tutorial

Easter is Knocking on the Door!

Like every year I looked around searching for a small Easter themed sewing or knitting project.

Last year I knitted the cute rabbit which you can see on the title picture. It is a pattern by Claire Garland which I bought on Ravelry – https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/rabbit-44 .

For this year’s Easter crafting I found a lovely little sewing project – a basket for four eggs. I found the free pattern on the German Blog ‘Naehmalwieder‘ . She offers variations for two, three, four or six eggs there. The instructions are given in German only. But I can show you how I did the basket for four eggs.

What you need ist very simple. You need 2 pieces of fabric – 11″ sqares and batting in the same size. The original pattern calls for two batting pieces. But I just took 1.

Next step is to sew the pieces together: fabrics right sides together.

Sew around the squares with a quarter inch seam allowance leaving an opening to turn inside out.

Clip the corners, turn inside out, press and stitch around the whole piece near the edge what will close the turn opening in the same step.

Mark the middle of the four sides with needles or a removable pen.

Connect two opposite sides with a short seam – I did a half inch seam with forth and back stitching. If your sewing machine isn’t able to work through all the layers you can sew it by Hand.

Connect now the other both opposite sides with an a half inch long seam. Afterwards it should look like the last picture shows.

You can now open the four corners and pull it apart. In that way you form the square base of the foldable basket. Manipulate the Corners as you like – leave them as they are or fold them over and put four Easter eggs in.

Maybe it is also possible to sew it out of circles to get a different look… or to add ribbons to connect the sides only temporarily?

I made the two baskets I have shown here as a pre Easter gift for friends – and both love it 🙂

Scrap Happy December

Four weeks since my last post… and I really didn’t sew much. But I have a nice little project to share for the monthly Scrap Happy post: I made some cute scrappy Santas!

Santas

The pattern is based on a log cabin quiltblock which I made from SCRAPS! I started with a 2.5″ center piece and added all the strips around.

block for the Santa front

The second step is to add the red piece for the Santa’s hat. I did that like I make HST out of squares – put a red square in the same size like the log cabin block on the log cabin block, mark the diagonal line and sew 1/4 ” of both sides from the line, cut on the marked diagonal line. What you’ll get are two blocks like these:

from one log cabin block you will get two Santas

I added the eyes with a small zig-zag-stich using a very small stitch length.

After that you have only to add a red back side and stich the back sides together along the hats. If wanted you can add some embellishments at the edge of the hat and a ribbon at the top.

: from the side

: from the front

: from behind

I found the tutorial on an Italian blog – it is in Italian but there are a lot of step-by-step-pictures… I did it without understanding Italian too 🙂 : http://cucitocreativo.xs4.it/i-miei-lavori/tutorial-babbo-natale-log-cabin/ I added one strip less than the tutorial claims and my Santa is 7.5″ tall.

One of the Santas I sent to Avis with her F2F blocks – as she told me it is sitting at the top of her Christmas tree… mine is still sitting on my old treadler table on top of a bottle waiting for a final usage… maybe as gift, Christmas ornament, gift tag, Christmas eve keyhole protector …

Santa waiting

It seems that I am the first one this month with my ScrapHappy post… so I’ll link here to the other participants supposed to publish a ScrapHappy post later:

Gun at https://rutigt.wordpress.com (in Swedish and English)

Susan at https://desertskyquilts.wordpress.com (in English)

Titti at http://tittisquiltlek.blogspot.se (in Swedish only)

Kate at http://talltalesfromchiconia.wordpress.com/ (in English)

Sue at http://sewingmagpie.blogspot.com.au (in English)

“October Sky” – Pattern Testing for Esther from Ipatchandquilt

Last week I tested a wonderful foundation paper piecing pattern for Esther from ipatchandquilt. I was impressed – the pattern is so detailed, with different options to make the block centre and different block sizes. In addition the pattern comes with different colouring suggestions and colouring sheets to find your personal block design. I enjoyed the testing so much… and so I loved what came out. Thank you Esther!

Beside some colouring suggestions Esther gave wonderful colouring pages with the pattern to find the best design.

My colour palette – first design with a green cat in the centre.

First I thought about a green cat in the middle.

My fabric choice – I decided to add one more block in turquoise/green/orange/white to my F2F blocks – and I decided to take an orange cat for the centre part.

First I sewed the centre:

step one

step 2

step 3

step 4

Finished centre.

It was very easy to prepare the different pieces/strips for the four parts.

I loved that it was possible to chainpiece the parts around the centre block.

Joining the different parts.

all the peeled off paper pieces…

Finished block – back side.

And here it is… my version of “Oktober Sky”:

Finished block… I love the result.

