tutorial: scrappy wall quilt

some months ago, i participated in a scrap swap with some lovely crafty people on instagram. i received some beautiful little pieces of fabric, that might otherwise have ended up unused, and decided to team them with bits from my own vast scrap collection to make a wall quilt for our bedroom.
it's a pretty straightforward project, so i thought i'd share a quick tutorial here...

scrappy wall quilt

what you'll need

81 white or cream fabric scraps, cut into 1.5 inch squares
402 coloured fabric scraps, cut into 1.5 inch squares
30 x 30 inch piece of backing fabric
30 x 30 inch piece of quilt batting (i used an offcut from another quilting project)
1 skein of cream coloured stranded embroidery floss
1.2m bias binding in a colour or print that complements your scrap collection
sharp scissors
a sewing machine with bobbin and cotton (i aways use gutermann thread, and find cream is the best colour for scrappy projects)
quilting safety pins
a quilting or embroidery needle


what to do

• using your sewing machine, and working with 1/4 inch seams, piece your blocks according to the diagrams below:

• sew blocks into rows as shown in the following diagram, then sew the rows together to complete your quilt top

• lay your backing fabric right side down on a flat surface (the floor, or kitchen bench is ideal), smoothing it out so that it is perfectly flat
• place your quilt batting on top, smoothing again as you go
• finally, place your pieced quilt top, right side up, on the batting.
• working from the middle towards the edges, carefully pin these three layers together with your quilting safety pins (i usually put roughly one pin per 3 inches square. you can't really over-pin, so if in doubt, err on the side of caution.)
• thread your needle with two strands of floss, and stitch a small X at the point of each square on your quilt as pictured below. 

top: begin to make your X, leaving a 1 inch tail at the back for tying off

bottom: complete your X, and tie off at the back with a strong double knot. then trim the ends to approx 1/4 inch long

• remove saftey pins as each section is quilted.
• using a very sharp pair of scissors, trim the backing and batting of your quilt so they are even with the edge of the top

• now bind your quilt using your preferred method (if you have not bound a quilt before, this tutorial is a good one to start with, otherwise have a look for on youtube where there are heaps of good demonstrations to be found).
• your quilt is now complete, and ready to hang.

further notes

1. where scrap size permitted, i tried to "fussy cut" my fabric squares, to pick out interesting or pretty motifs such as the fern, horse, and squirrel below.
2. the reason i chose this, frankly MUCH more time consuming method of quilting, is because of the very small pieces of fabric. quilting over the individual squares would have obscured all the tiny details to be found in the prints, which to my mind would have defeated the purpose of the quilt. 
3. if you'd like to see what other people have made with their scraps, have a look at the #inchbyinchquilt hashtag on instagram - there are some beauties there!

i hope you have a go at this project. it's lovely to revisit old favourite fabrics, and work with them all over again, and the finished piece looks very cosy and, well... homey on the wall.

do drop me a comment or an email if you make your own - i'd very much love to see it!

tutorial: little button wreaths

until recently, i haven’t really been that into christmas. it’s a time of year that i tend to find stressful and overwhelming, not least because i live in the southern hemisphere and it’s always very hot and uncomfortable on december 25th.

but my grinchy heart has been softening of late, and i can’t put my finger on the exact reason. maybe it’s because i’m pregnant looking forward to celebrating the occasion with my own child. maybe i’m a sucker for any reason to make cute and interesting crafts. maybe i’m just mellowing out in my old age. whatever the reason, i’ve decided to get behind christmas this year, and to enjoy it - chaos, stress, mess and all. and i’m starting by making some decorations.

i saw these cute button wreath ornaments on marthastewart.com, and thought i’d give them a try.

her instructions are very brief, so i’ve made a slightly more detailed tutorial with more pictures, just to make things a little easier for anyone else who might like to make them. they’re really easy, and could be a fun activity to share with kids.

what you need:

• 20 gauge copper wire
• a whole lot of buttons in varying sizes (you can buy bags of “seconds” buttons from craft stores, and they are much cheaper than buying buttons individually)
• roll of 3mm craft ribbon in complimentary colour
• roll of 10mm craft ribbon in complimentary colour
• wire cutters 
• scissors

instructions:

using your wire cutters, cut a piece of wire 9″ long.

with your fingers (copper wire is very malleable), make a loop at one end of this piece of wire, making sure to flatten a portion of it alongside the longer end of the wire as pictured:

start to thread buttons onto the wire.

make sure that your first button has holes that are too small for two widths of wire to pass through, so that your loop stays button-free, as pictured below:

here are some more button-threading tips:
- try to vary the sizes of your buttons as you go. that way, when you bend the wire into a loop there will be a little bit of room for movement.
- try not to bend the wire around too much as you work. the copper will weaken quickly and may break.
- if your button has multiple holes, don’t worry about which one to thread the wire through. gravity will ensure that the buttons hang nicely in the end.
- using several smaller buttons at each end will make the process of securing your wreath into a loop much easier.

