One Block Baby Quilt Top

I saw this quilt block (the central square which finishes with the light blue) on an online Shop Hop a few weeks ago. It was supposed to be a 12 inch bloc which is really a good size for a block this complex. But I looked at how many patches it had and decided to turn it into a 36 inch block with a 4 1/2 inch outer border and make a one block quilt instead!

The delightful bird fabric was designed by Kate Rhees. It’s called “Roosting Place” and is available at Spoonflower.com. I used a fat quarter to make this quilt, and still have enough left to make a coordinating doll quilt. All the other fabrics came out of my stash!

I have a few other projects in the works at the moment, so I’m not sure when I’ll get this quilted. But I’ll show it again when it’s done.

Deconstructing a Quilt Panel: Part 2

In my last post, I showed a commercial quilt panel with a winter dog motif and yardage from my Spoonflower.com site, "StarPower" and talked about deconstructing the quilt panel and creating something new.

Here's the finished quilt, "Winter Pups".  

I added fussy cut stars, strips from my stash of of left over 2 1/2 inch strips, removed printed words I didn't want, and rearranged the sections of the printed quilt panel.  Here's a photo of the original panel for comparison.

The original quilt panel

The quilting was lots of fun.  I did some echo quilting around the designs from the quilt panel, some straight walking foot quilting and swirls around the 8 pointed stars. The back is the "StarPower" fabric.

The finished quilt is a bit larger than the original panel, brighter, just happy and lots of fun!

Decontructing a Quilt Panel: Part 1

A friend recently gave me a Christmas quilt panel commenting, "This panel just says "Judy."  It does! It's the dog thing!  Black Labs are dear to my heart and that the Golden retrievers in the panel are pretty cute too!  I especially like the Golden wearing that pink ski hat!

On the right is a photo of one of my fabric surface designs "StarPower"  that I had printed at Spoonflower.com.  I had intended to use this fabric to make a whole cloth quilt, but don't the colors and the stars look perfect with this panel?

Since I don't love all the graphics in the Christmas dog panel, so I'm going to deconstruct it and add some fussy cut 8 pointed stars to make a little Christmas quilt!  Next week I'll show what I've done!

Tutorial: Cut-and-Sew Mermaid Skirt for a Child and a Doll Skirt

In my last post, I showed a child's Mermaid skirt and a Doll's coordinating fish skirt made from the Mermaid Skirt Cut-and-Sew Panel I designed that is for sale at Spoonflower.com.

Instructions for sewing the skirts are printed on the panel. Here is a short tutorial to show the steps of making the skirt.

NOTE: This design works best for children ages 4 to 10.  It can be made as small as a 3T size (maybe a 2T if you cut off the sandy bottom) and as large as a Child's size 12.  The smaller sizes will have quite full skirts and the larger sizes will less full.

Supplies: 
Scissors, sewing machine, matching blue thread (you might think you need tan thread for the hem, but once it's folded, you'll be stitching in the blue fabric), 3/4 inch elastic for the child's skirt and 1/2 inch elastic if you plan to make the coordinating doll's skirt.

Decide how long you want the child's skirt to be. Here's a helpful skirt length link from Craftershours if you don't have a skirt you can measure. (I looked at the original source for these charts but this information is no longer available there). 

1.  Cut the child's skirt the desired finished length PLUS 4 1/2 inches to allow for the elastic casing at the waist and the hem at the bottom of the skirt. Measure from the BOTTOM edge of the "sand" on the ocean flower.  Mark this length several places along the skirt panel, draw a straight line across the panel and cut out the skirt.  Trim off the un-printed white margins on the fabric.

          2.  Fold the fabric in half, right sides together to make the back seam of the skirt. Pin.  Stitch 1/2 inch seam.

          3.  At the top edge of the skirt, fold down the fabric, wrong sides together, 1/4 inch. Press. Then fold over again 1 1/4 inches to make the casing for the waist elastic.  Stitch close to edge of the fold, leaving a couple inches open at the back seam to insert the elastic in the casing.

      4.  At the bottom edge of the skirt, fold down the fabric, wrong sides together, 1/4 inch. Press. Then fold over again 1 inch to make the hem. Stitch close to the folded edge to hem the skirt.

