I came across this the other day when I was looking for a quick baby gift to make. Love it big time and it was a very easy one day project. Here is my version.
I found this cute fabric from Moda at my local quilt shop. To make one yourself, click here:
Have fun!
For most of my friends they know things have been a little uneasy lately. I recently moved from my beautful log house by Yosemite California. Not a move by choice unfortunately. Life has a habit of not playing nice. I'm currently living with my mom in The Dalles Oregon. Reinventing life can be a little daunting but I have been little by little taking over her basement as a sewing studio. It is still a work in progress but I finally was able to plug in my sewing machine and make a decent place to sew.
So, my first creative adventure was started with a pattern I found at Allpeoplequilt.com. It is a reversable purse and I had a great time with this. I first made one right from the pattern and then decided it was too small. So I enlarged the pattern 150% and this is my take on it. Hope you like it.
I'm giving it to my son's girl friend.
The rose was made because of a booboo. I missed a seam and had no way to go back and fix it. Hence the wonderful fabric rose.
I'm so glad to be back sewing. Can't wait to come up with something new!
Ok, life is crap right now. The bank says I have to stay in my house until it sells. Otherwise I don't qualify for a special program that keeps them from being really mean to me later. But I'm looking for ways to maintain sanity. So, I pulled out one of my big projects that hasn't been packed for my maybe move to Oregon.
This is a pile of salvages that my long arm quilt friend Dee has been saving for me. What in the world am I going to do with all this STUFF. Well, I seperate it all out by color and I will knit purses with it. I don't have a finished one to show.. Packed of course in my mom's garage in Oregon with the rest of my shop stuff. However, I have cranked up some good ole rock and roll..Def Leppard... Edgar Winter...Billy Squier.... rock on! It does seems to be improving my mood!
Hi all. Sorry I've been MIA for a while. With closing my store and losing my house.. I haven't had much of anything positive to say. I'll be moving to Oregon in about 3 weeks to start over.. hopefully something good will come of all this.
However, I did do some sewing the other day and thought you would enjoy pictures of my wonderful quality control team. Here is team member Alex checking things out.
And of course this is Team member Sammie. Also why I can't get up from my sewing machine in the middle of a project.
Hopefully I'll be back in full swing with my Accuquilt projects sometime in December. Right now everything is packed up tight in my mom's garage. I'll be working on a basement sewing studio... It will take some work but something to look forward to.
Well, I hope you are busy making clutches for your next craft show! This week I promised to show you a new project using the same die. Here it is.
How cute are these! I keep looking at the purse die and thought this would make a great bib. I only used one of the dies in the set.
Supplies:
1/4 yard of each front and back fabric. This will make 2 bibs.
one strip 45" x 2 1/2" of contrasting fabric for ties
Cut a front and back from your fabrics.
Fold the 2 1/2" strip in half and then fold the raw edges into the center and iron.
Fold each outside end in about 1/2" first.. Then fold in half again.
Next sew close to outside folded edge. Make sure to sew each end too.
Fold the tie in half and cut into two pieces.
Next, fold down the rounded side of the top fabric down 2 1/4" to make a flap. Iron a crease and open back up.
Lay the ties just below the crease with the long ends inside. Pin.
Lay the lining on top, right sides together and pin.
Leave an opening for turning.
Sew a 1/4" seam and turn everything to the outside. Iron the seams. Fold down the top rounded edge to the crease and top stitch 1/8" from the edge. Turn in the opening at the seam and top stitch around the rest of the bib. You are done! You can also use Accucut and Accuquilt dies to embellish even more. Here I used the Teddy Bear Die. Check out their sites and you can find lots of more choices! Animals and bug dies.
This project took minutes to make and again is great for craft fairs or baby shower gifts! Cutting 8 layers at a time makes 4 bibs.
See you next week!
For the last 5 years I have been part of a shop hop in what we call here in California..."The MotherLode". This relates to the gold rush that started around 1849. Hence the name of our shop hop "MotherLode Fabric Frenzy". This year it starts on Friday, September 10 until Sunday September 12. Each year we have a free block pattern we give everyone that comes into our shops and each shop has a different one. This year in honor of our grand prize.... A play day with Alex Anderson, we decided on stars. I'm honestly not sure of the name of my star block, but this is what it looks like.
I of course have Accuquilt dies all ready to cut the kits for my shoppers. So this is my project of the week. My block is 12" finished. My die set was for a 10" block so I had to add a small border to make it 12". If you have a 12" die you can still add on the border, your block will just be 13" finished. You'll be happy to know that it also is a GO die set. So everyone can do this one. Here are the dies used:
The top one is quilt block E and the bottom is quilt block G. I used my 10" block set.
Now I learned the hard way that parallelograms have a right side and a left side. So, when you cut these your fabric has to all go the same way. To make my block, you need to put the right side of the fabric face down.
This is the difference between face up and face down.
You can do a combination of both and you will have two different stars that look almost the same except the points will go either right or left.
This is right side fabric face down.
And this is with right side fabric face up on the die. Not much difference.. But looking at my directions it will mess you up if you cut them wrong.
To make this star you need 4 green parallelograms, 4 floral Parrallelograms, 4 pink triangles and 12 white trangles. You will also need enough strips of the white for the outside borders.
Here is a diagram on putting it together.
You will need 4 of these sections. Here is another layout to help you.