continue threading buttons until you have approximately 1″ of wire left:

bring this end around to your looped end, forming your wreath-shape. don’t worry about making it perfectly round at this stage, you can do that once you have secured it.

wrap your tail-end around the stem of the loop you made earlier, being careful to keep your buttons from sliding around too much and leaving gaps in your wreath:

cut a 12″ piece of your 10mm ribbon, and tie it in a bow around the place where you have wrapped your wire. this not only conceals the join, but it adds another decorative element to your ornament.

finally, make a hanging loop from a piece of your 3mm ribbon, at a length that you feel is appropriate (i don’t like my ornaments too dangly, but you might prefer them that way!)

and there you have it! a bright and cheerful christmas wreath to hang on your tree.

you’ll find that you get into quite a rhythm with making these. my first took a little while to get right, but i got more efficient as i went along and ended up making quite a few in just an hour or so.

i hope this was a helpful tutorial!

bookbag

as a nerd and a bookworm, i need a big bookbag in which to lug many tomes to and from uni. i’m happy to say that i’ve finished my 2010 bookbag, and i love it!

the hexies are paper-pieced, the bag itself is freestyle quilted, and the handles are hand stitched.

the lining is made of a few of the fabrics that i used to make hexagons.

i love paper piecing, because it’s pretty much the only time that i bother with fussy-cutting, the results of which i always love!

this project was inspired by this beautiful bag by modern acorn, and since it resembles her design quite closely, i won’t be writing a pattern for this one. you should join me in encouraging her to write a pattern that we can buy!

love bird

i hope you’ve had (or are having!) a lovely valentine’s day.

i made my honey a love bird, using molly chicken’s tutorial. it was easy to follow and i think the result is very sweet:

she has named him rupert.

tutorial: ikea frame to badge board

the other day, my gf and i went to ikea to pick up a few bits and pieces for the house. we got some cool stuff, most of it practical (plates, curtains, etc), but some less practical and more pretty. like this frame, which we both thought was super cool:

it’s pretty large (59 x 85cm), and we weren’t quite sure what to do with it - we just knew we liked it! on monday i had a brain wave, and turned the frame into a badge board:

here’s how i did it:

1. removed the glass and backing and set them aside, then used some E.S.P. to prepare the plastic surface to take paint.

2. added an undercoat to help cover the black.

3. used two coats of pretty rose-pink paint (a sample pot from the hardware store was more than enough), to make the frame the colour i wanted.

4. took the backing for the frame and used it as a template to cut out a piece of fabric that went with the pinkness of the frame, making sure i left about 1.5 inches overhang for securing it in place.

5. cut two ovals of thick soft quilt batting (i used leftovers from old quilting projects - this was good for using those bits up!), this time with no overhang.

6. laid the fabric down face down on my table, centered the two layers of batting on top of it, then centered the frame backing over this.

7. used small map pins to secure the fabric in place. these were inserted on an angle so they would be secure and wouldn’t poke through to the other side (this is also why i didn’t just use a staple gun). the fabric was pulled firmly but not stretched outrageously tight.

8. i took the whole backing-batting-fabric piece, and placed it in the frame, completing the project.

it’s now hanging on the wall in our room, looking after our many, many, many badges for us, and allowing us to admire them even when we’re not wearing them! hurray!

this project was suuuuper easy, and i think the result is quite awesome - i hope you do too!

p.s. you won’t need the glass that’s left over at the end of this project, so you should either store it carefully for if you ever want to turn your badge board back into a frame, or recycle it.

tutorial: embroidered greeting card

when i was ten years old my mum went on a holiday to holland to visit relatives with my oma. my aunty judith and uncle martin looked after me while mum was away, and while i stayed with them aunty jude taught me to cross stitch. she bought me my fist few skeins of DMC floss, my first piece of aida, and my first embroidery needles. i have loved to stitch ever since.

it’s somewhat surprising to me that i have never designed a cross stitch pattern before. i guess it’s one of those things that i have always been meaning to do and never quite gotten around to til now.

this is a very simple pattern for a small cross stitch, which you could frame, or do as i have done and make a card:

you will need:

- a small piece of 14 count aida

- some embroidery floss (i used DMC 962, which i think is a particularly nice pink)

- embroidery needle

- embroidery hoop (desirable but not essential)

- a soft pencil (2b is good)

- an eraser

- a stanley knife and cutting board

- a ruler

- two pieces of card in a colour that coordinates with your selected floss. one piece should measure 140mm x 215mm, the other 100mm x 135mm

- a matching envelope

(N.B. this guide assumes you know the basics of cross stitch - of you are a beginner and do not know how to cross stitch, you can find a very good guide with pictures *HERE*)

1. fold your 140mm x 215mm piece of card in half.