      5.  Cut a piece of 3/4 inch elastic for the waist. Use with waist measurement PLUS to 2 inches.  (If you don't have the child available to measure, waist sizes can be found on line at mail order stores that sell children's clothes--for example Lands End will have this information).  Using a safety pin as a guide, run the elastic through the channel at the waist of the skirt. Make sure not to lose the far end of the elastic in the channel)!

      6.  Overlap the 2 ends of the elastic, taking care not to twist them.  Stitch them together using a zig-zag stitch.   Now stitch down the opening in the casing.

      7.  Great job!  Iron the skirt and have the child try it on!

For the doll's skirt:  Use the same directions to make the doll's skirt with these changes

•   Cut the fish doll skirt panel the desired skirt length PLUS 2 inches.
•   Since the doll's skirt uses 1/2 inch elastic, make the elastic channel at the waist 3/4 inches, rather than the 1 1/4 used for the child's skirt.
•   Cut the length of the elastic for the doll the measurement of the doll's waist. Don't add any extra. Dolls need a tight fit so the skirt doesn't slide off! 
•   The hem in the doll's skirt is made by making the first fold 1/4 inch as with the child's skirt and then folded again 1/2 inch.

The doll pictured here is a Bamboletta Cuddle Doll. Bamboletta sometimes has very cute Mermaid dolls for sale too!  Their Mermaid dolls were my inspiration for this Mermaid skirt design!

Hope the little girl in your life enjoys these coordinating skirts!

Quilt Panel, my new Spoonflower design

Here's one of the new designs in my Spoonflower.com shop.  This is a quilt panel with my Storybook Houses design and a 3 inch wide border. It's not a cheater quilt because there aren't any printed stitch lines, but it is an easy quilt that could be completed in an afternoon if you suddenly need a baby present!

I quilted the quilt above with all straight line stitches and the wavy Bernina stitch #4. You don't looks need any fancy quilting skills to make this quilt look great!  However, if you have free motion quilting skills, it would also be lots of fun to stitch shingles, stones and siding designs on the houses!

There is coordinating fabric with an all-over house design with slight smaller houses that makes a great backing. I finished the quilt with a scrappy binding using pieces and pieces left over from binding other quilts. I love the look and I love using up the leftovers!

Because the quilt panel is just 35 inches wide and the fabric is 43 inches wide, there are 5 1/2 inches of extra yellow border color printed 1 yard of panel fabric.  This extra yellow fabric is just long enough so it could be cut at 2 1/2 x 35 inches for use as horizontal sashing between the rows of houses. That would make a quilt that is slightly rectangular rather than square a bit larger.

I made this quilt using the Ultra Kona® Cotton option available at Spoonflower.com. The Ultra Kona® is a fairly recent upgrade and it takes the dyes much better than the Kona® previously available.

This design was fun to draw and it was lots of fun to quilt. Hope you like it!!

Improv Scrappy Block Project 2017 May Blocks

May blocks for my Improv Scrappy Block Project 2017.  This really sums up the month of May--the last daffodils in the beginning of the month and Memorial Day and the beginning of summer at the end!

The first block has my newest Spoonflower fabric/wrapping paper, Daffodil Trio. It's available at my Spoonflower.com shop. The preview of the design online look ragged except in the "Test Swatch" but it prints very well.  I actually think this design is probably best used as a wrapping paper though I do like the flowers peaking out of this block!

Improv Scrappy Block Project 2017 March Blocks

I didn't get any improv blocks sewn for my Improv Scrappy Block Project sewn in February.  But I made 4 improv blocks in March, so I'm back on course with my 2017 project. (April blocks to follow in a later post)!

Three of these blocks have scraps of fabrics I designed--the dogs and the concentric circles on the teal background-- which were digitally printed at Spoonflower.com. (These designs and others are available at my Spoonflower shop).

These colors make me happy!  They match the feel of March which is very early Spring/still really Winter in New England!

Showcase: Sewing for Little Girls

Today I want to showcase my friend Marcia who knits, quilts and especially loves to sew for little girls.

