Fractured Background Quilt Block Tutorial

With the popularity of my Modern Hexagon Quilt over on flickr, I thought it might be a fun tutorial to show you how I made that fractured background.  This tutorial will give you the how-to basics.  We'll make one block, using the same ideas as the larger fractured background.

For the larger quilt background, I used strips of varying cut widths all cut from selvage to selvage. So my strip set was 42" wide x about 55" or so.

This tutorial will use shorter strips cut between 2" - 3" wide. These are old "binding scraps" that I had in my scrap bin.

Step 1.  Stitch your strips together and press them with starch.  

Step2.  Fold one end over, matching right sides. This fold is about 4" or so.  Make sure this fold is NOT square or neat or tidy.  Just fold it.  You can see in the photo (above) how the cutting mat grid lines are un-even along the top folded edge.

Step 3.  Use a rotary cutter + ruler to cut off the actual fold.  Trim it very narrowly, removing just the folded edge.  If you are making a much larger background, just use scissors to cut along the fold line.

 Step 4.  Keeping everything in place, pull the newly cut piece slightly towards the right of left.  This will "off set" the stripes for the fractured look.

Step 5.Use a 1/4" seam allowance to stitch the two pieces back together.

Step 6.  Open the seam and press.  Its totally ok that everything is turning out uneven.

Step 7.  Fold the strips onto themselves again. This time, try to angle your fold in the opposite direction as your first fold.  -Though really, it doesn't matter, this method is intended to yield a haphazard looking fracture.

 Step 8.  Cut off the new fold again, give it a gentle pull to either the right or left sides to off-set the strips, and stitch the pieces together.  Once its stitched, open and press.

You can repeat these steps for as many folds/fractures as you like.

Step 9.  You will now have a very jagged mess.  AWESOME!  The next step is to simply square it up.  If you are making a block, you'll want to decided on some size that fits into your design.  If you are making a large quilt background, in my case with the Modern Hexagon Quilt, I tried to make the background as large as I possibly could.

Finishing up:  For this tutorial, the quilt block ended up being cut to 9 1/2" square. I then took the 9 1/2" square to good 'old photoshop to generate a fractured quilt block quilt.  Of course, if you really use this technique to make a series of blocks, each of the blocks would be different because the folds are done randomly.  But here's an idea of how it might look:

*Fabric used in this tutorial are Black-Ikea Sheet, Pink- Nicey Jane by Free Spirit, Red- South African Schwe Schwe.

This block is listed/entered in the Quilt Story Block Party! 

 

Fractured Background Quilt Block Tutorial

Ruched Silk Flower Tutorial

 Welcome to the Ruched Fabric Flower Tutorial. 

First- lets talk about ruching.  When you say it out loud ruch sounds like "Whoosh!"  You know, the word you use when the basketball flies straight into the net and never touches the rim.  The online dictionary defines ruching as:  a pleated, fluted, or gathered strip of fabric used for trimming.  In this how-to, the WHOLE flower isn't ruched, just the center of a fake/silk flower.

And off we go.  I'll show you how to make a small ruched fabric strip to replace the center of a silk/fake flower so that you can then adorn all sorts of craft and sewing projects.  In the above photos, I have a flower made into a hair clip and on on the flap of my Express Mailbag. (The bag is made from a part of a layer cake -10" cut squares- to give you an idea of the size.)

Supplies:
One fake fabric flower from the craft store.
1 strip of fabric 1/2" x 10" torn, not rotary cut (great way to use up scraps!)
Fabric glue, such as Aleene's Fabric Glue
Hair Clip- optional


{{I'm trying something different with this tutorial.  Instead of having a LONG blog post with tons of pictures, I've made numbered picture groupings.  Lets see if this is easier for all my favorite visual learners. }}

CLICK THE PICTURES TO ENLARGE THEM

1.  Pull the tops off a bunch of silk flowers from the craft store.

2.  Take apart the fabric flower part from the plastic parts.  The center of the flower and the back plastic of the flower will now live happily in the trash can.

