Feed Dog

Sometimes it’s nice to just stitch from a kit

2012-01-27T16:31:00.001-08:00

No design to plan, no supplies to track down (except matching Persian yarn when my chain stitch is tighter than the kit apparently intended…grrr).

Are you loving the blue gingham wallpaper from our kitchen? Yeah, me neither. Distracting from the mingitude with gaudy seventies fruit currently beats stripping the paper. Though I should perhaps save “gaudy” for this lurid little number from another vintage kit:

Love at first pork?

Peacocks on Parade giveaway winner

2012-01-20T13:16:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to Kim West of A Peach in Stitches—Kim, you should have got an e-mail with a code to get your pattern. Thanks to all who entered and shared their thoughts on PDF patterns. There’s clearly a lot of potential in digital pattern publishing, but also some challenges.

Kim’s comment brings up an excellent point about using PDF patterns:

I like them, but if I could get an app to be able to annotate them, I would probably like them better. I like to write notes on my patterns to let me know where I left off, clarify directions, etc.

I use PDF-XChange Viewer, a free Adobe alternative, for annotating PDFs on my PC all the time—but there’s no version for portable devices. It seems like a no-brainer that there’d be apps out there to mark up PDFs on tablets, but I’m yet to find a good one for Android at least. Certainly nothing as easy as scribbling a few notes in the margin of a printed pattern. Maybe some day…

Thanks again to those who entered—stay tuned for some more giveaways in the coming weeks.

Peacocks on Parade available now! (with giveaway)

2012-01-17T19:34:00.001-08:00

If you’ve popped over to my website recently, you may have noticed that Peacocks on Parade is now available as an e-pattern. (The printed version is also available to stores.) Since this is the first pattern I’ve released since the Other so kindly gifted me with an Android tablet, it’s got me thinking about downloadable PDF patterns a bit differently than before.

In some ways, quilt patterns were made for e-reading. I mean, the standard pattern format—5½×8½" sheets from folded letter paper—is a pretty good size for viewing on a 7–10" tablet or e-ink screen. It can be a pain to scroll around full 8½×11" pages on a display that size, but the half page can fit fully on screen and still be legible (depending on the setup of the file and the device configuration, of course). Then you can bring your e-reader to the sewing room to follow the instructions, zoom in on illustrations, etc., and all you have to print are the templates or pattern sheets. Any links in the PDF (I link to tutorials for basic things like binding) are instantly accessible.

But not everybody has an e-reader or tablet (and I’d be the last snake to lead Eve to an Apple). Those half-letter pages are easy enough to print 2 to a page in most PDF software, which gives you essentially the same format you’d get from one of my printed patterns.

There’s been a discussion recently on the Quilt Pattern Designers e-mail list regarding the pricing of PDF patterns—should they be the same as printed versions because you’re paying for the design, or should the lessened manufacturing and inventory costs lead to a lower price? I’ve always thought it’s only fair for digital products to cost less than their physical counterparts (think MP3s vs. CDs), but there were strong feelings the other way too. Inspired by Sister Diane’s candid discussion of pricing and financial viability in the online crafting world (like in this post, including the comments), I’d like to get your thoughts…

To enter the giveaway for a free copy of the Peacocks on Parade e-pattern, just leave a comment below and tell me your thoughts on downloadable patterns for quilting or sewing. Do you buy them? What do you like about them? What don’t you like? How do you feel on the pricing question? You don’t have to go into elaborate detail or answer all these questions, just give me a quick thought or two. Make sure your Blogger profile has an e-mail address or that there’s some way I can contact you if you win. Comments will be open through midnight Pacific Time on Thursday, January 19, and I’ll announce the winner of the free pattern on Friday.

Good luck, and thanks for sharing your opinions!

UPDATE: Just to clarify, the winner will be chosen randomly from the comments. Thanks!

Last Stitch projects of 2011

2011-12-31T19:13:00.001-08:00

I’ve been on a bit of a blogging hiatus between the inevitable Christmas crush and some exciting work stuff that must remain under wraps for now, but since we’re ticking the final hours of 2011 away, I thought I’d best get around to posting my projects from the Winter and Gifts issues of Stitch—I think they’re still on newsstands, so I’m not totally out of date!

I was thrilled to see my Wool Petals Pillow on the cover. If you’ve got a stash of wool, it’s one of those deceptively simple projects that looks more luxe than it really deserves to. Unfortunately the pillow is now stashed in the closet to keep little claws from “inspecting” it…

Said claws thankfully don’t seem to be as interested in my other wool project for the Winter issue, the Silver Dollar Rug. The Other had a grey wool coat that was getting no use here in California, so I felted it and cut it into big circles as a larger-scale riff on penny rugs. We moved this summer into a house with wood floors, so we’re finally able to enjoy fun throw rugs.

I’ve long thought trapunto was ripe for a modern interpretation, and this Chain-Link Trapunto Pillow was the eventual result. The slight brown tinge in the image isn’t a misprint: the silk I used was cross-woven with teal in one direction and brown in the other, which is especially striking for dimensional techniques like this. I love how the pillow turned out and I’m itching to make some similar pillows with other designs.

It’s a little late to be showing a tree skirt—though I could certainly use with a head start for next Christmas! This Color-Wheel Tree Skirt is a fun way to use a large-scale holiday print.

Patterns for the previous projects are all in the Winter 2011 issue of Stitch; these Snowflake Table Linens are in the Gifts 2011 issue. There’re placemats, napkins, and napkin rings included, all made with English paper piecing using snowflake prints and some snowflake embroidery. I always say the best thing about snowflakes is that they’re festive for the holidays but still seasonal if the decorations don’t get put away on Boxing Day. (Which, needless to say, never happens around here.)

