Halloween Candy Corn Quilt

I love Halloween! I've wanted to make a Halloween quilt since I've started quilting, and I still have two more to make...there's always next year. But this year I managed to make my first one! This quilt uses embroidery files I purchased about two years ago from a company named Charming Station Embroidery. This company designs mylar embroidery sets. 

Here's a link to their website:
http://www.charmingstation.com/

Here's a link to this embroidery set:
http://www.charmingstation.com/SpecialSets/Specials17/Specials328.html

On their website, there is a very thorough description of what mylar is, what mylar embroidery is, and how to use mylar in your embroidery projects. Here's my quick explanation. Mylar is a sheet of shimmery plasticy material (similar to vinyl but much less stiff). You can order it in packs from a person linked on their website which allows you to get the type that can go in the washer and dryer. The color that I used and that they recommend is opal iridescent.

Here's how you use the mylar in your embroidery design:

You hoop your material as usual. You tape (or hold) the square of mylar in place as the machine tacks down the outside edge of the design. That's it! Then you go through the rest of the design as usual. When you've completed all the steps, you rip the excess mylar right off the outside of the design. 

The designs that are produced by charming station are not dense, which allows the background fabric and the shimmer of the mylar to shine through the stitching. Personally, I LOVE these designs! 

Here's a closer look:

There are 12 designs total. And the stitchout time is not very long - maybe 15 minutes for the longest one. 

Here's all of them pre-quilt:

Next, I had to decide how I wanted to put them together. I chose to sew two borders around each one, a dark Halloween fabric, and an orange fabric.

Then came the most tedious part. Cut strips the length of the each block to create the sashing between the rows and sew them together so they are all in long rows. Also, remember to make sure the fabric goes in the same direction...let me say that again...make sure you're sewing the sashing fabric on in the same directions (I can't imagine why that would be worth mentioning twice...). Finally I cut long strips to sew in between assembled rows. When this was complete it came out looking like this...

Finally, I pieced a back, sandwiched, and quilted by stitch-in-the-ditch along all of the sashing pieces. My least favorite part, binding time. I chose the orange so it would contrast with the black border, and machine stitched it on, using a blanket stitch on the front.

Still not perfect...but I've gotten much better!

And finally, done. And ready a whole month before Halloween! I still need to make a label for it. I think I'll name it "Trick or Treat," unless I can come up with something more clever. I love this quilt!! It has a seat of distinction on my couch between a Halloween pillow my mom made and a crazy quilt pumpkin I made....until Halloween anyway.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Fall Mug Rugs

I'm a member of the Molly Pitcher's Stitchers guild in my town, and during the course of the year we sign up to bring in door prizes for the monthly meetings. Door prizes can be fabric, sewing tools or accessories, or handmade items. I decided to make fall themed mug rugs for my door prize.

My mother has a Anita Goodesign membership and there is a pretty fall set in the current collection. The design pack is called "Autumn 1, 2, 3." You can check out the collection here: https://www.anitagoodesignonline.com/product/autumn-123/

Anita Goodesign's 1, 2, 3 collections are amazing embroidery tools. You can mix and match borders (some with embroidery on them!), embroidery designs, and stippling or background stitches from a fairly large collection of options.

Here are some close-ups of the designs I chose to use.

I don't like the coloring of the bird's face. If I were to stitch this one again, I'd alter it somewhat to make the features stand out better.

This one is my favorite.

Here's the process:

1. I stitched all the designs on a piece of fabric.

2. I decided how big I wanted the mug rugs to come out. 

When they were completed, they were about 5x7.

3. I cut them all to the same(ish) size.

4. I found a coordinating backing fabric, and cut pieces to match. 

5. I sandwiched it with some batting inside.

6. I made binding, and machine binded it like a quilt. I used a leaf pattern decorative stitch and brown variegated thread to bind the front. 

Things that I didn't do that I should have:

Binding things that are small is difficult and annoying. If I made these again, I would have cut the back pieces of fabric larger than the front and used a wrap around binding method to finish them.

All in all, I'm happy with how these came out and would probably make them again as a quick gift.

Southern Comfort

I bought the pattern for this pineapple wall hanging about two years ago and it was placed on the back burner of projects to complete. I even had fabric picked out for it and ready to go for several months. I love this pattern, and it even has a home picked out in my orange ombre dining room. This pattern was also deceiving in that it took much longer to complete than expected.

I chose to do this all in batiks, and even the white, which looks solid, is not. I don't like solid fabrics - I think they're boring. There was a lot of precutting, including the very thin strips in between the blue squares and the even smaller cornerstones, where the white lines intersect. 

The first thing I did was lay out the blue squares a million different ways so that there weren't duplicates next to each other or diagonal from each other. I even tried to not have the same ones in the same rows, however that did not work out so well. Once the layout is decided upon, you sew the squares and single strips with cornerstones into rows. 

Here's something that also isn't fun - sewing 1" squares onto the ends of 1" strips. Piecing fabric that small just is not my idea of a good time. The sewing machine just wants to chew on fabric that small. 