2. on the front of this folded card, center and draw a rectangle that is 100mm x 55mm.

3. using your stanley knife and cutting board, carefully cut this rectangle out, making a window in the front of your card (make sure you open your card out flat before cutting - you only want to cut this hole in the front!).

4. erase any pencil lines, then set aside.

5. place your aida in your embroidery hoop and stitch the following design:

the little tail on the apostrophe is not drawn in on this pattern - it is simply a diagonal stitch from top left to bottom right of the square below the body of the apostrophe. you should be able to see how i have done this in the photo below.

6. trim your aida so that the design is centered, and the full piece of aida is approx 95mm x 130mm.

7. center your cross stitch over the window in your card, and using strong crafting tape or glue, secure it in place.

8. take your piece of card measuring 100mm x 135mm and stick it to the inside of the card so that the back of your cross stitch is both covered up and supported.

9. write a message inside to someone you think is sweet, stick it in the envelope, and seal it with a kiss!

i hope you like this pattern!

a variation

it’s your mum’s job to love all the little things you make. mine has unfailingly encouraged my creativity, and has aided and abetted me in any way i’ve asked, from letting me hammer old nails into bits of wood as i imagined engineering some personal robot companion, to lending me bowls from the kitchen in which to concoct brews from berries, leaves, pollen, and mud from the garden, to good old fashioned cutting, pasting and drawing.

i’m left-handed, so she’s always found the way i go about things a bit puzzling (“but that’s backwards”), and teaching me to knit proved to be quite a challenge, but i know she’s proud of what i make because her house is full of framed embroideries and drawings i’ve done for her, and she has a box of childhood creations that she’s put somewhere safe in case of fire.

even though i know all this, i was still very proud when she asked me to make some christmas presents for her friends this year. she ordered some coasters.

here’s the first set:

i’m following the same steps that i outlined in the ‘coasters in an hour’, pattern that i wrote and posted a while ago, with a couple of tiny variations:

instead of cutting the same size squares of fabric A and fabric B, one is designated as backing (let’s say that’s fabric A), and then two fabrics are chosen as the top (they’ll, perhaps predictably, be B & C). 

as you can see above, i’ve chosen a kind of ‘feature fabric’ as fabric B, and a few different complimentary fabrics, which for the purposes of simplification i will refer to collectively as fabric C.

i wanted to make these ones a teensy shade bigger than the original pattern, so i cut four squares of fabric A at 4″ instead of 3.75″. then i cut four rectangles of fabric B at 4×3″, and four from fabric(s) C at 4×1.5″.

i paired each piece of fabric B with a piece of fabric C, and sewed them into squares along the 4” edge, using, as always, a ¼” seam.

the rest of the process was the same as in the original pattern.

i like the way this variation not only lets you use a bigger range fabrics, but also lets you use some fabric that you may only have tiny pieces of left. i tend to cling to skerricks of fabrics that i have loved (as many quilters do!), and i’m always thrilled to be able to use them up on things that i know will be used and hopefully loved.

tutorial: little bag of secrets

my exams are officially over! in celebration, i have written a pattern to share with you!

i don’t know if it’s just me, because i’m a scorpio and thus an inherently sneaky person, or if everyone’s a bit like this, but i love to have little stashes of secrets. since i was small i’ve been fascinated by lockable diaries, hollow books, treasure boxes, and other repositories for private and precious things. that’s why i designed and made this little bag. i’m not going to tell you what’s in it, but i will tell you how to make it!

the pattern is completely flexible as far as size goes – you can make it as big or as small as you like. as such, i can’t tell you exactly how much fabric you will need because that will depend, but my bag is smallish, so two fat quarters were more than enough.

you will need:

- two pieces of complimentary fabric. one will be the outside of your bag (fabric A), and the other will be the lining and the ribbon/cord casing (fabric B).

- matching thread

- a plate (or other round object) that has the same circumference as you would like the base of your bag to have.

- two lengths of ribbon or cord for draw strings.

- sewing machine, scissors, pins, fabric pen, and some sort of measuring tool (tape measure, ruler or similar).

cutting:

1. place your plate on your piece of fabric B, and trace around it carefully with your fabric pen.

2. roughly cut a square from this fabric that contains the circle you just drew, then cut a piece of fabric A the same size and pin them together.

3. carefully cut around your traced line so that you end up with two circles that are exactly the same size, one from each of your two fabrics.