I hope you all had a lovely holiday and wish you happy sewing in the new year!

New pattern: Peacocks on Parade

2011-11-03T15:59:00.001-07:00

The past week has been a flurry of trips to the printer and putting finishing touches on the page layouts, and now I’m thrilled to announce my newest Feed Dog Designs pattern—Peacocks on Parade!

The pattern turns traditional Dresden Fans into flashy peacocks marching proudly around the quilt. If you’ve been following the Mother’s blog, you might have seen a preview of the version she made in different fabrics (thanks Mom!)…

We both agreed that it was great fun picking fabrics for the dots on the feathers—fussy-cutting flowers, starbursts, and other round motifs to highlight.

The pattern will be available to quilt shops and for online download shortly, but if you’re in Northern California, it’s debuting right now at Sew Many Quilts in Tracy, during the Jingle Bell Shop Hop—check out both sample quilts in person and get the pattern before it’s available anywhere else! The shop is also hosting a trunk show of quilts from my other patterns as well as from the current and previous issues of Stitch. And if you want to chat in person or have a pattern signed, I’ll be at the store on Saturday, November 5 from 12:00 to 3:00. I’d love to meet you, and you’ll love the shop!

Sewing for modern men (with free pattern)

2011-09-30T15:31:00.001-07:00

The Fall issue of Stitch sought projects for men, so as a member of the male species, it seemed me duty to contribute a few—but what? Handcrafting gifts for men is a perennial challenge. You want people to ask the guy, “Hey, where’d you get that cool sweater?” instead of “[snigger snigger] Did your mom make you that lame sweater?” Earth tones and sports themes typify much of the sewing world’s attempts at “masculine,” but I tried to think what the boyfriends and husbands of the average Stitch reader would be interested in—guys who are more likely to shoot zombies in a video game than shoot deer on the first day of hunting season.

I’d been toying with the basic idea of my Gadget Messenger Bag for a while: a built-in USB hub gives a place to stow flash drives and receiver dongles, then its concealed cord plugs everything into a laptop at once. It makes the bag a little more “techy” to excite a gadget freak, and it’s a little something extra to differentiate the bag from an off-the-shelf version—if you’re going to the trouble of sewing something, I figure there should be something to take it beyond what you could just go out and buy. The USB appliqué motif on the flap is another bit of geekery.

Staying with the computer-geek theme, I designed a scarf loosely inspired by circuit boards. As with the USB flap appliqué on the bag, I limited the color pop to a single shade on a neutral background—I think most guys these days appreciate some color but don’t want to be too flashy. The couched yarn lines hint at classic pinstriping. I don’t know about other guys, but the Other and I would be fighting over the Circuit Scarf if we lived in a place where current temperatures were dipping below 75°F. Poor us, right?

I’m not much of a car guy, but I know lots of guys have near-symbiotic relationships with their cars, so I also wanted to come up with a good gift for car lovers. A look at the wad of papers in my glove compartment was all it took to inspire the Road Warrior Organizer as a place to corral registration and insurance papers along with the vehicle owner’s manual. And you can download the pattern free from the Stitch website! For the messenger bag and scarf patterns, you’ll have to check out the magazine.

On a somewhat related note, may I just say that finding hardware for these projects was the hardest part? Square rings for the bag strap were impossible to locate (I ended up using key rings from the hardware store). And I had to jury-rig a way to install the snap on the organizer since none of the fabric stores in the area carried the actual installation hardware for the type of snap they’d sold me. If you’re making any of the projects, I wish you better hardware luck!

Stitch, Fall 2011: Paper Shredder Quilt

2011-09-16T17:53:00.001-07:00

The Fall issue of Stitch has been out for a while, but somehow I never got a chance to show any of my projects in it round these parts. No sooner had I spread my Paper Shredder Quilt out on the sofa than it was occupied by not one, but two of the local quadrupeds, eager to coat a new quilt with their abundant fur. I swear, they weren’t posed. Is it just me, or do they seem to be telling the photographer to back the eff off? Bloody ingrates.

I wanted the quilt to look like strips of paper falling from a paper shredder and gathering in a pile, and of course I love text-print fabric. I had a lot of fun making the quilt, and I think it’s one of my favorites of the projects I’ve designed for Stitch. It’s also about as close to improvisational piecing as I get—the blocks are cut apart pretty casually to insert the strips of typographic prints, but there’s still a bit of planning necessary to keep the strips lined up. There’s a method to the cultivated madness.

Quilting it was fun too, using straight lines at random angles to enhance the cut-paper effect. Some details of the quilting process are discussed on the Stitch blog, and of course the full pattern is available in the Fall issue of the magazine.

Maybe the animals weren’t mad at me so much as concerned that I’d removed their stairs to get a cleaner shot—poor Princess Fluffinstuff is stranded on the sofa without her doggy steps. Here the steps have been returned to the relief of all creatures.

AccuQuilt giveaway winner!

2011-09-05T14:40:00.001-07:00

The votes are in, and your favorite block was the one designed by

Belinda K.
of Blue Ribbon Designs

The seasonally appropriate block combines appliqué using shapes from the 55041 Fall Medley and 55331 Stems and Leaves dies with a pieced nine-patch background (55021 Value Die), plus a couple details from the 55012 Circles die. Lots of possibilities for fabric choices and quilting/threadplay here…

I’ve e-mailed Belinda to claim her prize—an AccuQuilt Go Baby fabric cutter and her choice of three compatible dies. Congratulations Belinda! (Check out her blog to see some lovely pincushions she made using my tutorial.) Thanks again to those who entered other fantastic block designs, and to all of you who voted. And of course, thanks to AccuQuilt for sponsoring the giveaway!

