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Pincushions - Pretty Experiments

Every crafter needs a pincushion, or two, or three. Even more than that, crafters need a way to experiment. You can't grow or improve as a quilter without trying new techniques, patterns, and colorways. A small project, like a pincushion, can free you to experiment without the commitment and cost of a larger project. Smaller projects can also be a way to fit creating into our busy lives. Make a pincushion as an easy way to try that technique you've been wondering about, or to work with a new mix of colors. Jump in and play.

Besides feeding your creative self, pincushions make a wonderful gift. Making them for gifts also provides you with a very respectable reason to spend time sewing. "I'm sorry I can't do the laundry, I have to make a gift for the Secret Santa exchange!" Your spouse can't possibly complain about that. 

You can make pincushions from just about anything, including scraps, but we're going to take a look at two books. Pin Pals by Carrie Nelson and Bowl Me Over by Debbie Busby each offer many creative options and fun projects. We enjoyed both books so much, we used them as the project for one of our recent staff meetings. Everyone got a pattern and a set of fabric, and we went to town sewing and chatting. Most weren't quite finished during the staff meeting (too much talking), but all are relatively short projects and each book has as range of project difficulty and techniques to choose from. 

Pin Pals has 40 different patterns. These aren't your grandma's tomatoes, there is a little bit of everything in this book! Experiment with curves, applique, traditional blocks, strip piecing, triangles, precision piecing and hexies. We made the patterns: Solid Checkerboard, Random Strips, DNA, Ohio Star, Spokes, Beach Houses, Fresh-Cut Cube, and Bear Paw.

Bowl Me Over is a book of 37 "little pillows" and even more ideas. Projects are made from cotton and wool with embroidery stitches and wool applique. Fill a bowl with them, stack them on a shelf, or make them pincushions. If you've ever considered trying embroidery or applique this book is a wonderful way to get your feet wet. Debbie gives the reader thorough instructions for each project, but also offers general instructions and ideas to make your own variations. We made patterns: Welcome to Our Neck of the Woods, Be Strong, Nighttime Forest, and Little Cabin in the Woods.

Want more pincushion ideas? Check out our Pincushion Pinterest board. 

Now that you've made a pincushion, or ten, you need to fill it. In theory this is pretty simple, but in practice can be frustrating. 

First pick a filling. You can fill one with any number of things: rice, sand, sawdust or pellets. However, you will get the best results with a combination of poly-fil and crushed walnut shells. Use the poly-fill in corners, points and curves, then add the walnut shells for weight and firmness. 

Add your poly-fil first and using a tool like the Purple Thang push the stuffing firmly into all corners, other shapes, or edges you want to keep crisp. Then use a narrow neck funnel to add the crushed walnut shells until your pincushion is full and firm. Be sure to pause and give your cushion a shake to settle the shells, then continue adding more shells. You can also use the end of your funnel to push the shells into the corners and help them settle so you can fully fill your pincushion. Here's a quick video of us filling a pincushion.

 

You can find all the supplies you need for this project at Stitchin Post. 

Pin Pals Kit - Pin Pals Book - Bowl Me Over Book - Crushed Walnut Shells - Wool - Needles

Be sure to sign up for our newsletters to receive all the information about this project and all the other 12 Projects of Christmas. 

Stitchin' Post's The 12 Projects of Christmas is a newsletter event. Each week starting in October we've selected a fun and fast project, perfect for gifting or holiday decorating. Every project is designed and selected by our experts to make it easy for you to find and craft stylish useful items everyone will love.

Bag Crazy - Part 1

Have you ever made something, and liked it so much, it started a landslide of similar projects? That's what is happening here. We've gone a bit bag crazy.We've made so many I can't cover them all in one post! I didn't even mange to get them all in the photo. Don't worry I'll talk about them all, but not today.

Today, let's talk about the fabric basket. I think almost everyone could use one, or two, or ten of these.

