Jelly Roll Jam + a Giveaway!!

Hey y'all! How's everyone doing? I've got something fun to share with you guys! The folks over at Fat Quarter Shop are sharing their first "shortcut quilt" with a free pattern and video tutorial. Not only is this quick little pattern free but the video tutorial is free to view on YouTube too - how neat is that?

Fat Quarter Shop was kind enough to send me a Jelly Roll of BasicGrey's PB&J test the pattern out - so cute! This top came together so quick and easy! Unfortunately, with preparing for Sewing Summit and all ('I'm up to my armpits in alligators' as my mum would say), I wasn't able to get this little guy quilted up but I will!

This pattern uses half of a Jelly Roll for a 36x36" top - that means that you can make two sweet little baby quilts from one Jelly Roll - awesome!

This pattern is very beginner friendly and would be quite easy to quilt on a home machine- just good things all around! I cannot say enough about how simple this was to do - really, you should give it a try!

So I bet you want to know about the giveaway, huh? Well, to celebrate the release of the Jelly Roll Jam pattern, Fat Quarter Shop and I are offering one lucky reader the chance to win this...

A Lush Uptown Jelly Roll by Erin Michael for Moda- woot! Now I bet you want to know how to enter, right?

You have two chances but please be sure to leave separate comments for each entry. Here's what you've got to do:

1. Leave a comment letting me know what your favourite Jelly Roll at FQS is.

(oh, and just a little FYI, all Jelly Rolls are 20% off this week to celebrate the release of Jelly Roll Jam)

2. Leave another comment if you are a follower of my blog.

That's it! Two easy-peasy ways to enter! I will close the comments in a week (September 23rd) and announce the winner here on the blog. International entries are, as always, welcome! Also, please remember that I have comment moderation enabled so if you don't see your comment right away it just means that I haven't had the chance to approve it yet (duplicate comments will be deleted).

*the giveaway is now closed*

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!

Poof! What do you need?

Hey y'all! See the title for the blog post up there ^? That's for my mum! That's her favourite line from Aladdin, but I also thought it was pretty funny because...

Poof! I made a pouf! Oh boy, I slay myself! Alex and I are working on redecorating out living room and we were looking at poufs and ottomans to brighten the space up and to give a little bit of extra seating, but man, all of the ones we found were ridiculously priced. I figured, hey, I can make that!

The pouf is currently paired up with our new Strandmon chair and new bookshelves. We've got a new couch and coffee table on the way too - pretty exciting!

I used this tutorial - which was totally awesome! I expanded the size of my pouf (which is why you can see a break there in the fabric by the handle). Both the mustard home dec fabric and royal blue piping are from Fabricland (a bit like JoAnn in the States but their home dec fabric is all really nice quality). This was the first time that I've ever put in piping and I'm pretty proud of how it turned out.

"But, oh! to be free! Not to have to go 'Poof! What do you need? Poof! What do you need? 

Poof! What do you need?' To be my own master, such a thing would be greater than 

all the magic and all the treasures in all the world! But what am I talking about? Let's get real here. 

It's not gonna happen. Genie, wake up and smell the hummus." - Aladdin

Tutorial: The Euclid Quilt

Hey y'all! You ready for this? After years of being asked about the original Euclid quilt, here is a tutorial just for you! As I mentioned in my last post, I have gotten many requests for a tutorial or pattern for this quilt over the last three years and after showing Alex snuggled up under it recently on Instagram, I received a renewed wave of requests. I decided that I should just do it! It's a pretty easy quilt to put together - it's the math that seems to be a killer for people who've tried to figure it out for themselves. That's why it's called Euclid. Let's go!!

Materials:
24 - 2.5"xWOF strips of fabric
1 Yard solid fabric
4 Yards fabric for backing
1/2 Yard for binding

*Finished quilt measures 48x64". All seams are 1/4" unless otherwise stated. Press in between steps. Also, you don't have to use a solid for the centre of the blocks - something like a text print, or texture (like Sketch) would be really fun! Fabrics used are Botony by Lauren and Jessi Jung and Kona White.

Directions:

-From each 2.5"xWOF strip cut two (2) 2.5"x4.5" strips and two (2) 2.5x16.5" strips.
-From the 1 yard of solid fabric cut twenty-four (24) 4.5x12.5" rectangles.
-Pair up the four pieces from each WOF strip with one solid rectangle. These five pieces will comprise one finished block.

-Sew one 2.5x4.5" strip to each end of the solid rectangle. Press.

 

-Sew one 2.5x16.5" strip to each long side. Press.

You now have one finished rectangle block. Repeat the above steps with your remaining strip and solid sets.

-Take three of your finished rectangles and lay them out like the above. Sew the two horizontal rectangles together. Press. Sew the vertical rectangle to the previously sewn horizontal rectangles. Press. I like to call this the "big rectangle block".

