Tag Archives: sewing

Quilted Place Mats

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So I don’t have strep throat, yay!!! Its only a flu/cold virus. I should be feeling more myself by Monday.

WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

Over this past weekend, I worked on the placemats that are a Christmas gift. I think they are turning out great. One down, three to go.

Monsters: Stuffed Toys

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As mentioned previously my son and I make monster birthday cards together. This weekend we decided to take that one step further.

Based on monster drawings made by my son, I transformed one of those pictures into a stuffed monster toy. Some of the things my son designed/choose includes the 3 fingers, all his drawings at present have 3 fingers, his favorite color is orange, and he chose the buttons for the eyes.

Here is our first monster.

  

It was very cute – he slept on it as a cushion the first night and then he carried it in the car to track out camp – he is very proud of his monster 🙂

Some of the materials and steps I used to make these:

  1. I drew free hand the shape of the body onto scrap-book card, from that original shape I got out a stomach shape….this way ensuring that it fits in the main body. I pinned the body shape onto dark blue corduroy, and on orange kona cotton for the back body and cut out the two shapes together.
  2. The other two templates I used, were one for the legs and one for the arms. I pinned the leg and arm templates to patterned fabric which I folded into quarters so when I cut the shapes I would have 4 pieces (2 pieces in each direction).
  3. I cut the mouth free-hand using the stomach fabric as a guide out of the same dark blue corduroy.
  4. I cut the teeth out of white felt, using the opposing triangles so they can be top and bottom teeth.
  5. I sewed the hands and feet inside out using a 1/4 inch seam. I then turned them in the right way, stuffed them with stuffing. I sewed the top of each limb close leaving about 1/4 inch so that I had room to sew the limb into the body.
  6. The pieces for the body – the stomach, and the mouth I used zig-zag stitch to attach them, and the teeth I just used a normal walking stitch. I sewed on the buttons.
  7. I cut a piece of straight 2 inch blue stripped cotton fabric – this is used for the width of the monster and joins the front and back together.
  8. I pinned the front and middle edging together, with the arms and legs placed between the front and middle piece. The fabric was pinned together in reverse. I sewed a 1/4 inch seam. I ironed the seams.
  9. Now for the back piece, I put all the limbs in the middle of the body, I pinned the back to the unsewn middle edge, so everything was inside out. I sewed a 1/4 inch seam leaving about 2-3 inches on the bottom open.
  10. From the opening, I turned everything in the right way, and started stuffing the body. I hand stitched the opening closed to finish the monster.

Progress on Quilting Projects

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I am back at work, finally, after about 3 weeks of work. I was definitely very tired in the evenings this week, and I couldn’t post as often as I wanted. I enjoyed being be back at work though and no longer just lying around the house.

Today, I thought I would update you on my quilting projects I started couple of weeks ago.  I previously had posted about my 3 projects I undertook while recovering from surgery. I wanted to show you the progress on these projects, which have been moving slow but steady. Feel free to give feedback or I would love to hear other ideas or see pictures of any of the projects you are working on.

Quilt 1: Four Seasons Quilt

The four seasons quilt has been enjoyable project. I love working with texture and seeing the panels come to reality. The story of an apple tree through the four seasons, Spring, Summer, Autumn (Fall), and Winter has started to come together. I have two panels completed; Spring and Winter.

I designed Spring for the apple tree to be in full blossom with new leaves, and at the bottom new grass and dandelions. The one thing I will say, is I have a long road ahead to sew on all these buttons (yes, there are about 250 buttons to make the leaves and blossoms).

  

The Winter Panel, represents a leafless tree and snow has started to fall. I used two types of brown ribbon for the branches and sequins (snowflake and circle sequins) for the snow.

Each of the trees (the canopy and trunk), and the ribbon grass/branches were machine sewn on. All the sequins, buttons, flower buds are hand-sewn.

Two panels to go – Summer and Fall, which I have finished the machine sewing, I just have to do the hand sewing. Each of these panels will have ~250 buttons for leaves and the apples are red wood beads.

Quilt 2: Our Quilt – Grey and Orange 

To get started, I got an idea based on an image of a square design I liked, while searching google. From there, I worked out the measurements I would need to mimic the design, as there was not a pattern with the image I saw.

I am using a 12 inch square and I am making a king size quilt. I will post the measurements and design once I complete it.

Now, with the recent arrival of fabrics from spoonflower.com, I have been able to start the grey and orange quilt for my husband and I. I love the new fabrics. Here are pictures of the first squares.

    

  

NOTE: It was so hard to find good grey and orange modern looking fabrics. If anyone knows of any other fabric stores that have a good selection I would love to know about them :-).