STARTING A NEW PROJECT

Today I'm starting a wall hanging for my daughter. She selected the pattern, a Pat Sloan applique. The finished quilt will hang on a quilt hanger that my oldest son made for her the one year we drew names and required home-made gifts for Christmas. She was one of the lucky ones, receiving a lovely hand-made quilt rack. Don't ask me why we no longer require home-made, LOL!

Since I took the Process Pledge (see the left of my blog) I decided to make a tutorial of how I do fusible applique. It's probably a combination of many ways. I've just selected and kept what works for me through the years. I'm no expert. Just offering what works for me, and isn't it nice we have choices???

These are the fabrics I'll be selecting from. Except for that bright green. I'm not sure how she jumped into this picture--shameless show off! The center fabric is the focus, and will be the flower pot and the wide border. The other colors I drew from that. My friend Carol found the focus and helped me pick the others. She said that if DD doesn't like the end result, she'll take it, LOL!



First things first. Today I'm tracing the patterns onto Lite Steam-a-Seam2. It's my favorite fusible. You can put the appliques in place and sick them down, but still pick them up and move them if you decide you want/need to (almost like moving a sticky note). It's the lightest version, and doesn't gum your needle. My pattern is symmetrical, so there's no need to reverse them. But if you want your pattern to face the same way as pictured, generally you need to reverse them for fusible applique (like if you want the bird facing as shown and not the opposite, etc.).



I cut them out about 1/4" outside the drawn line. It doesn't have to be exact or anything. Just cut. Then I'm removing most of the interior. The centers don't need to be fused, and even though I'm using a light stabilizer, the fabric will be less stiff with the center gone. This too is cut at about 1/4" inside the line, but not exact, and where the pieces are tiny, I just leave it.



Stay tuned for the next steps.

CRISS-CROSS COASTERS ANOTHER WAY

As promised, here are the directions for making the Criss-Cross Coasters another way -- with triangles. Again, I used a Moda charm pack. This time it's Hoopla. I was looking for something bright and springy, with lots of contrast.

It takes 6 charms to make one coaster, so a charm pack makes 6 coasters with 6 charms left over.

Decide which charms you want for focus -- the triangles. Put them into 6 sets of 4, with lots of contrast within each set.

You will need 2 charms to form the base of your coaster. Place these wrong sides together. Lay it on your work surface for your base. The one toward the table will hardly be seen, if at all, and the one facing up will end up being the back of your coaster.

Fold your charm squares in half, wrong sides together, point-to-point, forming a right triangle. I pressed mine to keep that fold nice.

Lay your first folded triangle on the stack keeping the raw edges together, and the fold to the center.

Place the right angle of the your second triangle on the next corner. Always keep the folded edge, the hypotenuse, toward the center, and the raw edges even on the outside of the square base.

Lay the third triangle like so......

Lay your fourth triangle down in the same manner, but as you do...........

flip half of the first triangle over the fourth one.

This is what your stacked set should look like at this point.

Stitch all around, pivoting at the corners.

Trim the corners to reduce bulk.

Stick your thumb in the center to turn it right side out.

And voila! Your finished coaster. Easy - peasey!

Have fun making these!

BLIND QUILTER

WOW! That's all I can say about this amazing woman. She is blind, and she is a quilter. She has an amazing spirit. This is a

YouTube

well worth watching.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lfaSmDxVZQ
Whatever point you are at in your life today, this will inspire you.

HEARTS DESIRE LAUNCHES TODAY

One of my favorite designers, Esther Aliu, is launching a new BOM today. The blocks are free for one month. She has a Yahoo Group for members working on her BOMs that you can access here. She also posts regularly on her blog, which you will find in my 'blogs I follow' list, scroll down on the left.

Esther's patterns are wonderful. You may be familiar with her Cherry Thieves, Red Delicous, 12 Days of Christmas, or other of her works.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY EVERYONE!

AND THE WINNER IS.....................................

Three gals emailed me with the correct answer: Boutique, by Chez Moi, for Moda. I numbered them in order received. 1. Carmela, 2. Tiffany, 3. Angela.

The random number generator is ready to play.

The winner is #1.

What? #1 never wins anything, yet I've seen it happen twice in the past week. Carmela, your prize will go out today. Thanks to everyone for playing along.

AND THE PRIZE WILL BE.............

 

Aha. Finally got to the LQS and picked up the prize for my little contest. The prize will be 1/2 yard of this yummy fabric, as well as this nifty sewing kit.

So, don't forget to enter. You just need to email me with the name of the fabric line I used to make my criss-cross coasters, to be entered in my drawing which will be held tomorrow, Monday. It's a charm pack from a current fabric line, and so far I have 3 correct responses, so the odds of winning are really high. Hope you'll play along.

CRISS CROSS COASTER TUTORIAL

As promised here's my tutorial for making criss-cross coasters. You will need one charm pack to make a set of 6 and have 6 left over to make whatever you choose.

Divide your charms into sets of 6 with good contrast in each set. It takes 6 charms to make one coaster and you want that contrast so your criss-cross shows.

Place two charms wrong sides together. Lay them on your work surface to form the base of your coaster. Note that the one facing up will end up being the back of your coaster, and the other one will barely be seen, if at all.

Fold the other 4 charms wrong sides together. These will be referred to as fc's -- folded charms.

Lay your first folded charm (fc) on the base, keeping the raw edges together and the fold will be at the center of the base.

Lay your 2nd fc on as shown. Always keep the folded edge to the center and the raw edges together at the outside.

Continue with the 3rd fc in the same manner.

Likewise lay the 4th fc on the stack.

Flip up the first fc to cover half of the 4th fc.

This is what your stack should look like. The base is there, but can't be seen.

Stitch through all layers all around the outside edge with a 1/4" seam, pivoting at the corners.

This is how it should look after sewing all layers together with that one seam.

Trim the corners to reduce bulk.

Stick your thumb in the center and....

Turn it right side out, and voila! You have it!



Here's a link to another version made from 4.5" squares and using batting in the bottom layer. There are 6 layers of fabric anyway, so I don't think the batting is needed, but it's nice to have options, isn't it? And if you find my directions clear as mud, these are pretty clear and pretty much the same thing. Just smaller and with batting.

There's another way to fold your charms to get another look with these. I'll post that soon.

Remember, I have a contest going. Can you recognize the fabric line my charm pack was from? It's a current line. I just bought it last Sat. If you know, drop me an email at nana.quilts@gmail.com with your guess, and I'll enter the correct answers into a random generator next Mon. to select a winner of a small but nice prize.