*Sorry, that there aren't any pictures for the next stop. But you can refer to the finished quilt top above. You can also refer to the colouring sheet that I've made (link is below).

There are four rows of two big rectangle blocks that make up the quilt top. Lay out your blocks as indicated below and sew together.

Row 1 (Top): Vertical rectangles to the left

Row 2: Vertical rectangles to the right

Row 3: Vertical rectangles to the left

Row 4: Vertical rectangles to the right

Your quilt top is now finished - yay for you! Sandwich, quilt as desired, and bind!

If you would like a colouring sheet for the quilt, you can get it here!

My quilt isn't finished yet, but I'll show it here when it is. It's actually going to be a wedding present for my godmother who is getting married in October. Have I mentioned that I have two (TWO!) weddings and my birthday all in the same weekend?! Craziness.

So what do you think? I hope that those who have been asking for a tutorial or pattern for this quilt for the past three years are excited to finally have it. If you do end up making the quilt, make sure that you post pictures in my Flickr group! I'm excited to see what you do.

Awesome Gifty Goodness!

Hey y'all! In my last post, I mentioned that my lovely friend Amanda had sent me a couple of presents in the mail before I sent her the Lumos/Nox mini quilt - I thought I'd share those awesome presents with you today!

So, here's what happened: Amanda pretty much decided that I wasn't allowed to buy the black Harry Potter screen print from her Etsy shop! I really wanted to pay her for it (since her stuff is super-awesome) but she said that I wasn't allowed and that she was just going to send it to me - I couldn't even get around her because she refused to set up Canadian shipping for me. Cheeky lady! Imagine my surprise when it arrived along with one of Amanda's Knight Bus totes!

I snapped this pic of myself with my tote the day after it arrived (and yes, that is the bathroom at work)! I love my little tote! The purple ink used to screen print the Knight Bus has a sparkle to it and is so pretty - it's also lined with fabric from an HP sheet set. If you like this little beauty, Amanda has another for sale in her shop along with a bunch of other super-geeky funness including some Doctor Who drawstring pouches and individual screen prints on fabric - there are usually more screen prints but she just sold a whole bunch of stuff including some awesome zipper pouches. You should definitely check out her sold items to get a feel for her handmade items.

I stole this shot from Amanda's Instagram (with permission of course) of the Lumos/Nox quilt up on her wall! I love the wall it's on and the fact that it's paired up with Superman (who, if you didn't know, is my favourite superhero). P.S. I am also on Instagram and my username is KayePrince, just in case you wanted to know, y'know.

Next up, I've got a brand-new, long-awaited, much-requested tutorial for y'all! A hint: I made the original quilt over four years ago, but have continued to get requests for a pattern or tutorial over the years. I'm not even kidding, even though it is four years old, in the past month or so alone I have had at least four different people ask about it. So, I figured why not?! The tutorial is done other than getting a shot of the quilt top - which I will do once it stops raining (seriously, stop raining!!).

Lumos/Nox

Hey y'all! Some of you may know that I am a bit of a Harry Potter fan (and I know that I'm not alone). My dear lovely friend Amanda is too and when her birthday rolled around I knew that I needed to make her an HP-themed present.

Originally, my only two ideas were Harry Potter and mini quilt. I started thinking about the spells in the books, then I remembered Elizabeth's Refrigerator Magnets alphabet pattern (which I also used here), and then I spotted all of the wonderful scraps of Constellations I had left over from making Orion.

In case you don't know, Lumos is the spell used to illuminate a wand's tip (like a flashlight) and Nox is the counter-spell that turns that lights off. For the Lumos portion of the quilt I used the light blue fabric to reflect the casting of light, and for the Nox portion I used black fabric to reflect that that the wand light was out.

I love Lizzy's Constellations line so much - it is just too too perfect! I still have some scraps left and I might just need to hoard them for awhile.

When it came to quilting this little guy, I knew that I wanted to put some sort of picture from the series into it. Originally I was going to do a lightning bolt that echoed out, but while looking at various symbols associated with Harry Potter, I spotted the sign of the Deathly Hallows and knew that it was just perfect! I traced the single symbol out using a washable pen and then echoed around it used the width of my walking foot as the measure.

I used fabric from The Ghastlies for the back which I not only thought worked well, but was also my little ode to Severus Snape. The binding is Sketch in Mist.

I'm happy to say that this mini arrived at Amanda's house last week (only a little bit late for her birthday) and is now up on her wall. It was pretty hard for me to give this little guy up because I really love the way that it turned out, but I knew that Amanda would appreciate it and she sent me some pretty awesome goodies recently too including a handmade Harry Potter tote - I'll have to share that one soon!

Are you a Harry Potter fan? If so, which is your favourite book and/or scene? I might just need to make myself a little HP mini and could use some inspiration!

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