When the sample came in, I immediately wanted to make some of my own for my daughter's bookshelves to help her organize her treasures. This pattern would work equally well holding remotes on your coffee table, scarves in your closet, or as the most amazing gift basket ever. The possibilities are endless. 

We made ours up in Sevenberry Slate Dot Canvas, with Grunge handle covers and Grunge Cream lining. The result is classic good looks, with a bit of whimsy from the dots and the pop of orange from the handle covers.

The pattern calls for leather handles, but we made ours from cork fabric. It's amazing stuff if you haven't used it. Looks like cork, but is soft and flexible, as well as quite durable. Beside the natural color shown, we have it in denim blue, wine, and ocean blue. 

To make our handles: Cut a 16" x 1 1/2" strip of cork fabric. Fold the strip in half lengthwise, wrong sides together, and sew a 1/8" seam down each long side of the strip. Cut strip into two pieces, each 3/4" x 8". Cork fabric won't fray, so no need to fold under the edges. 

The basket pattern comes from Handmade Style, by Anna Graham of Noodlehead. I love her style, and I'm pleased and impressed by her pattern writing. Her instructions are clear and detailed. As bonus Anna also includes style and technique tips. Three of the bag patterns we've made recently came from this book, and there are at least a half a dozen more things in the book I'd like to make. This is a must have book on my shelf!

I love the grey, white and orange combo of our original basket, but there are so many ways you could make this. I put together some alternative fabric combinations that I think would work great together. 

Artisan Blue Peppered Cottons Saffron Kitties Hanging Around

Kona Cotton Wasabi Psychedelia Sunset Kona Cotton Black

Windham Fabric Wonder - Orchid Windham Fabric Wonder - Navy Cotton & Steel English Garden-Navy

Peppered Cottons Ink Peppered Cottons Oyster Scandinavian Woods Olive

Denim Blue Cork Kona Cotton Maize  Forage - Midnight

Kona Cotton Yarrow Kona Cotton Hibiscus Tayutou- Grey Hex

Which is your favorite? 

The basket pattern comes from Handmade Style by Anna Graham of Noodlehead. I love her style and I'm pleased, and impressed by her pattern writing. Her instructions are clear and detailed. As bonus Anna also includes style and technique tips. Three of the bag patterns we've made recently came from this book, and there are at least a half a dozen more things in the book I'd like to make. This is a must have book on my shelf!

Watch the blog for upcoming posts on more of the bags shown. 

Cheers!

Samantha

 

 

 

 

 

New Release: Intuitive Color and Design, revised edition

Intuitive Color and Design, revised edition

“Color Confidence”

As I was setting the table for the holidays, I unpacked my Color Work Table Runner that I love to put out for my holiday decorating. It reminded me of what a fun class it is to teach, as the students quickly discover how well the various colors and patterns they have chosen play together. I have also used the technique to introduce the Rulerless Cutting and Piecing technique of cutting without rulers (on page 82) to students. All of the line work is your very own when rulers are not used, except for squaring up the outer edges.

I had a special project in mind that I wanted to make as a Christmas gift. They love the ocean. In my mind, I started thinking about what it might be about the ocean that would be appealing: the constant movement of the water, the flowing motion, ocean colors, the tranquility. This is the runner I made while trying to access these thoughts. I made it 15” wide and 36” long, so it can easily be a wall hanging if they do not want to use it on the table.

I used the method I described above, and tried to create an ocean flowing feeling.

The fabric selection was the most fun of all! Not only did I choose a variety of blues, cream and white (sand), and a bit of green, but I thought about texture. I wanted choices to remind me of a walk along the beach on the Oregon coast.

I kept the quilting lines simple, mimicking the piecing lines and changing the thread color. I did not want to distract from the piecing. I really enjoyed the challenge of choosing a project where I was working for a client, so to speak. The choices I needed to make became more objective.

You could use this experience yourself. Exploration is so important in our journey as artists. It is the opening of new doors into creativity.

--Jean

Color Vocabulary

The second edition of Intuitive Color and Design is out!  I have signed copies available exclusively at the Stitchin' Post.

