Appliqué is a fun way to express yourself with fabric. Learn How to Applique Like a Pro by following these easy steps. It's easier than you think.
Learn how to do Trapunto embroidery and quilting
Embroider with you "normal" sewing machine - no need for an expensive, special embroidery machine ^-^
If you been looking to try out hand quilting but don’t know where to start, this is for you! Check out these quilting tutorials for hand quilted…
Applique Patchwork Cats Table Runner makes a great quilt project for your home and also includes full size templates in two sizes.
Never made a quilt as you go block before? This tutorial will show you all about quilting as you go method - easy and for beginners!
Learn how to do a stitch known as the hidden slip stitch, which is the perfect stitch to use when sewing bindings or doing hand applique.
Happy New Year! Despite the long pause in postings, I did actually complete a few more sewing projects in 2014. January 2014 - Drawstring book bags for Allie and Cate's birthdays February 2014 - Robert Hughes baby quilt (I really need to consider taking a "how to photograph your quilts" workshop:) quilted with stars and spirals May 2014 - Amy Becker's HS graduation lap quilt Amy picked out fabrics at Fabric Depot during her Portland visit, Christmas 2013. I supplemented with a few fabrics I found at The Stitching Post and at Kapaia Stitchery during a trip to Kauai (always looking for an excuse to fabric shop). The blue batik with butterflies was the first fabric Amy chose. Other colors were built around that. quilted with vining flowers and leaves Now Amy has this nice warm lap quilt - perfect for her college years at the University of Arizona in Tucson. She assures me that it does get cold there, especially when the air conditioner is running. November 2014 - New curtains and duvet set for the Sisters house After 20 years, Stefanie and I decided it was time for a change in the upstairs bedroom in our Sisters house. We found some curtain fabric at IKEA (seen below in the medium-sized pillows). After a futile search for a coordinating duvet cover I decided we just needed to make our own. Not as cheap, but so much more fun! On the bed in Anna's old room at our house (tempted to keep it here, but...) Had to add a border piece as it was just a bit too small. Found a fun coordinating fabric at The Stitching' Post. Shams and throw pillows. The quilting in the shams mimics the print in the curtain fabric. All set up in its new home. On to 2015... January 2015 - Jeanne's lap quilt This quilt was made for my good friend and fellow swimmer, Jeanne. She will be out of the water for a bit, recuperating from surgery, so of course this called for a quilt! My daughter, Anna, suggested the colors - perfect for a swimmer. Another swimmer friend, Jenn, joined me for a shopping trip to Fabric Depot and also helped with part of the sewing. Sandi and Jeanne The design incorporates over 60 small blocks with names of some of Jeanne's friends. Next Up???? cityscape art quilt based on a photo of Roussillon, France art quilt based on our Croatia travels last September flower/plant themed art quilt for the Hardy Plant Society Hortlandia Plant Sale in April hopefully taking Hilde Morin's Bowl Art class
If you're a quilter , you know the pain of having a huge fabric scrap pile and nothing to do
A great how to for beginning sewers who want to learn how to applique using their sewing machine! Check out the step by step instructions. Pictures included!
If you been looking to try out hand quilting but don’t know where to start, this is for you! Check out these quilting tutorials for hand quilted…
Creative Play Challenge No. 2 – Nature/Organic; Kawandi Style Quilt
I actually really LOVE the art of appliqué! Even though I don't use it that much (practically never) but I do love seeing others' works on the Internet and appreciate the artistry so much :) My October project that I've mentioned earlier in this post is also appliqué-friendly and, personally, I'm going to experiment a little in this field! So I thought if anyone wants to try the same I should tell a bit more about the methods of applique in advance. Method 1 So, the first thing you should remember is that the majority of fabrics tend to fray on the edge. And because of this, if you just simply baste a cutout to the ground fabric, eventually it will fray quite a lot even if at first it doesn't look like it. However, sometimes this kind of ragged and frazzled edge might be the desired effect! Especially, for enthusiasts of rustic style. In such cases, this method is what you need. And, basically, all you need to do is just work back stitch along the whole shape, stepping a little away from the edge. Make your stitches rather small so that all of the fibers are secured. I'm using quilting cotton in this example and it doesn't really fray that much – I frayed it myself for this picture as well as I could. However, if you use linen, for example, it is likely to fray a lot easier and the fibers might pull apart right in front of the