Anyone Can Quilt

My easy but slightly long and tedious pot holder tutorial

If you're anything like me, you love giving handmade gifts.  Well, at least to the people who love and appreciate them.  Many of us have stories of giving ill received handmade gifts.  But for now, let's pretend that every gift we lovingly make with our sweet little hands is treasured forever, and given it's own little bed and cozy blankets.  Moving on.

I love pretty pot holders; I also have a new obsession with english paper piecing (EPP).  I love hand stitching those little hexagons!  All of that hand stitching does take awhile though, and we're all pinched for time.  So, I decided to make some applique/EPP pot holders!  They are precious, if I do say so myself, which I just did.  Moving on again.

If you're an experienced quilter, you can look at my pot holder and easily make some of your own, but I'd like to add a little tutorial for beginners.  By little I mean the long and tedius kind that I liked when I was learning to sew.  If you're not comfortable tackling the EPP part, just skip it, and make some of these with cute fabrics and they'll be awesome!  

Here's what you'll need:

*Hexagon flower to applique

*9" square fabric for the top

*10" square cotton batting

*10" square insul-brite (this is great insulated batting, but if you don't have any just use another layer of cotton batting.

*10" square batting

*2 1/2 by wof strip of binding

First thing's first.  Go ahead and make some hexagon flowers like this one here.  I made flowers with these 1" hexagons (meaning that each side measures 1").  If you'd like to make some and don't know how, google 'english paper piecing tutorials', there are lots of good ones!  

 

Cut a 9" square out of your foundation fabric.  I used a nice rustic cotton fabric, I like the texture it has.  Then take out the papers from your hexagon flower, and pin your flower to your 9" square.  I folded over the foundation fabric and finger pressed (pinched!) the center of each side to mark the middle.  Then it's easier to place your flower in the center.

Once it's pinned on, go to your machine and stitch around the edges.  I just stitched close to the edge using my edge stitching foot.  I love my edge stitching foot, it's my friend.

When your flower is all stitched down, it's time to layer and quilt your precious pot holder.  You'll only be quiting the top and your cotton batting.  Pin the top to the batting and quilt away.  I chose to quilt this one with lines.  I had to stop and back stitch whenever I got to the hexagon, but it wasn't too much of a pain.  You can sew right over the hexagon if you're feeling frisky, I won't judge.

There, all quilted.  Now we get to layer the rest and get the binding on!  Layer your little pot holder sandwich with backing face down, then your layer of insul-brite, then the quilted top piece.  Pin the layers together to stabilize it, and start sewing the binding on.  I'll show you how I like to sew on my binding so I have a nice looking little hangy loop at the corner.  

 

Start sewing your binding on with a 1/4" seam allowance at what will be your top corner, with the edge of the binding over hanging the top edge a little.  We'll trim the over hang a little later.  This is different than how we start sewing the binding along an edge away from the corner in quilts.  It's just special for the hangy loop. 

Sew around like normal, but STOP a couple inches before the end!  This is where we'll take it out of the machine and fold over and pin the start of the binding.  Just go with it, it's all about the hangy loop.

Stop when you're a couple inches from the start... Grab your scissors and trim the bottom edge real quick, so it's flush with the seam allowance.

Fold over and pin.  Then keep sewing to the edge so that you sew over and back stitch right over the binding that you just folded over.  Now remove from your machine and take a trip to your iron.  You know you've missed each other and you want to spend quality time. 

Once the binding is sewn on, go ahead and trim with scissors the excess batting and backing.

You'll now press the long tail of your binding so it's all folded nicely, then you'll pin all of the binding to the back like a crazy person before you stitch it closed at the machine.  

 

 

Like a crazy person.  

Now flip it over and stitch in the ditch right to the inside of the binding.  Check it once you start sewing to make sure your stitches are catching the binding on the back.  

When you get to the end, where the excess tail starts, move your stitching over to the right a bit so that it is sewing on the binding, so your stitches will close it up.

 

Sew to the end.  Now measure about 4" down the tail from the pot holder and tie a knot.  Then trim the remainder off at an angle so that it looks real purty.  You can use some fray check on the raw edge if you want to feel cool.

The last step is to hand stitch your little hangy loop closed.  Just loop it around and stitch it closed behind the knot.  I like how the knot looks on the front.  It's cute.

And done!!

Now go make some pot holders for your non-apathetic about handmade gifts people!! x

 

 

I'm a loser, but I'm still alive!!

