i have to say...

sew-along with me!: whimsy quilt top done!

This was a fun quilt to put together!  

Jennifer's instructions are clear and the top comes together quickly!

Since I love the look of Jennifer's original quilt, I went with pink for the background and added some greens and greys and pinks from my fabric stash.  I like the happy look of this quilt top!

This evening I have a chat time scheduled for 7 PM (MST), and I would love to know if anyone is planning on joining us.  If no one responds, I will go ahead and cancel.

This is my last post about the Whimsy quilt until I finish it.  Hopefully that will be very soon, because the little one that will receive it is coming soon!  Must hurry!

If you want to know more about Jennifer and her work, visit her blog here.  You will be inspired!

Happy sewing, friends!

***More information on finishing your quilt can be found here:  sandwiching, machine-quilting, and binding.

sew-along with me!: whimsy quilt

Welcome to May's Sew-Along!

This month we are making Jennifer's Whimsy Quilt.  Since we are using a pattern, rather than a tutorial-made-by-me, I want to be sure not to post too much information here on my blog.  No measurements will be given or specific sewing instructions, since that information is in the pattern.  Of course, I will answer all questions here in the comments or over in the Flickr group.  Please be sure to post your progress pictures on Flickr too!

THE CHAT DATE IS MAY 16th AT 7 PM (MST).  Both Jennifer and I will be available to help and to chat!

This week we will be assembling the squares.  This is simple and fun, and I must say that Jennifer really did a great job with this pattern.  Next week we will work towards assembled quilt tops.  A little bit of time each day will get us there!

Please note that this pattern is beginner-friendly.  And since both Jennifer and I will be on hand to answer your questions, it may be a good time for you to make your first quilt!

Here is my stack of finished squares:

I was quite surprised at how quickly they went together. And I love that I have everything ready to complete the quilt top now!

I wanted to give you a few tips for sewing the squares together.  Maybe one of these ideas will make your sewing quicker and more efficient.

First, be sure to use a 1/4" seam on your machine.  You can measure to find out where yours is.  This is where mine is. Note that I follow the line a bit to the side of my presser foot:

Also, I don't cut my squares apart as I sew.  I end up with a bunch of connected pieces like this.  You can sew quickly and cut  them apart when you are finished:

Be sure to cut off the "tags" that don't belong on your blocks:

When assembling your squares, take care to line up your seams properly.  They should meet up quite nicely:

This is my pile of hourglass blocks all assembled, but not cut apart yet:

Again, the "tags" need to be cut:

Here is a finished block:

That is it for week one!

Be sure to leave any questions or comments here in this post or over in the Flickr group.

Happy sewing!

a sew-along reminder

I just wanted to remind you that May's Sew-Along will start on Wednesday, May 9th, followed by a second sewing day on May 16th.  This will be a more casual sew-along than usual since the tutorial is in Jennifer's pattern, and because of that I don't want to share too much information here on my blog.

***Please see this post for more detailed information about the Sew-Along.

On the first Wednesday I will share my progress pictures here, and I will add a discussion section over in the Flickr group.  Feel free to ask questions and make comments about your progress, and be sure to post your fabric choices too!

I have not confirmed this with Jennifer yet, but I am planning a chat room time on Wednesday, May 16th at 7 PM, MST (again, this may change once I talk to Jennifer).  If needed, we can chat again on May 23rd.  This will give everyone plenty of time to make progress without being rushed.

 I hope that some of you are planning to join Jennifer and me next week!

Have a lovely day!

may's sew-along project preview and supply list

Hi Friends!

It's time for another sew-along!

I know you are all expecting to see a sewing-machine cover here, but since I just placed the order for the templates last night, we are going to do something else first.  Sewing-machine covers will be in June.

In May we will be making this absolutely adorable quilt by Jennifer @ That Girl That Quilt!   AND-- just so you know--this is a beginner-friendly quilt!  Lot of you have mentioned your desire to make a quilt, but you have been a little hesitant.  Let me say that this just might be the time for you, since you will have both Jennifer and I to guide you along the way.            

(All photographs are Jennifer's and are used with her permission)                                                                   

You can see Jennifer's post about making this quilt here.

This quilt measure 44" X 52" so it perfect for a baby-quilt or a lap-sized quilt.

Supply list: sewing machine, cutting mat, ruler, rotary cutter, pins, coordinating thread and scissors

5 fat quarters, 1-1/2 yards of background fabric, 2 yards for backing, 1/2 yard for binding, batting 55"x60"

That is a pretty simple supply list, don't you think?

I am offering a kit in my shop (this includes the pattern and fabric), plus Jennifer is offering a the pattern by itself in her Craftsy shop.