stitches. In this case, your back stitching should be even smaller. Method 2 If you don't want the edges to fray, you can work buttonhole (blanket) stitch around the shape. You can work it more densely, of course, like I did in one of the examples in this post. By the way, I'm using a thread of contrasting color for all of the appliqué methods in this article to make it more clear. Naturally, you can use thread of a color similar to the appliqué cutout if you don't want it to stand out too much. Ah, and this method is commonly used in felt applique! Method 3 Now, if you don't want any fraying to take place but also don't want to work a border of buttonhole stitch around it, you can use a fusible interfacing! :) Instructions are easy: 1) cut a piece of interfacing material equal to the piece of fabric you want to apply it too, 2) interfacing material has two sides, one of which is adhesive. Put the interfacing piece with the adhesive side up, and lay the fabric piece on top of it, with its backside down and face up. In conclusion, the adhesive side should be next to the backside of the fabric. 3) iron it thoroughly (settings of heat are according to the type of fabric) staying for several seconds in one place. When you have applied interfacing with the fabric, cut the shape out of it. The thing is, the fibers are now glued from underneath so they are going to hold together and are very unlikely to fray. It is almost like paper. Well, unless you expose it some rough tugging like in a washing machine or if you use it on everyday clothes So, what you will do now will depend on your artistic choice. If you want it to look raw like it is, you can baste it down with tiny running stitches of similar color. Or you can use any decorative stitch, you can find many on the Stitch Library. I used french knots here :) Method 4 This one is likely to look a bit more dimensional, but there is like 0 chances for any fraying to happen. And again, we need interfacing material (it will give a certain advantage but actually you can use another fabric, I will mention it below). BUT we need to put fabric and interfacing material in a different manner now! So, what we do is we put fabric face up, and then we lay interfacing material with adhesive side down. So, the face of the fabric and the adhesive side are supposed to be looking at each other. Then you can draw the shape down and backs titch along the edge. Cut the shape out with a seam allowance and cut a slit in the interfacing material. The turn it out. Now you have a shape like this – face of the fabric up and adhesive side down. You can now place it where you need on the ground fabric and iron it down. If you want to secure it even better, you can stitch a border of buttonhole stitch again, or baste it down in any other way. Or you can work invisible stitch like I did in this example. Like I mentioned, this method can be used with a different fabric instead of interfacing material. Just skip the ironing part and baste the piece down in the way you prefer the most :) So, here are 4 methods for your fabric appliqué! As for me, methods 2 and 3 are what I'm more likely to use but in the end, it all depends on the situation. Hope you find the method you of your liking too and try some appliqué in your next project! :)
There's an imminent new arrival in our extended family, so it's time for me to get working on another version of my baby beach scenes. Simon suggested I incorporate surfing since the father is a keen surfer. That was the starting point for my designing, anyway. I ended up with this row of (potentially surfable?!) waves which will go across the top of the reef/water section, and I started by piecing them. I divided the waves into organic shapes, much like those I used in the much larger Australian scene and space quilts, which I could then piece from different colour water fabrics. The first step was to trace these onto mid-weight non-woven interfacing and mark some registration points along the curved seams to help piece thems evenly, then cut the pieces apart. After carefully selecting the fabrics to use for each piece (colour, and a smooth gradation was the main consideration)I placed the interfacing patter piece directly on the fabric and drew around it with a air-erasable marker, adding the 1/4in seam allowance by eye as I went. I then added the registration marks and the piece number with a fine-tip permanent pen before cutting it out. I've saved all the interfacing pieces in case I want to do the waves again. Then I pinned all the pieces in place on my pattern and checked I was happy with my fabric choices. Then it was just a case of gradually sewing them all together, carefully easing the curves. The wave section is all done now and will be pieced to the top of the reef/water section once that's done (the bottom is straight-ish).
Learn how to use baking paper as an aid for your free-motion quilting. Tutorial includes instructions on how to quilt a stylised flower motif suitable for square blocks. Free downloadable template provided.
