Week Four of the EPP Medallion Patch-along

Nearly there folks! We will finish the paper piecing part of our medallion patch -along this week and the applique. I thought that you could cope with two things this week!

But before we get going, I have another ta-dah! moment! Two in a row - this time the cover of Pretty Patches magazine. This time it is the grey and brightly coloured quilt. It is called April Showers.

Okay , back to the business of the day...finally we can  make the medallion project into something practical. You will be pleased to know that I have decided what to do with it too. I thought that we could make a tuffet - you know, as in little Miss Muffet?  Stay with me and you will love it I promise.

There are no new pieces to learn, only using two that we already know quite well. This time, it is all about the hexie and the small diamond.

Here is what we have achieved up to this point...

The next bit is to add some more hexies to make a pink and white (in my case) border and then we will finish with six more diamonds.

Begin by covering your hexies. As I said, mine are pink and white but it will depend on your fabrics. The hexie border is quite a big feature so I would avoid green and go back to the star and look at that. Pink features and so does white so that is how I made my choice.

You will need 18 hexies like these...

You also need six diamond and these are exactly the same as last week....

We begin by adding the hexies. It doesn't matter which one you start with or where you put it. I have chosen a pink one and I am starting in the middle....

Next comes white (not easy to see and you have the paper showing through but don't worry about that).....

And so on until you have a ring of hexies alternating colours like this....

Now you will also start to be aware of the positions for the last diamonds.....

Sew those in too and that is it! Let's have a look at what we have now....

And that is the EPP bit finished! Obviously you can keep going and make it huge but we will stop there and get ready for the next bit....

I love the pretty fondant colours. Okay, very sweet but not much use to anyone in its present state. The next thing to do is to make it up. As I said, a tuffet is just the thing and that is going to begin right now! 
Carefully remove the papers from your medallion. Be very careful to preserve the shapes on the outside. It will look a bit sad and deflated for a bit but don't be disheartened. 

Choose yourself a piece of fabric which coordinates but does not clash with the medallion. I am going with a lovely blue and cream spotted upholstery weight fabric. Plain is good too because it will make the medallion jump out. Basically, the medallion is the big feature so 'audition' a few fabrics to make sure that you have the best supporting act for your star.

You will need to have 70cm x 70cm of thin wadding and enough of your fabric for TWO 61cm diameter circles. The reason that I am not giving an actual meterage is that you might want to mix and match the fabrics. You can have a different one on the top to the bottom. Maybe an oil cloth bottom so that it doesn't get damp outside.
Anyway, cut the chosen fabric into two 61cm diameter circles. Put one aside.
Do you know how to cut big circles? No? It is easy. Take a piece of fabric about 2-3cm larger than your circle so outs might be 63cm x 63cm. That gives a little bit of working room. Fold the fabric in quarters....

going from the centre, measure 30.5cm (half your end circle). Use a water soluble marker to mark this measurement all around the quarter like this....sorry that the dots are not easy to see, they will be more apparent in the next shot...

join the dots to make an arc....

Now cut it out and unfold it. Ta da! A large circle! Don't cut the wadding though. Place the fabric circle onto the untrimmed wadding. Find the centre of the circle and find the centre of your medallion. Pin your medallion to the centre and then pin it all around so that no movement is possible in any direction. This is what you will have now.....

We will begin the applique process by quilting (strangely enough!). The method behind this particular bit of madness is that if you quilt from the centre out, you smooth as you go and avoid puckering which is ugly. Fabric moves and you cannot easily stop it. Start quilting in the ditch (hand or machine) in the very centre like this....

You can see how the needle is in the dead centre of each seam? This will make the patches themselves rather than the quilting the main event. The quilting will be invisible. 

Sometimes I quilt by hand because I like it and I have more control. Not only that but it preserves the portable nature of the project. But machine is faster and if it is all invisible anyway.....

Keep going unto the whole medallion is secure and then make a neat overcast stitch around the outside to anchor it down. THAT is better done by hand I find. Now stabilise the edge with a running stitch and trim the wadding to match the circle and this is what you will have.....

I found a wonderful button just crying out to be used in the centre too.

Next time, we will finish the tuffet. Make sure that you have some 2-3mm piping cord (about 4m), some polyester stuffing and fabric for the sides (25 cm strip). Choose a fabric from one of the ones in your medallion to cover the piping cord too. I am going with the stripes from the star.
You already have the bottom circle put aside. The bottom fabric can be the same as the top or different, it is up to you. I have gone with the top, bottom and sides the the same and then striped (one of the medallion fabrics) for the piping.