AccuQuilt giveaway update: Finalist round

2011-08-31T10:39:00.001-07:00

All your votes in the block design contest are testing the limits of the polling system! In fact, we’ve hit the limit of the number of votes it’ll allow. But it’s only Wednesday, and voting is supposed to stay open until Sunday—so here’s the (revised) plan.
The 3 blocks that had the most votes when the original poll hit its limit will go into a finalist round. That means everybody can for their favorite of those 3, whether you’ve voted in the first round or not. Hopefully that will allow everybody to still get a vote in before September 4, when the voting was originally supposed to end.
The new poll is in the sidebar on the right (if you’re in a feed reader, click on over to see it). Votes will stay open until September 4 at 11:59pm PT, and this time the poll will accept as many votes as you feed it! The final winner of the AccuQuilt cutter and dies will be whoever is the favorite finalist. Update: Votes are in; see the new post for the winner!

Sorry to be changing things up in the middle; after much thought this seemed like the best way to solve the problem.
The finalists are…

Barbara D.

Dies used:

55041 Fall Medley (pumpkin, acorns, and leaves)

Belinda K.

Dies used (12" × 12" block):

55021 Value Die (4½" square for nine-patch background)
55012 Circles (2" circle)
55041 Fall Medley (acorns and leaves)
55331 Stems and Leaves (slightly curved stem)

Sara P.

Dies used:

55331 Stems and Leaves (for wavy appliqué background)
55007 Round Flower

Giveaway: Vote for your favorite block to choose a winner!

2011-08-29T16:17:00.001-07:00

Update: The high volume of votes have created technical difficulties...the original poll is now closed, and the 3 leading blocks enter the finalist round. Vote for your favorite finalist in the blog sidebar, even if you voted in the first round!

The entries are in for the AccuQuilt block design contest—who wins the Go Baby cutter and dies depends on whose block is your favorite. Take a look at all the entries, then vote at the bottom of the post (votes are limited to one per person/IP address, so choose carefully!). Voting ends Sunday, September 4 at 11:59pm PT.

I’m thrilled that these blocks use AccuQuilt dies in clever ways I never would have thought of. The dies each designer used are listed so we can all benefit from their creativity. In general I’ve listed extra info the designers sent regarding block size, specific die shapes used, etc.—a couple designers also sent pictures of quilt layouts using their blocks, but in fairness to everybody I’m just posting the blocks themselves. But keep potential block settings in mind when picking your favorite!

Thanks and good luck to everyone who entered, and thanks for voting!

Anne V.

Dies used (10" × 10" block):

55007 Round Flower (for the outer eye, inner eye, feet, forehead, and beak)
55328 Tulip (for the wings)
55331 Stems and Leaves (for the ear tufts, branch, and leaves)
55036 Apple Core (for the body)

Barbara D.

Dies used:

55041 Fall Medley (pumpkin, acorns, and leaves)

Belinda K.

Dies used (12" × 12" block):

55021 Value Die (4½" square for nine-patch background)
55012 Circles (2" circle)
55041 Fall Medley (acorns and leaves)
55331 Stems and Leaves (slightly curved stem)

Darlene M.

Dies used (starting from a basket block in the EQ7 Block Library):

55045 Rose of Sharon (flowers, circles, and leaves)
55331 Stems and Leaves

Michelle F.

Dies used:

55331 Stems and Leaves (overlapped large and small leaves, branched and S-shaped stems)
55042 Funky Flowers (overlapped “flower that looks like a fat man figure”—I love that description!)
55334 Fun Flower (overlapped)
55045 Rose of Sharon (overlapped circles).
55054 Strip Cutter – 4½" (for nine-patch background)

Michelle S.

Dies used:

Sara P.

Dies used:

55331 Stems and Leaves (for wavy appliqué background)
55007 Round Flower

VOTE!

~~Cast your vote for the winner below (if your browser doesn’t allow scripts, click the link to view the poll and cast your vote).~~ Vote for a finalist in the sidebar!

Giveaway deadline tonight!

2011-08-26T13:16:00.001-07:00

Just a reminder…if you haven’t entered the block design contest to win an AccuQuilt Go Baby and dies, you have until 12:00am PT to get your entry in! Check the original post for how to enter and my tute for tips on working with die shapes in EQ7.

Whether you enter or not, check back on Monday to see the blocks and vote for your favorite!

EQ7 Tutorial: Changing block size and merging shapes into a single EQ block

2011-08-22T15:21:00.001-07:00

If you’ve started working in EQ7 on your block design competition entry, you may have noticed that the AccuQuilt blocks are drawn at the same overall size as the corresponding die—so if you want to use shapes from a 6" × 12" die, say, it looks like your block has to be that size: if you change the dimensions of your block canvas in EQ, the shapes change too, which means they’re no longer cuttable using the the dies. It gets even trickier when you want to work with shapes from multiple dies to make a block, especially when the shapes come from dies that are different sizes.

But it can be done! This 12" block is proof of that. It uses shapes from the Go Daisy die (6" × 6") and the Go Feathers die (5" × 10"), and the shapes are all kept at their original, die-cuttable sizes.

Here’s how I was able to retain the original sizes and work with shapes from multiple dies in a single block. This is the easiest way I’ve found, but leave a comment if you have any other tricks!

