Thursday, October 18, 2012

Christmas Bunting Ornament

This is the third year I'm participating in the Trim the Tree Ornament Swap on flickr, and the first year that I'm not scrambling at the end to finish!

I really adore the little embroidery hoop ornaments, and wanted to try for myself. I made one. It came out cute. Katie approved. So I made more, and decided to do a little tutorial for you.




 First, the fabric. I chose 3 greens and three reds. Make sure they're a small scale print.


I cut approximately 3 " sections and fused them to some heat n bond.


 Cut strips of fused fabric 3/4" wide. I only used one strip of green and one of red to make 6 ornaments. Free hand cut the bunting triangles (approximately a 60 degree angle ~ I tried using a ruler and rotary cutter. Scissors is much easier!)


You'll also need some background fabric. I used osnaburg. Linen would be great. I fused some light weight interfacing to the back for a little stability. And the hoops! These are 3" hoops. I picked them up at JoAnns. They came in bundles of three.


 With a pencil, lightly trace around the outer circle. This will help you keep everything contained!


 


 With a water soluble pen, freehand draw a little "swag". This will be your registration line to place your bunting.



 Fuse your triangles, following the line you just drew.


 Stitch in place. I shortened my stitch length to 1.8. Start with the triangles, then pivot and stitch the top to connect them. Pull loose thread to the back.



 Now, the scary part. Switch to your free motion foot and free motion embroider the word JOY. (Take a few practice runs. It's not that hard!) Or, if you'd like, you could embroider something here. Maybe stamp it. For me, much quicker to use my machine!


Cut out ornaments, a bit outside of the drawn pencil line, and fit into hoops.



See that little bump at the top of the ornament? Put a dab of hot glue in there and mash it down.
Tighten up your screws.


Trim off any bits sticking out. I used a razor blade. Some small, sharp snips will do.


Cut pieces of felt a bit larger than the hoops. Hot glue to the back then trim excess.


Add a ribbon and you're done!


Happy Joyous Holidays!

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Challenging

October is Anniversary month for The Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild! A few years ago, knowing I was going to move to Baltimore soon, I joined the DC Modern Quilt Guild (there wasn't a Baltimore chapter at the time.) I didn't understand at the time that for Baltimore drivers, the "45 minutes to an hour" it takes to get to DC is really more like 2 hours. I never made it to a meeting. But, to share a favorite quote of mine by Geri Weitzman: sometimes you gotta create what you want to be a part of. And so I did. I created the Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild. (and by "create", I mean I put a tiny message out there on flickr and put together a free website with webs.com .) I was so excited when, in less that two hours, there was another member! (Hi Jenn!) We were on our way.

That was two years ago. We've come a long way. We now have over 80 members. We've done bees, round robins, swaps, boms, charity projects, parties, picnics, and are getting ready to host our first guest speaker, Jay McCarroll! (If you're in the area and want to join us in November, send me an email!)

For our anniversary, our Vice Presidents of fun stuff, Maria and Daniella, chose a challenge fabric. Our job: use some, or all of it to make a pillow. This is the fabric they chose:


 At least, this is what I have left of it. And at first, let's just say I didn't love it. But, to quote another wise person, if you don't like your fabric, you haven't cut it small enough! (good advice from my friend Tonya)

So, I cut it up into small dresden blades and made this: Kind of fun, right?



We'll share these at our meeting next week. And we have a choice: we can either keep our own pillow, or swap it for another. Not sure which way I'm going on this one yet. I have a feeling I'll keep it. But...

Monday, October 1, 2012

Swoon and mini swoon

Well, I only got one swoon done over the weekend (my boy came home for a visit, so that trumps sewing time!)



I did, however, sew up a couple of mini swoons. The pattern has quite a few large-ish flying geese, which makes for some nice leftover triangles. I sewed these up into smaller blocks. So, ideally, when my big swoon is finished, I'll have a mini swoon wall hanging as well.



I also got some bee block finished, both for Bee Vintage.

Jodie asked for a string block. I love how this worked up. It's a large block, 16". I could definitely see it as a pillow (maybe even a bit bigger at 20".)




Colleen asked for a zig zag. They're subtle, but there!



Can't believe it's the final month of the bee. We went with a 6 month format this time, which I much prefer. I hope to start another round in January.