I was recently invited by Lecien to join their newly launched Flower Sugar world ambassador program - which means I am one of the lucky few designers who get to play with the new Flower Sugar ranges before they are released to the public. Such a privilige! The first collection I got to sew with is Flower Sugar Fall 2016 which is making its debut next week at the International Quilt Market in Houston. I made a baby quilt. Covered in kisses. Sugary kisses!
The pattern I used is the 'Raspberry Kiss Block' by Rachel of Wooden Spoon Quilts - she has a great tutorial for it here. I wanted a lot of white in this quilt to balance the bold, saturated Flower Sugar colours, so the final design did not become too 'hectic'. I also really love the fact that the fabric in each block is really the 'star of the show' here without having to compete with the other prints.
I straight line quilted it in the ditch in a criss-cross pattern. After reading about all the horror stories concerning Frixion pens (the lines reappearing in the cold!) I used a Hera marker to mark the quilting lines for the first time. I can't say I am a convert. I found it quite hard to see the marks when I was quilting late at night, so there was an element of blind-sewing. Does anyone have any tips on working with Hera markers? Maybe my technique needs improvement!
(My little helper is getting pretty tall!)
I only had a fat quarter bundle to work with, so for the backing and binding I used Flower Sugar Spring 2015 which is in stores now. That hexie print makes the most wonderful backing, don't you think? I also love how well all the Flower Sugar collections work together.
If you would like to win a 10" stacker of this collection and have the chance to sew with it before everyone else, please leave a comment either here or on my Instagram feed telling me what you would make with it if you won! I will pick a winner on Wednesday. Open worldwide. Good luck!
UPDATE - GIVEAWAY CLOSED: The winner of the 10" stacker is @coleandtaffy on Instagram! Congratulations! Thanks to everyone else for entering! x
My awesome Liberty Tana Lawn supplier Ava & Neve started selling Karen Lewis Textiles fabric recently, and she sent me some to play with. I put them next to my sewing machine, and kept looking at them for a few weeks, waiting for inspiration to hit. Then one day I was watching the kids playing at the park - I looked down, and there was a feather on the ground. With the sun on it it was almost pearlescent - lots of pastel hues. And I knew exactly what I had to make with these pretty screen printed fabrics - a raw edge applique quilt featuring feathers.
Designing the pattern was the easy part - deciding on the background fabric wasn't. It took me days to make up my mind (am officially queen procrastinator). I had originally planned to applique the feathers onto grey linen but I shared a work-in-progress photo on Instagram where the feather pieces were laid out on a charcoal sand board. And everyone said I should use charcoal instead of grey! After much umming and erring I finally listened to the communal wisdom of the sages of Instagram (I mean, who am I to argue). And I am so glad I did. I love how each feather piece really 'pops' against the dark fabric.
(Cute pear pattern by Tournicote, hand-made by me - I take orders for them in my Etsy shop)
This is quite a modern design for me compared to my usual style - so to make it a little more 'me' I hand quilted around the feathers and the frame, and added some embroidered Xs to the bottom corner. I have learned two things from this project: 1. I need to sew with purple more, 2. A design can be pretty without having lots of pink and/or mini florals (gasp! Shock, horror.) Huge revelation, right there.
I had been meaning to write a technique tutorial for raw edge applique, so I took photos whilst making the mini. I am so glad I did, there were a few requests for the pattern and tutorial when I shared a photo of the finished mini on Instagram. So without further ado, here is your step by step guide.
TUTORIAL
Step 1. Download the feathers pattern from here and print it out. I print my applique patterns on to heavyweight matt photo paper, as the extra thickness makes it easier to handle whilst cutting and tracing. However if you don't have any heavyweight paper normal printing paper will be fine too.
Step 2. Using a pair of small scissors carefully cut out each feather piece from the pattern. My secret tip here is to use a pair of curved nail scissors. Try it and you will see how much easier it is to cut out curved pieces using these as opposed to regular embroidery or sewing scissors. Follow the curve whilst cutting, switch the scissors around in your hand when the curve changes direction.
Step 3. Select your fabrics for each piece of the feather. You can use any little scraps of fabric, or a charm pack. For each piece we need to cut out a small rectangle of fabric. I place the pattern piece right side up on top of my fabric to make sure the piece of fabric I am cutting is big enough, and then I cut a rough rectangle with my rotary blade (you can use scissors also).