I’m curious to see what the other testers came up with!

Snoopy Cushion Cover – pictural tutorial

Today evenening it occurred to me that I had to sew a fast Snoopy cushion cover… I didn’t finish it yet but I managed to sew the front part in less than three hours. There was enough time for some pics I’ll share here:

I made it in a size of 18″ – Snoopy is appr. 6″ – if you search the web for “Snoopy” you’ll find enough picures. You only have to print a Snoopy in the desired size, the doghouse roof and landscape can be drawn freehand.

sketched the basic lines on the sticky side of a thin interfacing

fabric for the middle plank, right side up – it must cover the middle field

on top of the first fabric is placed the fabrid vor the upper plank – right side on right side… fixed with a needle

Like foundation piecing you sew on the interfacing – the first seam is the line between the middle plank and the plank above.

the seems have to be trimmed to 1/4″

The interfacing is folded back so it can stay undamaged. The quarter inch line covers the seam.

trimmed seam allowance

After the seam is trimmed you can fold up the fabric for the upper plank and add the fabric for the lower plank in the same way (mark your seam line as showed in the picture with finger pressing).

The fabric for the lower plank is added.

Now the shape of the roof must be trimmed.

Fold the interfacing back on a thin ruler wich is placed exactly on the line.

I used my “add a quarter ruler” to trimm my 1/4″ seamallowance.

First step is done… that is the roof. Next is to add the landscape beside the roof.

I prepared the landscape out of green and blue fabric (for meadow and sky). The fabrics were connected with curved line piecing.

I cut my landscape strip in two pieces – for both sides of the doghouse roof. Your landscape strip has to be as wide as the roofs hight is.

Roof and Landscape are joined – they have to be trimmed now: use the lower and upper roof line as guide.

Add now a large sky-piece.

The ear is sewn from black fabric – two pieces right side on ride side sewn together. I left an opening on one of the long sides and turned right side out. I closed the opening with an small edgestitch around the ear-piece. The ear is only fixed on the upper part and hangs down losely over the roof.

The nose… a black oval wich is zigzagged with black yarn – the white gloss strip is zigzagged too.
Lower part of the nose and upper part of the ear will be later covered with the head.

The body silhouette is marked on the sticky side of the thin interfacing. It is ironed on a piece of white fabric and cut out afterwards.

After the silhouette shape had been cutting out it is machine appliqued with a black zigzag stitch.

Add black zigzag lines for the eye, the arm, a line between body and head and fingers/toes.

Zigzag the outline of the doghouse roof and the lines between the planks. Done!!!!

I plan to add a blue back side and a zipper at the bottom … hope to get it done tomorrow.

Linked with Crazy Mom Quilts finishitupfriday linky party and with the TGIFF-party this week over at whatahootquilts .

Rag Quilt – update

Sewing a rag quilt part II (for part I see here): I really managed to sew all pieces together yesterday afternoon. The biggest challenge is waiting for me now: clipping every single seam allowance – every seam allowance has to be clipped one snip beside another with 1/4″ spacing. After I had started with my normal scissors yesterday evening, I noticed that it doesn’t work without a special tool (Thank you Kate for your concern about my hands!) … so I ordered a special rag quilter snip to protect my fingers! Because my order have to travel from the US it will probably take until the end of september until I have it…

So here is what it is looking so far – 11 blocks/15 rows – the whole quilt measures now 62 x 84″ (155 x 210 cm).

rag quilt front

rag quilt back

Do you see my mistake-block… accidentally I have used it in the wrong direction but decided to leave it that way. So there is one denim block on the front and a multicoloured on the back side… happy accident!

Linked with Linky Tuesday and Building Blocks Tuesday.

DEUTSCH –> (more…)

Sewing a Rag Quilt

after cutting the background squares

Yesterday I have cleaned up my wardrobe and found some old Jeans… so I thought I must immediately start trying to sew a rag quilt… I already saved some denim fabrics from my daughters jeans too and some other clothing and upholstery/ decoration fabrics. Because I deceided to use heavy fabrics for the back side, I don’t use any lining/batting.