After the long strips were completed, I sewed the longer skinny strips to the square strips trying to match up the corners of those teenie tiny cornerstones. And shockingly, they mostly came pretty straight (I've been practicing piecing more accurately).

Next it was the not fun part. The applique. I've decided that I don't like applique, which is awesome since I have two applique projects lined up in the future. For anyone who has not done machine applique, there are two types - raw edge applique (for people who value their sanity) and turned edge applique, which I will probably never ever do. 

To do raw edge applique, you need to trace the reversed pattern pieces onto a piece of Heat-N-Bond or Wonder Under (double sided fusible). Then you iron it to the fabric, then trim each tiny piece, figure out the placement on the large fabric, peel the back, iron it on, and stitch it down. 

There were three issues with the applique on this project. The first is that the pattern pieces called for the wrong numbers of a couple of colors, so as I was working on the layout I found that I had several pieces cut in the wrong fabric. Secondly, there are a bagillion small pieces which are: 1. a pain to cut, 2. a pain to place, and 3. a pain to sew down. Some of the corners and tiny circles were not easy to sew. Thirdly, I must have had defective Heat-n-Bond, because as I was sewing about a third of the pieces fell off (after I worked so hard at laying them out). Saying I was unhappy about this would be putting it mildly, and I ended up taking a glue stick to the rogue pieces.

After appliqueing the pieces that belonged to the pineapple, it was time to do the same to the borders. These were much easier to lay out, as the not-quite-white fabric that I used was see-through enough that I could see the outlines of the pattern when it was placed underneath.

After all the applique was complete, I sewed the many borders on each side, including the green and white striped borders and the appliqued borders at the top and bottom. 

Then I headed to the longarm, where I chose a blue variegated thread and a cherry blossom pattern - the leaves and circular cherries seemed to match the applique well.

   
I decided to do a tabbed hanging method for this piece. I found a nice copper colored curtain rod with a twisted styled end-piece which matches the general style of the hanging. I decided that I needed 5 tabs to make the hanging hang evenly. I cut 10 6" strips of blue fabric, stitched them together down the long sides, turned them right-side out, top stitched them, ironed them in half, and stitched them to the top raw edge of the hanging (under the binding). I sewed the binding (by machine - I detest hand-binding) to the back, with the tabs underneath. Then I folded the tabs up so they wouldn't get stuck when I was sewing the binding to the front.

 I picked another variegated blue thread and a decorative stitch for the binding. 
 

Finally, label time. I named the hanging "Southern Comfort," as pineapples are associated with welcoming and hospitality in the south. I digitized the pineapple leaves on top of the "S" to make the label look more interesting.

 

Despite the more challenging aspects of this hanging, I'm really happy with how it turned out, and I can't wait to hang it in my dining room!

Pattern - Welcome - by Cherry Blossoms
       http://www.cherryblossomsquilting.com/product/welcome/
 
 

I'm back...Travel Wallet

                                      

So it's been a while. I was really busy with school ending, then helped my mother redo her sewing room, and then was in Scotland and Ireland for two and a half weeks, so the blog took a back seat. I'm going to do better!


Before I went away, I started looking for a travel wallet - one that would fit a boarding pass and my passport and all the other normal wallety things. And I came to the realization that they were all one of two things: 1. Really, really ugly or 2. Really, really expensive.


So I found a pattern online that I liked made by Crooked Sister (not to be confused with Twisted Sister). Here's the stock image and the link:



http://crookedsister.blogspot.co.at/2011/08/adornamazing.html

I like this wallet because it has space for your boarding pass, passport, license, bills, coins, and credit cards. 



The pattern was pretty easy to follow. You have to have a copier that can blow up the size of the pattern 155%, which is a lot to do on a standard printer. I ended up printing out four pages per template (there are only three large ones, so it wasn't that big of a deal).

I didn't even have to go buy fabric because I had bought some fat quarters that I loved at Olde City Quilts without a plan in mind for them, and they became my wallet.

 


A couple of comments about the wallet:


You need to use a fusible on almost every piece of fabric. I used a fusible fleece because I wanted it to be soft. This was a mistake - you should use something stiffer as my finished project ended up a little to floppy.

I chose not to put the pen holder elastic in the center. I figured I didn't need it and didn't want to carry a pen in my wallet (I always have one in my bag anyway).

Sewing on vinyl (license pocket) is annoying. It shifts very easily and it's hard to see (imagine that). It can also be difficult to judge if you are pulling it too tight or leaving it too loose (you want your license to STAY PUT)! The pattern suggested using post notes to cover the vinyl or to use a teflon foot, neither of which I did, but my vinyl pocket came out ok anyway.

I'm a rebel when it comes to following directions (it's genetic - thanks Mom!) and like to do things my own way. Usually it turns out fine (I like to think that I know what I'm doing), but occasionally I really screw up. So, because I'm dependent on my mother for snap insertion into my projects, I wrongly assumed that she could put my snaps in for the big closure when I was done. This was not the case, and I ended up having to use velcro on the closure. It worked, so I wasn't overly concerned about it. I put a button (ACMoore) on the outside, and voila! A wallet completed just in time for my trip (yes, I finished it the day before we left).
                                              

 The trip was amazing, and my wallet kept all my documents and money neat and orderly and ready to go.