After adding the AccuQuilt die blocks you want to work with to your Sketchbook, open one of them on the Block Worktable (this one is the full Daisy block). Make sure your Precision Bar is showing (turn it on or off in the View menu). Select all the shapes shown in the Applique tab with the Pick tool (hit Ctrl+A to select them all automatically), and note the dimensions shown in the Precision Bar:
Deselect the shapes by clicking elsewhere on the worktable. The Precision Bar will now show the size of the block itself:

Since the Daisy die measures (nominally) 6" × 6", that’s the size this block was drawn at. Change the numbers in the Block Width and Block Height fields to the size you want your actual block to be—for this example, a 12" × 12" block. The shapes will stretch to match the new proportions:

As a result, the block looks exactly the same at this point—only the ruler and Precision Bar show that it’s been scaled up to 12". But we want to use shapes we can actually cut with the die, so they have to be changed back to the size they were in the 6" block.
Select all the shapes again.

The dimensions now shown in the Precision Bar aren’t significant. Replace them with those you noted in Step 1, and you’ll get this:

The shapes are now back to the size at which they were originally drawn—that is, the size the die will actually cut. Save this block to the Sketchbook. If you want to design a block using shapes from just this one die, you can go ahead with your design at this point. But if you want to add shapes from other dies…
View the Sketchbook and edit the block with the shape you want to add. I only needed the teardrop shape from the Feathers die, so that’s the block I used. Again note the dimensions of the shape(s):

Then copy the shape to the clipboard, using the toolbar button or Ctrl+C.
View the Sketchbook again and edit the block you saved in Step 3. Then paste the shape from the clipboard (toolbar or Ctrl+V). It will be selected when you paste it, showing that its dimensions have changed to suit the proportions of the new block:

But again, this isn’t the shape’s size on the actual die.
Change the shape dimensions to those you recorded in Step 4:

Now the shape is scaled appropriately, and you can move, rotate, flip, and otherwise rearrange the shapes with confidence that the die cutter will still work—as long as you don’t resize the shapes, of course.

By the way, this method will work for any EQ blocks, not just those based on AccuQuilt dies—pull shapes from the Block Library blocks into your own designs, or vice versa.

Giveaway: AccuQuilt Block Design Contest

2011-08-18T17:53:00.001-07:00

Update: See the entries and vote for your favorite!

Want to win your own AccuQuilt Go Baby die cutter and your choice of 3 dies? Well, AccuQuilt and I want to send them to you! I’ve always found Lady Luck to be a bit of a b*tch, so to win this giveaway you have to get creative—I want to see what you’d do with your die cutter.

For a chance to win, design an original quilt block using AccuQuilt Go die shapes. But how, you might ask, are you supposed to design a block with die shapes if you don’t already have a die cutter? There are a couple ways. If you use EQ7, you can download block libraries featuring AccuQuilt shapes and drop them into a quilt design—I showed a couple blocks I made with EQ in this post. You can still enter if you don’t have EQ7, though: just download this PDF with a selection of die shapes (each page shows a different die), print it, cut the shapes out, and arrange them to design a block out of paper or fabric. These die shapes are best for appliqué, but you could design a pieced block using other Go dies if you like. You don’t have to sew anything—just show us what you could do if you won the cutter and dies.

The block background can be any size you like, though it has to be possible to cut the shapes out with AccuQuilt dies, so make sure not to resize any of the shapes.

E-mail a JPG or PNG of your block design to giveaway[at]feeddog[dot]net by midnight (Pacific Time) on August 26, including in your e-mail a list of the dies used (check the Notecards in EQ7 or the footer at the bottom of the PDF pages). I’ll post all the entries here and readers will be able to vote for their favorite. After a week of voting, whichever block has received the most votes will win a free Go Baby cutter and dies for its designer.

One entry per person please. Tell your friends so we can build a great gallery of block ideas! Designs remain the property of their designers, but by entering you give permission to display your block on this blog and feeddog.net.

If you’re working in EQ7, it’s easiest to make a “block” on the Quilt Worktable, but stay tuned here for some tips on getting the die shapes into the Block Worktable.

Good luck!

Tutorial: Fussy-cutting stripes with AccuQuilt triangle dies

2011-08-03T19:01:00.001-07:00

Triangles cut from striped fabric can be used for lots of cool piecing effects, like setting the stripes to make concentric shapes or to radiate from a central point, as in this version of my hexagon pincushion. With a little care, this is pretty easy to do using an AccuQuilt Go triangle die—I’m again using the trusty Equilateral Triangles die they sent me, but this method could be adapted to any die for half-square triangles, isosceles triangles, or what-hast-thou.

Definitely start by watching Ebony Love’s video series (part 1, part 2, and part 3) on marking AccuQuilt dies. She gives a very thorough explanation of how she marks her dies not only to make the blades easier to see but also to help with fabric placement. Per her recommendation, I used a silver Sharpie pen to mark up my die; other opaque, light-colored permanent markers could work too.

This tute covers marking the Equilateral Triangles to cut the radiating stripes I used for the pink hexagon pincushion—you’ll want to change the position and direction of your guide markings if you’re going for a different effect.

