Still Buried in Yarn

This is fun!

Today's Yarn Project

Wash/dish cloths

Quilting Escapes Me

For some or other reason I can just not bring myself to sew this summer.
I like to keep my hands busy, so I thought I'd do a bit of knitting. Tiny knitting since I'm not ready for big knitting projects either.
This was REALLY fun!

Since I don't have any babies to knit for, I listed the little hat on Etsy.

Shameless Plug

I'm really hoping to get back to sewing soon but I have a feeling that, until I can get the munchkin off to college, not much will be happening.

In the mean time, here's something I just added to the Etsy store:

I was asked to create a custom listing for a customer and thought it was a great idea.
It's a "layer cake" (don't think I can officialy use that name) - 30 little 10" x 10" squares of 1930's fabric, all different.

My next post will, hopefully, be a "real" post.

Finally, the winner

I apologize for not announcing the winner of the Go! Baby fabric cutter on Monday as promised.

I had completely forgotten that I had to take my son to college orientation and class signups. One step closer to an empty nest. Sniff, sniff.

It's a very, very pretty campus.
View from the dining hall:

Seen on the walk to the dorm:

Just pretty and green and leafy all around.


Oh right... You want to know who won the drawing!

After sorting through all the "no reply" comments and anonymous comments...

The winner is.....Char!
She has a lovely blog you may want to go have a peep at: http://clothstitched.blogspot.com/

Congratulations!!!

Go! Baby Giveaway Time!!

I promised that I'd be giving away a Go! Baby fabric cutter and if you've been hanging in there, your chance has come!

The folks at Accuquilt are kindly providing a Go! Baby and three dies for me to give away to one lucky reader!
Good news: They ship internationally!

Here's how to enter. You can have up to FOUR entries in the drawing - one for each comment.

1. Become of follower of this blog (see link in the left sidebar) or like the Facebook page. Giveaways, tutorials, etc. are usually posted on the Facebook page before they show up on the blog. Come back over here and leave a comment telling me you did one of the above.

2. Sign up for the Accuquilt Newsletter and receive 22 free patterns.  (Many of these patterns can serve as inspiration even if you don't have a Go! Baby yet.) Then come back over here and leave a comment confirming that you signed up for the newsletter.

3. Post about the giveaway on your blog or Facebook page. Come back here again and leave another comment telling me that you posted about the giveaway on your blog or Facebook page. (Remember to add a link to my blog on yours.)

4. Go check out the Go! Baby dies on the Accuquilt web site and leave a comment over here telling me which three dies you would pick if you won.

Please make sure that I have a way to contact you or I'll have to draw a different name.

Entries close at 12:00 PDT on Friday (comments posted after this time will not count)
I have decided to extend the entry period. Entries will DEFINITELY close at 6pm PDT today, Friday August 5th.
Entries are now closed.
I will announce the winner on Monday, August 8th.

Good luck!!!!

Go! Baby Appliqué Pillow Tutorial Part II

Welcome to Part II of the Go! Baby Appliqué Pillow Tutorial.
Today's instructions will be relevant for both Go! Baby owners and those who don't own one yet. (Keep watching for the giveaway.)

(I had some trouble taking photos in our rainy Seattle weather. You can click on each photo to see a larger version.)
At the end of yesterday's tute, we had all the little appliqué shapes ready to go onto the background.

Now...
Out of white fabric, cut a 15" x 15" square. (I like to oversize things and trim them back afterwards.)
Using a disappearing marker, draw a 12" x 12" square onto the right side of the bigger square. Do this by drawing a line 1.5" in from the edge on all four sides of the fabric square. This is going to be your placement guide for the appliqué shapes.
Mark the center of the square and apply the yellow circle shape using the fusible web manufacturer's instructions.

Now we're going to add the other shapes. I just eyeballed this.
IMPORTANT: We're just laying them down, not actually ironing them on yet!
Follow this sequence:

1.

2.

3. (Remember the 12" x 12" square? Do not let any of the green shapes extend beyond this.)

When you're happy with the layout, iron all the shapes on at once.
Trim the square to 13" x 13" exactly.

A note before we continue: We'll be pinning. I normally hate pinning anything but this project needs it so don't try to take a shortcut.

I've seen the following trim in many quilts recently and thought I'd try it.
Out of blue fabric, cut 4 strips 1" x 13", fold them in half wrong sides together, and iron.

Pin a strip to the right side of the center section, lining up the raw edges carefully.

Sew a seam just a little over 1/8" from the edge. We're doing this because we don't want this seam to show on the front of the pillow.

Attach the bottom blue strip next and then the two side strips.

Out of red fabric, cut 2 rectangles 2.75" x 13".
Out of red fabric, cut 2 rectangles 2.75" x 17.5".
Sew the 13" rectangles to the top and bottom of the pillow center. (It doesn't matter which sides you choose to be "top" and "bottom".)
Remember to pin!
Press away from the pillow center.

Sew the 17.5" rectangles to the two remaining sides of the pillow center and press.

Now we're going to make a teenie little quilt. The great thing about it being so little is that you can use a kitchen counter or table to make the "sandwich".