Our starting date for the sew-along will be May 9th, and will continue with a second class on the 16th.  On the first week we will talk about cutting and piecing the blocks together, and the second week will include sewing the entire quilt top together.  After that I will link you to my sandwiching, machine-quilting and binding tutorials for finishing the quilt.

We will be having two chat-room sessions with both Jennifer and I available to help you out.

Also, the Flickr group is a perfect spot to showcase your progress.

Can I just say that I LOVE the binding fabric that Jennifer used?  Truly perfect!

Let me know in the comments section if you have any questions and if you plan on participating.

And, guess what?  Since I have never made this project, I will be sewing right along side you on this one.  I am thinking pink background with navy blues, light blues and pink-y reds.  Just need to pull out the fabric and see what that actually looks like!

Happy crafting, friends!

sew along with me!: zippered pouch (part four--patchwork)

Let's add some patchwork to your pouch!

This is my favorite variation!  And this is the pouch that I use now.  I take it on Tuesdays when I volunteer at a place that has no room for my purse anywhere, so I take my phone, keys and lip balm with me in my pouch.  It fits in the storage area.

With patchwork you can use a bunch of different prints (use quilting-weight cottons) or just a couple of your favorites. It's really up to you.  I gathered all the pinks, greens and browns from my stash basket and came up with quite a few different prints.

THE BASIC ZIPPERED-POUCH TUTORIAL IS HERE.

This is my pouch:

The most time consuming part of this variation is cutting your squares.  You will need eighty-four 1-3/4" squares to make this for the front and back of your pouch's exterior (you need two of these pieces):

First sew all of the rows together, left to right, using a scant 1/4" seam:  

Once you sew a row together you need to iron the seams in one direction on the back.  I alternated the ironing direction for the rows: row 1: left, row 2: right, row 3: left, etc.  This will help you to avoid bulky seams.

Once all of your rows are sewn, you will join them top to bottom, matching up the patchwork square seams.  A little bit of "stretching" will help if some of your seams don't match perfectly.  Also, machine-quilting helps to find little imperfections.

This is what you will end up with:

Once you have trimmed your threads, lay your patchwork exterior pieces on top of the batting or fleece and pin with safety pins:

Machine-quilt as desired.  I quilted a little less than 1/4" away on the right side of each seam.  I felt that more quilting would have been too much for the tiny pieces:

Finished front:

Finished back:

Now you proceed with the basic tutorial.

Happy sewing, friends!

sew along with me!: zippered pouch (part three--add a little applique)

So you want to add a little  bit of applique to your pouch?

Believe me, it's very simple!

I actually feel funny calling this a tutorial. It's more of a "this-is-how-I-did-it" post.  It took me just a few minutes of extra work to create a little picture from fabric, and then I resumed the tutorial as usual.

CLICK HERE FOR THE BASIC ZIPPERED-POUCH TUTORIAL.

Let me show you how!

 

First I found a house template that I liked (I initially cut it out to use for a pincushion), but I changed my mind when the pouch came along.  I cut out Jo's house front (see the 2nd photo down in the post) and I added my own windows and a door.  Ric-rac seemed fun for the roof line.

I pinned everything in place on top of the house:

And then I did some stitching.  As you can see this is spontaneous and imperfect, but I wasn't going for anything more than that:

Then you take your applique and pin it onto the exterior pouch front, which is on top of the batting or fleece:

And do some simple sewing around that to tack it down:

For the other exterior piece simply lay that on top of a piece of batting:

And sew a basting stitch all the way around, close to the edge (this is done in the basic tutorial also):

From here you simply continue on with the tutorial by adding the zipper.

You can use any shape for your applique.  Maybe some letters for someone's name, or circles for polka dots.  It's all up to you!

Please let me know if you have any questions!

And remember, there are other ways to do this.  I just wanted to show you what I did.

Happy sewing!

sew along with me!: zippered pouch (part two-adding a bottom)

Today we will be adding bottoms to our zippered pouches!

Upon rereading, that is kind of a funny sentence.

Oh well, it describes what we are doing, so I am sticking with it.

This tutorial will show you how to make the same pouch as in the 1st tutorial, but a flat bottom is added.  This makes it convenient to use when your pouch needs to stand up---such as for a make-up bag.

CLICK HERE FOR THE BASIC ZIPPERED-POUCH TUTORIAL.

This is what the "bottomed" pouch looks like:

All of the pieces that we start with are the same (I will tell you how to piece the exterior panels) and all of the steps are used as in the 1st pouch, but we will add a few simple steps.