Start by tracing the blades of the die with your marker. The thickness of the marker line is greater than that of the blade, so if you’ve covered all the marker lines with fabric you want to cut, you’ll know the shape will be cut completely.
Find the vertical center of your triangle to mark guide lines. The long edges of the biggest Equilateral Triangle on the die is 2½", so measure in 1¼" from the corner and mark at a right angle to the blade. You can continue this line through the shape to extend past the opposite point, or you can just mark outside the shape like I’ve done; in any case, extend the guide lines ½–¾" past the edges of the shape.
The Equilateral Triangles die cuts 2-up of each size triangle and I did mark both of my big triangles, but unless your particular stripe is the cosmic soulmate of your die, you probably won’t be able to cut two triangles side by side with the same stripe placement, so you really only need to mark the one triangle you’ll use for stripe cutting.
Rotary cut strips of fabric. To maintain accuracy, I used 2 strips of fabric, each cut at 3×9", to get my 6 triangles. This gives a comfortable margin to ensure you get 3 full triangles from each strip, with stripes in the same position on each. Make sure the stripe you want in the center of your triangles is in the center of the strip (i.e., under the 1½" mark on your ruler).
Place one fabric strip on the die, just covering the marked-up shape at one end of the strip. Center the central stripe on the guide line you marked:
Fold the strip down to cover the die shape again, making sure the central stripe is centered on the guide line at the fold. Try not to shift the lowest layer of fabric out of place—the central stripe should always be centered on the guide lines.
Fold the strip back up again. The die shape should be covered 3 times now, and you should be able to see that both guide lines are centered on the central stripe.
Carefully place the cutting pad over the die and fabric—don’t disturb your careful fabric placement! Then roll it through the die cutter as usual. Repeat from step 4 for the remaining fabric strip, and you should have 6 triangles with stripes running straight up from base to point.

You may notice that my stripes aren’t exactly lined up. I’m going to look for a finer-point Sharpie to make more precise guide lines; for my purposes, the stripes met each other well enough at the seams, and where they meet at the center is covered with a button and flowers anyway.

Before you get cutting, though, a note about the anatomy of stripes: the pink floral stripe I used was symmetrical, so folding the fabric back and forth resulted in essentially the same configuration of stripes in the finished triangles. If the stripes aren’t symmetrical, one of the three triangles will be upside down compared to the other two:

The upside-down triangle results in stripes that are a mirror image of the others. This stripe almost looks symmetrical, but compare the blue and brown stripes to either side of the center dotted stripe—they’re not quite the same. Arranged willy-nilly, the stripes won’t line up properly:

But they will join up neatly at the seams if you alternate the placement of the normal stripes and the mirrored stripes:

Much better, eh? This’ll work for the whole hexagon as long as you arrange and fold the second fabric strip opposite to the first so you have an equal number of normal stripes and mirrored stripes, and continue alternating mirror vs. normal.

At first I didn’t think these asymmetric stripes would work at all with this technique, so I was pleasantly surprised when I worked out how to do it. I’m thinking this will make a pretty snazzy pincushion—maybe edged with some brown ball trim?

Tutorial: AccuQuilt Equilateral Triangle pincushion

2011-07-27T16:19:00.001-07:00

When I first talked about the dies AccuQuilt sent me, I mentioned that dies like the Equilateral Triangles and Hexagons were designed to work together. If you sew six of the triangles together, they’re the same size as the corresponding hexagon—and that’s really all there is to this pincushion! But I’ll walk you through the details.

For most of the pincushions I’ve made so far, I used two different fabrics (longtime readers may recognize scraps from my Hilltop Drive quilt for Stitch), but you could also make it scrappy with a different fabric for each triangle. In my next post I’ll show you how I matched the stripes up using just one fabric for the pink pincushion.

Each of these dies has three sizes of the shapes; this tute uses the biggest ones, but the process would be the same to make a smaller pincushion with the smaller shapes.

What you need

Scraps of fabric for triangles, each at least 3×3"
4½×5¼" scrap of fabric for backing
AccuQuilt GO! Equilateral Triangles Die (55079)
AccuQuilt GO! Hexagons Die–2", 3", 5" (55011)
AccuQuilt GO! or GO! Baby die cutter and 6×12" cutting mat
Ground walnut shells (sold by pet stores as bird litter) or other filling
Button
Extra scraps of fabric or felt for flower embellishment (optional)
Needle and thread, sewing machine, and the other usual suspects

How to make it

Seam allowances are ¼". Sew all pieces with right sides together unless otherwise specified.

Using the dies, cut out 6 large triangles and 1 large hexagon. I cut 3 triangles from each of my fabrics. Arrange the triangles to form a hexagon, alternating fabrics. Try to align the fabric’s grain with the dies’ blades so at least one edge of each piece will be on the straight of grain.
To avoid Y-seams, sew the triangles together to make 2 half-hexagons, 3 triangles each. (Use a short stitch length if you’re filling with small particles like walnut shells.) Chain-piecing makes this super easy: sew the first 2 triangles from the left half-hexagon, then the first 2 triangles of the right half-hexagon, then add the third triangle to the left section, then the third to the right. Press the seam allowances in opposite directions for each half-hexagon.
Put the half-hexagons right sides together, matching up the outer edges and the seams. Pin if desired (I just rely on my machine’s dual feed for small projects like this), and sew the half-hexagons together on the longest edge. Press the seam allowance to one side. You should have a pieced hexagon equal in size to the die-cut hexagon, and thanks to the blunt corners of the triangles, no dog ears to chop off. I forgot to take a picture of this for the blue and green pincushion, so here it is in pink:
Put the pieced and die-cut hexagons right sides together. To help turn the open edge in after filling the cushion, start sewing perpendicular to the edge, sewing in ¼" and then pivoting 90 degrees to sew the actual seam. This photo shows the stitching at the start of my seam on the left, and the presser foot is positioned to sew out to the edge the same way after sewing all the way around the hexagons:

