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Michele from Quilting Bloggers is doing an applique swap this summer and she asked if it could be the Posy Needle Case free project from a couple of weeks ago.
How neat is that!
So if you are interested in making a needle case and participating in the swap go here and sign up.I've never done anything like this before but it sounds like too much fun to pass up.
Check back tomorrow for another fun way to play with color.
This week I want to show you a couple of fun ways that I play with color. Since I am a quilter I find most my color inspiration from fabric, usually fun multi-color fabrics. The problem with this is if there isn’t any cute fabric you can become very un-inspired and bored with quilting. Both these methods help you figure out what colors and color schemes really appeal to you. When you know this then you don’t “need” cute fabric to be in the shops because you will know what your color preferences are and can work from there.
My first way to play with color is to visit the paint isle of my local hardware store. Here’s a shot I took of the one where I live.
Just look at all that lovely color.
To explore color with this method bring a few pieces of fabric that you really LOVE with you. For each piece of fabric find several paint chips that go with your swatch. Once you have found all the colors that go with your swatch you have a solid representation of the fabric that you love. Now you aren’t dependent on that particular fabric to make a quilt. You can find fabrics to match you paint chips and work from there. One big example of this for me was with my quilt “Bluebird’s Piece O’Cake”.
Here is the fabric I started with. Notice how it was never used in the quilt?
Here are the paint chips that go with it.
This has turned out to be one of my favorite color schemes that I plan to use again and again. They make me happy and when I’m happy I love working on a quilt.
Here are a few more examples.
I used this fabric in my quilt Miss Betty
This is the fabric and color scheme from the Miss Amy quilt
These are from Miss Ronna
This is a color scheme I'm working with for next years Block of the Month
It would be really fun to see what color schemes you guys like. To encourage you I’m starting a new FLICKR group and uploading my examples. Please join in and we can inspire each other.
To join go here and upload your discoveries.
Here's what I did with that lovely fabric I showed you yesterday. This is the updtaed version of Miss Ronna. Doesn't this quilt look like it's ready for sunscreen and a trip to the beach? The pattern will be up shortly in the shop.
Happy Friday
For the past few weeks I’ve been trying to get a couple more patterns ready for the store. I realized that my Miss Ronna and my Miss Amy patterns were done in Christmas color so I wanted to do a non-Christmas version. You can read all about my adventures with Miss Amy in previous posts (the ones where I drove all over Denver looking for just the right raspberry pink).
When I started working on Miss Ronna I initially got these fabrics out.
I really really like them. They are perky and fun and that’s usually what I’m going for with a quilt. But truth be told, they just sat there. I couldn’t get the motivation up to start the quilt. Then I was in a shop last week and I saw this fabric.
Yummy isn’t it? It's from In the Begining. It's called Breeze by Wendy Slotboom.
Of course, since I like to make life hard on myself I didn’t buy it that day. Which, of course, meant I dreamt about it all night. So, I drove all the way down to Denver the next day to buy some and I got stuck in traffic. OF COURSE
But now I have some, and just look how nice it is with these fabrics.
When I went over this in my head my only explanation is that the first color selection didn’t have any pink in it. I guess I’m going through a pink phase. I’m also partial to that blue…it reminds me of a swimming pool.
Does this ever happen to anyone else?
I thought I was going to have to give up the Quilt Lady cooking for a bit due to summer but I have found an IDEAL Quilt Lady recipe for when it’s hot. Instead of sticking some nice casserole in the oven while you sew this one uses a slow cooker so you can sew for hours and smell your dinner cooking while you do. I know it is too hot where some of you live to run the slow cooker indoors so my idea is to get an extension cord and run you slow cooker outside instead. Of course then your neighbors might show up for dinner when they smell this.
I don’t even need "how to" pictures because it’s that easy. Plus I didn’t even think until I was eating this that it would make a great Quilt Lady recipe.
ALL you have to do is buy a pork tenderloin and a jar of Pace Salsa Verde. Place the tenderloin in a slow cooker with the entire bottle of sauce and go away until it’s done. When it’s done warm up a few corn tortillas and garnish as desired. VERY YUMMY.
I’ve added a little grated cheese and some salsa to my tacos and the salsa recipe is on the download.
Download here.
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.
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.
I found this FULL page advertisement in my local newspaper.
Many of you know that from time to time I enjoy making fun of my (almost) hometown Boulder Colorado. Technically I live in a smaller and mellower town just east of Boulder so I really shouldn’t mouth off too much for fear that this young man might come looking for me.
As my children have gone through public school here I’ve grown increasingly concerned about the amount of pressure on teens today. I can’t even really write about it without becoming upset. When did it become OK to rob children of their childhood? What’s with all this fear? Just read this excerpt:
Apparently now I should start worrying about PRESCHOOL age children falling behind and becoming criminals. Who knew?
If anyone else is concerned about this I want to suggest checking out the new documentary coming out this fall, Race to Nowhere. I’m going to be first in line.
Hi everyone, I've been getting some e-mails about the fabric requirements for Florabunda so I thought I would do this short post about it. Here are my best guesses for the background and borders. If you followed my tutorial on Sawtooth Borders who will note that I do these borders in a very inefficient way. Hopefully that will help me out because I am over estimating the fabric. Anyway here goes:
Background fabric (blocks and sawtooth borders) 4.5 yards
Borders and sashing 4 yards
As far as applique pieces go I'm just using scraps that go with my color scheme.
I hope that helps and I apologize in advance if I've messed up.