First step was cutting 6.5″ squares from all these fabrics. For the front side I mixed several fabric leftovers and single fat quarters I thought I wouldn’t use for other projects. I also used some fabrics I got from a friend who has given some fabrics to me because she moved and had too less space for it in the new flat. I ended up with two fabric piles – I thought making a quilt which has 11 blocks in each of 15 rows (appr. expected size is 60×80″ / 150×200 cm) – 165 pieces each:

fabrics for back & front

The first step of making a rag quilt is combining a front fabric with a back fabric and sewing two diagonal seams – fabrics – wrong sides together. To make it faster I started today with chainpiecing the first diagonal… on top here a lovely Tula Pink fabric.

first diagonal is sewn

After that I chainpieced again to add the second diagonal.

added a second diagonal

Even now it is time to decide which squares should be connected to rows… I laid all the squares following the colours to look which squares fit together:

ready to sort for the rows

I tried different layouts on the floor an made a pile at the end to connect the rows. I sewed the squares together wrong side on wrong side so that the 0.5″ seamallowance shows up on the front.

In this way I built 15 rows – each from 11 squares:

All that took a bit more time I expected – and so I wasn’t able connecting all the rows today. But the first five rows are sewn together:

first five rows connected

I didn’t care how the different background fabrics were combined – it is looking like that so far:

I hope I am able to join the rows tomorrow afternoon when I’m home from work… I’m looking forward to snip all the seam allowances!

Although the quilt isn’t finished after I all in all invested 10 hours work – the cat already loves it!

DEUTSCH –> (more…)

A Friday Finish!

Today I finished a cushion cover I made as a gift for a friend’s 40th birthday we will going to celebrate tomorrow. For the orange peel shapes I used the template I made for my last quilt which had an orange peel quilt pattern… I cut it just a bit taller for the cushion cover. The technique I used for it I tried first with tiny pieces for my Dear Jane quilt – and in such a small size it didn’t work well. But here – the cushion cover is appr. 20″x20″ – it worked very well. A detailed description for that technique is shown in a MSQC-tutorial you can find here.

But here you can see progress & finish of my cushion cover.

sewing orange peel shaped thin interfacing with the sticky part inside onto my fabrics… and cut out after sewing together

cut a small slit into the interfacing and then turn the inside out

after turning inside out it is looking like this from the front

after turning the inside out you can see the sticky side of the interfacing on the surface now

placed the orange peel shapes on the front… iron carefully to fix it before applique with a small blanket stich

I had my orange peel machine appliqued with a small blanket stitch.

the basted front ready for quilting

quilted the front with my walking foot

I used my serger to sew front and back together.

the back side

Finished!

DEUTSCH –> (more…)

GYB-Party-Giveaway… Winner

We have a winner…

… out of 68 comments telling what could be made out of my stash charmpack the random number generator has drawn a number: 34…

So now we know that these charms will be a babyquilt… made for a baby grandson.

But before that I will send my charmpack to Ontario, Canada….

Congratulations Mary Anne from magpiesmumblings.blogspot.com –

YOU ARE THE WINNER!!!

I have to honestly say that I am glad that not I had to decide who is the winner… so many brilliant ideas!!! Thank you all – it was such fun to read all your comments (I must admit that I was tempted to strip my whole stash in charmpacks – so that everybody could win 😉 ). I hope MaryAnn will show us what she has finally made out of it.

Thank you again Vicky for hosting the “Grow Your Blog” Party – I discovered so many lovely and inspiring blogs during the past weeks. And there are many blogs waiting for the rest of the year.

post coach fabric from Barbara, US

But what did I do the last weeks? First of all I got an enormous feedback for my Postcrossing Quilt – via comments and via messages at the postcrossing platform. I received the first fabrics for my POSTCROSSING QUILT II. It looks as if this time I manage to connect fabrics from all continents in one quilt! But this is a topic for a special post!

I made some blocks for my Dear Jane…

Carla from grannymaudsgirl told in a blogpost last week about her “pincushion problem” – I absolutely share that. I love sewing small cute little things (like pincushions) – often they are fast made, nice to look at and mostly welcome gifts… although I often can’t stop making it, there are not enough opportunities to give it away – and so I do a little bit of heard it in the closet. However… during my blog-wanderings I discovered something new… Teresa from fabrictherapy shared a wonderful tutorial on her blog: A Collapsible Thread Catcher to collect all these tiny threads and small fabric snippets…. It was love at the first sight, and I knew I had to sew this… and so I did:

just 3″ high

collecting all that little threads

with a spinning move it collapse

now the collector holds the threads inside

so small

I absolutely love that!!! And at the moment it seems to be an an adequate replacement for more and more pincushions. There is also a very detailed youtube tutorial by AngiesBitsAndPieces.