There are so many ways to talk about color and what I have learned through the years that is most important is the relationships that colors have to each other in the composition. Simplifying that to a vocabulary list of descriptions have been very successful for me in the classroom.

 

Rather than naming a color if you think of it for the role it is playing then you will intuitive know if it is working or not. My vocabulary lis consists of :  Temperature (warm or cool), Intensity (dull or bright),

value (light or dark), Volume (weight - lighter or heavier).

 

In this little sample of strata (see strata assignment on p. 52) I played with the cooler lighter orange and balanced it with the bright intense orange. I made sure the brighter orange appeared in smaller amounts so it would not dominate the composition. As I look at this not the darker purple near the center is feeling a bit large but as I add more strips I can remedy the amount of darker purple in the whole piece. It really is about relationships and we certainly can feel if a piece is working or not.

 

Trust yourself!

I love to add bits of texture. From these scraps you can see how the textured fabric add another dimension to the piece. The grey section has bits of cotton as well as linens. The Essex linens from Robert Kaufman are part cotton and the hand is soft and plays so well with cottons.

Spirited Hues is the last quilt I made for the new book. I had collected the fabric for it for some time and it sat on my cutting table until I finished all of the writing for the book. My reward to myself was to get to sit down and design and sew the quilt. 

Happy Designing!

~Jean

 

Gwen Marston's New Book - A Common Thread - A Collection of Quilts

  A Common Thread -
A Collection of Quilts by Gwen Marston

Explore a life lived in stitches and witness the aesthetic evolution of a treasured quiltmaking artist. Immerse yourself in the beauty of detailed, up-close photos that will inspire and delight you.

Revel in this dazzling self-curated collection of Gwen Marston's more than five-decade passion for quiltmaking. Her masterful body of work is presented in a single vibrant coffee table book of stunning photography for the first time ever. From her early pieces inspired by Mennonite quilts to her innovative work with applique and texture to her exploration of modern design, Gwen's aesthetic has remained a glorious marriage of freedom in construction, expert use of unexpected colors and negative space, and happy design surprises. See more than 80 quilts representing more than 40 years and a variety styles--all united by a common thread: the artist Gwen Marston.

 The quilt galleries are separated into several categories: Traditional Patchwork, Applique', Liberated Patchwork, String Quilts, and Abstract Quilts in Solids; and feature beautiful images of quilts that span Gwen's career as a quilter, from the 1970s to today.

Here are just a few of the quilts that are highlighted in this amazing woman's portfolio:

Basket with Two Red Birds (detail) 44" x 44" 1998

 

 
Medallion Sampler 58" x 62" 2002

 

  
   Log Cabin on Point 56" x 64" 1992

 

 Red Square IV (detail) 39" x 42" 2008

 

Center Diamond 72" x 72" 1992

Renowned quilter Gwen Marston is a professional fiber artist, author, and teacher who has been exhibiting her groundbreaking work nationally and internationally for more than three decades.
If you are a fan of Gwen's work, this book is a "Must-Have!"

You can find "A Common Thread - a Collection of Quilts by Gwen Marston" on our website: http://www.stitchinpost.com/quilting-sewing-book/modern-quilting.html

Enjoy!

 

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Star Student Zipper Bag - Simply Color YELLOW

Happy Spring! With April here and the sun shining more and more, we are so glad to get to the month of YELLOW. We all know a little yellow goes a long way but you really can never have too much of a good thing. And who can ever have too many bags? That's why this month from the Simply Color Book, YELLOW,  we chose to make the Star Student Zipper Bag. 

 In the store we are also having a month long special on anything yellow! 15% off merchandise with yellow on it. 

For this project, you will need an assortment of 23 - 3-1/2" x 3-1/2"  yellow prints, fabric for lining, a dark text fabric for the star, fusible batting, fusible tape or a fabric glue pen, 12" zipper, a walking foot and zipper foot. 

