A Very Harry Christmas

Hey y'all! With Christmas only a couple of days away, I thought I'd share a little project I made for my friend Ale. Ale and I originally met on Instagram and quickly bonded over our mutual love of both sewing and Harry Potter; we finally met in real life when I taught at Sewing Summit last year. Last Christmas we decided to exchange HP themed Christmas pillows and so (as Ale dubs it) "A Very Harry Christmas" was born! I never had the chance to share the pillow I made for Ale, but since Christmas is here again, I figured now is a great time!

This picture was totally stolen from Ale since apparently I no longer have the pictures I took (they were on my phone that died). I used the same sketchy applique method that I outline in this tutorial; most of the pieces were traced onto fusible web using templates (like the letters), but some of the smaller bits (the socks, the snitch, etc) were drawn freehand. Like the Lumos/Nox mini I made, this pillow was also quilted with the Deathly Hallows.

This is one of the only photos I have from when I was working on the pillow, but you can see the applique method a bit better. Most of the fabrics used come from Bonnie and Camille's Vintage Modern collection and the pillow is finished with an envelope-style back.

In the spirit of the holidays, here is the Christmukkah card that Alex and I made and sent out.

Since I forgot to take pictures before mailing all of the cards, I totally stole this one from my friend Tracey. Hmmm, I starting to detect a theme here... reminder to self: take your own pictures.

I hope that you all have a lovely holiday season and get the chance to relax a bit. I'm uber-excited to have some time off work so that I can get down to the business of sewing - woot!

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!

Introducing... Doughnut Kiss!

Hey y'all! So, it's been a little while since I've been seen around these parts, I'm finding that with work and some other goings on that I don't have quite as much time to sew as I would like. That's not to say I haven't been doing anything though - I'm still working away on my Hermione socks, am writing a new quilt tutorial (yay!) which will hopefully be here soon, and have been finishing up my sample for my Sewing Summit class.

Since, I'm trying to make a fresh start, I decided that I might as well welcome myself back to this space (haha!) with a little something for you! Since my Sewing Summit English Paper Piecing class is less about the pattern I'm sharing, and more about tips and tricks for EPP, I thought that I would share all of the templates and such for my sample here. How does that sound?

So this is the sample I sewed up recently for my class, and I'm hoping that I'll be able to sew up another quilt version that includes interlocking Doughnut Kisses. I don't even know where the name Doughnut Kiss came from for this, but I just thought it was so funny that I'm sticking with it!

Now, I'm not going to go into a whole EPP tutorial here, but I'll give you a couple of tips. Since these pieces are a bit bigger (2"-4" sides) I used the EPP method where you sew through the templates rather than just whipping around the corners like I demonstrated in my QAYG Hexie Coaster tutorial. This helps to keep the 1/4" seams from popping out away from the template.

Even though I included a template page for the 2" squares to download, to be a bit more environmentally friendly, I recommend just cutting the square from a regular piece of paper. You can get 20 2" squares out a regular A4 piece of paper - you will need 21 square for the pillow so just cut the remaining square from the scrap generated by cutting your other templates.

I just wanted to share the back because I love it! I did the standard envelope back that I demonstrated in my Not-You-Traditional-Log-Cabin-Pillow tutorial (it's even the same size so you can use all of the same measurements). This is the first time that I've ever finished the whole way around a pillow with binding and I really love the look!

The templates for the squares and both sizes of the elongated hexagons, as well as a colouring sheet featuring the interlocking design can be found here. Just a note on the templates, all sides should measure 2" except for the long sides are the larger size of elongated hexagons which should measure 4". Be sure to print out the templates at 100% without scaling; if you have any problems, you may need to fiddle with your printer a bit.

Here's just a little example of a coloured in sheet. The sheet contains a finite number of sections so if you want to make it bigger you may need to do some creative taping together. For the crosses you can be super scrappy, or go more tonal with you colour choices. It's really up to you and each different combination of fabrics will create entirely different looks!

I really hope that you enjoy the templates and I'd love to see any example using the Doughnut Kiss templates that you come up with!

Templates Download

Be bold, be bold, and everywhere be bold. -Herbert Spencer

Hey y'all! So I'm still settling in at my new job and getting used to my new schedule (the time change helped nothing here!) and I've been having a really hard time fitting crafting into my life right now. With the travel to and from work I'm out of the house for 10 to 11 hours a day and frankly, I am just exhausted by the end of it. It's been really not fun, and I know that it will become easier once I get used to it again, but does anyone have any suggestions in the mean time? How do you fit crafting into your already full life?

I did manage to get a bit of sewing done on Saturday since I needed to finish a birthday present for my friend Kim. I decided to make her a pillow and thought that it would be an excellent chance to try making some X and + blocks which have been all over Instagram lately.

The finished pillow was made to fit an 18" square pillow form so I made 4 blocks (which finish at 7.5") and then added a border. The pillow has an envelope back and I used my Not Your Traditional Log Cabin Pillow tutorial from Sew, Mama, Sew to figure out all of my measurements. Since I wasn't quilting the pillow front this time around I added a piece of canvas the same size to give it a little more stability and to cover up the patchwork seams on the inside.

I used a bunch of different fabrics for this one and I just love the look! For the background of each block I used either the grey or white "sewing guide" print from Mama Said Sew; the added border around the blocks is black & white Sketch.

Most of the printed fabrics come from scrap bags I bought at The Workroom - I have blues, purples, and yellows (I also have greys but I didn't use any here). And I love how scrappy and fun it is! For the squares at the bottoms, tops, and sides of each plus I used a black and white print to set off the colours and bring everything together. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out and I think Kim is too!