Here's a picture in Northern Ireland. Be jealous!
                            

Cheers! 

Something Blue (and Yellow)

One of my best friends and her new wife just celebrated their wedding in California, and I made my way out to LA with an oddly sized quilt stuffed into my carry-on.

The pattern name is Magic Carpet, and the digital file is available on Craftsy for you to print right off of your computer.

http://www.craftsy.com/pattern/quilting/home-decor/magic-carpet/141085?_ct=fhezusj-tujqyb-fqjjuhd-ydifyhqjyed&_ctp=141085

Choosing the color theme for this project was tricky. I've always gravitated towards blue and yellow, but it's a more traditional color scheme, and that made me a little nervous when making a quilt for non-traditional people. However, it all worked out, they loved it, and I did too!

This pattern was pretty easy to make. I cut and assembled the quilt top in one day - it's essentially just piecing the squares or rectangles into strips (making sure you're doing so in the correct order) and then sewing the strips together.

After making the top in one day, I designed and assembled the backing the next day. I could have used a pieced solid backing, but that's way too simple for me, so I sewed some of the extra strips together to make a focal point down the center of the back. It's not super fancy, but it adds an interest point to the back of the quilt and still ties in the color scheme.

I took the sandwiched quilt to the fabric store and put it on the longarm machine, choosing a swirly design to contrast with the geometric design of the pattern. Then I used a decorative stitch to sew the binding on.

I digitized a personalized label with the quilt name, me and my friend's names, and the date of their wedding, stitched it out on my embroidery machine, and hand sewed it on the back.

Here's a picture of my friends with their new quilt (they're holding up the back, but that's ok).

As you can see, this quilt is HUGE for a throw. But I rationalize it by saying that it's a two-person throw. No fighting over who gets more quilt or whose feet are sticking out from under it.

Overall, I am thrilled with how this quilt came out. It was easy to make, fun and quick to assemble, and has a really interesting 3-D look to it (add the more traditional colors and you get a nice fusion of old and new)!

Quilting Box of the Month

This week's post is not project related, but about Fat Quarter Shop's Sew Sampler Box of the Month.

I love getting things in the mail, and I think that most other people do too (when was the last time you got a letter??). Anyway, in addition to your usual haul of junk mail and bills (ugh), I just subscribed to Fat Quarter Shop's Sew Sampler Box of the Month.

Unlike some of the other boxes I've looked at (Cheese of the Month, BlueApron, other meal boxes, anyone see a theme here?) which are pretty expensive and subscription based, the Sew Sampler Box of the Month (SSBM - I'm tired of typing this) is only $25 a month plus shipping ($4.90) and has no subscription program so you can cancel at anytime. 

Last week, I received my first box in the mail.  Let's start with this perk. It's a box. A nice box. Perfect for storing something I have tons of - fabric! This sounds pathetic, but knowing that I'm going to have a new box each month to further organize all my sewing toys and thus satiate my OCD is fabulous. 

That aside, here's what is the first box:

Screw-B-Do   -  These cute tiny screwdrivers are two different sizes and magnetic with a comfy gripper, akin to what you see on pencils. Good for keeping by your machine (or going with your sew travel stuff) for opening up your machine (you know you need to clean it more - as do I).                                                  Regular Price - $14.95

 Cotton Candy Embroidery Scissors - As an embroiderer, you know that you can never have too many pairs of scissors for trimming jump stitches, tails of starting stitches, or - ahem - when your machine decides to have a stroke and you have to do some loving ripping. Also good for sticking in your travel bag, or just being saved for the next time your current tiny scissors go dull. Has a sleeve cover to protect the point.                  Regular Price - $7.98

2.5x6.5 inch ruler - Again, you can never have enough rulers. I hate cutting with big rulers, so this makes me happy. It's perfect for cutting on my small cutting board (and traveling with).                                                          Regular Price - $6.98

Moda Grow Charm Pack -  At this point, I probably could open my own charm pack store, but I'm going to make things with them all one day! This is a nice set of fabrics - I can't find a picture of the others, but here's the link to where you can see the other fabrics. http://www.fatquartershop.com/grow-charm-pack                Regular Price - $9.98

 

Strawberry Picking Pattern - This isn't really my style, but you never know when you could use these things. Maybe a runner or placemats?  Or a blanket for picnics? Or maybe one day one of your friends will decide that they love strawberries so much that the want a quilt of them. You never know.                                                  Regular Price - $8.98

Fat Quarter Shop Magnet - This is a seriously strong, tiny magnet. I can always use more to hang up the ridiculously heavy wedding invitations my friends send.      Free Item

Recipe Card - These are cute. Each month they're sending a recipe card that goes on a key ring. Will I ever use it? Who knows, but again nice to have.                   Free Item


All in all, with the shipping you are paying $29.90 for $48.87 of things (plus two freebies). I am happy with this box. I think what is in it is useful, and I will continue getting it at least for the time being.  

You can order your Sew Sampler box at www.fatquartershop.com.