Lay out a 9 -patch of 8 yellow squares and one black square in the center. Lay the cut out triangles face down onto of the four surrounding yellow squares. This will be a wonky star so there is no need to have every point perfect. 

Stitch the triangles to the yellow squares then trim away the extra elbow fabric and press the seam toward the black fabric. 

Your blocks should look like this. Once the first triangles have been sewn, repeat the steps for the opposite sides of the same yellow squares to create 4 star point squares. 

Sew the squares together to create the 3 rows. Press the seams open.  Sew on the last row of yellow squares to the right side(or whichever you'd like) to get a 9-1/2" x 12-1/2" panel for the front of the bag. Sew together another set of 12 yellow squares for the back panel of the bag. 

Iron the fusible batting to the wrong side of the outside panels. 

Quilt your design choice onto the outside panels. We quilted a diagonal square design on our sample.

(Note, do not use a Chaco Liner on the Right Side of the fabric. It may not come out. OOPS!)

 To attach the zipper, fold your cut black fabric in half long ways, press and set aside. These are the tabs. Centering the front panel along the zipper tape, mark and place fusible tape on zipper about 1" from each side edge of the bag ends. Center the folded tabs on the zipper ends with the folded edge facing towards the zipper. Press tabs onto the zipper tape to secure in place. 

Sew the tabs onto both sides of the zipper tape as close to the folded edge as possible. Then trim away the excess zipper under the tab. Place fusible tape or glue on the right side of outer edge on one side of the zipper.

 Layer the front panel; right side up, zipper; facing down, and lining panel; wrong side up, then press along the zipper edge so the fusible tape will ad-here to the front panel. Sew together along the zipper edge, lining up the outer part of your zipper foot to the edge of the fabric. 

Fold front panel so it is right side up, then press. Top stitch on the pressed edge as close to seam as possible. Repeat on opposite side of the zipper with back panel. 

To sew the bag together, unzip the bag about halfway. Flip the back and front panel on one side of zipper, and the lining fabric to the other side (right side together). Starting at the middle bottom of the lining, stitch a 1/4" seam allowance until about a 1/4" away from the tabs, back stitch a few stitches and continue to stitch over the zipper. Back stitch again and continue on to the front and back panels stitching around the bag. Stop stitching about 3" away from where you started to leave an opening at the bottom of the bag.

Trim excess tab fabric to align with raw edges of the sides of the bag. With the bag still wrong side out, pinch corner of lining panel and position bag sideways so seam of lining is centered and forming a point (as shown). Mark 1" down from point with water soluble pen and sew on the drawn line. Cut away point leaving 1/4" seam. Repeat on the 3 other corners of the bag. 

Turn bag inside out, pushing in the corners. Hand-sew the lining closed then push the lining into bag and press. To secure the lining to the inside of panels, hand sew a few tacking stitches to secure in place. 

Now fill with whatever you desire! 

To get the full instructions for this bag and more projects made in yellow, check out the Simply Colored YELLOW Book,  and more from Lucky Spools. And for the month of April, don't forget this and other merchandise with the color yellow on it are 15% off! 

 

Have a Very Sunny April and Happy Sewing!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Elizabeth Hartman Workshops!

Elizabeth Hartman is a quilter, pattern designer, and fan of color from Portland, Oregon. For her, quiltmaking is the perfect combination of creativity and technical challenge, all in the service of making a useful object. 

Just for you! Together with Elizabeth Hartman, we've procured special pricing on her workshops: Fox & Hedgehog and Patchwork City. We have a few more spaces left so please come join us. www.StitchinPost.com

Patchwork City, March 18-20th, $210 (includes lunches)

In Patchwork City, students will learn some of Elizabeth's favorite tips and tricks for fabric selection and precision piecing, as you make blocks from her new sampler book, Patchwork City. The blocks can be combined to make a small sampler, or they can become the start of one of the larger projects in the book.

These blocks are so much fun to put together, choose from 8" x 8", 5" x 8", and 5" x 14" blocks. Mix and match, have fun and use some of those stash fabrics you've been saving for something perfect. 