Step 4. Cut a piece of fusible web the same size as your fabric rectangle. I use Heat'n Bond Lite which is widely available here in Australia, Wonder Under is a similar product in the US. If you are using Heat'n Bond make sure you get the Lite version not the regular, as the regular version will clog up your needle! Put the fabric on top of the fusible web, right side facing up, and make sure the shiny side of your fusible web is facing up also (that's the glue). Turn upside down onto your ironing board (paper backing facing up) and press with hot dry iron (no steam) for 5 seconds until the fusible web has bonded onto your fabric.
Step 5. Take your pattern piece, put it on the paper backing UPSIDE DOWN (don't forget to turn or your pieces will end up mirror images!), and trace around. Then carefully cut out the piece on the traced line using your curved scissors again.
Tip: If you are only using a few fabrics for the project, you will find it easier to line a big square of each fabric with fusible web, then trace all the applique shapes on the back and cut them out one by one. I used quite a few different prints in this project so that's why I used small rectangles for each piece.
Step 6. Repeat until all your feather pieces are ready. Cut a piece of background fabric (as large as you want, depending on how much space you want between each feather. My charcoal fabric measures 10" x 12") and place it on your ironing board, right side facing up. Peel off the papers behind each pattern piece, then carefully place them onto your background fabric, arrange them until you are happy with the finished look. Using a dry iron carefully press each feather, taking care not to move any of the pieces during the pressing. Hold the iron in place for 5 seconds, repeat with the other two feathers until everything has bonded to the background fabric.
Step 7. Using the shortest stitch length on your machine carefully sew around each piece 1mm from the edge (start with needle down and go very slowly if you are new to this!).
Step 8. Add borders as desired. I added 2.5" borders all the way around using a quarter inch seam allowance (the dotty print is from the Hello Bear range by Art Gallery Fabrics).
Step 9. Make a quilt sandwich, and quilt as desired. I machine quilted the borders with two parallel lines half an inch apart, and hand-quilted the interior of the quilt. Add the binding, and it's ready for display!
Today it's my turn as guest blogger in the Farmer's Wife 1930's Sampler Quilt-along, and I will be showing you how to make the Caroline block (block #20).
The blocks we have made so far in this quilt-along have been fairly simple. Caroline consists of two hour-glass blocks and two pin-wheel blocks, laid out in a 2 x 2 formation. It has a lot more pieces (and points!) than the previous blocks, and getting those aligned precisely could be a challenge for some. At the end of the tutorial I am sharing a few tips and tricks that I use to get precise points.
TUTORIAL
I was intending to make this block using the traditional rotary cutting method, until my From Marti Michell (FMM) templates arrived a few weeks ago and I used them to make Aunt and Betty... aaaand I am a convert. If you don't have the templates and are rotary cutting your pieces you can still follow this tutorial, using the rotary cutting instructions on your book's CD. If you are using the FMM templates you need Set A for this block, specifically the two triangle templates A4 and A6. You can also download the From Marti Michell conversion chart for this block here (which also explains how to use the templates to make this block - as I do in this tutorial).
FABRIC SELECTION
It is definitely tempting to throw in a fourth colour into this block. However looking at the finished block I am really glad I stuck with the original design, as I would have lost that large stretchy floral pinwheel in the centre of the block. Whatever style or colour of fabrics you are going for, my one recommendation is to use a bold fabric for the pinwheels, so they stand out and not get lost in the busy-ness of the block - I used a bold orange. To accentuate the effect my other two fabrics are quite low-volume so there is lots of contrast to make those pinwheels really 'pop' (and because I am going for quite a low volume quilt overall). You can also use two or even three bold colours for this block - just make sure they aren't too close to each other on the colour wheel so each piece stands out.
The fabrics I am using are as follows: the orange floral is from Elea Lutz's Milk, Sugar & Flower line, the cream floral came from a scrap bundle from a shop in Taiwan so I am not sure what it's called (if you do please let me know cause I would like some more!), and the dots are Riley Blake Le Creme Swiss Dots, my main choice of low volume coordinate for this quilt. Orange is such an underused colour in patchwork in general and I really need to incorporate it into my work more - I was pleasantly surprised by how much I love the colours of this block!
CUTTING
Before cutting, I always starch my fabric using spray starch - I spray it onto the fabric generously but without soaking, then press it with a dry iron until the starch sets. I make sure the iron is not too hot or it scorches the starch, leaving brown marks. The starch lends stiffness to the fabric which makes cutting easier and more precise, and the finished block looks a lot sharper than it would have been without starch. You can also use products such as Best Press and Flatter to get similar results.