To piece the exterior panels: cut two strips each from two coordinating fabrics, two measuring 2" X 8-1/2", and two measuring 6" X 8-1/2".  Sew those two pieces together using a 1/4" seam.  Trim these pieces to measure 7" X 8-1/2" and you will  have your exterior pieces.  Of course, you can use the single fabric panel as in the 1st tutorial

Lay your exterior fabric panel on top of your batting and top-stitch along the front.  You can add stitching as you please.  I chose to stitch on the top and the bottom of the seam on my panels:

You should have something like this:

Now, continue on in the 1st tutorial until your pouch is completely sewn together and ready for turning.  Before you turn it right-side out, you will cut a 1-1/2" square out of each corner:

Pin each corner together, like so:

Close up:

Now sew each corner using a 1/4" seam (I like to sew this seam twice for strength):

Your pouch will look like this once all four corners are sewn:

Turn right-side out and once you sew your inside seam shut and cut all of your threads, you should have a bag that looks like this:

Pretty simple, don't you think?

Please let me know how your pouch is coming along!  And if you have any problems/questions/suggestions,  let me know.  You can leave comments here or over in the Flickr group.

Happy sewing!

sew along with me!: zippered pouch (part one)

Welcome to March's Sew-Along!  

First up, I want to thank you all for your patience!  My pictures for this tutorial somehow disappeared the day before I was scheduled to post it (did I delete them from the camera without downloading them???) and I had to re-do it last week. Sorry to anyone who was inconvenienced by this!

 Over the course of this week I will show you how to make each of these fun, little bags:

The first bag (today's tutorial) will be the basic zippered pouch (pink floral).  Then we will add a bottom to the bag on Wednesday, a little bit of applique on Thursday and patchwork on Friday.  It's all simple and it's all fun!

Please feel free to ask questions here in this post or over in the Flickr group.  What are your thoughts on a chat time at the end of the week? Probably Thursday.

First we will start off with our supplies:

2 pieces of fabric measuring 8-1/2" X 7" for bag exterior

2 pieces of fabric measuring 8-1/2" X 7" for bag interior

1 piece of fabric measuring 1-1/4" X 14" (for handle)

2 pieces of warm and natural batting OR fusible fleece (see note below) measuring 8-1/2" X 7"

one 7" zippper.

You will also  need the basics such: sewing machine, thread, fabric marking pen, seam ripper, pins, zipper foot etc.

NOTE--on my first pouch I used the fusible fleece, but the drawback is that it makes one very large seam for your sewing machine to conquer.  My machine groaned a bit, but made it through.  The fleece makes for a sturdier pouch though.  I will leave it up to you to choose.  Both work fine.

Here is what we are working towards:

Supplies:

I am using Warm and Natural batting for this pouch.  

Warm and Natural: Pin the pouch's exterior fabric to the batting (see photo).

IF YOU WANT TO ADD A BIT OF APPLIQUE TO YOUR BAG, CLICK HERE.

IF YOU WANT TO A PATCHWORK EXTERIOR ON YOUR BAG, CLICK HERE.

Fusible Fleece: Lay the fusible fleece (glue side up) with the fabric laying on top (right-side up).  You will do this with two pieces of fabric and fleece.

Warm and Natural: Sew a seam very close to edge using a basting stitch on your machine (see your machine's manual to do this.  It's simply a longer stitch length than what you normally use).

Fusible Fleece: Iron the fleece to the fabric using the manufacturer's instructions.  Be sure that the glued side is against the fabric, rather than against your ironing board cover.

Here is picture of the seam sewn close to the edge:

Now we are going to dive right in to the zipper.  Let's do this!

Pin your zipper with the zipper-pull facing down to the top edge of one of the pieces you just sewed:

Now, you will put your zipper foot on your sewing machine (See your machine's manual.  It is common for a zipper foot to come with a sewing machine's basic set when you buy it.):

Now is when I get to make a big admission!  I don't use a zipper foot to attach zippers. In general, anyway.  Please note that I am not encouraging you to do this, but I want you to know that if you want to try this, it's OK.  I don't like the "feel" of using the zipper foot and I find more stability using my regular foot.  

So, if you are using a zipper foot, see the picture above to see what it will look like to sew your seam.  If you want to try your regular foot (in other words, if you want to try it the wrong way, like me!) you will sew along a the same distance from the zipper's teeth, but will stop when you reach the zipper-pull.  Lift your presser foot with the needle in the down position, move the zipper-pull behind where you have already sewn, and then keep going to the end.

Either way it's pretty simple. Just stay a little bit to the side of the zipper's teeth.  Remove your pins before you run over them and don't run over the zipper-pull.

Please note that my photos will show me using the regular presser foot for attaching the zipper, but you can refer to the image above to see how it will look to use the zipper foot.