3.  ZigZag stitch over the center of the flower to hold it in place while you work with the layers.

4.  Don't worry what color your zigzag thread is.  It will get covered up later.

CLICK THE PICTURES TO ENLARGE THEM

5.  Tear a strip of fabric 1/2" wide and about 10" long.  I recommend tearing so that your ruched finished flower center will have even more texture and interest.


6.  Finally!  A useful decorative stitch on the sewing machine!!!  WOOT!  Find the stitch that looks like a zigzag, but is actually made with a series of straight running stitches.  (click the photo to see it larger)  Set the stitch width and length to the largest/longest settings.  Sew along the entire length of the 1/2" wide fabric strip.


7.  This is what the stitch will look like.  I used matching colored thread on the top, as it will still be seen on the finished project.  On one end of the ruching strip, tie the bobbin and top thread together in a square knot.


8.  From the other NOT tied end of the fabric strip, start gently pulling the bobbin thread to gather the fabric.


9.  Eventually, you'll have a wrinkly little caterpillar looking piece about 2" long.

CLICK THE PICTURES TO ENLARGE THEM

10.  Here's where it gets more crafty.  I always think- if there's glue, its a craft.  Gather the supplies, fabric glue, affectionately known as ALIENS.  (Yeh, you read that right.) The flower, the ruched strip and some pins.

11.  Fold the ends of the ruched strip towards the wrong side.  Shape the short ruched strip into a circle, covering the center of the flower.

12.  Carefully remove the circle shape and add the fabric glue to the center of the flower.


13.  Add the ruched center onto the glue and secure it with a pin for drying.  

DONE!  

You can now whip stitch this from behind to any project you've been working on.  If you want to make it removable (for items such as garments + washing machine) consider stitching the flower to a safety pin then adding it to your projects. 


Here are the few additional steps if you are looking to make this flower into a hair accessory.

CLICK THE PICTURES TO ENLARGE THEM

14.  You'll need an inexpensive bendy hair clip.


15.  Open the hair clip and place it on the back of the flower.


16.  Use a couple stitches over the right and left sides of the clip to secure the flower to the clip.  Make sure the clip is OPEN during this step, so you don't accidentally stitch it closed.

I really like using fake flowers in projects, but I don't always love covering the center with a button (Which is the totally easy way to do it- the button covers the hole and the flower is attached all in one fail swoop.) This method is a little bit more work, but gives you a neat center and allows you to add coordinating fabric to your smashing projects.


If you make it, we'd love to see it over in the ReannaLily Designs Flickr pool.

Ruched Silk Flower Tutorial

Recycled Sweaters

Welcome to the first post of the new year! Happy 2011 to you all! 

 

Over the holidays I made an ugly sweater dress from ugly sweaters, for an ugly sweater party. That got me hooked sewing thrift store sweaters. Eventually I started buying the "nice" thrift store sweaters, ala Betz White. I have 100% natural fibers in solid colors with a few fun knitted designs on there. That rockin' hat (below) was the crowning jewel on the ugliest dress, ugliest sweater, ugliest Christmas attire known to woman-kind.

I made scarflettes using the U-Create tutorial as a guide. (This scarflette is made a synthetic fiber sweater.) Instead of using the entire torso of a sweater, I made two narrower scraflettes from the sleeves. My sister-in-law has the matching cream colored scarflette. I'm sure she has some kind of fabulous felt flower or rolled rosette on there by now. My blue vintage brooch is also from a thrift store.

Well, I liked sewing with the sweaters. Its like thrift store linen, but in the winter. =)

The next thing I made were a couple plain pillows from the main torso of the sweater.

(The quilt on my couch is a pattern by Toby Lischko called Mosaic Magic.)

The creamy white one pillow is the torso from the scarflettes sweater. The red sweater pillow is felted cashmere. The cool thing about buying the 100% wool fiber sweaters at the thrift store is that the ones I seem to be finding are there because the original owners accidentally shrank/felted them. Thank you, Ms Original Owner; you have totally saved me a step!

