Oven Mitt Tutorial

Here's a Great tutorial for making this cute oven mitt!

http://www.skiptomylou.org/2008/09/26/oven-mitt-pattern/

Mini Quilt

I officially love mini quilts. This one is 21x21, the perfect size for hanging on the wall or a nice little table topper. I had some extra scraps so I made it reversible, and it was my first time hand sewing the binding, so of course I sewed it on backwards so the nice edge is on the back! Its been a while since I've had a big mistake while sewing, so live and learn I guess, it still looks good though! I would hang this on my wall in a big mini quilt display, but I think that would take the girly-ness overboard in our apartment.....and I think I'll spare Jay.

YeeHaww its a Cowboy Quilt!

So this is the cowboy quilt, I finished quilting it a couple days ago and I think its pretty cute. I LOVE the cowboy fabric. My Mom found some ADORABLE CowGIRL fabric that I might just have to make another one of these out of. Anyways this was a fun quilt, I thought it was going to be easier than it was when I was making it in my head, but then again I think everything is easier in my head. I got this quilt idea from JCHandmade, she made a really cute fall quilt in this pattern.

And today I finally got this pillow cover done for a lady on etsy.com who wanted these Amy Butler fabrics, which I totally LOVE and I can't believe I hadn't bought all these before!

ANOTHER baby quilt

Mom whipped this baby quilt up yesterday for a friend's baby shower. I love the colors, the yellow makes it kind of western looking don't you think? The back fabric is SO cute!

Happy Squares

I can't stop. I'm addicted to baby quilts. They are super fun to make because they are so small I don't get burnt out on making a big huge quilt. And they are easy to quilt on my own. Anyways this one was harder than my coin quilt because you have to match up the squares so they are all in line, but it was still pretty easy. I made my cowboy quilt and I'm going to quilt it tonight, I will put a pic on when I'm done, and I'll be glad to be done because it was a pain to make!

Mom's baby Quilt

This is a picture of the baby quilt my Mom just finished and quilted herself! I love the colors and the big blocks of bright patterns. It turned out super cute. This is a great pattern for anyone who wants to start quilting. The blocks are super simple, you just cut 8" squares, and then sew diagnally four 2.75" squares onto each corner. When you fold the small squares up and iron them flat you get a cool block that looks like a circle. Then just sew your blocks together and viola, a really fast easy quilt that looks like it took days!

Cute fabric at Joann's

I am a self proclaimed quilt-shop-snob. But.....due to less than stellar quilt shops around me I have made my way into Joann's on occasion and actually found some cute things! Alexander Henry has a re-vamped fabric collection there that is adorable and good quality! Anyways I found this CUTE cowboy fabric by Alexander Henry at Joann's on CLEARANCE, and now I think a baby cowboy quilt is calling my name.

Colorful Coins Baby Quilt

You can view and download the Colorful Coins Quilt Pattern here.

This was my project the past day. I made two of these, and they were super easy and only took me like two nap times to whip up. (time is not measured in minutes at my house its measured in Ben's sleep cycles) I love this quilt because you don't need a pattern, and you can use your scraps and make them big or small and lots or just a few. Even the quilting went pretty fast, I washed it after I quilted it, it gives it that soft puckered vintage look that I LOVE!!! I want to keep this one for myself and snuggle with it.

Table Runner

I LOVE this fabric, and I have lots of it which makes me HAPPY since i have a hard time using my fabric. So I made a table runner and used my scraps to make a pillow.

New pillow covers

New additions to my pillow cover collection. I wish my whole house matched the one on the right. I might have to work on that.

Pillow Covers

So here's what I've been doing the past couple of days while Ben's asleep. I made pillow covers to go on my couch, and then with my scraps I made the two smaller pillow covers below just to sell. Except I want to keep them, but I did keep my favorite scraps to make one for my bed. Anyways this is a great way to use up your scraps, and if you had longer strips of fabric you could make a small strip pillow like the ones above. Anyways lots of fun! I put the tutorial for these in the last post, it was pretty easy to follow, but I did add a couple of inches to the back long panel, and make sure to overstitch your edges with a small zig zag or hem stitch so the inner seams don't fray. I LOVE this bird fabric, I got it on etsy.com because no body sells it around here, its by Joel Dewberry. Happy Sewing!!!

Pillow covers tutorial

Here's a link to an awesome tutorial for making pillow covers!!!! This is what I'm doing tonight!!!

New Table Runners

Here's another simple table runner, its just large blocks and nine patch blocks sewed together and that's pretty much it. The hardest part for me when quilting is figuring out the math so that it will turn out the size I want after all my seam allowances and everything are done. It's a bit of trial and error, but most mistakes can be fixed!!!

Happy Birthday sign

I made this last Christmas and it was so easy and is so much fun to hang up everytime we have a birthday! I just want to leave it up year-round! Its so nice to have a cute sign and not have to buy a stupid plastic sign every birthday. So really the possibilities are ENDLESS, and there are tons of them on Etsy (here's the link to some really cute ones) that you could copy. This one I cheated and bought the letters by the checkout stand at joann fabrics, cut squares out of felt (you can fit two letters on one sheet of felt you buy precut) sew'd the top to make a place for the twine to go through, sew'd some cute fabric on the felt and then hot glued the letters on. Super easy and fun. I saw Joann's has some really cute letters in right now, and REALLY cute black sparkly halloween one's you could make a Halloween banner. Maybe that's what I'll do tonight!