Leave a gap as shown for filling, and sew the hexagons together using the triangle seams as guides for where to pivot at corners—when your needle meets the stitching, leave it down in the fabric (shown below), lift the presser foot, pivot to sew the next side, put the foot back down, and keep going until you get back the triangle you started on (finish the end as shown above).
Clip the corners (and pretend my seams are perfect).
Turn the cushion right side out through the gap, using a chopstick or other blunt tool to gently push out the corners, then give it a quick press. Looks much tidier this way, no?
Spoon walnut shells into the cushion through the opening. You may want to set the cushion in a small box or bowl to catch any shells that go astray. Walnut shells are supposed to act like emery to sharpen pins, and I also like that they give the pincushions a little more heft than polyfill. A 7-pound bag of ground shells cost me about $10 at the pet store and is way, way, way more than I needed for all four of these cushions; I’m going to share the remains with anybody at my quilt guild who wants to make pincushions for our quilt show shop. Anyway, stuff the pincushion as full as you’re comfortable with, but make sure there’s a little give so you can cinch through the center without bursting seams and showering your sewing space in nut shells. Then ladder-stitch the opening closed.
If your button isn’t particularly dazzling, cut a flower or two from felt or fabric and center it right side up on the top of the pincushion. Using strong thread, sew the button centered on top, sewing all the way through the pincushion to cinch it in the middle. The stitches on the back may want to pull the weave of the fabric open if your cushion is heavily filled; if you prefer, sew through another small button on the back to support the stitches.

All done! You can probably whip up a cushion faster than it took to read the instructions.

These pincushions would be great foundations for embellishing further—you could insert rickrack in the side seam or put more elaborate fabric flowers on top, or even just use a fancier button than I had in my stash. Leave a comment if you have other ideas!

If you’ve got a charity event coming up, feel free to make bunches of ’em to sell—the combination of scrap-friendliness and quick die cutting means they can be cranked out efficiently.

As mentioned above, stay tuned for details on how I marked up my die to fussy-cut striped fabric…and to learn how you could win your own Go Baby cutter and dies from AccuQuilt!

Initial thoughts on the AccuQuilt GO! Baby die cutter

2011-07-22T12:15:00.001-07:00

AccuQuilt generously sent me a Go Baby die cutter to play with, and I’ve been doing just that in the spare moments during the move. I’ll have some fun projects and more specific ideas shortly, but for now I thought I’d make note of some of my first thoughts on the cutter.

Not a rotary replacement: I don’t say this as a bad thing at all! Instead, it does what rotary cutters can’t do. All the publicity materials for Go cutters say that die cutting is up to 90% faster than rotary cutting, but with all due respect to the company that sent me free stuff, I can’t say I really give two ticks. Even after using die cutters for a while, for me, cutting strips and squares is still a job best assigned to the rotary cutter. It’s not about fabric wastage, which I know is a big concern for some die-cutting resistors (AccuQuilt is great about giving specific instructions for how to fold fabric to minimize waste)—it just feels simpler to slap the yardage down on the cutting mat and slice through it. What I do find delightfully appealing about die cutting, though, is the ease with which you can cut shapes that are impractical or impossible with rotary cutters: hexagons, certain triangles, circles, and a whole plethora of appliqué shapes (especially nice when you need mountains of the same shape). So just as the dawn of rotary cutters didn’t mean scissors were suddenly banished from our sewing rooms, die cutting can be thought of as another cutting method to have in your arsenal—choose whichever tools are best suited to the task at hand.

Portability: The cutter folds up into a compact little package that’s easy to carry around and, more to the point, store. Even the full-size AccuQuilt Go dwarfs this thing, and you can still cut any Go die up to 6" wide (the opening’s actually about 7" wide since the 6" measurement is only nominal). The footprint when closed is probably a quarter of my other comparable die cutter. I thought maybe the fold-down sides/platform would be flimsy, but they feel solid and turn smoothly. And they latch closed with a hidden magnet, which feels super sleek and also means there aren’t any plastic latches to break from wear. It also comes out of the box completely assembled, handle and all.

Die catalog: Since AccuQuilt is dedicated to quilting, you’re using dies made specifically for quilting: corners are blunted and curved edges notched for easy alignment, so you get all the benefits of using a template without the drudgery of actually having to make a template. Many of the dies are also designed to work together. In upcoming posts I’ll show you some ways to use their Equilateral Triangle and Hexagon dies together—you can use the triangles between hexagons to eliminate inset seams, but there’s lots more you can do too, like making a six-pointed star:

The white snowflake in the middle is from the Sparkle-Snowflake die. When I’m done embellishing and constructing, this’ll be a potholder, and I’ll post a full tutorial here.

I’ll also have a tute for this easy pincushion:

I’m on the committee for the quilt guild boutique at our upcoming quilt show, so I’ve had small, fast, easy projects on the brain, and die cutting is a huge help—it’s not just for quilts!

Another of my favorite quilting tools, EQ7, works well with die-cut appliqué shapes, especially using the WreathMaker function:

I was originally thinking of these medallions as quilt blocks, or I might cut the shapes from felt and make a pillow or wallhanging. Again, I’ll give you all the details! Stick around…or if you’re dying to get started, click the button to the right to sign up for AccuQuilt’s e-mail list and get 22 free patterns, and take a look at the other ideas on accuquilt.com.

Free pattern: CD/FQ Box

2011-07-18T12:08:00.001-07:00

Timeless Treasures sent me some cool fabric to design a project with (thanks!), and since I’m always short on boxes to chuck fabric and other supplies in, I took the dimensions from some other boxes I use to store fat quarters and came up with this DIY version. The boxes I’d bought were made for CDs but work beautifully for fat quarters, so I’ve called my version a CD/FQ Box—use to corral your clutter of choice.

