Tutorial: Welcome to the Neighbourhood

Hey y'all! Things have been quiet around these parts lately but that's because I'm in the middle of getting everything ready for the EPP class I'm teaching at Sewing Summit - I cannot believe that it's only 10 days away. I'm so excited! But let's not talk about that right now, let's get onto a fun, new tutorial - woot!

I received these lovely fabrics in the mail a couple of weeks ago from Liberty of London and Sew, Mama, Sew. These fabrics are from the Stile collection by Liberty Art Fabrics and they are lovely! You would not believe how excited I was to receive a package marked with the Liberty logo in the mail - I've never been able to buy anything directly from Liberty, so it was quite a treat! Now why, you may ask, would Liberty and SMS possibly send me these beauties? To take part in a super-fun pillow challenge of course! And, because I'm me and I love to write patterns, I decided to turn the challenge into a tutorial - woot!

Introducing... Welcome to the Neighbourhood! This little pillow uses all 8 of the Liberty prints I was sent, plus a few solids, to create a little gathering of sketchy applique houses! This tutorial is more about the applique than the specific dimensions of the pillow itself so you can feel free to make it any size you'd like (mine is about 9x13"). So let's go!

Materials:
-Scraps (prints and solids) for the houses
-Linen background fabric
-Black thread
-Heat and Bond (or other paper-backed fusible web)
-Template

Directions:

Print off the houses template (print at 100% without scaling). Using your fusible web, trace each piece from the template onto the paper side.

Cut out the templates from the fusible web, leaving a little bit of room around each template. Label each template so that alignment and fabric selection is easier.

Following the directions for your specific web, steam the template (glue-side down) to the wrong side of your fabric.

Cut out each template along your tracing lines.

Peel off the paper backings and decide on the placement of your pieces against the linen background fabric  - as you can see from the picture above, the roof overlaps the chimneys and a teeny bit of the body of the house. Follow the directions for your fusible web to fuse them into place.

Repeat the above with the window and door pieces. Fuse into place.

Now here's where we get to the fun sketchy bit! Using your black thread, stitch around all of the pieces that you've fused. This is supposed to look sketchy and slightly uneven - try not to get hung up on perfection here! It's all part of the fun! Make sure to go around each bit so that they are permanently stitched down.

As you can see, after I finished sketchy-stitching my bits down, I added another strip of Liberty fabric across the top to resemble the sky. I also added some sketchy wisps out of the chimneys, and hand stitched a french knot onto each door for a door knob.

I finished off the pillow by stitching a piece of cotton batting to the wrong side of both the front and back pieces of the pillow to give it a little loft. I used another Liberty print on the back (and for the label) and did a simple turned finish.

I hope you like my little tutorial and that it inspires you to try some sketchy applique - it's quite fast and fun! If you do end up using the Welcome to the Neighbourhood templates or tutorial, I would love to see it! Either share it in my Flickr group or feel free to drop me a line!

Thanks so much to both Liberty of London for the fabrics and to the entire Sew, Mama, Sew team for putting this challenge together - I sure had a good time!

The language of friendship is not words but meanings. -Henry David Thoreau

Every time we're meeting up Jennifer, Doe, and I always give/make each other presents; this year at Sewing Summit was no exception!

On top of giving them both books - five L.M. Montgomery books for Jennifer (most of you will know Montgomery as the author of Anne of Green Gables) and a Japanese craft book for Doe - I made them each a pencil case and filled them with little goodies. I used this tutorial from A Spoonful of Sugar but added my own little touches like the lace and embroidering each of their initials on to the linen.

For Doe's pencil case I used natural linen and three prints from Heather Ross's Far Far Away II collection, along with some cotton lace, a dreams pull tab, and a pink zipper. Inside I tucked some groundhog sticky tabs, a pencil, a doughnut shaped eraser, the carousel doe pin from the Black Apple (of course Doe needed the doe pin!), and some fabric tape/stickers I made. I can not for the life of me remember what the Japanese craft book I got her was called though!

For Jennifer's pencil case I used some natural linen, two prints from Far Far Away II, and a cute Japanese clothesline print from Project by Cotton. For this one I also included some cotton lace, a little red riding hood pull tab, and a minty-green zipper. The little goodies I included are very similar to what I put in Doe's pencil case except that the sticky tabs have a fox on them, the eraser is a popsicle, and the Black Apple pin features a hedgehog (I should mention that I also got one of these pins for Katy too - with the tattooed lady on it!). The L.M. Montgomery books were Emily of New Moon, Emily Climbs, Emily's Quest, Jane of Lantern Hill, and The Story Girl.

Making these pencil cases was only my second time installing zippers (the first was my Art Student Tote), and I definitely had some issues but all-in-all I think they turned out quite cute and I like the personal touches like the lace and embroidered initials. If you missed it you can see my pressies from Jennifer and Doe in this post!!

A Sense of Place

So, this is another one of those secrets that I've been keeping under wraps (actually, at this point, I think it's the longest-running secret as it's going nigh on 18 months since I originally made what's coming up) - I have a new pattern in Quilts & More's special publication Sew Fresh!

What's really kind of funny about all this is that this is the first of my patterns that was ever accepted for publication by a major magazine/publisher, but since it's taken 18 months to be made public, I've had quite a few more actually come out in the meantime. I guess Better Homes & Gardens just sources things way further in advance than everything else; this also was originally supposed to be in the Spring issue of Quilts & More but then was selected for publication in this special issue instead.

My pattern is called A Sense of Place and includes instructions for making some fun patchwork and linen placemats! I just love this little breakfast scene they shot using them here! What's really fun about this pattern is that Q&M went ahead and made some really great piecing graphics that really compliment the pattern instructions well.

Although I can't show it directly from the magazine here (because it would require me to show your more of the actual pattern instructions - which is a big no-no of course), I made another placemat in more autumn-type colours that is also featured in the magazine as a colour-option. That is one of the things that I really do like about Q&M - they often show their patterns in more than one colour option which really helps the maker to visualize what the pattern could look like in colours other than the original.

This is one of the more spring-colour placemats that was featured in the pattern's main photo. Now that I hve them back after so long I've put both of the spring-colour ones on our kitchen table and I must say that they really do cheer the place up! I do have to keep moving them though since I also actually sew at my kitchen table!

The Sew Fresh special issue also includes patterns from the likes of Camile Roskelley, Vanessa Christenson, Patty Young, Tanya Whelan, Monica Solorio-Snow, and a few more to boot! Sew Fresh is available on newsstands now but can also be purchased as a digital download through Zinio (I actually buy a few magazines though Zinio when I've either missed an issue or can't find it in Canada - it's also the place where the e-book version of Pretty in Patchwork Holidays can be purchased).