Whew! That was a big one! Well thank you for bearing with me and I will see you all next week for the final stage.

Love and hugs
Debbie xxx

Block of the Month -March 2015 Classic Four Patch

It makes sense to me to begin the Blocks of the Month with the simplest block of all, the classic four patch. This block is very versatile and it is often the first one learned when people take patchwork and quilting lessons.

Here it is....

As you can see, it is made up of four pieces and they are square. That is all there is to it. The real trick, however, is to get the four pieces to match up perfectly in the middle.

So how do we begin? Well, we need a square. I am not going to complicate this by giving you a template to print off. You can draw a square by yourself. If you are a beginner, make your square a little bit larger so that you have something to grab onto. I would suggest 11cm x 11cm.

Draw your square onto a piece of card so that you can use it again and again. Now, audition your fabrics! When you are happy with the choice, cut out four pieces like this

Sew the first two together so that you have a unit like this

Repeat for the other two. You now have two of these

All that is left now is to join them together but before you do, finger press the seams so that they are away from each other like this

See how one seam goes one way and the other seam faces away from it? Finger pressing simply means to run your finger (or fingernail) along the seam to crease it. You don't have to get the iron out for everything.

Pin your pieces together and sew the last seam. Open it out and you will have something that looks like this

You have made your first four patch! This is a mighty useful little critter and never consign it to the realms of the raw beginner. Use it for borders and repeating patterns. If you make a few of these with this diagonal pattern, when you join them up, they will create their own repeats.
You can mix them up with triangles too to create en pointe designs. We will get to that later.

I hope that you have found this useful. Thank you so much for stopping by and please feel free to put in requests for a block that you would like to have featured.

See you next time!

Love and hugs
Debbie xxx

Valentines Day love birds - for your pot plants!

Who can tell me where the year is going!? It is almost half past February and of course, before we can turn our thoughts to spring properly, we have to get Valentines Day out of the system.

It is starting to be a little lighter in the evenings now and our bulbs are defiantly poking their heads up...

It is starting to feel springy! I am very busily crocheting things (much to my son's dismay) like wreaths with flowers and bunting and little covers for my pot plants and all in the brightest colours.

Big photo: ripple effect crochet. Top right: inspired by an Attic24 wreath that I thought was just beautiful. Middle right: Potted plants obviously need jerseys! These are so easy made in dc and htr. Bottom right: part of some granny bunting with flowers; perfect for brightening up a winter room.

Now I love heart motifs but there are plenty of those around at this time of the year so I thought that I would make some pretty birdies to liven up the potted plants until they bloom. Here is one....

And another one....

They are just the bee's knees and we will use some sparkly beads which catch the sun too. Makes them great in the conservatory or on a sunny windowsill. Placed correctly, they can brighten a whole room! So what will we need to gather?

-cotton fabric in pretty patterns You will need one sort for the body and a contrast but coordinating bit for the wings.
-polyester stuffing
-sparkly beads like faceted crystals and crackle glass although miracles work well too in the right light. Stick with 6mm and 8mm ones for the crown.
- a couple of orange 4mm beads per bird for the eyes
-bamboo chopsticks for making the stands - or some normal sticks if that is what you have to hand. Sharpen the bottom with a pencil sharpener or sharp knife.
-beading thread and a beading needle
-hot glue gun
-water soluble marker

With reference to the stuffing, I get an awful lot of questions about the sort of stuffing to use. You do not have to use the 'proper' stuff in a tiny bag from the craft shop! Wash and pull apart an old pillow or cushion if you have one for the ultimate in recycling. If you need to buy new, buy cushions or pillows from a cheap shop (Ikea is good) and use the stuffing. Much cheaper and exactly the same.

First you will need to print off the pattern. The bird body when you print it out should be about 21cm long and the wing is 15cm long. It really doesn't matter but it will alter your results if they are too different.  And remember that the pattern pieces represented by a dashed line are behind another piece. Here is the pattern-

I would cut the shapes out and then draw around them onto the fabric with the water soluble marker for ease. Make sure that they are mirror image though!
This is what we have so far...

You will have two bodies and four wings. Cut them out and it is time to sew! I have made two love birds and swaped the wing and body fabrics.
Begin by sewing the wings. Pin the two wing pieces right sides together and sew all the way around, leaving a gap for turning out. Clip the curves and turn out the right way. This is what we have now...