I've got a couple of other backlogged projects to share but I'll wait for another blog post. But seriously, if anyone has any suggestions for crafting with limited time or for getting used to a new schedule, let me know!

The Falling Starburst Pillow

Hmmm, it's October 7th, I wonder what that could mean?! Here it is folks, as promised on October 5th, the full reveal for my pattern that is in the special Fall issue of Fat Quarterly!

This is the Falling Starburst Pillow! Here's a little snippet from Fat Quarterly of what I had to say about this little pattern and the inspiration behind it... "Fall is my favourite time of the year - Thanksgiving, my birthday, halloween, crisp cool breezes, amazing colours, pumpkin everything, and hot apple cider! What's not to love? My fall inspired pillow pattern aims to reflect the natural and simple - but glorious - beauty of fall with a mix of hand piecing, hand quilting, and natural linen."

The fabrics used for this pattern include a mix of natural linen and prints from Denyse Schmidt's Flea Market Fancy, Tula Pink's Parisville, Oliver + S's City Weekend, and Joel Dewberry's Aviary. I used #8 Perle cotton in golden yellow and deep crimson shades for the hand quilting.

This very special "Fall-Inspired" issue of Fat Quarterly is available as a PDF-download on the Fat Quarterly website for a very special price too - only $5! Woot! This issue includes four quilt patterns, four bag patterns, and five other patterns - including my pillow (of course!) and a new xStitch pattern from the folks over at The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery!

So what do you guys think? Do you like my little pillow? Would you like to stitch one up for yourself? This is a great pattern for curling up under a quilt to stitch, maybe while watching the BBC, and sipping some peppermint tea - I know, because that's what I did when I was making it *wink*!

Head on over to the Fall Inspired page at Fat Quarterly if you so desire! And don't forget that if you make something from this pattern you can post pics in both the Fat Quarterly and Miss Print groups on Flickr!

Not Your Traditional Log Cabin Pillow: Pattern-Tutorial on SMS

Alrighty folks, I promised you a new pattern-tutorial and today is the day!

I was asked to participate in Sew Mama Sew's Pillow Month and concocted this little beauty just for you! This is my "Not Your Traditional Log Cabin Pillow" pattern which utilizes not only the everyday-square log cabin block and a funky rectangular version, but also both machine and hand quilting. You all know how much I love the log cabin, but you also know that I love to mix it up and get fresh with traditional quilt designs.

The pattern-tutorial also includes instructions for creating an envelope bock finished off with binding, and some rough hand quilting instructions as well!

You can find the "Not Your Traditional Log Cabin Pillow" over on Sew Mama Sew and don't forget to leave a comment over there for your chance to win one of 17 prizes this week...you can leave a comment here too of course, I don't have any prizes to give away, but I sure do love your comments! Also, be sure to check out the lovely "Introducing ~ Kaye" post that was written on me over there too...you might just see a silly picture of me that you may not have seen before...

Silent gratitude isn't much use to anyone. -G.B. Stern

Thank you all for you lovely comments on my first Moda Bake Shop pattern and here on the blog! I really appreciate all your kind words of encouragement and approval; I was pretty nervous about the whole thing but I'm so glad that it was well-received! Oh, and the pattern is now available as a pdf download so that you can print it out - just scroll down to the bottom of the pattern post and click on the icon that says "printer-friendly version". I'm already working on my second pattern for Moda (another of my little secrets) and can't wait to share it with you too!

On Tuesday my Mum came to Toronto and we went to the CNE (Canadian National Exhibition). We go every year and always have a lot of fun and eat way too much! This year we were *this* close to seeing a baby lamb born - we saw the mama's water break and about a half hour of the labour, but unfortunately a lamb's labour can take up to two hours and we still had so much to see and do. I got to hang out with one of these beauties....be still my heart! We spent a lot of time in the international pavilion checking out all the awesome goods from around the world and I bought myself the sweetest matryoshka...

Last Tuesday (the 17th) was my Mum's birthday, so of course I had to make her a present!

The fabrics in this pillow are a mix of linen and prints from the Shade Garden collection for Henry Glass (all of which I got from Above All Fabric - Mel rocks!) - the colours are very "my Mum"! The hexie blossom in the centre is all hand pieced and sewn down, and I did some hand stitching around the blossom in a burnt orange-brown colour perle cotton. I didn't take a picture of the back, but it's envelope style and I used some handmade wood buttons that I picked up at Bluebird Handmade.

My Mum really seemed to love the pillow and said that it will be living on her bed. I had a fun time showing her what hand piecing hexagons was all about; without actually sewing a hexie in front of her I showed her all the steps from the paper pieces up to sewing them into blossoms (she was particularly amazed when I popped the paper piece out of the centre of a blossom I'd already sewn) - it's so fun to be able to share the things I love to do with her! She even sat for a few minutes arranging the hexies I had made into a new pattern.

It was also very cool to have my Mum here on the day of my pattern release - I was able to show her the pattern and the actual quilt in person. She emailed me last night and told me that she's printed off the pattern so that she can take it and show it to my grandparents - she's very supportive!

I'm heading back to school for the last year of my Masters in about two weeks and I'm nervous but also excited, and to be frank I'm also a little leery. The Faculty was in such an up roar last year and we were the guinea pigs for their new curriculum (which by the way they did not tell us when we applied - we only found out things had changed after we started classes. Pretty lame if I do say so myself); I'm hoping this year goes a bit better in that regard, but I can't help but wonder what crazy thing they're going to do next!

Okay, I've got some sewing to do (yay!) and then off to work (boo!). This weekend Alex and I will be attending a wedding and on Sunday I'll be heading my second meeting as President of the Toronto Modern Quilt Guild - should be fun! Talk to y'all soon!