The handle strap wraps around the bottom of the box to support it, and the instructions describe two ways of finishing the handles: the loose version shown above, and the tighter one I used on the other end:

Download the PDF pattern here, and stop by Timeless Treasures’ blog SEW Timeless for more projects. And while sewing the box up, as always, beware of feline intervention…

Charley Harper ladybugs

2011-06-27T17:27:00.001-07:00

I made this felt picture based on Charley Harper’s ladybugs a while ago as a break from quilt-size appliqué projects, but I never got around to posting it. Then I caught wind of the Charley Harper Quilt Along and thought it’d be a good time to share.

Judging by the enthusiastic interpretations people have posted to the Quilt Along pool, Harper’s illustrations are ripe for reinterpretation in fabric. My fabric for these ladybugs, wool felt, is relatively boring, but it was a fun, manageable project to stitch up on a whim, and the felt gives it a little dimension.

The Quilt Along’s got me itching to work up some more small Harper-inspired pieces—I’m almost done with a goldfinch in needlepoint that I’ll have to get a photo of. We’re moving house in a few weeks, and I’m envisioning a beautifully composed wall of Charley Harper needlework in the new place: the fused fabric pictures the Mother made for me, a quilt from this pattern I found, maybe some cross-stitch, and whatever other fibrous experiments get my needle aflutter.

Appliqué retreat at Lake Tahoe

2011-06-23T18:40:00.001-07:00

I spent last week at Sandra Mollon’s Appliqué Academy up at Lake Tahoe, and while we didn’t get up to quite the same chair-trolley antics as last year, the Mother was along this time so my quilting friends got a firsthand view of the tree from which the apple fell.

The Valentine, Halloween, and fruit blocks are the work of fellow retreat-goers, while the wild colors on the left, of course, are what I was working on—some peacocks for my next quilt pattern.

It was great having a chance to sew with the Mother rather than trying to describe our respective projects down the phone—and speaking of which, do you want to see what she was working on at the retreat?

I showed my stuff first ’cause hers kind of puts it to shame, no? The way she shades the petals with fussy-cut fabric is incredible, and these blocks (along with the seven others that will make up the quilt) are of her own design, based on Chinese embroideries. While waiting for a flight delay, we hurriedly got her set up on Flickr and a blog of her own—stop by The Happy Appliquer and let her know you want to see more! She’s as prolific as she is talented with appliqué, so I’m sure it’ll be a good read as long as I haven’t totally confused her with the rushed explanation of the computery stuff.

Thanks for coming out, Mom, and thanks Sandra for another great retreat!

Shirtings are the answer?

2011-05-25T21:56:00.001-07:00

I love a good yarn-dye, and back when striped shirts were one of my wardrobe staples (i.e., before the T-shirts and shorts of the freelance life), I was loath to buy stripes that were printed instead of woven—it just seemed chintzy, even before I had a real clue about textiles. Using shirting fabrics for sewing, however, really only entered my mind when Stitch was looking for projects for their “True Blue” feature. The only fabric more traditionally blue than denim is shirting—stripes, checks, herringbone, all lined up right there in the fabric store, almost exclusively in blues.

Usually they’re only used one at a time, whether as a conservative blue business shirt or a foppish seersucker suit, but they’re precoordinated with each other. So I patchworked them together to make this Shirting Stripes Toiletry Bag (the pattern is in the current issue of Stitch):

So that’s how shirtings got in my brain initially. Then, while out tracking down some other non-quilting fabrics, I happened upon some more yarn-dyed stripes in less business-meeting colors:

Some were manufactured by Robert Kaufman in the familiar 44" width, but others were 56" or 58" wide and—here’s the kicker—about half the price of a typical yard of (narrower) quilting cotton. They’re a little thinner than quilting fabric, but you can’t beat the price per square inch. And if you quilt with any degree of devotion, you’ve heard the worrying news about rising cotton prices. So maybe turning to shirtings is one way to keep our costs down? After all, plenty of quilts were definitely made before such a things as purpose-made “quilting fabric” even existed.

I’m certainly not going to be forsaking quilting fabric by any means, but sometimes it’s fun to step away from the usual suspects. And no less a designer than Alexander Girard developed an expansive line of Mexicottons, yarn-dyed woven fabrics in strong color combinations (including a red and pink stripe rather like the one I found). For quilting, yarn-dyes give an extra dimension that isn’t possible when the design is only on the surface of the fabric, which is why shot cottons or crossweaves (or whatever you want to call fabric woven with different colors in the warp and weft) look richer than plain solids. Dobby weaves like in the upper-right red fabric add another design element. I’m starting to see more textural weaves in fabric in quilt shops, both imported from Japan and made by the U.S. manufacturers, so this type of shirting may not be that far from the fabrics offered to quilters after all.

That said, do I know what I’m planning to do with all these stripes? No, can’t say I do. But there’s totally a quilt in there somewhere; it’ll just take a few more trips to quilt shops and fabric stores. Which, of course, will defeat any of the original savings. Sigh. Whose idea was this cotton shortage again?

See Bird Crossing at Market!

2011-05-14T18:46:00.001-07:00

I didn’t make it to International Quilt Market myself this spring, but if you did, stop by the Petersen-Arne booth (no. 2628–33) to check out my Bird Crossing quilt in person before the show closes tomorrow! Petersen-Arne distributes the pattern for this quilt, so if you’re a shop owner, you order on the spot. (If you’re not a shop owner but are itching to make the quilt, ask for it at your local quilt store or get the e-pattern.)

The cool versions I’ve seen made up prove it’s a versatile pattern. Gloria Foley of the Victorian Quilter came up with this one, which you may have seen in her booth on the northern California quilt show circuit:

She called it her “girlified” version, adding hats and baskets to the birds and even showing one of the baby birds snacking on a worm! It’s so fun as a designer to see the creative ways people interpret my patterns.

