There is a FREE PDF download of this pattern in the SHOP section of this website to get this free download please click here
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Basically you cut out scraps of red and green felt, blanket stitch appliqué the tomato, strawberry and leaf designs to the top of a 5.5 x 5.5 square of felt, add a vine, sew the front to the back right sides together, stuff and stitch closed.  So easy, cute, whimsical and useful.

I hope you are able to try this easy tutorial, you can download it for FREE here     
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​Enjoy this one hour project! Happy Tuesday!

I decided recently that I wanted to do a dresden block project combining  vintage flair and modern construction.  This is what I came up with:

How I made this?

and then cut out Dresden shapes from the strata above using:

Like the images below:

This ruler, the (Wright EZ Quilting Easy Dresden Quilt Tool Set) is awesome and makes the job so easy!!

Fold the wedges right sides together at the wide top and sew 1/4" from the edge.

Turn all your Dresden points to the right side and clip the point to the stitches

Sew 20 of these Dresden shapes together to make a Dresden block/round/flower

                     +

                     =

I covered the centre with a circle also covered with lace and top stitched to the middle of my block/round/flower.  

​Your Dresden is ready to appliqué to wool felt (for a candle mat or centre piece) or to background fabric.  Vintage, Easy Dresden!

I hope you are all having a great Tuesday!❤️

It's that time of the year, a time for fruit to ripen, markets to be open and plentiful sources of fruits and vegetables available.  

This very cute pot holder is inspired by the fruits of summer, picnics, potlucks and family get togethers. 

It's  raspberry pie time!

​mmmm my favourite was the pie at Stone Crock in St Jacobs!  


What you will need make this "Raspberry Pie":

1. ​A 8 1/2" round diameter template or plate
2. One piece of fabric ( cut 8 1/2" round) for the top to fit the template, think...... raspberry, blueberry, apple, peach, lemon or pumpkin pie.  Yumm!!  There are fruit fabrics available at many of the local quilt shops.
3. A piece of fabric for the backing cut 8 1/2" round
4. A 8 1/2" round piece of Insul-Bright insulated lining  (wonderful stuff to keep the heat off your fingers and table) designed for pot holders  oven mitts etc.
5. A 5" x 2" piece of pie fabric for hanging tab.
6. A 1/2" bias tape maker
7. Best Press or spray starch
8. 2 strips width of fabric (40" approx) of ivory fabric (cut straight of grain  7/8" wide) for lattice on the pie or purchased bias tape
9. 30" approximately of white or ivory rick rack 1/2" width
10. A tea bag to dye the rick rack if it is white
11. Grey fabric cut on the 45 degree bias - approximately 27" x 2 1/2" for the binding/pie plate edge.
12. Cream coloured thread and thread to match your fabric.
13. A fabric glue stick (optional but useful)
14. Scissors, pins a sewing machine, rotary cutter, cutting mat etc.

How to make it:

1. Cut out all your fabric ahead of time as per cutting instructions above. Tea dye your rick rack if necessary with 1 tea bag in a cup of hot water for about 15 minutes, take it out and towel dry it.
   
2. Make your bias tape for the lattice using the instructions for your bias tape maker. I cut my  fabric on a point -see below to feed it through the bias tape maker, spray with Best Press and press with an Iron as I pull the handle.

     3.  Audition your lattice by cutting 8- 10" lengths and weaving them on your pie fabric. Weave them under and over each other. Glue them in place with a dab of fabric glue.

      4. Lay all 3 layers of fabric, the top, Insul-Bright and Backing together as if its a quilt and pin to baste and hold together.

      5.  Top stitch about 1/8" in on all sides of the lattice with cream coloured threads through all layers. Trim around the edge of your pie.

​      6.  Make a hanging tab by pressing your 5" x 2" piece of fabric in 1/4" on the long sides and then fold it in half encasing the raw edges. Top stitch this to close the finished edge.

      7. Press the hanging tab in half and place the raw edges against the edge of the front of your pie where you think it looks best, sew it 1/8" from the edge to secure through all layers. leave the loop laying against the pie top
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      8. Press your grey binding/pie plate edge fabric in 1/2 to make binding  as you would a quilt and sew it slowly​ to the front edge of your pie.  Finger press to the back of your pie and hand stitch in place.

      9. Sew on your rick rack by placing the valley of the rick rack just against the inside edge of the binding on the pie fabric and stitching down the centre. You will also need to tuck in the rick rack ends carefully so they look neat.

It's done! Almost good enough to eat and way less calories.

 I hope you enjoyed this little project and that you make many "pies" this summer! 

​Please send us your photos so that we can share all of your productive efforts. 

​Happy Tuesday! ❤️

I purchased the above fat quarters while visiting Nova Scotia and PEI and now what to do with them?

Fat Quarter FACTS

----From one (1) Fat quarter you can cut​

99--2"squares
50--2 1/2" squares 
42--3" squares
30--3 1/2" squares
20--4" squares
16--4 1/2" squares
12--5" squares
9----5 1/2" squares
9--- 6" squares
6----6 1/2" squares

I recommend that you copy off the above little chart and put it in your sewing area.

 I will have to think on what I am going to do with my "Maritime fabric"

Any suggestions are welcome!

Hmmmm........ maybe a landscape incorporating the above fabric?