Or keep it all solid for a clean, bold quilt. The possibilities are endless! 

It is never too late to sign up for this class. Lunches for all three days is included. 

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Foxes & Hedgehogs, March 17th, $70 (includes lunch)

Use your favorite fabrics to make these fun hedgehogs and fox faces! The foxes can be made with scraps, precut strips, fat eighths, or fat quarters. Use fancy fabrics like Liberty Lawn, brightly colored solids, or your favorite print fabric collection. The hedgehog pattern uses conventional patchwork techniques (no paper piecing or templates) and can be made using precut 1½" strips, precut 10" squares, or an assortment of fabric scraps. You can use 3 coordinating pieces of fabric to make each hedgehog (as I've done here) or use the same fabrics for all of the faces and bodies with a different colorful or print fabric for each hedgehog's spines. These hedgehogs and foxes will look adorable in whatever fabrics you use.

Make a throw of Fancy Foxes and Hazel Hedgehogs, then make a few. You can also give these little critters stylish frames later on. 

Once you make one block, you won't want to stop. 

Sign up now online at www.StitchinPost.com or in store. 

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Elizabeth is also the pattern designer of many other pattern such as Kittens, Preppy the Whale, Fancy Forest and more. Find her patterns and books here online and in our shop. 

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Being self-taught, Elizabeth says that she did everything wrong at least five times before she figured out how to do it right. So, when she wrote her first book, she wrote the book that she wished she had when she was just beginning. That book, The Practical Guide to Patchwork, was published in 2010 and won the Next Generation Indie Book Award (How-To Category) in 2011.

At the end of 2009, Elizabeth quit her day job to pursue quilting full time. Since then, she has written two more books, Modern Patchwork (2012) and Patchwork City (2014). Her work has also been featured in a variety of other books, publications, and media, including: Stitch, Quilt Scene, Fons & Porter’s Love of Quilting, Patchwork Tsushin, and Quilting Arts TV. In 2012, Elizabeth recorded two video classes for Craftsy.com, Inspired Modern Quilts and Creative Quilt Backs. Somewhere in there she also founded the Portland Modern Quilt Guild and was a Board Member of the national Modern Quilt Guild for four years. She started selling wholesale print patterns in 2014, and her first print fabric collection for Robert Kaufman, Rhoda Ruth, shipped out last fall, and was follwed by her new line, Pacific.

 

LOVE Pillow - Simply Color Red

Its the season of love, and what better way to show it by making the LOVE pillow from the Simply Color RED book. 

Kristin Shields (pictured) and Gin were on the task to help make this month's sample, and said it was a fun, fast project.

 

The finished size is 20" x 20" and calls for 4 fat quarters or leftovers from a jelly roll strips for a scrappy look. As well as 1 yard of background and backing, 22" x 22" batting ad at least a 20" square pillow insert. We used Kona cotton solids for our pinks and white and a Robert Kaufman linen for the background.

To make life a little easier, we recommend using the Stripology ruler from Creative Grids to cut one (or more) fabric at a time without having to remeasure. 

Cut out all the pieces for L, O, V and E and assemble the blocks following the instructions from the book. There are some pieces that require a diagonal sew line then cut away on the letters O and V. And be sure when assembling that your fabrics are always right sides together. 

Once the blocks have been pieced its time to assemble the pillow top. you will sew the L block to the O block, and sew V to E. then sew together the L/O unit to the V/E unit. Sew a 2-1/2" x 20-1/2" strip of background to both the left and right sides of the LOVE block. Layer one piece of batting the wrong  side of the pillow front and pin or baste as necessary. 

Set your machine stitch to a larger sewing stitch, using a walking foot  or regular presser foot, quilt straight lines (or any design you like) on the pillow front. We used a with Aurifil 50wt. thread for the quilting. 

To finish the pillow, you will be making an envelope back slip cover. Make a double hem on one long side of both back panel rectangles. With your finished pillow top facing up, with right sides together, place the backing pieces on top.