When working with small pieces such as the ones we have in this block, a rotary cutting mat helps HEAPS. I absolutely love my pink personalised one from Sue Daley Designs. It's super helpful with normal rotary cutting, and almost an absolute must-have if you are using the From Marti Michell templates as you have two extra cuts to make on each corner, and that little template slides off so easily if you are trying to rotate the piece by hand. I filmed the cutting process to show you how much easier it is with a rotary mat.
There are a lot of pieces to cut in this block. To make the process quicker, pair up your fabrics, put them right sides together and cut them into large pieces or strips. Then cut your triangles out using the templates, cutting through both fabrics. DO NOT SEPARATE THE TRIANGLES - they are now ready to sew together.
PIECING THE BLOCK
Step 1. Take your triangle pairs to the sewing machine. The four large triangles need to be sewn along one short leg (Caution: Pay attention to which leg, or your fabrics will end up in the wrong place in the finished block!). The small triangles all need to be sewn along their long edge, creating a half square triangle (HST). Whilst sewing do not stop to snip off your thread between each set - simply feed the next triangle pair into the sewing machine and keep going until you have sewn all the pieces. This is called chain-piecing and you will end up with a long chain of sewn triangles, looking like this.
Now just snip off the thread between each piece to separate them.
Step 2. First we make the hourglass blocks. Press the seam on the large triangles towards the darker fabric (doesn't matter which direction, as long as all triangles are pressed the same way - I pressed mine towards the cream floral). Pressing the seam towards one side (as opposed to pressing it open) will give a more precise intersection when we sew these triangles together in the next step.
Step 3 - Put two large triangles together, right sides facing, and the seams we pressed in step 2 nicely butted against each other without any overlap or gap between them. Pin. Sew along the long side of the triangle, and press the centre seam open. This is what your block should look like (front and back view). Make two.
Step 4 - Next we make the pinwheel blocks. Take four HSTs (two of each of the colour pairs) and press the seams towards the darker fabric (I pressed towards the orange). Lay them out in the correct formation, as shown below.
Step 5 - Sew the two HSTs in the first row together, press the seam towards the dark fabric. Repeat for row 2.
Step 6 - Put the two rows together right sides facing, butt the seams, pin. Sew together. Press the centre seam open. This is what your pinwheel block should like. Make two.
Step 7- Lay out your two hourglass blocks and two pinwheel blocks in the correct formation. First sew each row together, then press the seam in either direction (I pressed towards the hourglass).
Step 8 - Put the two rows together right sides facing, butt the seams, pin, sew together. Press the centre seam open. This is what your finished block should look like. It should measure 6.5" square.
MY TIPS ON PRECISION
- Starch your fabric before you cut (I use spray starch and a dry iron (ie no steam) on medium-high heat).
- Make sure your rotary blade is sharp so it doesn't chew and stretch your fabric as you cut.
- I highly recommend investing in a few basic sets of FMM templates - those engineered corners makes it so much easier to line up the pieces and make sure everything fits together perfectly.
- Pin blocks together before sewing. The pieces we are working with are very small so it's easy to be tempted to skip this step - don't.
- Press seams that will intersect in opposite directions so you can 'butt the seams' when you are sewing the two pieces together. I pin the butting seams together using a single pin placed at a slight angle - push the pin down through one seam, and back up again through the other seam.
- Check sizes of pieced blocks before continuing on to the next step.
- If you do a lot of patchwork, invest in a 1/4 inch foot, which makes it so much easier to get that precise quarter inch seam.
THIS WEEK IN THE QUILT-ALONG
This week we are making blocks #14 Betty and #20 Caroline. The other bloggers sharing tutorials this week are:
Here are the other blocks I have made so far - I am loving the feminine-vintage-peasanty vibe! It is SO much fun to mix and match fabrics from all sorts of different lines, and scraps even - the fabric auditioning process for each block takes me over an hour! If you would like to follow my progress you can do so on my Instagram feed where I share my block photos as soon as I make them, or here on the blog where I will be posting updates every month or so.
If you aren't currently sewing along but would like to join the 4200+ quilters worldwide taking part in this mega-quilt-athlon it's not too late! In fact we are only just getting started - this is week 2! You can find all the information you need on how to join up and key links in my previous blog post. This is the book you will need.
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