One Piece at a Time

Applique Cheat Sheet

Follow this LINK for a cheat sheet of applique techniques used in these patterns.

Border Design: Placing your Applique

Here is a quick tutorial on how I place my pre-made applique shapes on the borders.

Print out the pattern pieces. Both the side and corner patterns have one regular pattern and one reversed pattern.

Mark 3" on both sides of the center line and cut along this line.

Tape the pattern and the reversed pattern together using the flower and the cross hairs to align. The side pattern with be straight and the corner pattern will be angled.

Using a light box, line the side pattern up with the seam allowance and centering the flower as shown. Pin in place.

Similarly, line the corner pattern up with the seam allowance and make sure the daisy aligns with the mitered seam. Pin in place.

Now that your patterns are in place you can place your applique shapes.

Blooming Botanicals is available now!

Need something to do while you're stuck inside on a hot (and smokey here) weekend? This is the project for you. These blocks are simple and fun to make. The whole quilt is a joyful riot of fun and color!

You can find the pattern here:

Blooming Botanicals

Pattern anyone?

How many fabrics can I use in one quilt. Quite a few it turns out!

Pattern anyone?

Border Design: First Steps

Here is a little tutorial on designing applique borders... basically all the things I've learned so far.

Step 1: Miter your borders. If you really hate mitered borders you can join them the usual way but I've found this makes lining things up easier. And, YES, I attach my borders before I applique them. I'm sure some people would disagree with this but since my borders are very symmetric I find this is way easier than trimming them and attaching them later.

Step 2: Find the natural division in your design. Since my layout is 3 blocks x 3 blocks I divided my border design into thirds.

Step 3: Don't finalize your design until you have it in fabric! The above picture has my first design which was only on paper. Once I started making the applique shapes and placing them things looked a little empty. 

Ahhh! Much better.

Step 4: Once you feel like your design is working, complete one side to check it. Everything looks ok here.

Step 5: Work in units. There are 2 units in this design, a corner unit and a side unit. I'm stitching them one unit at a time to make things easier.

Bloomer Bonanza

The Bloomer Bonanza Pattern is now available!

Here is a link to it in my shop:

Bloomer Bonanza

It includes 15 original applique flowers, instructions for a fabric book, and 2 quilt patterns (each 46" x 46").

The first quilt is Baby Bloomers. Here is the diagram.

And here is the quilt.

The second quilt is Super Bloomers. Here is the diagram...notice a slight redesign from last week's post

I will be doing a series of blog posts on applique borders in the next few weeks. I will be showing you my design process and all my tips and tricks so stay tuned.

All the rest of my favorite Bloomers

Here are the rest of my favorite bloomers. I made a block of all the little flowers I use to fill out designs.

I'm doing all the final checks on the Bloomer Bonanza pattern and it will be available tomorrow in my shop!

Bloomer Bonanza! A Pattern Update

Here's an update on the Bloomer Bonanza pattern that I am releasing next weekend.

This pattern is truly a BONANZA of quilt goodness. All twelve of the Bloomer patterns will be included. PLUS a pattern for making your very own fabric book.

But wait! There's more!

There will also be 2 quilt patterns included. The first one I'm call Baby Bloomers because it is perfect for all the flower loving babies in your life...even if they are grown ups.

And here are the fabrics.

I'm calling the second quilt Super Bloomers because it has an appliqued border. For this one there's going to be a series of blog posts on doing appliqued borders.

Here are the fabrics for this one.

Stay Tuned!

Favorite Bloomer 11

Favorite Bloomer 11 is another favorite for adding pops of color.

Favorite Bloomer 10

There's nothing lie some little tulips to add some pops of color to your latest quilty arrangement!

A quick technique!

So! My Bloomers are all safely sewn into their little book and I thought it was time to do a quick tutorial on how I made this cover page.

In order to mae this circular frame I used a technique called Back Basting.

Here are the steps:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now you have the perfect frame for your little book of Bloomers!