Holiday Tutorial Series- Erin Why not sew...

Erin from Why Not Sew is an amazingly talented lady. We have featured her before, and keep asking because she is just that good! For reals. Just looking at her blog will make you happy, cute projects, pretty pictures, happy colors. Check out her tutorials, love. She has some great free patterns, this mixer, I must make it! I follow her on Instagram, bloglovin and pinterest, all her posts will make you smile! Thanks Erin.

Hi! Thank you to Heather and Megan of Quilt Story for inviting me to join the Holiday Tutorial Series! Today I have a tutorial for making a super cute ornament. There is some crochet involved with these cuties and If you do not know how to crochet, no problem! I will give you links to some resources for crocheting. You can just as easily skip the crocheting, if you wish, and they are still just as cute. You could use ribbon, pre-crocheted trim, pom-pom trim etc. in place of the crochet instructions I give to you. Whatever you decide I hope you give them a try. They make great little gifts and a really fun addition to your holiday decorating!

::Supplies::

~ 2 pieces of wool felt about 3 inches in diameter (regular craft felt can be used but you must exercise caution when ironing on your bird, place a towel between your iron and felt/applique piece if using poly. craft felt)

~ 1 piece of pretty fabric, a 2.5" square is big enough

~ 1 piece of heat'n bond or wonder under (fusible web)

~ A handful of poly-fil

~ Embroidery needle (something that 6 strands of floss will fit through)

~ 1 skein of embroidery floss (I used DMC color 321)

~ crochet hook size E

~ bird template HERE (this is from the Quiltstory tutorial I did in 2011. The bird can be used for this too.)

Let's get started!

Trace the bird template onto the paper side of your fusible web.Cut it out leaving a scant 1/8 of an inch away from the drawn line.

Iron the bird paper side up, fusible side down, onto the WRONG side your piece of  fabric.

Cut away from the fabric ON the drawn line.

Peel the paper off of the back of your fabric. A pin or needle inserted gently through the paper can help with out fraying your fabric.

 Iron your bird onto one of the wool felt pieces.

Applique the bird to the wool felt. I used the thread sketching technique. That's achieved by using your darning or open toe foot and dropping your feed dogs. Use your favorite method.

Wind your embroidery floss around a clothespin. This will save time trying to undo an inevitable knot while you are working!

It only takes a second and it's saves so much frustration.

Thread your embroidery needle with all 6 strands of embroidery floss. Just a little less than an arm span long. Knot end. Place your 2 pieces of felt together. Bird side up.

Hide your knot on the inside of the 2 felt pieces.

Blanket stitch about 2/3  to 3/4 around the outside of the 2 felt pieces.

Stuff with poly-fil.

Finish blanket stitching to the end catching your first stitch when making your last stitch. You want an even number of stitches for these ornament. For this one I used 20 stitches but for other ornaments I have used up to 26 stitches. It just depends on how close together you will want your scalloped edge. 

Now onto the crocheting! Let me preface this by saying I can crochet. I learned to crochet when I was a teenager BUT I am just learning to read patterns and I certainly have not written any patterns before. I've made washcloths, scarves and hats. That's it. So this is going to be very simple explanation. I use chain, slip stitch and double crochet for this ornament. How to's for these 3 stitches are below.

chain

slip stitch and another slip stitch

double crochet and another double crochet

Plus there are many crocheting videos on You Tube.

Size E hook (it's small)

Find the stitch that is at the very top of your ornament.

Slip stitch into it. You will have a loop on your hook.

Double crochet 7 times into next blanket sitch.*note* If you have more than 20 blanket stitches, say 24 or 26, you can double crochet a lesser amount into the blanket stitches. I used 6 double crochets on my ornaments with 24 blanket stitches. They are less squished looking that way. Again, this is all just your preference.

This will form your scallop.  Sorry about this picture it is not so easy taking pictures while crocheting :) Slip stitch into the next blanket stitch, Double crochet into the next, etc. alternating the two stitches. You should end up with a slip stitch in the very first blanket stitch you started crocheting into.

After you slip stitch into the last blanket stitch, chain double the amount of stitches that you would like your hanger to be. I chained 34. You may like yours longer or shorter. Then slip stitch back into that first blanket stitch where you started and ended crocheting. Cut your embroidery floss leaving a few inches. Pull through your last stitch / loop.