Last week she sent me the photo above of a Doll's Bed in a Basket that she made for a toddler. She used my Lab Puppies Pink fabric design, printed by Spoonflower.com.  Marcia chose the Labs wearing the purple bandanas which are turned so they print well for baby blankets. She picked the minky option for the top of the doll blanket and used cotton for the pillowcase! I really like the gray and white fabric she picked to go with it. I love this doll bed! It's so sweet. And it's just perfect for a two year old to use and carry around. (Note the handles on the ends of the basket)!

Here's a jumper Marcia just finished. The patterned fabric is batik and the inside is corduroy!  Using those two fabrics together is really brilliant! The corduroy gives the light batik fabric more body and makes the jumper warm enough to wear in the fall and winter.

Batik and corduroy jumper

Marcia and others also sew dresses which they sell at the annual St Mary's Art Walk to benefit,  I Still Matter, an organization whose mission is "to foster mental and emotional healing through art and creative expression".  Click the link to find out more about I Still Matter.

Here's a photo of their dress display at this year's St. Mary's Art Walk in Jacksonville, Florida. Aren't these dresses beautiful! ALL the dresses they made sold!  Pretty awesome!

Dresses for sale to benefit "I Still Matter" at the 2nd St Mary's Art Walk, December 2, 2016, Jacksonville, FL

I'm going to give the blog nap next week, letting it dream of sugar plums and other wonderful things! But I'll be back soon!

Happy Holidays, everyone!

Lab Puppies Quilt

Lab puppies!!  I'm really looking forward to working on this new quilt project.  I'm using my Black Lab Puppies fabric, available at my shop at Spoonflower.com, and some of my stashed collection of 1930s feed sack reproduction fabrics.

The puppies are printed on baby blue, light blue, aqua, pink and peach backgrounds--all colors which coordinate beautiful with the 30s fabrics.

My fussy cut Lab Puppies block is 4 inches x 5 inches.  I'll pair them with striped blocks the same finished size. The strips for the pieced block are cut 2 inches wide.  Sewing 3 strips together with 1/4 inch seams gives a block 5 inches wide. The strip pieced section can then be cut in 4 inch lengths to make 4 x 5 inch finished blocks.

I've put my cut strips in my drawstring bag and am going to try random piecing for the strip blocks! (I'm not good at sticking to random. We'll see)!!

It's going to be a happy, scrappy quilt!

Black Lab Puppies Mono Print Fabric

This summer I learned how to make Andy Warhol Inspired Mono Prints on Creativebug.com. They are easy and so much fun!

I used two of my mono prints to make this Black Lab Puppies Mono Print fabric at Spoonflower.com.  It's available in an assortment of pastels, perfect for making items for a baby.

The colors are especially vivid printed on the minky fabric that Spoonflower offers.  It's so soft! I turned the design 90 degrees in both pink and aqua options, just so it can be used to make little blankets or other home dec projects.  A yard of the minky is 54 wide x 36 inches.

Printed on Spoonflower's minky fabric (Pink background)

The pair of lab puppties can be fussy cut into 5 inch wide x 4 inch high patches if you want to use it for a quilting project.

I'm really looking forward to sewing with this fabric!  Especially since the prints are from photos of one of my dogs!
 

Charm Square Apple Blossom Quilt

I got the last 2 UFO quilts in my stack quilted last week.  We had a couple cool days in New England and so it was the perfect time to finish them. It's not so fun to quilt when it's hot and humid!

This is my Apple Blossom Charm square quilt, using my "Apple Blossoms and Dots Pink" fabric printed by Spoonflower.com and 2 Kona® cotton solid charm square packs, Warm Sunrise collection. It was quick to sew up and I love the colors.

Here's the back.  My backing fabric is the same "Apple Blossoms and Dots Pink" print but in a much larger scale. Only the smaller scale version is available for sale at the link above.

I keep a "dog quilt" on the foot of my bed where my dogs often end up.  This is the new addition.  They are quick sews--charm square quilts with polyester batting so that they can wash and dry easily.  With these bright, happy colors, I know it will make me smile every time I look at it!

Fox and the Four Seasons Wall Hanging Pattern Release

Over the past several years I have written a handful of free quilt patterns.  A few of the patterns have been posted here on my blog (see quilt patterns and tutorials tab above) and others were for students in my quilting classes.

