To Make A Pillowcase

We're having a fun swap in BAMQ, a Pillow Fight! People were paired up and they got to decide on which type of pillow or pillow case to make for each other and to talk about which sort of colors they wanted too. It is really nice to have more information like this so that it's more likely your recipient will be more likely to actually like and use the thing you end up making for them. Hopefully my swap partner will 

enjoy these fabric selections.

I used these directions to make a double banded pillowcase with French Seams so that there's no raw edges to worry about when you're done. Unfortunately the ads on that website are super intrusive, so be warned.

You cut WOF pieces, 27" for the body, 10" for the cuff, 2.5" for the band. Press the 2.5" band piece in half lengthwise, wrong sides together. 

Stack the fabrics in this order, all right-side up, aligning the raw edges. First the Cuff fabric, then the Body Fabric, and then the folded Band piece.  You roll up the Body fabric towards the raw edge. as seen here. I temporarily pinned this here before the next step.

This is probably the weirdest part to wrap your mind around, after you've rolled up the body fabric you fold up the other edge of the Cuff fabric (right sides together) and align that raw edge with all the others. 

Note: Only one of the raw edges of the Body will be in this first seam that you sew, the other is in the rolled-up part. (that was the part that boggled me for a bit).

I moved all the pins I'd previously used to pin this final sandwich roll together. Pin together all those aligned raw edges and then sew a 1/4" seam along this long WOF raw edge.

It's a whole lot of layers, just make sure you're not catching the rolled-up Body fabric that's in the middle of the sandwich roll as you sew.

It's looks like a little taco/burrito kind of thing, all sewed up along one edge.

Then you get to turn it all right side out and see if you got the fabric stack ordered correctly.

All Very Wrinkly of course, but the whole thing needs pressing now anyways. Make sure you press the Band seam first before doing the top folded over edge of the Cuff. With wrong sides together, align the raw edge and along the bottom, press the whole thing in half.

That looks much better after a little pressing. The raw edges need some trimming before proceeding.

That's better.

With right-sides together, sew a 1/4" seam starting at the top of the Cuff, and turning the corner to sew along the bottom edge.

Trim those two corners before turning the whole thing wrong side out and then pushing the corners out so they're nice and flat.

Big Reminder Here: Switch over to a 1/2" seam allowance for this last step. Be sure to check your seam width on some scraps before you start sewing & change your foot if you were using a 1/4" one before.Sew down the side and bottom with, a very nice 1/2" which contains the raw edges (aka French Seam). Turn the pillow case right side out and do a final press.And there's one of my pillowcases, all done, now to go get the second one done.And here's the two gorgeous pillowcases I got from the swap from friend Amy.

Snuffle Mat

 

At the BAMQ December meeting/Sew Day, we had a swap which I hadn't managed to make anything for. It was fun to watch even though I wasn't participating. There ended up being one thing left by one of our new members, Eleanor. She was so sweet to gift me with it. It's called a Snuffle Mat. This is for a dog, you hide treats in the flappy pieces of fleece, flannel and other fabric. Then they snuffle around and "hunt" for the treats. Meg loved it. She was done so fast I didn't have time to take a picture!

I had to flip it over to see how it was put together. It's such a great re-use of jeans. The whole thing is easily washed as well. Here's a video on how to make a different type of snuffle mat.

A Pincushion

 I don't know why, but making a pincushion for the BAM swap became a Big Deal. I was really stuck for a while for a million reasons. But I eventually chose a simple pattern to use, Noodlehead's free Wagon Wheel complete with an assembly tutorial. The next sticking point was choosing fabrics.

I was stuck there for a while, but eventually I settled on these fabrics.

Very simple piecing for the top, then a bottom and a side band.

The provided template with the pattern.

I think it's pretty straight on. I like the lopsidedness of the beans (eyes).

I used the disappearing marking pen to mark the circle.

I sewed the center band on very slowly as it's a fairly small circle. It went together very easily.