Weave your ends into the back of your crochet work (about 2 shells). Cut floss being very careful not to cut your work.

Hang and Enjoy!!!

Studiolo Insect embroidery quilt...

Casey from Studioloblog submitted this awesomely embroidered quilt. We love it! That is a ton of embroidery with a great technique! Casey blogs here, she loves art history, quilting and design, she plans to start her own pattern company early next year! I think this quilt is very unique and fun !  

I have been itching to show this quilt top since I started it…er…last summer.

 This weekend I finally put in the final stitches, and I have to admit that I’m quite pleased.  More importantly, my son Julian is pleased, since this quilt is for him.  Which is why the appliques are of dandelions and bees. Luckily, his little brother Simon asked for nice, streamlined sharks for his quilt!

Because of the intricacy of the silhouettes (antennae, anyone?) the shapes had to be done in raw edge applique.  I don’t really want them to fray over time, though, so I had to be inventive in how I applied them.  I’m terrible at machine applique, and I don’t really like the way it looks on my machine at home, so I ended up doing the whole thing by hand.  I fused the shapes to the background and then blanket stitched around them with clear thread.  To protect the edges, I then chain stitched around them with embroidery thread.

I’m not sure if this will work to protect the edges a bit and prevent them from fraying, but the embroidery will at least ensure that the outlines of the silhouettes remain crisp.

I haven’t come across this technique in my research on-line, and I’m thinking it will turn out to have been either brilliant or really, really stupid.  Once I’ve washed the quilt a few times, I’ll let you know how it turned out.  I can at least say that the process of hand-stitching was enjoyable, if slow.  I hope I don’t have to applique any more insects for a while, though.

My Quilt Diet quilt for Anne...

This lady Marion, is my kind of lady! She has only been quilting since January and has 31 quilts finished!!! Are you kidding me! No, seriously. She started quilting to help her with her diet, to have a hobby to distract  her from food! Smart lady, addiction transfer, she has done it well! Marion blogs at my quilt diet, be sure to visit her. I wonder if she will pass 50 by the end of the year??? Good challenge? This pretty quilt is for her sisters friend Anne, who is going through chemo, so sad...

I am so happy to have made this quilt for my sister Aly's friend Anne who has end stage cancer :(

There is not much that can be done for her except to administer chemo every 3 weeks to give her a bit more time with her family.

Anne is 41.

Anne has 3 children.

Her oldest is 18 and her baby is 11.

This quilt is for Anne to take with her to chemo and to cuddle up with on the sofa after.

The following are the "post wash" pictures.

I LOVE how quilts look after they have been washed :)

The raw edge applique looks so cool :)

The quilt is heading off to Anne's Thursday afternoon with all of the love and comfort I can squeeze into it.

Castle Peeps Circle quilt from Splendorfalls...

This quilt comes to us from Mary Clair of the fabulous splendorfalls one of our block party winners. I really like how these circles really pop out against the black. Check our her website. Super cute projects like this pillow. And her sewing and quilt link is a fun look through... Just a bright cheery quilt for a Monday morning.

 It's finally done.  Phew.
This was one of those quilts that evolved into it's final form as opposed to executing a vision.  First it was going to be raw edge solid Castle Peeps circles.  Then it was appliqued solid Peeps circles.  Then it was back to raw edges again but I had already cut the solid circles, which now were too big since I wasn't going to applique them.  That's when I decided to quarter them and sew them back together.
I'm sure I'm not the only one this happens to?

  I bit the bullet and free motion quilted this one; all I can say is thank goodness it's hard to see black on black!  It was my first real free motion adventure outside some practice swatches.  I joked with my St. Louis Modern Quilt Guild friends that they weren't allowed to look at it up close.{wink}
It's more practical that perfect and I think that's okay.

I do think the overall quilt turned out pretty cute though!

Can anyone tell me why black fabric is such a fuzz magnet?  Seriously!  Didn't help with the raw edges either; I think I used an entire lint roller on this thing.

I used a cheerful green Kona for the binding and pieced in my practice appliqued circles for the back! 

My sister in law is the recipient of this quilt and I'm happy for her to have it.