I’d love your thoughts!

Here is just a small sampling of what I’ve been working on lately, and what I’ve been posting on InstaGram. I am itching to finish most of these projects and I can’t wait to share them with you all here!

Today on the Sizzix blog I share a step by step tutorial on how I assembled these birds after using one of Kid Giddy’s Sizzix dies.

You can see the full post of the Sizzix blog

Check out the Sizzix Blog for more details.

Art Gallery Fabrics reached out to numerous bloggers and asked them to make a project using one of their newest lines as part of Sewing Month! After browsing through their app (yes, they have a fabric app!) I chose Bari J’s newest line Anna Elise and made CT a new, toddler sized quilt to cuddle up with.

Before we start talking about the in’s and out’s of the quilt, let me first state that all of the fabric used in this project was provided courtesy of Art Gallery Fabrics. So this is pretty much a sponsored post. However, I would have still made this quilt on my own dime because it really is so perfect for my daughter. I never work on projects or with companies I don’t already love.

OK, now that that is all out of the way, let’s talk quilting!

The fabrics used in this quilt are not 100% up my taste alley, however they ARE up my daughters! She loves everything dainty and flowery. It’s just an added bonus that bunnies are involved too. She loves bunnies.

I kept all of that in mind when designing the quilt pattern. I still wanted a little of my taste in the mix, because I like the idea of when you look at a quilt, you know I made it. So I decided to basically divide the design in half. Added bonus, it looks like a sunrise over a sea of hexagons!!! The finished dimensions are 45″x60″, a perfect size for a small child to wrap up in and drag around the house.

The bottom half is almost all Bari J’s Anna Elise line, I think it’s only missing two prints? I used Sizzix’s Full Hexagon Die with 5″ sides to perfectly cut out all the pieces, and pieced them together using Y-seams. I decided half hexagons would have jumbled those pretty fabrics up too much. I still stand by that decision because I just love how clean and awesome those huge hexagons look together.

I decided to do some petal like leaves as the quilting. I’m not very good at feathers, so this is my version, haha. I only quilted the bottom half in this style, to help define the two halves.

The top half is a nice mix of Art Gallery Fabrics solids and blender in different tones of blues. To be more specific, I used Pure Elements Solid is Warm Wave, Prisma Elements in Subtle Turquoise and Larimar Sea, and Oval Elements in Zephyr. I pieced them together using a quick pattern I drew up that looked like the rays of the sun right before the sun rises. If anyone is interested in the templates, let me know and I’ll draft them up as PDF’s. I actually had mine printed as large blueprints at Fedex because I despise taping patterns!

For the quilting, I wanted to do a wavy cloud like design. So I mimicked the way I always draw clouds in my own illustrations. It turned out denser than I originally imaged, but I’m happy with the results. Also, it matches the density of the petals on the bottom. so it will crinkle nicely in the wash.

I backed the quilt entirely using Wind Melody Soft from Bari J’s line and then bound it using Art Gallery’s Pure Elements Solid in Verve Violet.

I am just so in love with the way this all came together! It was outside my comfort zone, but I am so glad I made it. I needed some change from my black, white, blue and purple (though I did sneak big chunks of blues in there!).

I’ve decided to start something fun to go along with these quilt posts! I have so many photo’s that just don’t go along with the writing or they are just too ridiculous not to share, so here is the first installment of…

Behind the Scenes and Outtakes:

Here you can see the quilt on the long arm and then me adding the biding on! I always take these photos with my phone, since I have it on hand, because you never know if you’ll need to go back and look at these steps. Plus, everyone loves work in progress shots. Or is that just me?

Here are my two failed attempts at using super strong magnets to attach the quilt to the playground equipment down the street! The photos aren’t TOO bad, but they weren’t what I was looking for. Though that one on the right looks like a child tried to take a quilt photo.

These two were me trying to use my new photo backdrop holder for the first time down at the train yard. The yard is right next to the Potomac River, so the wind is kind of bad. Also the clamps I bought to hold the quilt didn’t fit over the bars, so I thought using wooden pants holders was a good idea. It wasn’t!! I can only imagine how funny I looked to the commuters getting off the MARC train. The things we do for good quilt photos (and I still feel I could have done better with this one!)

The last one didn’t come out too bad, however I had accidentally switched my camera over to low resolution. So this is the biggest this photo will ever get!!!! 440px wide!!!!! I am soooo upset over this one.

Oh well, lessons learned!

Thank you again to Art Gallery Fabrics for providing the supplies to make this quilt for my daughter. She seriously loves it so much.

I hope you enjoyed the photos of the quilt, and the behind the scenes outtakes. I know it’s close to the end of the month, but you still have 5 days to make the most of Sewing Month. Get to sewing!

CT’s first day of Kindergarten was this past week. It was a HUGE milestone for both of us, so of course I had to take loads of photos.

I also figured I should make a little sign so we never forget it was the first day of school.

Then after much thought I decided on a second piece that can be detached that says which year of school shes starting.

All of this snowballed into the fabric banner above! It’s 8″ square with marine grade vinyl letters cut out using my Sizzix Fabi and the Block Talk Alphabet Die Set. The background is Andover Fabrics chambray in black. I made it pretty much the exact same way as my Appliqued Vinyl Letter Pillow.

I also added snaps to the bottom of the banner so I could make an attachment for each year she is in school. I plan on making all the grades later this week when things have calmed down around here and putting this in a safe place.

The idea of her using this every year makes me all teary eyed! Can you imagine her in 12th grade holding this little banner?!?!?

As you may be able to tell, I’m a complete mess over her going to school. Yes I gained 8 uninterrupted hours each weekday, but I still miss her soooooooooo much. Does it get easier?!?