Some important tips. Iron your seams open. Be very careful to PRESS not iron your fabrics so as not to distort the sections. Measure your finished block and cut the remaining white strips to finish it at 12 1/2" x 12 1/2" . Here is a possible layout for a full quilt. These were done in EQ6.
As you can see I put a colored frame around each block instead of the white.
Here is another choice.
If you use EQ6 it is easy to come up with your own creative layout... give it a try!
Until next week.... get creative!
This is a little bit of a stretch for me, but I have it on good authority (a mommy with 3 little girls), that these are very popular. I keep seeing so many ways to recycle old t-shirts and saw these flowers made from hearts some where on the internet. I have been searching for days to find the site and I can't. So if you know who started this... please let me know so I can link to their site and give them credit. Both of my sons wear t-shirts until they are so ripped or stained that I have to sneak in and take them away. I got lucky and happened to find a white t-shirt my son didn't want any more and a red shirt that was way past it's prime.
I have these two Accuquilt heart dies and knew these would work great!
Here are the dies:
The top is Heart #10 and bottom is heart #8 small.
I don't think it matters what heart shape you use. The larger heart is 4" across and the bottom one is 3" across. You could easily use the GO heart die as it has 3 sizes. You could also use the #6 heart shape on the Accuquilt site. Just look under applique dies.
Cut out a bunch of hearts from both sizes from an old t-shirt.
Lay out the other t-shirt measure up from the bottom the length you want plus 2". Cut off just under the sleeves. Because the t-shirt has a bottom hem, this will be the bottom of the skirt.
Iron it nice and flat. Turn under the top raw edge 1/4" and then again to 1 1/2".
Sew close to the inside edge. Leave a space for the elastic. Sew 1/8" along the top edge.
Measure your child's waist and add 1". Pin a safety pin on one end and thread through the waist band. I pin the other end to the opening to keep from losing it. Overlap the ends and sew along the two edges.
Pull the elastic back inside and sew up the opening.
Ease the elastic evenly around the skirt top. Divide the skirt into 4 sections and sew across the elastic to stop it from turning. Make sure to back stitch on both ends.
And here is the skirt finished.
These turn out so cute your daughters and granddaughters will be raiding dad and grandpa's closet for more t-shirts!! So watch out!
Ok, on to the the fun part. Making the hearts into roses is a little interesting.. I just twisted the heart and brought the two top rounded parts together kind of like a fortune cookie.
I also took the large heart and just kind of folded upon itself.. get creative. When it looks like a flower to you.. you have it.
Put matching thread into your sewing machine and I just tacked them down in a few places. I have a lock stitch on my Bernina and that's what I used. Lock.. a few stitches and lock again. You could also do this by hand. Don't worry about sewing everything down. Just enough to keep the shape. Lay out a few and see what you think.
You could layer them on top of each other or just do them one at a time. I use both the large and small hearts and sometimes layer them together.
My Mommy friend came in and said she liked them like this.. so that's how I did it. Get creative! you could also cut some from a green t-shirt and have leaves.
Hope you liked this.. I wish I had granddaughters. I would be making these forever. You can also do this on a plain knit top if you want. Have fun and recycle when you can!
Hello again, I have been busy working on lots of fun things for you to make with Accuquilt/Accucut Dies. I hope you are saving your pennies for all these cool dies I have been showing you. Today is a new die. It is the Purse Die and you can find it on the Accuquilt site. Here is what the project looks like.
I have had this die for a long time but could never find directions for it. So, I decided to do you a little favor and show you how to make this wonderful little item.
So, here goes.... first, the die.
It is a two die set with a handle on the second die. I don't use the handle as this is a clutch.
Supplies:
1/4 yard each for outside and lining fabric
5 1/2" x 2 1/2" scrap for loop
1/2 yard for fusible interfacing. I used Pellon 911ff which is a feather weight interfacing. If your interfacing is too stiff, turning the purse right side out can be difficult.
Optional closure of some kind..velcro, snap... whatever. I didn't use anything for this demo.
Here is my fabric:
You will need to cut a back and front piece from both fabrics. You will also need two of each from the interfacing.
Line the back of each fabric with the interfacing and iron it on. Check the directions to make sure you are putting the correct side down on the fabric. If you want a closure, you would put it on the round side of the lining and the small piece with the outside fabric.
The smaller piece is the front of the purse. Match up both the lining piece and the outside piece, right sides together. Sew along the top straight edge only.
Open it up and iron the seam flat, then fold it with right sides out. You'll need to do a little maneuvering to iron the seam so the lining doesn't show to the front.
Next, match up your purse front to the lining back. Linings should be together and the outside fabric facing out.
Pin in place and sew a 1/8" seam. Clip the seams on the corners.
To make a loop to attach a handle later, cut a piece of fabric 5 1/2" x 2 1/2". Fold in half and then fold raw edges to the inside and iron.
Fold in half again, iron and sew close to the open end.
Pin it to main body of clutch just below the front outside piece. The loop should be tucked inside.
Next put the backing with the outside fabric on top, right side down and pin. Sew with a 1/4" seam allowance.
See the two red pins? Leave this open to turn after sewing.
Clip around the curves. Turn everything out and iron. Fold the seams in where you left an opening and pin. You will have to hand sew a blind stitch to close this up.
You're done! This took me no time at all to make. Imagine how many you could make. Remember, you can cut up to 8 layers at one time. That's 4 clutches. These would be great to sell at a craft show.
Here is the finished project again.
Stay tuned. In September we will use the same die to make something totally different. I bet you can't guess! See you next week!
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