape. I’m only applying it to about ¼” from the edge.

Then you set it GLUE SIDE UP on the back side of your fabric and carefully turn the seam allowance up, pressing it into the glue with a cuticle stick (found in the finger nail isle of your local grocery store)

Working carefully, go around the whole shape

The flower centers are done in the same ways as the circles I do in appliqué. See this post. Only instead of batting and a template I just use the Stable Stuff.

The next step is to pre-assemble the flower (I accidentally reversed mine so I just used a window to trace the flower on the back of my pattern)

The next step is to quilt a 9 ½” sandwich of top fabric, batting and bottom fabric for the pot holder. I’m just using regular batting here but you can use something fancy if you really need the heat protection.

Now I just center the flower on the back ground and it is all ready to sew.

Check back tomorrow for how I finished this sweet project up.