Ooooh- what did I make next??!!?!? Inquiring minds want to know. Well, that red sweater had some leftovers. I couldn't possibly just have felty cashmere-y leftovers! I decided to make the "WHAT? REALLY!" Punctuation Pillow. I kinda have a quirky sense of humor. I'm sure we all do in some capacity.

This Punctuation Pillow, with a ? and !, is only one total pillow. The red cashmere used to be sleeves. The grey lamb's wool is from the torso of one sweater. It measures approximately 13" x 18" & is stitched shut. The two punctuations are raw-edge appliqued to the sweater using a straight stitch. I ended up stitching them on by hand because I wasn't sure if the sewing machine would stretch the sweater/shapes since I have no stablizer/interfacing in the project. Oh, one other thing- I custom made the pillow forms. Its more fun to have "any shape I feel like" on the couch, rather than the standard square or bolster shapes.


Think you might need a Punctuation Pillow?!?! I added the hand-drawn (then scanned and traced in Illustrator) original characters to a little printable pdf for you. Click the image above or click HERE to get the template. The seam allowances are included, so you can use any applique method and any fabric type you prefer.

So now I have a mood couch. A snuggly-winter-sweater-mood-couch. Feeling inquisitive? Feeling assertive! Indecisive? Thrilled!

*If you make a Punctuation Pillow, I'd love to see it over in the ReannaLily Designs Flickr Pool.


If you've been following along this far and doing the mental math in your head, you'll know I have 1/2 a grey sweater left. Ooooh.... what will be next? Who knows. Time will tell.

Recycled Sweaters

Merry Pillow Covers

I made Christmas throw pillow covers for a couple of girlfriends. They are quilt block size, so if they'd rather set them out on the table/bar or hang them on a rustic looking hanger in their living room, that would work, too. The two girlfriends are quite different- BUT I totally used the same fabrics for both of them.

Pillow One is made using the Hex Pillow Tutorial 1, 2, & 3. Its a bit small than the actual tutorial. I'm diggin the high contrast between the dark blue and cream background. The fabric is Christmas-y, but you do have to be up close to really see that it.


And Pillow Two is a folk-y artsy looking quilted snowman.

I quilted his cream colored body with pebbles so it would look like snowballs. The blue background has meandering in navy blue thread. This one is more 3D and interactive. The scarf ties. When I showed this at the Modern Quilt Guild the members suggested stitching a twig onto his mouth area. Now that would folk-artsy on a whole new level. This one uses the same Christmas-y fabrics, but totally reads "winter".

Here's hoping the girlfriends liked the pillow covers!

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Pillow Covers

Modern Hexagon Quilted Pillow Tutorial

And this is the 3rd in the 3-part tutorial. This part will show you how to take a quilted orphan block and make it into an Envelope Style Back Throw Pillow. Each part can stand alone, but if you'd like to make the project just as its presented here, check out parts 1 and 2.

Supplies:
1 Quilted Quilt block (This tutorial uses a block that is cut to 14". The directions for making this hexagon quilt block is here.)
2 plain pieces of matching cotton fabric 10" x 14" each- for the envelope backing
Continuous quilt binding (for this, mine is cut 2" wide and about 68" long, pressed in half lengthwise) Binding tips can be found here.
Matching Thread

Note: Using an orphan quilt block to make this pillow? It will probably measure 12 1/2". If that is the case, cut your 2 rectangles for the envelop backing to measure 12 1/2" x 9".

Step 1. Fold the long side of each of the envelope rectangles twice, towards the wrong side 1/2" to create the hem along this edge. Stitch the hem 3/8" from the folded edge.

Step 2: Flip the quilted block over to reveal the backing fabric. Lay one envelope rectangle across the back. Make sure to align 3 sides of the rectangle with 3 sides of the quilted block.


Step 3: Lay the remaining envelope rectangle over the exposed area of the block. Both hemmed edges should be pointed towards the center of the block. (click to enlarge the picture above.) Pin baste the envelope rectangles around the perimeter of the block.

The two rectangles should overlap 4" to conceal the pillow insert, once the project is finished.