Click on over to their blog to see more!

Pin It]]> http://artschooldropout.net/blog/pretty-in-pink-mini-quilt-for-sizzix/feed/ 0 http://artschooldropout.net/blog/half-moon-zipper-pouch-tutorial-for-sizzix/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=half-moon-zipper-pouch-tutorial-for-sizzix http://artschooldropout.net/blog/half-moon-zipper-pouch-tutorial-for-sizzix/#comments Thu, 16 Jul 2015 09:15:57 +0000 jesseesuem http://artschooldropout.net/blog/?p=3915 Continue reading →]]> Today on the Sizzix Blog, I share a super detailed and photo heavy tutorial on how to sew curved seams, install a zipper and assemble an entire pouch, This exact pouch! It’s chock full of skill building steps, so if you have ever been discouraged by any of those things, go check it out!

My first thought was “Ha, this is the perfect excuse to finally make some holiday decor EARLY” since I always mean to, but never do. It took me awhile to narrow down a die to use, since there are just so many that aligned with my taste. After much thought, and help from Sizzix, I ended up with this awesome Snowflake die. More specifically the Sizzix Bigz Die – Snowflake.

I knew right away how I would use it too! I wanted a piece that was great for Christmas, but could also work for a month or two afterwards. That way I could be lazy and keep it out for awhile. Also, we don’t decorate for the holidays until after my daughters birthday which is the second week of December,so holiday decor that can stay up longer is a big bonus.

I took a few photos while I was putting this together, which means I have a quick tutorial so you too can make this awesome pillow!!

Supplies Needed:

• Sizzix Bigz Die – Snowflake
• Various Solid Blue Fabrics. Mine are all leftover Kona Cotton from my Icosahedron Quilt. Each Block should be no smaller than 5″
• Various Solid White and Light Grey Fabric. I used Kona Cotton here too
• the Warm Company’s Steam-A-Seam 2 Lite
• Batting (I used Warm & Natural Cotton Batting)
• Coordinating thread
• slightly coordinating thread

First thing I did was cut out out 9″ squares from both the white or grey fabric and the Steam-A-Seam. The Steam-A-Seam is sticker adhesive, so I just removed one of the protective layers and stuck the fabric down. I smoothed it out and pressed firmly to make sure it was adhered properly.

Then I cut the 9″ squares into four 4.5″ squares and set them aside.

Next I cut one to two 5″ squares from each of my blue fabrics, I had an uneven number of blues I really wanted to use, so that’s why there were single squares.

I took the pile of white and grey pieces to my Sizzix Fabi and ran them through. The proper way to do this is called the Sizzix sandwich. You start with a cutting pad, then the die with the foam side up, then whatever you are cutting (here I had the interfacing side up) and then another cutting pad. I cut two pieces at a time when using the Steam-A-Seam. This prevents shifting and pieces getting stuck.

You can see here there isn’t much waste and the shape cut perfectly with the interfacing attached.

Now were all ready to start assembling…

First thing I do is layout my pieces to see where I want them. This usually takes me about five minutes, because I’m constantly changing my mind.

As you can see above, I am using a portable design wall I made out of leftover Homasote wrapped in extra batting that I stapled to the back. It’s great for this step because I can just carry the board over to my machine and pull off the pieces that need to be sewn in a specific order. The Homasote hardly weighs a thing. It’s awesome.

Ok, back to this tutorial…

After I was happy with the layout I stitched all of the blocks together using a 1/4″ seam allowance. Once they are all together, you ended up with a 20.5″ square piece.

Now were are ready to adhere some snowflakes!

This Steam-A-Seam2 is amazing because you hardly have to use an iron! I was able to sit on my couch for this step. All you do is peel off the other side of the protective layer and position it in the middle of a block and press firmly. How easy is that?!? Best part is, if you don’t like the way it looks, you can peel off the piece and re stick it somewhere else. It isn’t permanent until you use a dry iron and slowly iron over each piece. I love this stuff!

Once, you have all of the snowflakes permanently adhered you are ready to quilt the top. You have two options here. The first is you can top stitch around each snowflake so a look similar to these trivets I made, or you could use a method called matchstick quilting. I chose the second option.

Matchstick quilting is when you stitch a whole bunch of lines, sometimes in various colors, super close together. It isn’t recommended for all quilts as it makes them a little stiff, but for projects like this, it’s perfect. All those close lines help keep all these thin snowflake pieces in place!! I used a few different color threads to achieve a bit more depth.

It’s not too noticeable, but I used white, light gray and light blue thread. I started out in the middle with light gray thread and used one of the seam lines as a guide. I stitched 1/4″ away all the way across. Then the next line was 1/2″, then the next was 3/4″, and then 1/2″ again and so on and so on. I did this from the middle out, on both sides. Staggering the distance between the lines. I wasn’t super careful either, so some lines were a bit wonky. Afterwards I threaded my machine with the light blue thread and filled in some of the spots between the light gray lines. Lastly I went through with white thread and just did a few lines here and there. Especially where the snowflake tips needed to be tacked down.

To finish the pillow off I used some quilted dark gray Kona for the back, and a 20″ invisible zipper sewn into the bottom.

This was a very rewarding project because I am absolutely in love with the finished piece. It was so easy to put together and the end result looks like it was difficult. Those are always the best!

Oh, and you want to know the best part? This project totally kick started my need to make holiday decor!!! I already have a few other pillows in the works, along with a tree skirt. A TREE SKIRT! I’m hoping the flame doesn’t sizzle, and I actually finish them before December. I guess if I don’t I’ll have things to share NEXT July…