This past week, my first pattern for sale, "Fox and the Four Seasons Wall Hanging" was released! At present, it is available exclusively in the brick and mortar store, JP Knit & Stitch, 461 Centre St, Jamaica Plain, MA, for $15.00 USD. 

This pattern is for a 20 x 20 inch wall hanging. The pattern's packet includes a fat quarter panel I designed. The panel has 4 blocks, the fox in each season, and the apples and dots strips for the sashing strips in this project. My fabric panel was printed at Spoonflower.com on Kona® cotton.

I rated this pattern EASY.  It is a perfect project for someone with a bit of experience sewing but new to quilting. The directions include instructions for piecing the wall hanging, doing the quilting, making the binding and sewing a sleeve to hang the wall hanging using a wooden dowel. For a quilter with more experience, there are great tips for doing straight line quilting with a walking foot.

Here's a photo of the finished wall hanging.  It would a sweet decoration in a baby's nursery.  I chose a solid orange border but a pink border will pick up the pink of the apple blossoms in the spring block and blue will accentuate the snow in the winter block!  Using a border fabric with a pattern looks greats too!

"Fox and the Four Seasons Wall Hanging"

If you are in the Boston area, I hope you'll stop by JP Knit & Stitch to see the finished project and pick up a "Fox and the Four Seasons" pattern packet for yourself or as a present for a friend!

Homemade Outdoor Dog Mats

It's seems like a nice thing to have a mat on the deck for a dog to snooze.  The ones I've seen in catalogs have been pretty pricey.  So I decided to make my own with several of my fabric designs at Spoonflower.com.  Spoonflower offers a great Eco Canvas which is 100% polyester.  I chose that option because I think it will hold up well outside. It also takes the printed colors beautifully!!

The mats are 24 x 36 inches, have 2 layers of 1/2 inch polyester quilt batting and a different design on each side of the mat.  Shown here are Springer Spaniels with Flowers and Dancing Circles on Teal.

We've had beautiful spring weather lately.  The other day both my Springer Spaniels lay quietly on the deck while I ate my lunch. Tipper just turned 8 and Taffy will be 7 in several weeks.  Neither asked me to throw a ball nor did they need any other attention.  It felt like a minor miracle!   The outdoor mat was on the deck but neither dog was snoozing on it.  Go figure!!

Springtime Top

This cute little top was made using my Little Houses fabric available through spoonflower.com. It's also available with a blue background.  The "Springtime Top" pattern is in the book, Little One Yard Wonders.  It works up in just a couple hours.

I used a different color fabric for the facing.  I used Spoonflower's basic combed cotton for this top.  It takes the color beautifully, but wrinkles easily.  I'd recommend choosing their poplin for a general use top or the light and airy cotton lawn for a summer top.

Here's the back closing. My friend, Janet, gave me the green flower button.  It's a perfect compliment for the tree design!  Thanks, Janet!!

Swing Dress for Toddler

Size 2-3 T toddler knit Swing Dress

This is the Swing Dress from the book, Little One-Yard Wonders by Rebecca Yaker and Patricia Hoskins which I reviewed a few weeks ago.  The adorable mouse ballerina fabric is "Pas de Souris" designed by Katherine Lenius and is available from Spoonflower.com.  I chose the cotton spandex jersey which has just the right amount of stretch.  I sewed the dress using the #9 stretch stitch on my Bernina 440 sewing machine so that the dress can be pulled on over a child's head without popping any stitches.

I think this one is going to be a favorite of it's new owner. (Shhh...it's a birthday present)!

Modern "It's Complicated" Cheater Quilt Panel

This is another in my series of posts about cheater quilt panels available from Spoonflower.com.

This is "It's Complicated" by mainsail_studio available from spoonflower.com.  (The designer states the quilt's name was inspired by "the beautiful ups and downs of a marriage"). It was printed on 2 yards of their wider cotton sateen fabric.

I was immediately drawn to the designer's fantastic use of color alternating with the zig-zags of white and several light greys.  It's such a fun vibrant design!

Putting this many colors and triangles into a digital design is a challenge. It's just not easy. There are places in this print were the color slips out of the lines and other places where there are gaps where the elements of the print abut.  These aren't visible from a distance but are up close.  So the print isn't perfect, but the design is about a marriage...and what marriage is perfect?!

