If you are new to this blog the original information about this quilt along is here Please show us what you are doing along the way by sending us pictures and I will share them on this blog. I cannot wait to see them all!! If any other people want to also follow along, you are more than welcome but please purchase the book here. Unfortunately, you will not be eligible for a prize because we are now past the Jan 31 deadline, but you will gain from sharing your work with others and hopefully be inspired. We now have 6 complete! All are shown below: They kind of remind me of Christmas Ribbon Candy!
Happy Wednesday Everyone!🍬
1 Comment
Practice your decorative stitches and make these adorable, affordable and easy felt coasters for valentines day. Yes I am still stuck on the love theme this month! Felt is very absorbent and makes great coasters. They are perfect for gift giving! .... Or you just may want to keep them for yourself You will need: Red Felt (2 layers for each coaster needed) A Frixion Pen A rotary cutter with a pinking or wavy blade A sewing machine with decorative stitches Threads in Pink, White Lavender and Peach, I used Connecting Threads, Essential Threads, "Salt Water Taffy" How to make them: 1) Using a heart shape, trace it onto 2 layers of red felt. (You can download for free my shape template from my shop in the free patterns here) Trace using a Frixion pen, so that when you iron the coaster, the marks go away, it's a wonderful pen! 2) With both layers together, stitch around the perimeter of the heart a generous 1/4". 3) Trim with a wavy rotary cutter blade, close to the edge 4) Choose your threads, I used Connecting Threads -Essential Threads in pinks, lavender, white and a peach pink 5) Choose your stitches and stitch! It is fun to "audition" these stitches on a small project, that way you know what they look like on something bigger. Some great gift ideas with this project: Happy Tuesday everyone! I hope you enjoy this quick and easy little project! 💋❤️💋❤️💋 Yesterday I was teaching my "Simply Colours" workshop in Barrie, Ontario and I had some students in the class who have never done quilt binding before and so I promised to send them a tutorial. I am sharing it below to my blog followers and you can also download it here or go to the "Shop" at the top menue and "free PDF Patterns". Binding Tutorial from www.quiltingintheloft.com When you have finished quilting your project, use a ruler, cutting mat and rotary cutter to trim your edges as square as possible on all sides to it’s finished size. I prefer to use a double folded 2 ½” wide strip of fabric to bind my quilts. Measure your quilt perimeter (add all lengths and widths) and add 8” (for joining slack) to figure out the number of the binding strips needed using an approximate 45” width of fabric. Divide 45 into the perimeter number you have come up with this will give you the number of strips you need. Cut the strips 2 ½” x WOF (Width of fabric) To join your strips:
2. Trim the seam allowance to ¼”. Press the seam allowances open. Add the remaining strips in the same way to make one long strip. 3. Once all of the strips have been joined, cut one end at a 45-degree angle. This will be the beginning of the strip. Fold the 45 degree angle edge under ¼” towards the wrong side. Press the strip in half lengthwise, wrong sides together. 4. Beginning at the 45-degree angle end, place the binding strip along one edge of the front of the quilt top. Start away from a corner; sew 8 “ away from the angled edge, ¼” from the raw edge of the quilt top and binding. When you get near the corner, stop ¼” from the corner and sew off the corner on a 45 degree angle or backstitch up to the ¼” spot. 5. Remove the quilt from the sewing machine and trim threads. Turn the quilt so you are ready to sew the binding to the next side. Fold the binding straight up, away from the quilt, to create a 45-degree angle fold. Fold the binding back down onto itself, even with the edge of the quilt top, to create an angled pleat in the corner. Beginning at the edge, stitch the binding to the quilt stopping ¼” from the next corner. Repeat the process on the remaining corners of the quilt. 6. Tuck approximately 1-2” of the end of the binding into the folded, 45- degree angle edge so that the binding remains flat (you will need to cut any excess binding). Pinning will be required. Finish stitching the binding to the quilt top. 7. Fold the binding to the back of the quilt. Using matching thread and making sure the machine stitching line is covered, hand stitch the folded edge to the backing. Use a backstitch or invisible applique stitch. Fold the binding to form a miter at the corner. I hope you can understand and use of this tutorial, we are always striving to make quilting easier for our followers!
Happy Monday, Have a Great Week and Stay Warm! I spent the last couple of days at my sisters and teaching my "Simply Colours" class at a business near her and she made this wonderful soup for me! It was delicious.