Gloria recently retired, but her quilt is hanging at Sew Many Quilts in Tracy, California—it’s definitely worth stopping in to see all the details she added (as if you need an excuse to visit a great quilt shop).

I snapped a mobile phone pic of another version on display at the Tokay Stitch ’n’ Quilt Guild’s show last fall:

Check out the bird fabric in the bodies and border! The rickrack in the binding is a nice extra touch, too.

If you’ve made your own Bird Crossing, I’d love to see it! Upload a picture to the Feed Dog Designs photo pool on Flickr to share your creativity.

A few goings-on…

2011-04-06T21:28:00.001-07:00

A while back, I stitched together a pillow with tessellating arrows. It now keeps the Other company in his study, but it can keep you company too! That is, if you make one of your own using the pattern in the April/May issue of Quilter’s Home. (The one with that guy from Extreme Tearjerker: Home Edition on the cover.)

This saucy little bundle of fabric sauntered up the garden path the other day thanks to Timeless Treasures. I’m putting the finishing touches on a new project using the fabrics, and the tutorial will be available here soon for your delectation.

Fabric dyeing the easy way

2011-03-22T16:30:00.001-07:00

I know spring has officially started, but I’ve still been diddling around with snowflake designs (and truth be told, there are still some ~~Christmas~~ winter decorations lingering around the house), so please forgive the aseasonality of the fabrics shown here.

Some time ago Michael5000 posted on his fabric dyeing experiments, including tie-dyeing on top of white-on-white print fabrics. The white ink resisted the dye, so the printed design popped out on top of the dye work. Seemed pretty cool, so I filed the idea away and it’s been rattling round the back of the brain ever since.

That said, I’m not really one for getting out sloppy buckets of dye—an art teacher once accurately observed that I was “one of those kids who didn’t like to get their hands dirty.” Even in kindergarten I refused to finger-paint, and I suspect the relative cleanliness of quilting contributed to its appeal to me as a craft form. At university, though, I had dyed a sheet set with a packet of washing-machine dye—tidy enough, as long as one remained vigilant against other students popping the machine open in mid-dye. Now that access to my washing machine of choice is limited to other members of the household (most of whom lack opposable thumbs), it’d be even easier…

I’ve been collecting snowflake prints with aqua and turquoise backgrounds for a quilt I’m working on, and I’ve managed to assemble quite a stash of them.

That’s just a snapshot of a few of the fabrics I’ve “catalogued”; I’ve searched far and wide (and raided the Mother’s stash) to accumulate similar prints to broaden the range. The more tones of blue-green there are, the better they’ll all work together (though I’ll probably save the apple-green print and some others for different projects). A few fabrics with lighter backgrounds will help the design I have in mind, but white-on-white wasn’t part of the plan—until I found some cool snowflake prints that reminded me of Michael’s dye job.

So I fired up the washing machine, dropped in a pack of turquoise Jacquard iDye, and turned my fingers a lovely Smurf blue while dissolving the packet—see, I’m not afraid of getting my hands dirty! (But next time, use a paint stirrer or something, clever one.) Then in went the fabric. Despite both fabrics being made by Maywood Studio, the one on the right in the photo above was a little yellower than the other, so I figured they’d come out slightly different shades. And sure enough:

The white ink on the bottom fabric resisted the dye more than the top one, so they don’t really look like they came from the same batch. The dye coverage was fairly even too. And now I’ve got two custom fabrics to add to my snowflake stash—and maybe I’ll have the quilt together in time for next winter.

Stitch, Spring 2011: Fabric Nesting Bowls

2011-02-16T16:31:00.001-08:00

You might not naturally put soccer balls and Grandmother’s Flower Garden quilts into the same category, but they actually have some similarities: by using pentagons for some of the pieces instead of hexagons, you can make a round ball instead of a flat quilt. Or, in this case, a bowl that (I think, anyway) looks kind of like a six-petaled flower.

After sewing these up, I can understand the addictive nature other English paper piecers have described—it’s perfect work for in front of the TV or on the go. And the bowls are kind of functionalist in that the “paper” conventionally used in English paper piecing gives the bowls their structure. But you’ll have to check out the spring issue of Stitch to see what I’m talking about!

The sneaky trick the magazine doesn’t reveal, though, is die cutting: for the medium-size bowl, cut the interfacing with the Ellison 2" hexagon die (or the $5 clearance version!) and 2" pentagon die and you can save some tracing of templates. Then the larger and smaller versions just offset the edges of those pieces by ¼" either way. You could try using the three different sizes of hexagons on the AccuQuilt Go hexagon die; just make the bottom edge of the pentagon templates the same length as the corresponding hexagon.

Stitch, Spring 2011: Mellow Mushrooms Mini-Quilt

2011-02-07T12:44:00.001-08:00

Stitch’s “Art of Appliqué” feature was the perfect opportunity to put my stack of coordinating mushroom prints to use. Fabric manufacturers have been generous in releasing toadstools in retro colors, and I had even found a bit of vintage mushroom fabric (the brown print on the right, third up from the bottom). I knew I wanted to combine them with larger, appliquéd mushrooms, but the magazine gave me the needed kick in the behind to convert it from nebulous “someday” project to an actual quilt—and a pattern for you!

While you could easily convert the pattern to your appliqué technique of choice, I did conventional needle-turn appliqué, and I encourage you to give it a try. It’s really not tricky with a bit of practice, and the smooth curves of the mushrooms make it especially easy.

Get the pattern in the Spring 2011 issue of Stitch! And if you’re looking for more mushroom appliqués, check out the vintage mushroom pattern I posted a while back.