Align with the long raw edge of one piece to the left of the pillow and the other panel's long raw edge with the right of the pillow. This will make the panel pieces overlap in the middle. Pin around the sides and sew a 1/4" seam allowance. Turn inside out and place the pillow form inside. 

Give this to a loved one or as a seasonal decoration for your home.

If you like this project and love the color red, check out the book, Simply Color Red for this and more as well as the other books in the series. 

Keep watching each month for new projects in more colors. 

Happy Quilting! 

 

 

Big Island Pillows - Simply Color Blue

With a new year, comes new projects! That means finding the perfect projects and we found some that are fast, creative, COLORFUL projects from the book series "Simply Color, A Crayon Box for Quilters"

We've decided it would be fun to pick a project from each book once a month, and for January, We are starting out with the Big Island Pillows in BLUE!

Also, during the month of January, if you come into the store, any merchandise with True Blues on it are 15% off! So you can pick up this book, fabric, patterns, yarn and more that has Blue on it at a discount. 

Inspired by Hawaiian quilts, this pillow uses a raw edge appliqué and cross hatch machine quilting for a modern twist instead of the traditional hand appliqué and quilting. 

For this project you will need Blue fabric, a text fabric, Fusible batting, HeatnBond or your choice of fusible web, 2 - 18" square pillow inserts and a water soluble pen.

For our pillow we chose a denim for our blue and text print by Moda. And to put a ext rat spin on it, we used our denim for the backing of the pillow instead of the text. 

To get started you will need to fold the HeatnBond into quarters and use the template from the book to trace onto each quadrant. 

We cut out around the tracing Iron the HeatnBond fusible side down on the wrong side of your blue fabric, press to adhere. Then carefully cut out the appliqué along the drawn line. if you are looking for a great pair of scissors that can get in the small valleys and around curves, we recommend using Kia scissors. They stay sharp and cut like butter. 

Using a water-soluble pen, draw a diagonal line from corner to corner on the right side of the text fabric square to create an "X". Remove the paper from the appliqué and align the center of the longest leaves of the appliqué with the diagonal lines on the text fabric. Iron the appliqué onto the text background.

Fuse your fusible bating to the wrong side of your text square. we also used a muslin on the back of our batting to sandwich the pillow op for quilting ease. To get the diagonal cross hatch grid quilted on, we used a painters tape, about 3/4" wide to give us a line to follow. 

Continue Quilting until the entire top is finished. 

To finish the pillow, make a double hem on one long side of the back panel rectangles, press and top stitch the folded edge. Right sides together, align one panel with the pillow top with the raw edge.

Align the other panel along the bottom edge of the pillow top right side together. This will have our panels overlapping at the hemmed edges and will be offset in the center. Pin all around the edges and sew a 1/4" seam. Clip away the Corner points, turn pillow sleeve inside out, and place an 18" pillow form inside. 

 

If you would like to purchase this book and the rest visit www.stitchinpost.com

Keep an eye out in February for the Simply Color RED project and more! 

Happy Quilting!
 

 

 

 

 

Elizabeth Hartman Day - Books, Patterns, and her new fabric line, Rhoda Ruth!

Today is our 9th day of Christmas in our 12 day countdown, and it just happens to be Elizabeth Hartman's day. All things Elizabeth are 20% of for 24 hours. Stop by the shop or check out the website, http://www.stitchinpost.com/12-days-2015.html   It is the perfect time to stock up for her workshops which are coming up this March.

Elizabeth Hartman Workshops:

Fox & Hedgehog
Thursday, March 17, 2016
9-4 pm
1-day workshop (includes lunch)
$100
    

Patchwork City
Friday - Sunday, March 18 – 20, 2016
9-4 pm
3-day workshop (includes lunches)
$300

Choose from all things
Elizabeth Hartman:

Patterns and Books: Link here

Rhoda Ruth Fabric: Link Here

Watch for Elizabeth's new line, Pacific,  coming soon to our website.