Out of white fabric, cut an 18" x 18" square.
Out of batting, cut an 18" x 18" square.

My method:
Using painter's tape, tape the 18" x 18" square onto the counter/table right side down making sure that it's laying flat. (Do not use the green painter's tape I used here.  It doesn't stick.  Use blue.)

Place the batting on top and smooth it out.
Place the pillow top over it and smooth out. Pin. Try to pin only on the background, not through the applique shapes.

"Quilt as desired."
I quilted the applique shapes first and then free motion quilted the background doing a little "echo" line around each shape.

Trim the top to 16.5" x 16.5".
I used the edge of the blue trim as a guide to get the whole thing straight since there is likely to be a little distortion on the red border when you quilt the top.

Now we'll complete our pillow cover.
Out of yellow fabric, make a quilt binding at least 60" long.
(Cut 2.5" wide strips, fold them wrong sides together, and press.)

Out of white fabric, cut two rectangles 16.5" x 11".
Fold over 1/2" toward the wrong side of the fabric along one long side of each rectangle. Press.

Fold it over 1/2" for the second time. Press.

Sew the seam about 3/8" from the edge on both rectangles.

Place one rectangle right side up on the back of the pillow top, lining up the raw edges.

Place the other rectangle right side up on top, once again lining up the raw edges. It will overlap the first one.

Pin along the outer edge. Be 100% sure that your edges are lined up!

I forgot to take a photo here...
**Place the pins at a 90 degree angle to the raw edge with their dull ends extending past the raw edge a little. If you don't quite get it, read on and you'll see why I did this.

Turn the pillow top over (right side up).
We're going to attach a binding just as we would with a regular quilt.
Line up the raw edge of the binding with the raw edge of the pillow top.
Pin.
Here's where my **previous instruction regarding the pinning of the pillow back comes into play.
Notice how the pins I placed on the pillow back are sticking over the edge. This allows you to pull them out as you pin the binding on, keeping the layers from shifting.

Attach the binding and complete as you would any regular quilt.

And there you go!

(If you like the fabric combinations I used in this pillow, I have added a fat quarter bundle to the store using this fabric combination: Fat Quarter Bundle - Abby)
I am also planning to list the pillow cover on Etsy I just listed the pillow cover on Etsy at my cost because, goodness knows, I can't keep everything I make!
(and I made two of these because I forgot to take photos the first time round.)

Go! Baby Appliqué Pillow Tutorial Part I

Finally! Summer (what little we've had) has certainly been distracting me.

When I was sent the Go! Baby I could choose three dies. I decided to make one of them appliqué shapes since there are already so many pieced Go! Baby tutorials out there. I chose the "Feathers" die.

Even though this tutorial is for the Go! Baby, you can use it for any other pillow with a center design. I will also be giving away a Go! Baby soon...

This is what we're making.

(cover for a 16"x16" pillow insert)

You will need:

1 Go! or Go! Baby fabric cutter

1 Go! Feathers fabric die

1 5" x 10" Go! Cutting Mat

1 yard white fabric(I used Bella Solids)

1/2 yard red fabric

1/4 yard blue fabric

1/4 yard green fabric

1/4 yard yellow fabric

3 sheets of fusible web for applique.  I like Steam-A-Seam. 

(these are very generous fabric requirements.  You probably won't need quite as much.)

Cut 3.5" x 5" pieces of fabric:

2 x blue

4 x red

6 x green

Out of fusible web, cut 12 pieces a little bit smaller than 3.5"x 5".

Attach fusible web to the wrong side of each fabric piece according to the manufacturer's instructions.

(To save on web, I did patch it in places and it worked just fine.)

Place a section of fabric right side up on the foamy side of the die, making sure that you're covering the shapes with fabric. It's a little hard to see in the photos but you can see the shapes on the foam. 

Place the Go! Mat on top of the fabric and die. Line up.
Turning the handle, move the fabric and die through the cutter.

 

Remove the mat and the fabric.
Voila! Three little blue raindrops.

Following this method, cut the rest of your shapes.
As you may have noticed in the first photo, some of the feather shapes are mirror images of each other. To cut these, simply place the fabric on the die right side down.

You will need to cut:
5 blue raindrops
5 red feathers
5 red feathers mirrored
5 green feathers
5 green feathers mirrored
5 green raindrops

Using a 3" x 3" piece of yellow fabric and fusible web, create a 2" circle shape.  I used an egg cup to trace the circle.

That's all for today.

I decided to split the tutorial over two posts because it started getting REALLY long. Please come back tomorrow for the rest.

Almost there

Putting the finishing touches on a tutorial for my first Go! Baby project.

Playing with my Baby

I finished my first project using the GO! Baby today. Tons of fun!
Here's a little sneak peak until I can get all the photos taken.

GO! Baby

The UPS guy brought a box...

..which I tore open in a flash...

...and what did I find?

My very own GO! Baby.
Yay!

In the next week or so I will be testing her out and reporting back over here.
Then there will be a giveaway! Yes, you'll have a chance to win your very own Baby.
Stay tuned!