Check out some pictures from my trip below, they inspire me!

I hope you are having a great Tuesday! Stay Cool!!

What can we make from the fabric above?

A Canada Day Candy Dish!

I'm showing it filled with gadgets but you could use it as a Candy Dish filled with "red" candies as well!

You will need:
2 complimentary 9" squares of fabric
1-9' square of thermore or fusible fleece
Thread to match

How to make it:
1) Place both pieces of fabric right sides together on top of the fleece

2) Pin if needed and sew all the way around leaving a 3" gap for turning.
3) Sew 1/4" around perimeter
4) Turn to the right side
5) Top stitch 1/8" from edge around the perimeter to & gap seam.
6) Lay fabric right side up in front of you, measure 2 3/4" from each corner of your fabric and place a chalk pencil mark at 2 3/4" away from each corner.

7) Fold the square wrong sides together matching the two marked spots on each side.  Draw a line on the right side of the fabric from the matched & marked points to the corner of the sewn square in the centre.  Sew on this line using a back tack stitch at the beginning and the end of this seam.  This will create the side wall flaps that stick out.

8) Repeat step 7- 3 times until your "Canada Day Candy Dish"  looks like the picture below:

Fill 'er up!  Happy Tuesday🍁

A little while ago on this blog I talked about an upcoming pattern for sewing travel totes which I was working on.  Well is is DONE, Yeah!! It is called "Sew N' Travel Totes" and available for shipping immediately!  

Sorry not a PDF pattern because there is a free embroidery appliqué included which I must ship to you.

 I am so excited because I think it's really an excellent pattern allowing you to pack up all your sewing tools, projects and supplies and take them with you on vacation this summer. 
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There are 5 parts to the pattern itself:

•  large clear vinyl project tote
•  small clear vinyl project tote
•  pencil case
•  hand and machine needle case
•  fun "tomato" pin cushion

It's tool and technique tuesday and totes are essential for sewing tools so it is appropriate to tell you all about my new pattern today!

The pattern with all 4 totes, a pin cushion and a free embroidery appliqué is priced affordably at only $12.00.  

Sharing some close up pictures below of all the great components of this pattern:

Have a great Tuesday!😊

This is the last of my 3 part series on zipper pulls.  These tassel like zipper pulls are super easy to make, so colourful and you can make them in 5 minutes! 

The look awesome added to a new quilted bag or spring/summer purse because they add such vibrant colour and a big splash of happy.


What you will need:
6 Skeins of different coloured embroidery floss
Scissors
Lanyard Hooks
Source for these:

How to make it:

1. Remove the sleeves off of your main colour (the one you want to have as a tassel).
2. Cut a 36” length from the remaining 5 colours of embroidery floss.
3. Using the first colour and starting in the center of the skein, tie one of the 5 colours around the center of the skein and wrap it around the skein tightly, leaving a length of floss to tie to the next colour

​4.  Continue to tie and wrap other colours evenly on each side of the center wrap incorporating your tied ends into the wrapping until it looks like the picture below

5.  Bend your skein in half and using about 10” of the last colour of floss, tie your wrapped loop, split the floss in half and use these split ends to tie it tight. 

6.  Cut the looped ends of your tassel so that they are even

7.  Attach your lanyard hook onto the top of the wrapped loop and attach it to your zipper! 

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, that's the end of zipper pulls for now. Happy Tuesday! ?

  These are some easy zipper pulls made with dollar store letter beads, craft beads, wool and embroidery floss!

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Easy to make, effective and you could customize them with names.

What you will need:

Wool, embroidery floss (or cord), lanyard hooks, small separating rings, 1/4"wooden letter beads(from the $ store), crochet hook 1.75 mm (US 4) and craft beads (big enough to fit a small crochet hook into them)

1) Cut out a 24" length of wool or embroidery floss and fold it in half

2) Tie the floss to a separating ring or a clasp using a slip knot.

3) Add a bead using your crochet hook to thread the floss through it, hook through your bead first and then hook the floss to thread.

4) Alternate with small beads and then letter beads until the word you want to say is spelled out, tie off the end and let the floss fray a bit if you like the look of it.

There appeared to be some vowels missing in the dollar store pack of letters, however I was able to make all of the above zipper pulls with one package.

 Try this easy project and enjoy!

Happy Tuesday!😛

Last week I worked on my new pattern "Sew n'Travel Totes" and got to thinking about a DIY zipper pulls and of course I have hexies on my mind all the time!


​So I came up with this idea and they take about 20 minutes to complete and are super inexpensive.

This is what you will need:
 Thread and needle, a thin hair elastic (cheap ones at the dollar store are ideal), 2 hexi patterns traced onto card stock -1" size, 2 pieces of fabric, an iron, a thin crochet hook, a sewing machine and a bag/tote with a zipper to put it on.

2. Fold the fabric around all edges of both fabrics and sew EPP (english paper piecing style), if you don’t know how to do this check out my recent blog post  about EPP here
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3. You should have 2 EPP hexies
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10. Admire your efforts!

Can you just imagine the other EPP shapes you could do this with? The possibilities are endless!

Note: This is part 1- there are 2 more easy DIY zipper pulls, come back and visit this blog the next 2 tuesdays. I'm having fun with zipper pulls!

Have a great Tuesday!❤️☀️