Holy cow.  I can't believe how long it's been since I've updated this here blog of mine.  It's been on my mind, but the thoughts of blogging haven't made their way to my fingertips until right this minute.  I hope you are all well, my dear blog friends.  Please forgive me for being absent.  I know not what I do... ok, I know exactly what I do, but it's not for lack of loving you all.  I'm just a loser.  Moving on. 

My time as of late has been spent dilligently trying to get my girls school year finished.  We only have a couple of weeks left!!  I know there must be other home schooling mama's out there who are excited about the summer break, along with all of you wonderful teachers out there.  I've also been making dolly quilts and other bedding in my 'spare' (HA!) time for my shop.  I've been kept quite busy with my little Etsy shop which I am so happy about!  Here's a sampling...

Sewing for Blythe dolls is so fun.  I love their big headed, kooky eyed craziness. Now I've also discovered Pukifee dolls.  They're tiny ball jointed dolls that arrive bald and you have to buy wigs for them.  They're adorable.  I purchased one (I did Sabine!!) and found her a wig on Etsy.  It's a tad Diana Ross-ish for a toddler, and I love it. 

My husband is getting a huge kick out of all of this doll sewing.  It cracks him up.  Our conversations when he gets home go something like this.

Me:  How was your day you handsome hunk of man?

Him:  Computers...blah blah blah....blah blah blah.... How was yours?

Me:  Great, I bought a tiny two headed ragdoll and made little monogrammed pillowcases.

Him:  Of course you did.  You are amazing.  I'm so happy that you agreed to marry me....blah blah blah....you're all I could ever hope for in a wife...blah blah blah...

*The next week*

Him:  How was you day?

Me:  I made little dresses and took pictures of the dolls having a tea party.

Him:  With the double headed doll?

Me:  Yes, and with the tiny Kewpie.

Him:  Of course you did.

Fun.  And don't even get me started on the Vampoodle!  I'll save that little peach for next time. 

Now I'll leave you with a photo that was my dear husband and my topic of conversation yesterday:

Tiny panties?  Of course I did.  x

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quilty Christmas Gifts

Happy New Year!  How was your Christmas?  We had the most wonderful time with family and friends.  I made lots of quilted gifts, but in my rush to get everything finished and wrapped, I failed to get pictures of everything.  I always do that!  But, I did get a few pictures of my gifts to Sabine.  I made her a little quilted needle case.  Inspired by this tutorial by Sew She Sews.

I love that it closes with a little snap.  I have a thing for snaps.  It's not natural. 

Open it up and it has little felt pages for needles and pins.  There are also two pockets trimmed with ric rak.  I also have an unnatural love of ric rak.  It's borderline disturbing.

The pages I trimmed with my new wavy rotary cutter blade.  I've been wanting one of these blades for my rotary cutter forever.  Thankfully, Joanne's had a 50% off sale on all cutters and such so I got a good deal.  Although the blades only come in 45mm size, and I only had a 60mm cutter....so a new cutter and blade it was!  But at half off I was happy.  I really wanted the scalloped cutter, but they were out.  The wavy one is nice though. 

Sorry, that whole paragraph was totally boring. 

I bought these adorable pins at our quilt retreat a few months ago.  There are lots of gals selling wonderful things at the retreat.  These are so fun!  I think the cherry pie is my favorite.

Machine stitching the binding made this project pretty quick.  I tend to machine stitch the binding on quilty projects that aren't actual quilts. 

Her other quilty gift was a little teapot quilt.

I thought she could have it on her table when she has friends over for tea. 

I also made a needle book for my mom out of dark Civil War fabrics...no picture.  There were also quilted pillows for my step-mom and grandma...no pic....wait.  I think I took a few 'in progress' pictures.  Let me look... A ha!  I have some. 

No finished pillow pictures, but you can imagine right?  I actually would like to make some pillows for my own couches.  I know, add it to the list... 

Ok, time to take down the tree.  Have a wonderful week! x

 

 

Can you guess what this is?

My great-grandma Crystal made it in 1982, when I was 7 years old. 

I remember visiting her cozy little house at Christmastime and staring at each and every piece of costume jewelry.  I thought it was wonderful.  And I still do. 

My great-grandma Crystal made all kinds of neat things.  She was always crafting something.  She wasn't one to sew though.  Go figure. 

My favorite piece on this jewelry tree is the little heart locket above, with the flower on it.  Because inside is a picture that was very special to her.  A picture of her little boy.  My great uncle, Elmer.  

Isn't that sweet?  It was a nice surprise to find. 

I think my great-gran was quite the fashionista!  OOh, look at the one with the coral roses!

She's propped up in my sewing room, for Stuart and I to enjoy.

