Slumber Party Quiet Book Page Tutorial for Riley Blake Cutting Corners

I did a tutorial for Riley Blake Cutting Corners: The Slumber Party Quiet Book Page. It's super cute, and made with flannel! I hope you like it!

Fabric Covered Pumpkins

What do you say we put an end to carving pumpkins once and for all! Let's cover them in fabric! Really cute fabric!

Watch my video tutorial made for Riley Blake Designs to see how it's done. You won't believe how easy it is!

 

No-Sew Silhouette Fabric Picture - Video Tutorial

Julia just finished a video tutorial for Riley Blake that I'm sure you'll love! It's a no-sew silhouette fabric picture. She gives a step-by-step demonstration with many helpful tips. I love the versatility of this project. The possibilities really are endless. 

To see more Riley Blake video tutorials, visit their website: http://www.rileyblakedesigns.com/how-to-videos-new/

Fast Quilt Tutorial,Confession, and Giveaway!

Hello, there! Today we’re going to learn how to make the FAST! Centered Strips Quilt Top...then I’ll confess something...then we’ll have a giveaway.

Materials Needed:

• Twenty-one 2.5” strips of fabric
• Two pieces of coordinating fabric that measure approx. 13” x 60”. It’s best to wait to cut them until you are ready to sew them on. Then you can do exact measurements.
• 3.5 yards jumbo ric rac
• Coordinating thread

About this Quilt:

The inspiration for the center portion of this quilt is from the Heirloom Creations Jelly Roll 1600 quilt.

[photo courtesy of heirloomcreations.net] - Two Jelly Roll 1600 Quilts using the same jelly roll

They use 40 strips and end up with a full quilt top. However, our tutorial only uses 21 strips and ends up with a narrower piece. Then we add the two side pieces and the ric rac, and there you have it! 

Instructions:

Heirloom Creations provides instructions and a video to explain their technique. I highly recommend reading/viewing those first, before doing Steps 1, 2, 3.
Use ¼ inch seams.
STEP 1: Sew the strips together diagonally (like you do with binding) to get one really long strip. 

STEP 2: Cut off 18” of the really long strip and discard it. 
STEP 3: Take one end of the strip, line it up with the other end of the strip, and sew a seam along the entire long side. You will end up with a strip that is 1/2 as long as the original strip. The two are still attached at the bottom, so you’ll need to cut them apart. Now line up the top end with the bottom end, and sew along the entire long side. Repeat these steps until you have a piece that is approximately 26” x 60”. This is your quilt center piece. Press the seams open.

STEP 4: Side pieces. The width of each side piece is 13”. Measure the length of the quilt center piece, and cut the two side pieces to fit. You may want to leave an extra inch or two and trim it after sewing. Sew the two side pieces to the center piece.

STEP 5: Sew the ric rac on.

Your FAST! Centered Strips Quilt Top is done.

Now for the confession...

I set out to make the full Jelly Roll 1600 quilt. I didn't read the instructions carefully, so I didn't realize I needed 40 strips. The Rolie Polie (Riley Blake's version of the Jelly Roll) I used only had 21 strips, and it was too late before I discovered my error. After frantic phone calls with a couple quilter friends – THANKS LADIES! – I worked out a solution. So this really should be called the "Sara Doesn't Read Instructions Carefully Quilt."

Now for the giveaway… (the giveaway is closed)

I am giving away this beautiful Rolie Polie from Riley Blake’s Pieces of Hope fabric collection. It is the same one I used to make the center portion of this quilt.

There are three ways to enter, which means each person can enter at most three times.

• Leave a comment. Just say hi...or tell us about a quilting mess-up you have experienced. I’m sure I’m not the only one, right?!?

• Visit Arcadia Cotton, then leave a comment back here telling us one thing you LOVE.

• Visit Flannel Queen, then leave a comment back here telling us one thing you LOVE.

Shipping: You must have a US or Canadian address to enter.

Deadline: This giveaway ends Monday night at midnight (Dec 3). The lucky winner will be announced on Tuesday morning! Good Luck!

More Owls!

I seriously love this free owl pattern!

 

I posted about this cute little guy 2 weeks ago, and now I have more to share!

  

I whipped up several more owls, but sadly only got a picture of these to show you.

 

This Hot Pink and Navy owl was shipped off to my high school friend, whose wife is expecting a baby.  To make this owl a little more 'girly' I cut out little eyelashes in the hot pink felt backing of the eyes.  

 And I was just dying for an excuse to use Riley Blake's new Rainbow Dot fabric, which is how this owl came into being.

Again, thank you to Emily for the sharing your tutorial with us!

Owl Tutorial

Fabrics:

Riley Blake Black Medium Chevron

Michael Miller Zap

Riley Blake Hot Pink Medium Chevron

Children at Play Navy Dot to Dot

Riley Blake Medium Rainbow Dots

Riley Blake Small Red Dots 

What to Give Baby #4?

My brother and his wife recently welcomed baby #4 to their family - a beautiful baby boy!  The question for me became "what do I give when they're already stocked with clothes, blankets and all other baby fixins"? 

That's when a came across a tutorial for this adorable little owl.  Bingo!  

However, I couldn't send this little guy off alone.