Step 4: Baste the envelope rectangles to the back of the quilt, using the sewing machine and stitching within 1/8" from the cut edge. Its narrow, but you can do it!

Step 5: We will now use the "machine applied continuous binding method" Binding is the last step, so if you are comfortable using another method- free free to do so. Apply the binding to the ENVELOPE side of the pillow. (pictured above)


Step 6: Flip the binding around to the front of the project and edge stitch right near the fold in the binding. Do this around the entire perimeter.

Step 7: Here's how I treat the corners of a quilt project, see the photos below:

Coming up on a corner, I fold the edge closest to me up. Make sure to have an "angle" pointed out towards the right, this will help make a pretty miter. - Like wrapping a present.

Then I fold the binding around to the front, making a tidy miter at the corner's point.

Stick a pin in the miter.

Sew right up to the miter, placing one or two stitches into the corner. Do NOT sew to the edge of the quilt binding. Instead...

Put your needle into the fabric at the corner. Lift up the presser foot and pivot the project 90 degrees, turning around the needle.

Lower the presser foot and continue sewing along the folded edge of the binding.

Step 8: Trim all your threads & add a pillow form insert. And its finished! Great job!!!

Here's the project flat. It finished to 14" square.

And with a 12" pillow form insert.

*Fabric used in this sample is by Art Gallery Fabrics + Kona Cotton Solid

If you make it, feel free to share it in the ReannaLily Designs Flickr pool.

Modern Hexagon Quilted Pillow Tutorial

Modern Hexagon Quilting Tutorial

This is the 2nd part in a 3 part tutorial to make a small very gift-able project. This second part will tell you how to quilt an orphan block. You can use your quilted block to add into a "quilt as you go" style quilt, or make it into something else completely. In this case, our block isn't an orphan, exactly, but you could certainly use any extra quilt block and apply this idea. (See how we made the block here.)

Supplies:
Any unquilted quilt block you may have lying around (The directions for making this one can be found here.)
Batting slightly larger than the quilt block (I used wool, by Hobbs.)
Backing fabric slightly larger than the quilt block
Water Soluble marking pen
Matching thread
Step 1: Pin baste the three layers together to make a quilt sandwich. The layers are in this order:

• backing fabric wrong side up
• batting
• quilt block right side up

I use straight pins when I machine quilt, though I know quilter's safety pins are very popular, too.


Step 2: Decide on a quilting pattern. Usually, you mark the quilting pattern on the right side of the project before it is pinned to the batting and backing, but for this project, I planned on doing a more organic free-motion idea. So my plan is to echo quilt, or simply follow the shapes of the block design stitching each line about 1/4" - 3/8" from the previous line.


Step 3: If you are making and quilting the hexagon block from the Modern Hexagon Block tutorial, now is the time to whip out one of those extra paper hexagons. I decided to trace three hexagons onto the block, to replicate the motif on the right and left sides of the project.

Step 4: Trust yourself. This is a small quilted project and its the perfect time to try out a new idea or style. Go for it! I decided to change up my echo quilting, slightly, to add visual interest to my solid color fabric. There are no *real* rules. On my design, I did want to keep the consistent echo quilting look in a sort-of modified echo.

Step 5: Remove the water soluble pen with a damp wash cloth.

Step 6: Take the quilted block to the cutting surface.

click the picture to enlarge

Step 7: Trim the block square. My block started out at 14 1/2" square. After it was quilted, it shrank slightly and finished at exactly 14". That's ok. No problem.

If you are thinking of enlarging the block a bit before you start, this would be a great placemat idea, consider using Insul-Fleece(tm) instead of batting to make your placemat more heat resistant. With a larger block this quick improvisational quilting method would make fun doll quilts or wall hangings.

Save the block, as is, to see how we finish off the project on Friday.

Subscribe to this blog feed to get updates on the next couple steps of this project.

*Fabric used in this sample is by Art Gallery Fabrics + Kona Cotton Solid

If you make it, feel free to share it in the ReannaLily Designs Flickr pool.

Modern Hexagon Quilting Tutorial