4. take a piece of thread or string, and lay it exactly around the edge of one of your circles. measure the length of the string, and this will give you the circumference of your circle. if you add ½“ to this (for seam allowance), you will have the length of fabric you need to create the body of your bag. the height is up to you, and will depend on the proportions you would prefer – just remember that you will lose ¼” in seam allowance at both the top and the bottom, so factor that in before you cut. whatever size you chose, you should cut two pieces of fabric to those dimensions – one of fabric A and one of fabric B.

5. cut fabric for the casings for your draw-strings. these will consist of two pieces of fabric B, each 2” by 1/3 of the total length of your bag body.

making and attaching the casings:

1. fold one piece of your casing fabric in half (right sides of fabric together, wrong side facing out) so that the long edges meet. lightly press, and then sew just under half way down the length of the edge, leave a 1” gap for turning and continue sewing to the end. leave the short ends open!

2. hold your piece of casing upright to that he pressed seam is on your ironing board, and the sewn seam is pointing up up. press down so that the sides bulge out and then little tube goes flat. the sewn seam is now lying in the middle of the flattened tube. press, then sew the short ends closed. these little seams should form a t-intersection with the long seam you sewed earlier. See diagram below for clarification (it’s a simple process that is surprisingly difficult to explain!).

3. carefully trim the corners, turn right side out, press, then slip stitch your turning hole closed (you don’t need to be super-neat or especially careful about this, as the seam will not be visible once your bag is constructed.

4. repeat the previous three steps for second piece of casing.

5. take the piece of fabric A that you have cut to the appropriate size for the body of your bag. fold this in half, with the right side of the fabric facing out. lay one of your casings on top of this piece, the long seam facing down, 1½” from the top of the fabric. center it lengthways, then pin it to the top layer of the folded fabric (do not pin through both layers of the folded fabric). do the same on the other side of the fabric with your other casing.

6. sew the casings on with seams a scant 1/8” from the top and bottom edge. reinforce the edges by doing a little back-and-forth sewing at each end of each seam, because they get pulled on a lot as you open and close your bag, and need to be secure. leave the short ends open (you will thread your drawstrings though them later).

assembling the bag:

1. take your body piece of fabric B, and turn it into a tube by folding it in half, right sides together, and sewing a seam down the edge that is not equal to the circumference of your circle. press the seam.

2. with the right side of your circle facing up, and your tube-like body piece of fabric still inside out, pin the circle to the bottom edge of the tube you’ve just created. sew this on with a ¼” seam, then turn it right-side-out. this is now the lining of your bag.

3. go through the previous two steps with your circle and body pieces of fabric A to create the outside of your bag, only leave this one inside out.

4. place your right-side-out lining inside your inside-out outer bag, lining up the two side seams neatly. pin around the top, then sew it up with a ¼” seam, leaving a 1” hole for turning.

5. turn your bag right-side-in through the turning hole, press the top seam carefully, then top stitch around the top seam, being careful to catch the folds of your turning hole so that it closes neatly.

6. using a safety pin or similar, thread your ribbon or cord through the casings. thread one piece through each casing so that it loops around the bag with several inches to spare at each end, then tie the ends in a knot.

7. thread the other piece through in the same way, only in the opposite direction. When you pull on the knotted ends, the bag should draw closed.

now all that remains is to fill your bag with secret treasures and find a good hidey-hole for it! i hope you love this pattern, and that you’ll leave a comment, or drop back with photos if you make it.

garlands

there are a lot of crafters making really beautiful fabric garlands these days. some are incredibly elaborate, with hand embroidery, lace, and buttons incorporated, others are more simple and understated. i really like them because of the fact that they’re an idea that an be interpreted and adapted in so many ways.

i decided a while ago that i would like to make some for our family, that could become beloved and familiar features of all family celebrations. when i saw sweet jessie’s version, a simple scalloped garland, i was inspired to make mine in a similar vein.

last night i collected some fabrics together out of my stash (i decided to start with yellow because it’s such a cheerful, festive colour, but i think my next one will be pink), and today i cut and sewed like the wind, and finished a lovely long garland.

i think i will bring it along to my oma’s birthday party next week to add a little crafty touch to the decorations.

now to go and choose some pink fabrics…

an unusual project...

my honey has recently taken up the ukelele. she has a red one and his name is eustace. she plays him all the time, and it’s basically the cutest thing i have ever seen:

he had a soft case that came with him from the shop, but it was kind of boring, and i have been promising for weeks now to make him a new one, with a little more personality. last weekend i came good on that promise:

it was a lot of fun to make this from scratch without a pattern - it definitely boosted my confidence in “freestyle” sewing (for want of a better term!).

it even has a little pocket for her pitch pipe, though i still have to sew a button on there so it doesn’t escape.

sajee says that eustace is now he best dressed ukelele in the land - hee hee!