Petal Pillow Tutorial

Today we’re going to make a Petal Pillow. Its very easy, cost me under ten bucks, and took about half an hour to make. Plus it will add lots of summer color (is it summer yet?) to your house.

First you’ll need:

-a little over a 1/2 yard of fabric….19 inches to be exact. You can get away with a half yard if you already have it, just cut your pieces to 18" instead of 19". I used home weight fabric from Joann’s.

- 1/4 yard felt. Buy the good stuff on the bolt and not the cheap sheets in the kids crafts section. The stuff I used is made from recycled plastic bottles and is really stiff and thick. This felt came on a 60" bolt, but if the bolt is smaller you might want to buy a half yard just to be safe.

- a large and small cup (or other circles) for tracing, a large bowl for tracing, a pen, scissors, and cardstock to make your template.

Trace the rims of your cups onto your cardstock and cut out.

Pin the templates to your felt and cut out circles. I was able to cut 3-4 circles at a time by folding the felt.

Cut out roughly 30 large circles, and 20 small circles. You can always use more or less….but more the merrier I always say.

Now cut your circles in half.

Now your going to cut your fabric into three pieces.

1 large square 19 inches x 19 in. , 1 rectangle 19 in. x 15 in. , and 1 rectangle 19 in. x 12 in.

On the right side of the 19 in. by 19 in. square, trace a bowl or large plate marking a large circle in the middle. Leave 4-5 inches or so around the edges. (my circle is hard to see in the next pic…squint real hard and you’ll see it!)

Line up the edge of a large petal along the line you just traced. As you sew the petals on, overlap the petals about a 1/4 inch. Continue sewing around the circle, adding petals.

When you get near where you started, put a petal in between the previous petals, so they overlap. Then you can start putting petals underneath the previous set. I lined up the straight edges of my petals only 1/4 in. or so underneath the previous petals because I liked them packed in there. Again…the more the merrier and the closer they are the better it will look.

If you want extra volume in your petals, you can curve them and fold the edges as you sew to make the petals stand up a little bit. I started curving and bunching them a little bit on the third or fourth row.

After you’ve done four or five rows of large petals and you’re getting close to the center, you can switch to your small petals. Again, as you get closer to the center you can curve and bunch the straight edge of the petals so they stand up a little and look like real petals. When you get to the center add a couple petals that are good and bunched at the bottom for extra volume.

Cut a small circle out of felt about 1 inch, or large enough to cover your edges. Sew down with a few stitches in the center of the flower.

Your done with the hard part…now lets make your pillow.

Finish the short edges (12 inch and 15 inch) of your two back rectangles by folding one side under 1/2" twice and sewing.

Place your pillow front and back pieces right sides together, lining up edges. Put the larger rectangle down first against the flower right sides together, then put your smaller rectangle on top if it, right sides together. Pin well.

Sew around the edges with a 1/2" inch inseam. Because home decor fabric frays easily, serge or do a quick zig zag stitch around the edges. Trim your corners and turn inside out.

Stuff with an 18 inch pillow form and your done! Yay!

Thanks for crafting with me today. You can visit me anytime at Cluck. Cluck. Sew. for free quilt patterns and more tutorials. Thanks Vanessa for letting me invade your blog today and have fun at market for all of us!!!! -Allison

Fall Table Runner

I made this table runner (ok I made two) last week when I was in Poulsbo. The inspration came from Anina's blog (its beautiful)!.

Crayon roll

This is a REALLY easy and fun project for all of you with kids! Its super easy, don't look to close at this one its my trial run, but it really only took half hour or so and I did some extra sewing with the lining, I found an online tutorial HERE, its pretty similar to what I did. Wouldn't these be cute party favors!!!!!!! You can make them to fit colored pencils or markers, whatever strikes your fancy!

Camera strap/ table runner

I am truly addicted to quilting. I've had so much fun making fun things, here are a couple of my favorites. A cute camera strap for my camera, which was really easy to make and I'll put a tutorial on if anybody wants it. And a table runner that I absolutely adore, but I sold, because it was the third I made and how many table runners do I actually need? I even made a quilt the past couple of weeks which I LOVE the fabrics in, and I'll take a picture of it after its quilted. So if I don't answer the phone, and you don't see me come out of the house for awhile, you'll know i'm probably quilting.

Camera strap tutorial: I unpicked the strap ends from my ugly Canon camera strap with my stitch ripper or a pair of scissors. You can either start with one single piece of fabric or piece different fabrics together like I did, either one, the fabric for the strap will be 24"long by 4" wide. I interfaced the fabric with fusible fleece (I like Pellon brand you can get at Joann fabrics) You iron on the interfacing, cut off the extra, then sew right sides together the length of your fabric with a 1/4" seam. Turn inside out, which is really hard since the interfacing makes it really thick but it will turn inside out eventually! Iron flat, I quilted stitches down the length every 1/4" but you don't have too. Then just slide into the black vinyl pieces you removed from the old strap and stitch in the new one with black thread, and there you have it easy as pie, a new camera strap. You could do this with a small camera strap too, or keychains, endless possibilities!