If you are interested in learning tips on proper methods of canning and preserving as well as money saving advice and ideas check out her website at www.preserveforlife.com On to the recipe! You will need: 5-6 cups of chicken stock ( Vegan =vegetable stock) or more as needed- see #4 below 1 1/4 cup red lentils 1 large garlic clove 1/2 large onion, minced 1 tsp salt 1 tsp pepper 1 large bell pepper diced 2 large carrots, peeled and diced 2 ribs of celery diced 1 cup of chopped tomatoes 4 oz of mushrooms, chopped 1 cup of chopped green beans 1/2 bunch fresh spinach 1 Tbsp dried parsley 1 Tbsp tomato paste 1 Tbsp dried oregano 1 Tbsp dried basil 2 cups of rice (cooked) 1/4 cup of cilantro (optional) How to make it: 1. Combine stock, lentils, garlic, onion, salt and pepper in a large pot and bring to a boil. 2. Chop your vegetables and add to pot as they are ready along with tomato paste and seasonings 3. Once to a boil, reduce to a simmer and stir every 10-20 minutes until lentils have broken down(at about 60-90 minutes). 4. This is a thick soup , but 1/2" of liquid should cover the vegetables at all times, so add additional stock if needed. When lentils are soft it is ready to eat. 5. Garnish with a scoop of rice and sprinkle with fresh cilantro 6. It's even better the next day!! This was so savoury and warming on a cold winter day!❄️⛄️ Recipe courtesy of www.preserveforlife.com Happy Sunday!! It is now official, there are 5 people involved in the quilt along to be eligible for a prize at the end of 2016. So those that are involved, you have emailed or contacted me prior to Jan 31, 2016 and your odds of winning are awesome!!! If all 5 finish their blocks, they are all eligible!!! If you are new to this blog the original information about this quilt along is here Please show us what you are doing along the way by sending us pictures and I will share them on this blog. I cannot wait to see them all!! If any other people want to also follow along, you are more than welcome but please purchase the book here. Unfortunately, you will not be eligible for a prize because we are now past the Jan 31 deadline, but you will gain from sharing your work with others and hopefully be inspired. This just in............................................... Connecting Threads has their books on sale at 40% off, ending 2/8/16 so the New Hexagon Book is on sale!! Our blocks to date are shown below, 4 for January and 1 for February: .....as you can see mine are very scrappy
Happy Wednesday! It's the month of LOVE so of course I'm thinking Valentines Day Projects. This one I am calling Crayon Applique! For real! I love doing seasonal projects and I attended a mini workshop at my Elmira Needle Sisters Group last week and one of our members demo'd how to use crayons on fabric. I had done this years ago as a demo and it was a pleasant reminder of a very nice technique, so I thought I would share it with my followers.
1) The first thing you do is find a black line image you like, colouring books an the internet are great resources for this. Raid your grandchildren's colouring books ha, ha (I'm sure they would be happy to share). Or buy one of those new therapeutic adult colouring books.
My image is below:
2) IronFreezer paper wax side down on the wrong side of the fabric as it helps to keep your fabric firm as you colour.
3) Once your fabric has cooled, with a Frixion pen (this pen disappears with heat and is wonderful for quilting/sewing projects), trace the image onto light coloured fabric, you can use a light box if you wish. I traced only the areas that were going to receive the crayon first.
4) Colour in your letters/images with Prang Crayons (Prang are recommended as their pigment is excellent and works well with fabric). I used them at the demo last week and then ordered them and used them on this project and they are wonderful. The colour intensity is great and the fabric still feels soft after you colour with them. You can also use crayola, but do not use any other brands as the pigment may not be permanent. See below they are only $2.59 Cdn for a box of 24!
5) Turn your iron on cotton setting and turn image crayon side down onto 2-3 layers of paper towel (this will protect your ironing board and iron and absorb the wax). Press for about 20 seconds all over the crayoned area. The excess wax will melt into the paper towel and the heat will seal the pigment into your fabric.
6) You may also wish to stabilize your fabric at this point prior to tracing any more items. I stabilized my image and satin stitched around my letters and free motion stitched my branches and birdies
7) Make into a pillow, stretch over a canvas, make a wall hanging, quilt as desired, add buttons or embellish, it's ready for gift giving ( would be a cute shower gift too!)
Happy Tuesday!
Hi Everyone, I got many requests for the pattern for my 8 Pointed Star Quilt I posted in Saturday Jan 30th, I taught this as a beginner class many years ago in Windsor. It was not a copyrighted pattern at the time, but I cannot locate it, so I have just drawn in up inEQ 7 (Electric Quilt 7) and am providing the layout below. This quilt is made up simply of squares and 1/2 square triangles including the border! Very easy to make and suitable for a beginner. Give it a try!! How to make it:
1/2 Square Triangles Make 1/2 Square triangles by placing a 5 7/8" light fabric square with a dark fabric square right sides together, draw a line diagonally through the centre, pin and sew 1/4" out on either side of the line, cut down the centre only. This tool below makes marking so easy and highly recommended: Half-square and quarter-square triangle blocks are quick and easy with the Quick Quarter tool. Use the Quick Quarter II for marking multi-stitched triangle-squares. Simply place fabric squares right side together, mark center cut line and 1/4" seam allowances, sew and cut. Have a look at where to get it here
Once all your blocks are cut and pressed lay them out on a flat surface to audition the lay out and then pin each square and 1/2 square triangle together from left to right and sew in horizontal rows (including the border) from the top down and quilt and bind as desired. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and that you can make use of this pattern. Enjoy
I drew this up in Electric Quilt Today on my Mac, its available for PC's as well, it's wonderful and affordable software for quilt designing! If you think it would help you have a look at it below:
Happy Monday Everyone, January is done!!
Have a fantastic week :) |
Follow Me:Welcome!Hi I'm Robin and I am a professional long arm quilter, pattern designer and teacher. I am passionate about all things quilty! Categories
All
Sponsors
This blog contains affiliate links. This means that we endorse products.
We do receive rewards for these endorsements and this helps to keep this site alive and well. We support products which we believe are the best quality and to inspire your creativity! |