In May 2011 my wonderfully creative mother died at the age of 85. Her death was unexpected but not surprising - nonetheless, it still left a void in my sewing spirit. Several trips, alone, driving back and forth between Michigan and New York gave me a lot of time to process and think. When I returned from the funeral, I also returned to my empty sewing studio. The only problem was that I was not ready to be around a lot of people. I wanted to play. I didn't want to work. I put things on hold and did the bare minimum of business-related tasks. For a while, I mustered up the energy to cut a bunch of quilt blocks, then I decided it was time to laugh. I had ordered a copy of Amy Bradley's Quilters Yearbook and loved the funny caricatures but had never got around to doing anything with it. So I got out the book and started working on moi. I took some liberties with the pattern and directions - OK, I didn't quite fit the templates provided in the book! I had to cut some hair! Plus, I wanted it to be more "pop-arty" and highlighted with free-motion stitching and thread painting. I also wanted to wrap it around an artist canvas rather than bind it. I picked my two favorite colors and got to work, editing and trimming along the way. I laid it out and started fusing. I was totally making it up as I went. I really had no plan. I just cut and cut...and fused. Once I was happy, I accented the design with thread. And added some eyebrows! Then I started working on my mom's caricature. Trademark turtleneck, necklace, big glasses, and monochromatic ...that's my mom...everything matched. When I posted this picture on Facebook, my brother commented, "I knew exactly who that was!" So it's rather appropriate that the necklace I have from my mom's extensive collection is the exact one shown on the portrait! This now hangs in my office at work and reminds me to find my quiet creative spirit!
Check out these picture quilt patterns and projects from the Bluprint community to inspire you to plan your first picture quilt.
Here's a delightful DIY tutorial. Learn how to applique a pillow! Use a custom message, a favorite word, or a monogram.
This simple step HST scrap trick will save you time in the sewing/quilting process and make your HST scraps a breeze! Quilt faster and use up those scraps!
Turn fabric scraps into beautiful quilted flowers with a sew-and-flip piecing technique easy enough for beginning quilters to master. Tutorial from NewQuilters.com. #easyquiltblocks #foundationpiecing #rosequiltblock #quiltingforbeginners
Have fun making a tea cozy in your favorite fabrics. Add in some appliqué to make it unique. Download this free sewing pattern today.
Here is how I turned a photo into a pattern: Pick a photo of your choice. School photos work very well as the lighting is good and the face is usually without shadows Use any photo editing software of your choice. There are lots of free software available online. I use Picnik. Use the posterize function to get this effect. Play around with the colours until you are happy. I settled on 10 colours. Save the posterized picture and go to the Pencil Sketch function. Without any further editing I got this result. Play around until you are happy with the amount of lines and the clarity of the picture. You can use the picture as is, or further simplify it by hand. I printed the previous picture and traced it against the window (you can use a light table if you are more sophisticated than me!). Here you can make it as simple or as complicated as you wish. I scanned this version into my computer and printed it on to a wash-away stabilizer. And Voila! A perfect embroidery pattern. A friendly request: This is a picture of my son. I used it to demonstrate the process. Please feel free to link to this tutorial, but please do not re-post this whole post with pictures to your blog. If you need one picture to illustrate the post, use one of the sketches. Thank you.
Learn how to make a wholecloth quilt with this step-by-step photo tutorial that includes tips for Kantha-style stitching!
Also known as: bullion stitch, caterpillar stitch, coil stitch, knot stitch, post stitch, worm stitch, Puerto Rico rose, grub knot This is an interesting stitch used to make simple motifs. I would say that this is an ‘elongated’ knot which can be...
I love the look of Flying Geese Quilts and here are 15 inspiration projects to get you making a flying geese quilt of your own!
Want to wow everyone with your applique then check out how to create interesting fabric for applique pieces - tutorials
How to Design a Simple Art Quilt. Create an image and make it into an Art Quilt. Fabric scrap and fusible web will make it simple and quick
The horse is a recurring theme among quilters. It represents freedom, beauty, and power. I wanted to pay tribute to the life force of this animal in a simple representation, made of natural colors, suitable for adventurous beginners. This meticulously crafted pattern features vibrant hues from the Robert Kaufman Kona C
You can use a regular sewing machine to add embroidery to garments. Learn how with this tutorial.
Learn how to make a puff quilt. Sew a bubble quilt with this puff quilt tutorial and pattern! Easy tutorial for a colorful quilt
Quilt Making Tutorials Articles and Tutorials for making quilts, from designing, cutting, piecing, and quilting.
Learn to do Needle turn appliqué,a hand sewing technique used in quilting and fabric crafts to attach fabric shapes to a background fabric while hiding the stitches for a clean and seamless appearance.
Jazz up your next sewing project with reverse applique. Learn how to cut a freezer paper stencil for reverse applique + how to do applique by hand, machine.
How to do reverse applique by hand sewing as well as with your sewing machine very easily
Learn this simple method of fabric letter applique without using iron-on-adhesive or fusible web! Includes fabric letter patterns!
What is free motion embroidery? How long has it been around? What can you do with it? How can you get started? Read more here!
Appliqué is a fun way to express yourself with fabric. Learn How to Applique Like a Pro by following these easy steps. It's easier than you think.