You haven't forgotten about Stuart have you?  He's my little blue angel.

He's finally gotten his big bird feathers and has such a pretty yellow face.  He lost all of his striped baby bird feathers that went all the way down to his little bird nose, and the fluffy soft yellow feathers took their place. 

He even has his own Charlie Brown Christmas tree. 

Silly Stuart's favorite thing to do is grab this chain with his foot, and shake it back and forth, over and over...and over.  He loves the sound of the dice (die?) clanking against his perch.  It cracks me up. 

And now my friends, I will leave you with a photo of my wonderful Christmas gift.  You know the kind.  The kind that you purchase yourself on Ebay quickly because it looked so good, and there were only a few minutes left in the auction when you found it.  And it was such a great price you would be angry that some other lucky gal got her dirty paws on it and you didn't?  And theeen, you called your husband to tell him he bought you just what you wanted for Christmas?  (Or you wait till he gets home from work to tell him because you are feeling just a smidge guilty.)

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Here she is.  My very own vintage Singer Featherweight!  I'm in love with this little machine.  She is beautiful and sews like a dream.  She's so tiny, shiny and pretty; I love her.  Did I need another sewing machine?  Yes.  Yes I did.  So there.  I'll do a full post on her soon and tell you all about her. 

I drank the featherweight kool-aid.  And I blame all of the fabulous women who have them at our annual quilt retreat.  You know who you are.  (Karen, Connie, Robin and Mary!)

Until next time, happy sewing!  xoxo

Super sweet Christmas gifts...and a visit from the Christmas Bunny..

My sweet mama made me a beautiful gift.  The most beautiful gifts are handmade aren't they?  As soon as I held these in my hands I couldn't wait to share them with you.  These really inspired me to make kitchen-y Christmas gifts for the ladies in my family this year...which I haven't actually started sewing yet.  Of course.

Look how sweet!  Fabric adorned kitchen towels and a potholder to match.  Love it.  Mom bought a few yards of this kitchen toweling at a quilt shop last year and this is what she's done with it. 

These go perfectly in my kitchen.  Which I would show you, but it's a mess.  I will show you my sweet new gingham curtains though!  I've had the fabric for these for ages, but never got around to them.  Somehow they magically appeared on my windows when my mom was here visiting this fall.  Funny how that happens.

Unfortunately, the trim around my windows didn't get magically painted while she was here.  The trim was finished this summer, but and are still the primer white.  They look nice until you get up close, then it's quite obvious that they need to be painted. 

See above?  Totally needs paint.  Which I have and has been sitting in the kitchen for months.  I'm a loser. 

Thankfully even though I'm a loser, my sweet German friend Sabine loves me anyway.  And she surprised me with THE most lovely gift this week.  I opened this and almost fainted.

She stitched and framed this for me!!  It's hanging near the kitchen table right now, so that I can see it all day while the girls and I do school.  It's a bit dark in the kitchen, not good lighting so I haven't gotten a great picture of it yet.  I'll do a proper photo shoot soon, but couldn't help but get it up on the wall as soon as possible!  It kills me it's so cute. 

I love this so much.  Making dinner has been so much more enjoyable since I take little trips to see my new Christmas stitchery!  I can't thank you enough Sabine!!  xoxo

Now, making dinner is also pretty fun because I get to hang out with the Christmas bunny.  Charles aka Foofy is his name(s).  This month he is officially known as the Christmas bunny.  Soon he will be the New Year Bunny, then the Presidents Day bunny and let's not forget the Easter bunny. 

It's a bit difficult to get a good picture of an active Christmas bunny.  The next one is blurry, but you get a good idea why I call him Foofy.

He's a fluffy little angel.  His cage is actually in the kitchen/dining area.  It's really the best place for him.  He was in my daughter's room, but he likes being in the kitchen so much, and uses a litter box every time he has to go potty, so it made sense to move him down here.  When we're home he literally just hangs out in the kitchen.  He LOVES attention, especially head rubs. 

It's so hard to get him still for a picture!  So I asked my daughter to rub his head so he'd sit still for a minute.  As soon as she stopped,

Christmas bunny on the move!

We put this rug down on the tile floor in the kitchen.  That way he can get traction for his acrobatic jumps, since he has such fluffy feet that slide on the tile. 

Ok, time for me to get back to work.  School, then into town for the girls' dance lessons, then home to make dinner with the Christmas bunny.  Then, if I can push aside my loser-ish tendencies, I will head to the sewing room to get started on some Christmas gifts.  That or sit on the couch with a glass of wine.  x