One Piece at a Time

Now THAT is something to CELEBRATE

This blog post today is my…gasp…750^th blog post. Whenever I think of that number I have this sense of almost total disbelief come over me. Seriously, I cannot believe I have actually had that much to say. The other somewhat staggering number is that, as of this writing, I have had 1,592,929 page views…as in over 1 ½ million…double gasp! That means that you, my friends, actually read all that and for that I am completely GRATEFUL.

So, for today, I thought I would have a little free project for everyone as a thank you. Since everyone loved my little scrappy daisy from this week’s design wall, I made a cute little pin cushion out of it for you guys to make. What’s really great about it is that you can stick various different needles in each of the petals so you won’t get your “betweens” mixed up with your “sharps” or your “straws” (HA! I just had to say that).

Here’s how I made it:

Center appliqué design on 6” square and appliqué in place.(Drawing on download at bottom of post)

 Fold remaining 6” squares in half, wrong sides together.

Place folded squares on wrong side of appliquéd 6” square with folds in the center. Pin. Stitch around the edge with a 1/4” seam allowance.

Stitch binding strip to front of pillow. Fold to back and hand stitch in place.

Stuff with scraps of batting.

Slip stitch along the folded edges of the backing squares to close.

You can download this project here:

  Download Daisy Pin Cushion

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.