DEUTSCH: Es gibt einen Gewinner des “GrowYourBlog” Giveaways… das von mir zugeschnittene Charmpack geht nach Ontario, Kanada zu Mary Ann, die eine Babydecke für ihren Enkelsohn daraus nähen möchte. Während ich über die GYB-Party viele neue Blogs erkundet habe, habe ich einige Blöcke für meinen Dear Jane Quilt genäht. Außerdem habe ich die ersten Stoffe für meinen Postcrossing Quilt II erhalten… ich hoffe, dass es mir diesmal wirklich gelingt, alle Kontinente in einem Quilt zu vereinen. Während meinen Streifzügen im www habe ich ein tolles Tutorial für einen zusammenfaltbaren Fadensammler entdeckt… es war Liebe auf den ersten Blick und ich musste das Ding einfach sofort nachnähen 🙂 Hier geht es zum Fototutorial und hier zur youtube-Anleitung.

Winter… time for woolen accessories

Meanwhile it is cold and wintry here – I had a walk in our park in the morning nearby where I live. It is a park around a Castle – “Castle Borbeck” (Borbeck is the name of the part of our town). By the 14th century this castle became the favorite residence of the princess-abbesses of Essen.

Until a surgery on my hand last year I used to do “excessive knitting” around the year. Most of all I loved to knit all kinds of accessories – cowls, hats, scarfs, shawls, gloves, mittens… Most of it I gave to family or friends and I didn’t used to take pictures of the things I gave away; I take pictures for a couple of years now.

Some wrist warmers and gloves…

wristwarmers for a working mate

Mittens for my mothers 65th birthday – a pattern by Anne Abrahamsen; free at ravelry. http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/karens-mittens-archived

Some wrist warmers and gloves…

The pattern for the mittens I found here.

This one is a simple triangular crocheted shawl, made out of stocking wool. I love that – its length is appr. 60”… in my childhood I loved watching “Our little house in the prairie” series – it reminds me on it.

This one is a very spontaneous work… a kind of collar – knitted out of grey wool, lined with fleece fabric and with multicoloured crocheted small bobbles out of 6ply socksyarn.

A simple woolen collar or shoulder warmer:

This was my first lace scarf – “Kiri”, the pattern is free and can be found here at Ravelry in several languages.

A crocheted scarf with matching knitted wrist warmers.

I really love that one – my “Mosaic-Cowl”, completely out of the smallest leftovers from 6ply socksyarn, lined with fleece fabric.

Very fast one evening project… festive cowl with matching hat.

Here my daughter is showing a nice fair isle knitted hat – the pattern’s name is “Selbu Modern” and it is free to download here.

An easy pattern I really love – can’t count how often I knitted it – is “Pimpelliese”, available for free at Ravelry: “Pimpelliese” by Spinning Martha. It is a 1-yarnball-project. While knitting you have to to weigh the yarn on the scales – you start at one corner and increase, if the half weight of yarnball is knittet you decrease and end with the other corner. And the nice border is directly knitted within the process. It is originally created for 4ply yarn (then it is a very pretty small shawl, out of cotton even for summer) – but I love to knit it with wool too – here are two out of thick yarn:

Next is the “Revontuli” shawl – a very easy and fast project from the Finnish blogger Anne. You’ll find the pattern for free on her blog or for free download at Ravelry.

Another lace project was a nice small asymmetric shawl – Lazy Katy. The pattern is just for sale, available on ravelry – Lazy Katy Pattern by Birgit Freyer. And yes – where is wool, there’s a cat!

Another pattern of Birgit Freyer is “Wave Of Color” – a moebius cowl. It is available in several languages at Ravelry – but not for free.

Beside knitting and crocheting I love felting very much (… yes, I’m crazy about wool! 🙂 ) Last year I felted a shawl with matching wrist warmers with natural wool curls:

felted collar with sheep curls

felted collar & wrist warmer

felted collar other side & wrist warmer

It is a pitty that I can not knit a lot anymore – if I knit an hour, I can feel it for a hole week!

But still I am crazy about wool!

I wish you all a Happy New Year – especially health and the ability to persue your beloved hobbies!

DEUTSCH –> (more…)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I hope you all have a very happy Merry Christmas…

I sewed a last minute project, “peppermint candy table topper” from a free pattern I found here… I quilted it stiching in the ditch and the peppermind-candy-windmills free motion with Holly leaves and berries (I did it in a continous line and used two designs – if you are interested you’ll find it here).

And although it was actually too late… I couldn’t resist trying that Christmas cake recipe by Kate from talltalesfromchiconia… and suppose I can’t resist eating it all either!

knettycraft

my creative journey

tutorial

Easter is Knocking on the Door!

Scrap Happy December

“October Sky” – Pattern Testing for Esther from Ipatchandquilt

Snoopy Cushion Cover – pictural tutorial

Rag Quilt – update

Sewing a Rag Quilt

A Friday Finish!

GYB-Party-Giveaway… Winner

Winter… time for woolen accessories

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

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