Now that you have sewn your seam, add one of the interior fabric pieces over the top of the seam you just sewed.  Pin into place:

This is what you will end up with:

Once again, sew along that same seam to attach the new piece of fabric (please note that if you using a zipper foot, the foot will look slightly different, but you will do that same thing):

Now, pull that piece of fabric behind the the zipper seam and iron into place.  Make sure that your zipper-pull faces the same direction as the pouch exterior:

Lay the 2nd exterior piece over the pouch as it is laid out in the above photo.  Pin into place.  (Ignore my scissors.  They are just being used to hold the fabric down while I take the photo):

Here we are pinned into place:

Don't sew yet!  Flip that pinned piece over.  If you want to make sure you are doing the right thing,  just compare my pouch flip-over by checking the color and placement of my pins.  You can see that all I did was turn it over:

And add the other interior piece along the top edge.  Pin into place:

You will have a lot of pins when you are done:

Once again, sew along that top edge (with either the regular foot or zipper foot):

Now take a deep breath.  You have sewn a zipper in---hopefully successfully!  If you weren't successful, just rip it out and try again.  I had to do that my first time sewing a zipper pouch together.  Oh, and my second time!

Open your pouch and iron flat on both sides. Be sure that your zipper-pull is facing the exterior part of the pouch.  (please ingore the top-stitches in this photo.  That is the next step, but I guess I forgot to photograph this step without the stitches):

Now, you will top-stitch along each side of the zipper.  This can easily be done with your regular presser foot:

Now, you don't have to ignore the top-stitches because they are supposed to be there.  And they look great!:

Interior pouch view:

This step is SUPER IMPORTANT!  Open your zipper about 2/3 of the way.  If you don't do this, you will have a really hard time dealing with your pouch zipper after you turn it right-side out.  And, yes, I learned this the hard way!:

Now, let's deal with our wrist-straps.  Fold in half length-wise and iron:

Fold each half in half towards the middle and iron:

You will end up with a thin piece of fabric, ready to be sewn:

If you haven't already, put your regular presser-foot on your sewing machine, and sew the strap into place, like so:

Now you will attach the strap to the bag, like so.  

My sister and I discussed the merits of the zipper-pull being on either side of the pouch: close to the zipper-pull or towards the end of the zipper.  We couldn't decide which one would be better.  You can decide for yourself which one works better.  Also, when you have your strap pinned on, check to make sure you like the way the strap fits over your wrist.  It's OK to either shorten it, or make a longer strap for a better fit.  Do what works for you!:

IMPORTANT: Make sure that you pin the strap only through the exterior pouch piece.  Leave the interior piece free:

Now, open up your pouch like this.  Exterior piece facing exterior piece, and interior piece facing interior piece.  Remember that your zipper NEEDS to be 2/3 of the way open:

Pin all around your pouch, leaving a 3" opening on the bottom of the interior piece. I always face my thick side seams down towards the interior part of the pouch:

Sew all around your pouch using a 1/2" seam, sewing twice over the thick seams and the wrist-strap:

You are SO close to being done!  Here is what you should be looking at now:

IF YOU WANT TO ADD A BOTTOM TO YOUR BAG, CLICK HERE.

Trim your corners fairly close to the seam without cutting through the seam:

Now you will reach in through the opening on the interior piece and start pulling your pouch right side out.  Do this carefully so you don't rip anything:

Ta-da!:

Pin the opening closed and either whipstitch it closed by hand, or sew it closed on your sewing machine (close to the bottom edge):

Iron it up and cut the strings. You should a cute pouch this at this point:

Interior view:

Now you can fill it with goodies and take it out in public.  Get ready for compliments!

Tomorrow I will show you how to add a flat bottom to your bag. It's really simple, especially now that you have gotten this far!

Be sure to leave questions here or in the Flickr group. I will answer them as soon I can!

Happy sewing!

 

another sew-along update

After much searching, it seems that the pictures for today's sew-along tutorial are indeed gone. They are nowhere to be found on my computer.

Unfortunately, since this is the main tutorial and one that is necessary to make the basic pouch, I am unable to post today.  I will be putting together another pouch, taking pictures, and posting them here next Tuesday (March 20th), with variations to follow throughout the week.

I apologize for this inconvenience!

While we wait, you can find more information about the sew-along here, along with a supply list.

I am feeling very frustrated about this, but I also realize that life goes on and this is not the end of the world.  Not even close!

Thank you for your patience, friends!

sew-along update

I have to postpone this week's sew-along for one week.  

My pictures for the project are gone, or at least I can't find on my computer.  I am VERY frustrated about this, but I am just going to go with the flow and ask for your patience.  We will continue next Tuesday with the zippered pouch how-to and the variations.

For now I am going to keep looking, and if I happen upon the pictures I will post as scheduled.

Thank you for your understanding!