Lightly stuff the wing with some polyester but no so much that it loses its flat shape. Move the stuffing around until it is well distributed in the wing. Slip stitch the opening closed. You will see on the pattern that there are some lines on the wing? These are stitching lines. Mark them with the water soluble marker if you need to and then either hand or machine stitch along them. The wing now looks like this....

Repeat for the other wing. Now on to the body! Again, pin the body pieces together and sew all around leaving a gap for turning out and then clip the curves, turn out and stuff the bird really well. 
NB: when you sew the body, leave the opening in the bottom of the bird and then when slip stitching, leave a small gap to insert the stick or chopstick.

Slip stitch the opening closed and now you have something starting to take shape! Next let's attach the eyes. Take your chosen beads and attach with beading thread and needle to either side of the head. Draw the thread in a bit too to give the head a nice shape.

The crown is made by first taking a longish piece of thread and stringing 7x 8mm beads onto it...

Close the circle, go back through all of the beads with the thread until you are back where you began and tie it off really well. This gives a double thread through the beads. Snip the short thread off leaving the one still in the needle...

Now attach this to the head with a few stitches around....

Take an 8mm bead and thread it on and weave the thread through the next bead. Keep going right around the crown. You will have seven of these and they will be a little floppy but not too much. finally, weave back again and this time pick up a 6mm bead (I have used an orange crystal) and go inbetween each 8mm bead.

Keep doing this until you have a second row on the crown. The more you weave, the tighter and more solid the crown becomes. The weaving will gently draw the crown together.

When you have a nice crown, finish the thread by weaving a little more and then cutting it. We can put everything together now.

Hot glue the wings to the sides of the body and insert the blunt end of the chopstick into the bottom of the bird (you may need to wriggle it between the stitches) and then hot glue it into place. 
It is okay to make the chopstick a little shorter too, they look better if you cannot see the chopstick, like the bird is nesting in the plant. It all depends on the size of the plant.

We have this now....

Now find a nice potted plant and insert the stake gently into the pot.

How pretty is that! I hope that you have enjoyed this free pattern and tutorial. thank you so much for stopping by and don't forget to sign up by email or like my FaceBook page so that you never miss a post!

Thanks for stopping by!
love and hugs

Debbie xxx

Pompom Snowball Flowers

Winter is still with us as I am sure you will already know and it is beautiful! We have so far missed out on any significant snow but we have had crisp and we have had cold so it is not too bad (boo-hoo). I am so inspired by the wonder of our country and by the everyday beauty all around me. 

As I mentioned, winter has been dramatic down our way with some pretty spectacular effects without the white stuff.

Blickling in Norfolk is looking fresh in the winter air and Sally is a bit boot faced. She HATES the great outdoors despite the nana knitted scarf. The cat had the right idea, stay inside and cuddle rat. Because THAT'S normal!  Beautiful sunrise though sending sailors and shepherds into a tail spin and my ferns are battling on under a cover of silver frost tracery.

Okay, enough whining and dropping hints about NOT ENOUGH SNOW! Let's get down and do some crafting.
I have been looking at a pile of twigs in my back garden (as you do!). Don't want to garden yet in this icy air and staying inside by the fire beckons. Pity to waste the sticks though says the small crafting voice hidden in my brain. 

You can do many things with a twig (or a pom pom) but this time, I want something to put into a vase - enter pompom snowball flowers!

I make pom poms from time to time but I am always fazed by the thought of cutting cardboard disks and I hear that the shop bought makers can be a bit hit and miss. About ten years ago whilst I was still living in Australia there were some forays into methods of making pom poms a few at a time. This is the ideal answer. Like many things that I have done over my crafting life, I have done this and then gone onto something else and forgotten about it. Time to revisit I think!

My method is using wood, nails and dental floss to make pom poms....trust me there is a method to my madness!

Many of the tutes online feature furniture legs or even your own but I had another idea a while ago and got Husband Rob to hammer a couple of huge nails into a piece of wood about 30cm long. This has made a pretty tricky jig which works perfectly. He has hammered the nails all the way through because otherwise, the broader heads may make removing the wool difficult. Behold  the beastie....um.....masterpiece....

This is so simple to make and cheap too. Careful with children obviously because of the nails sticking up.

