Monday, October 20, 2014

TUTORIAL - Rosedaisy project number 5

This month's Rosedaisy Designs stitchery to feature in a tutorial is 
"Love Your Life"...



 
I really, really, love this design - it was a joy to create and stitch, but as I only had a very small amount of that sweet Tanya Whelan fabric to use, the project to display "Love Your Life" had to be small.
So I gave it some thought and decided no matter how small the finished project was going to be, it could still look fantastic if I used a couple of techniques that allowed both the sitchery and the fabric to shine!

So this is what I made...

 For those who would like to use the same "Love Your Life" stitchery design as I have in this wall hanging it's HERE as a single pattern in my shop, or included in the full 'Rosedaisy Designs' set of ten stitcheries HERE.

Let's begin!

Trim the "Love Your Life" block to 6" x 8½".
(alternatively, use a stitchery block you already have)


Cut two pieces of favourite fabric, 4½" x 8½"....


I only had a 10" wide piece of this floral fabric, but was able to fussy cut from one 4½" wide length the two pieces of border fabric I needed. By fussy cutting I balanced the design on both sides of the stitchery. See how the rose posy is in the middle?


I measured out 2¼" each way from the centre of a posy before cutting my 4½" wide pieces.
I also measured equal distances between the top and bottom edges of the posy...


Machine sew the two lengths of border fabric down the left and right side of the embroidery block. Press the seams open...


Make a quilt sandwich by basting some scrap wadding (batting) behind the block, then the backing fabric behind the wadding. I use spray baste, but you may like to use safety pins through all layers.
I cut my wadding and backing fabric about 1 or 2 inches larger than the quilt top.
You may prefer to use fusible Pellon but I have a fair amount of small cotton quilt wadding offcuts and hand quilting them is so easy that I tend to use them...


Now to the hand quilting. I wanted something that stood out!
Last year I purchased a set of round quilting rulers from Lori Holt and just *love* them.
The smallest has a 2½" diameter and was perfect for a mini quilt like this...


You can use THIS method for tracing shapes which I shared in a recent tutorial for quilting larger circles, but as my fingers have some issues with small fiddly things (result of a botched finger operation in 2010) I chose to trace them this time.
I tested a Collins Air Erase fabric marker (here) on some scrap fabric and it washed out immediately, so I proceeded to draw random purple circles across the top of the wall hanging...



The directions for this pen told me that it could be washed out, or leave it and the lines would disappear on their own within 48 hours. 
I hand quilted the circles with white Perle #12 thread, and put the project aside. The purple lines were gone in just 24 hours and the result was lovely...



Next step was to cut two 5" squares of fabric and fold them diagonally to make two triangles.
I cut two 2½" wide lengths of floral fabric from the small amount still remaining and made a length of quilt binding (I have a tutorial for making and attaching binding HERE).

After stitching the triangles to the top corners of the back of the small quilt, attach your binding around the front edge with a " seam and trim away the excess wadding and backing.
Turn the binding over to the back and slip stitch in place.
All done!


Use a pencil or thin piece of dowel to hang your completed mini quilt...

I also have a tutorial HERE to show more detail on making the corner hanging sleeves, but without adding binding afterwards. It's so easy and effective!

I'd love to see photos if you use this tutorial, so if you finish the project using quilted circles or the "Love Your Life" block please send them to me at my email address HERE.

Just in case you're wondering why I didn't use a Frixion pen to trace the circles...

I won't use them. Yes, they disappear with heat, but they do not disappear permanently. In fact, low temperatures will cause them to re-appear.
Another reason I won't use them anymore is because on some fabrics they actually leave a permanent 'light' line that never goes away, and I ruined a quilted bag using the Frixion pen. It was awful - no matter which way you looked at it you could see those lines. :-(
 Even the manufacturer does not promote using these pens on fabric because they were not designed for that purpose.

But ladies, it's YOUR choice. If you're happy using a Frixion pen, then bless you! 
I'm only sharing my thoughts because of some questions I received last week on Facebook and Instagram. :-)


Block 20 of the Lord's Prayer Quilt is HERE in the shop now as a free download.
We are so close to finishing this quilt! How many blocks have you stitched so far?
If you haven't seen this free Block of the Week before, you can learn all about it HERE.
 



Bless you heaps!


10 comments:

Baa. xxx said...

Love the circles!! Agree about the frixon pen. I am trying to figure out how to get some lines out that have reappeared on white fabric as a shadow affect. Argh!

Christine M said...

Lovely, Jenny. Your circles are so perfect!

Allie said...

oh sweetie this is stunning - love it, love the circles, I quilted a HUGE quilt with them one time and vowed to stick with small stuff, lol. I learned that triangle technique from Ami Simms - so easy and so effective at hanging small items.

I do use Frixion pens, but only for marking stitcheries on white fabrics. I won't use them for marking quilting lines for the reasons you stated. I've never had one with the lines reappearing in chilly weather on my stitcheries though, and you know where I live, lol!!! Hope you're having a wonderful time, girl...

Christina said...

Great little quilt. Thank you for the addition to the Lord's Prayer.

cucki said...

So pretty my dear x

Peg - Happy In Quilting said...

Love it Jen thankyou....

Thoeria said...

Another great tutorial Jenny! I really need to get cracking on these too! So much to stitch so little time!

Patricia said...

realmente uma obra prima
amei e obrigada por compartilhar
beijos

Createology said...

I am swooning over your beautiful stitching and the circles are perfect. Creative Bliss...

Anonymous said...

I can see why you love this design. It is so pretty and the circular quilting pattern really makes a pleasant addition. Thank you for the next part of the Lord's Prayer.