I used un-dyed wool roving and poly pellets to stuff the pincushion full full full. 

The wool roving compacted down so there were little pockets to fill up.

The bottom highlights a Tula Pink beetle.

All sewn-up, time for a glamour shot or two.

Portrait mode on my phone, I like how it slightly blurs the background. Makes for a good photo. 

I hope it is very happy in its new home!

Fall Leaves Re-Boot

Moving on from the Halloween Houses quilt to the Fall Leaves quilt. These blocks were from a swap I participated in years ago. I hadn't looked at them assembled on the wall in a long time, it is fun to see them all again. Most of the blocks are pieced, some are paper-pieced, some are applique, some have fabric paint. On the left is a border print sample which may or may not be used in the final quilt top. So far this is just a collection of random sized blocks. I need to make some more and I already have a good collection of fall colors to try and unify the whole quilt top. The blocks I'll be trying are the leaf blocks found in Electric Quilt 5. There are a whole lot to choose from, of all sorts, plus there's all the ones you can find online too. And I like drawing leaves, so I'll try and make my own applique leaf pattern. I'm thinking I'll try a bunch of applique versions, as these ones shown here are of the mostly blocky, chunky, not really leafy shaped quilt block versions of leaves. In the end I'd love to end up with something like this community library leaf quilt. An excellent example of how to set together disparate blocks, of various sizes. I already have the flannel that I'll use to back this quilt. Isn't this a weird one? It has some kind of Gold Rush imagery on it, I think that is a man panning for gold. The colors are very California Autumn. I liked how splotchy the colors were, it looked like something I'd paint, plus it was on super duper sale. This is intended to be a cuddle on the couch quilt, so flannel backing will be appreciated.

Black,White and Red All Over Swamp

Looky, some actual sewing has been happening! These are for a swamp (swap) with the QuiltMavs. Black, white and red all over is the theme as you can see. I obviously didn't have a block pattern for most of them, just started cutting and sewing together. I had to buy fabric to participate in this one, black and white prints aren't my usual thing, but they were fun to work with. I really enjoy how the spots of red keep your eyes moving around. This will be a cool quilt once all the blocks come in.

Hand-Printed by Moi

I just finished up participating in a hand-printed fabric swap, hostessed with grand aplomb and dexterity by Bitter Betty. Luckily for me, she was waiting on some other folks besides my late-ass self, and she also lives nearby! Thanks BB!

So I was able to sneak in under the finish line with these woodblock prints on some of my recently finished hand-dyed cotton:




Woodblock printing is harder than rubber stamping on fabric! I obviously need to practice, or change my technique because it was mucho harder than I thought it would be to get a consistent printed image.

I used a fabric printing ink that I bought from Dharma Trading, purple and green were the two colors. It isn't really labeled, but I think it is made by Ranger.

The woodblocks are from two sources, a store called Treasure (who are usually there vending at PIQF) and of all places: Lillian Vernon! The teeny Ganesha, Sacred Feet with Eyes (it must be called something specific) are from Treasure. The floral-ish ones from L.V. I need to figure out how to do this, because it was really fun, I mostly liked how my fabrics turned out, and I have some other woodblocks/batik stamps that are larger that I want to use!

Now to go peek in my package at the goodies I received!

Colour Swapped!

I received this enormously long mysterious box on Saturday from my Create a Connection ,Colour Swap partner, Rosalyn-Sue... she runs Operation Stars & Stripes, a great organization dedicated to supporting US troops. Check them out and see if you can participate.
And just looky what she sent!! A huge roll of purply papers, all different and unique and oh so very usable. One is tie dyed, one is even embroidered, how cool is that?!
And the package there on the right with the bow is a set of purple fibers wrapped around clothespins, what darling packaging, brilliant!
I love the cute little card too, very fiber-riffic Rosalyn-Sue, thanks so much for being such a great swap partner.
Now to go figure out what to use this purple yumminess for, stay tuned....