But like all other craft ideas, there is is more than one way to do things....introducing the lovely Anne from Flax and Twine who has a slightly different way to my method. Anne's is on a larger, more robust piece of furniture but it has the same result.

With the wood jig method, you can make pom poms in different sizes with different sized nails and of course, different sized wool. The longer the wood block, the longer the shank of wool and the more pom poms but there is a limit because it becomes ungainly and hard to manage. Stick to around 30cm and it is easier.

So then, let's get on with it shall we! What will you need for this project?
You need some wool in cream or white and a bit of steely blue too, some dental floss and a hot glue gun. Oh, and the twigs that you found outside!

To make the pom poms, take the first bit of wool and start winding it around the nails like this...

When you have a fair bit (the more wool, the fatter the pom pom), cut the wool off and secure the end. Don't wind the wool too tight to begin with, the tension will ratchet up plenty when you tie the bunches off.

Now take some dental floss. What! Well dental floss is tough. It can take a lot of tension and it is really good for sewing on doll and teddy arms too. Lasts forever and is utterly fabulous when you have to tie something tight.

Cut pieces of floss which are long enough to tie at intervals around the wool shank....

Tie them about 6 cm apart and really make them really secure. The tighter you tie, the less likely that the pom pom will come apart. You don't need to leave a tail for sewing on. Just leave about 4 cm and tie in a very secure knot. You can trim it later.
Now cut the pom poms off. Cut into the middle between the tied off sections like this....

If the wool is thicker, cut partway through and then go back and do the rest rather than cutting all at once which can cause the scissors to go a bit skew wiff. 

Keep going until you have your pom poms. You might need to give them a haircut and some actually look better a little raggedy.

One tip that I find can make a difference, roll the pom pom in your hand when you have finished. This makes it look fuller and a bit more even.

All is left now is to hot glue them to the sticks. Take a look at your stick and also the pom poms. Obviously, one goes on the end but sometimes sticks have sticky-out bits (sorry for the technical term) and a smaller pom pom can look good on these bits, like a bud.

Now find a perfect container for them and you're done! Here it is again...

This is a beautifully nordic type decoration which shows a whole new use for the classic pom pom. Enjoy!

Thanks for stopping by and thank you again to Anne for allowing me to post the link to her blog!

Debbie xxx

A HUGE Thank You!

What a wonderful way to greet a Friday! I had a message on my blog this morning from the lovely Jann at Newton Custom Interiors

telling me that I have been nominated for the ........

Thank you so much Jann! You made my Friday!

There are a few rules for accepting this award - don't worry, nothing too difficult!

*Thank the person who nominated you and link back to their blog.

*Say 7 things about yourself

*Nominate 15 others and then comment on their blog to let them know.

So. Here we go, seven things about me.......

1. I love physics. Not just a passing glance but a dyed-in-the-wool-sheldon-cooper-like-obsession about it. It rules my world and governs every single thought. I dream in formulae.

2. If I cannot read a book each day, I go stir crazy. I like to read textbooks mainly but every now and then a work of fiction takes hold and I cannot get away. 

3. I am learning to crochet after resisting for about 500 years. Naturally I am hooked on this too (pun intended). Physics and crochet - always seen together.

4. I love to cook and I cook everything from scratch #bliss!

5. My cocker spaniel Sally rules my life and I am happy to be under the paw. If I don't do something immediately, I get barked at.

6. My Nana taught me to sew on an old Singer sewing machine which was already over seventy years old when I was little. I have that same sewing machine today and it is my great love.

7. I cannot stop studying. I keep going back to uni and adding yet another qualification. Not sure how to stop actually. And I love exams. Just looking in the door and seeing all of the desks lined up and waiting is exciting....okay so I am mad. See point #1.

Confession time over! Thank you for reading peeps and now here is my list of blogs for nomination that I love and find inspirational! Each and every one worthy of winning and in no particular order....

Laura at Made Peachy

Lucy at Attic24

Jess at MessyJesse

Jackie at Tinyrose's Craftroom

Amy at Nana Company

Leanne at Leanne's House

Amy at Crafting Confessions

  Anne at Flax and Twine

Ayumi at Pink Penguin

Jo at Two Owls

Mandy at Made With Love By Mandy

Juliette at Zuhause in Germany

Katy at I'm A Ginger Monkey

Florence at Flossie Teacakes

Sharron at Annie's Place

Thanks for all the inspiration guys! I have left you a comment.

Debbie xxx