So I found a tutorial for this cute little pair of matching shoes to go with it!

Baby Lucas has siblings who are crazy about super heroes, so I used Michael Miller's Zap fabric for the top of the shoes and for the back of this cute little owl.

I varied from the original owl tutorial just a little by adding three layers to the eyes instead of two.  I also left out the little felt feet because I thought they would get worn out too quickly.  And lastly, I sewed up a small muslin pouch filled with rice and lavender, and inserted it into the base of the owl to give him weight and to add a nice, soothing scent.

And this was only the beginning....

I couldn't just sew up one pair of those adorable little shoes, especially when they make such good use of all those little scraps I can't throw away....

Ahhhh!  So darn cute!  If I didn't have more pressing projects to be working on, I might have gone on sewing these little guys forever!

Be sure to check out these fabulous tutorials and thank you to all of the wonderful bloggers out there who generously share their talents with complete strangers.  Gracias!

 

Owl Tutorial by Emily at Ashby Family Blog

Baby Shoes Tutorial by Joanna at Stardust Shoes

Fabrics:

Riley Blake Black Medium Chevron

Riley Blake Red Dots

Michael Miller Zap

Michael Miller Red Lunch Box

Riley Blake Hot Pink Medium Chevron

Michael Miller Thar She Blows

Children at Play Navy Dot to Dot 

Seaside Blue Bikini

Fly a Kite Orange Floral

Dress Up Days Grape Chevron

Michael Miller Spa Scallop

Riley Blake Gray Medium Dots

Children at Play Coral Dot to Dot

Pincushion Ring Tutorial

I am guest blogging today over at Riley Blake Designs, where I am teaching you how to make this super cute, super easy, super quick Pincushion Ring.  

This is the perfect project for all those scraps you've been hanging on to.  Stop on over to see how it's done!

 

Dish Towels Made Pretty

Take a plain, ordinary dish towel and make it pretty! 

The possibilities are endless with these embellished dish towels. The first style has a nice finished look with the fabric band along the bottom of the towel, topped with ric rac trim. The second style is more casual and fun with a raw-edged ruffle. This project is a great way to use up scraps!

You will need plain dish towels to start with. I used flour sack dish towels from Walmart.

For the fabric band style, you will need 5" strips of fabric (the width needs to be 1" longer than the width of your dish towel). You will also need rick rack.

For the ruffle style, you will need 2" strips of fabric. I used 2 strips of fabric per ruffle. The number of strips you use depends on the amount of bunching you do as well as the width of the dish towel.

Step 1: Iron the dish towels. If you use the flour sack dish towels, you will need to use a lot of steam. They are soooo wrinkled! This was the most time-consuming part of the project for me.

Step 2: Let's do the fabric band style dish towel first. Take your 5" strip of fabric and iron each side under about 1/2 inch. You will need to trim the length to fit your dish towel.

Step 2: iron under edges

Step 3: Top stitch the band of fabric to the top of your dish towel. Since you ironed all edges under, there is no turning involved. 

Step 3: stitch band to front of towel

Step 4: Sew the ric rac on. Be sure to tuck the ends under. 

Step 4: Sew on ric rac

You're done! 

Now for the ruffle dish towel...

Step 5: Decide where you want the ruffle to go on your towel. My bottom ruffle was about 2" from the bottom of the dish towel. 

Step 6: Lay the fabric strip on your towel where you want it to go. Tuck under the end where you are going to start sewing. 

Step 6: Lay fabric strip down and tuck under end

Step 7: Slowly stitch down the center of the strip. Create the ruffle by bunching up the fabric as you go. If you run out of fabric, simply tuck under the end, add a new strip, and keep sewing. It will just look like more ruffle. Stop when you get about an inch from the end of the towel. Trim the excess strip, tuck under the end, and finish sewing the ruffle.

Step 7: Stitch ruffle, bunching fabric as you go

Step 8: If you want a second ruffle, lay the strip right next to the first ruffle and sew just like the first one.

Step 8: Add second ruffle

Step 9: Run the ruffled towels through the dryer to make the strings come loose on the raw edges. Trim the strings.

Now you have beautiful dish towels!

Stacking Circles Fabric Flower Tutorial

I made this cute skirt the other day. I used the Pink Fig Stripwork Skirt pattern and fabrics from the Riley Blake Sublime and Rainy Days collections. When it was done, I decided it needed a fabric flower. So I added one!

Stacking Circles Fabric Flower Tutorial:

You will need: thread, needle, button, and 4 fabric circles. I free-handed the circles. They don't need to be perfect. Each circle should get progressively smaller so you can see all of them when you stack them.

Step 1: Take one of the circles. Fold it in half (right sides together), and fold it in half again. It will now be a 1/4 circle.

Step 2: Stitch a line (a few stitches) just above the tip of the 1/4 circle. This will make the circle pucker when opened.

This is what the circles will look like when opened.

Step 3: Stack the circles. Sitch one stitch through the middle to hold it all together.

Step 4: Now stitch the button onto the flower. You're done! The edges aren't finished, so they will fray naturally.

These flowers can be added to clothing, home decor (pillows would be really fun), hair accessories...

Have fun with them! I'd love to see your Stacked Circle Fabric Flowers.