Thoughts about designing cheater quilt panels:

One thing I've noticed on cheater quilts panels is that without the seam lines, it's often difficult to see the intended block layout when light colors/light greys are used.  What the designer intended to be a half-square triangle or a flying geese block ends up looking like a floating triangle. However, quilting these panels in the "virtual ditch" does make it possible for the eye to see the intended block.

Stuffies--Rabbits, Part 2

A herd of hares arrived just after the knit bunny in my Stuffies--Rabbits, Part 1 post.  There were actually 4 rabbits in this herd, but Herringbone Hare, in dark blue and gold, hopped off before the group photo!

These rabbits are a cut and sew pattern, "Business Suit Bunnies" designed by Monmeehan and available from Spoonflower.com.  Each rabbit's design is from photographs of different suit fabrics--linen, corduroy, pinstripe and herringbone!

The pattern is straight-forward and comes with great instructions.  I added the bows and button decorations.

Hop on over to Spoonflower and make a herd of your own!  (Yes, a group of rabbits is called a herd and they live in a warren).

Fox and the Four Seasons Crib/Lap Quilt

"Fox and the Four Seasons" quilt!  This crib or lap quilt was made using my "Fox and the Four Seasons" quilt panel and "Tossed Apples and Dots", both fabrics available for purchase from spoonflower.com.

The quilt design is the log cabin pattern known as Courthouse Steps. Since the fox is always getting the rap for stealing from the farmyard, using Courthouse Steps is an amusing design choice!  (Quilting humor)!
 

Spoonflower Design-a-Day Challenge Roundup

The Spoonflower Design-a-Day Challenge finished up the middle of last week. It was quite an adventure!  Designing a new fabric pattern every day for 15 days is enough to make your head spin--and some days mine was!!  But it was so much fun and I learned so much using all the techniques and design elements.

I posted some of my fabric designs created for the challenge on May 7, 2016.  Here are the the rest of the designs I created during this 15 day challenge.

Left to right:

Row 1:  Springers:  Vectors,  Low Volume Fallen Log:  Photographic, Cats: Open Source Designs

Row 2: Typewriter: Steam Punk,  Blue Geometric Design: Indigo dye, Recipe: Typographic

Row3: Quilters Stash: Kawaii,  Button forest: Found objects,  Apple Blossoms: Designers choice

Spoonflower.com chose "Watercolors" as the focus for the Contest.  For the next 2 days you can click this link to see all the watercolor fabric designs submitted to the contest. And you can vote for your favorites if you want to.  There is no limit on the number of designs you pick.  The winners will be announced March 24, 2016.  You can see them by linking to the Spoonflower homepage and clicking the Spoonflower Challenge banner.

After March 31, 2016you'll be able to see the top 10 Watercolor designs under Past Contest Winners.

My submission is the Apple Blossoms Watercolor at the top of this post.  I think it will make a sweet backing for a quilt or wall hanging made with my Fox and the Four Seasons fab

Spoonflower Design-a-Day Challenge Week 1

Spoonflower.com, the North Carolina company that prints fabric, wrapping paper and wall paper for indie designers, is running a Design-a-Day challenge for the first 2 weeks of March.  Each day is hosted by a different designer. Each host introduces the technique or design element for the day and then discusses options for creating a fabric design using that element.

To date the challenges have been:  Pencil sketch inked over for a final design, watercolors, abstract design, block print, pen drawing and geometric pattern.

It's exciting, and truly challenging, to create a new design each day.  Especially when the technique (or design) isn't something I normally do.

My block print design at the top was done using erasers I'd carved a while back to use a rubber stamps. This is a design I will print as fabric.  I think it would make really cute pajamas!

Below are my other designs.  The snow drops drawing, day 1, still needs to be put in a repeat and colored.  I'm thinking about how I want to finish that design.  For Day 3, Abstract, the idea of using fabric scraps to create a collage was a good one I think. but it just didn't work out the way I'd hoped.

If you want to follow along, designs are being posted on Instagram #sfdesignaday.  It's so much fun to see what everyone is creating.

Now off the see what today's challenge is!