The second pattern in this year’s Christmas Club went out this morning!
I must be on a bit of a sweater kick. The first ornament was a snowman sweater. This week’s is a cute dachshund wearing a candy cane sweater.
I’ve wanted to do this design forever! I’ve never actually seen a dachshund in a candy cane sweater – but I always thought that long body would be perfect for those spiraled stripes. 🙂
Why are we doing Christmas patterns already?
I know it’s early – but the holidays can be such a stressful time of checking things off lists that we sometimes don’t have fun. Every year I hear from people who had planned to make a lot of handmade items, but just ran out of time. Or did it – but were completely stressed out by the whole process.
The idea behind the Christmas Club is that we’ll make a dozen handmade felt ornaments (at a relaxed pace so we really enjoy the process) before the holiday craziness really starts at Thanksgiving. No pressure. No sewing machine. Just a little time every week to put our feet up and enjoy hand stitching on some lovely wool felt.
Did you know that once you’ve got the basics of appliqué under your belt, you can appliqué anything? Including your child’s awesome drawings?
You can!
This is one of Jo’s drawings.
I never put a date on it, so I don’t know exactly how old she was when she drew it, but it’s in a sketchbook full of lots of similar gems – and a lot of random scribbles. 🙂
I enlarged it just a bit (so it would fit nicely into a standard 8″ x 10″ frame) and then I used all my basic fusible appliqué techniques to make a stitched version. This required no special skills, materials or techniques.
I left a little extra for pieces to tuck under other pieces – just like in my regular appliqué patterns.
I held the picture up to a window to trace all the line work (the words and the princess’s stick body) and then stitched over those lines with my sewing machine – just like I do the faces for my regular appliqué patterns.
If you can make any of my quilts, you can do this!
You could just watch this free video tutorial and jump into it – especially if your child’s drawings are fairly simple shapes.
If you’re a little nervous about that, or if the drawings are more complex, I recommend making one of my quilts or taking my Craftsy class first. That way you’ll have a bit more of a grounding in the techniques. That experience will help you make good design decisions – like what overlaps what, when to use stitching and when to use appliqué.
It’s super fun – and your kids will be thrilled to see what you do with their work!
Appliqué it to a T-shirt or tote bag for school. Make a pillow for Grandma – holidays are coming up soon! Add a drawing to a receiving blanket for a new baby brother or sister. Put a whole bunch of drawings together into a magnificent quilt! The sky’s the limit. 🙂
Did you know you can use a standard sewing machine to machine stitch eyes on your applique blocks?
You can!
The eyes are often the most difficult part of any of my appliqué patterns.
It can be tricky stitching around those small pieces!
(Tips – shorten your stitch length, go sloooooooooow, raise your presser foot often to spin the piece in tighter turns.)
But with the new Paper Doll Quilt I have reached new lows in tiny eyes.
These eyes are too small to appliqué. Don’t even try it.
So what to do?
You have a few options for the Paper Dolls quilt.
1. You can draw on the eyes with a marker. This is totally ok to do! But please test your marker first – and test it on every fabric you’ll be using because the results can vary. For bigger eyes (like all my animal quilts) I like my Marvy fabric markers. For smaller eyes like these paper dolls I get the best results with a small Sharpie. The worst bleeding I’ve ever had was with official “laundry” markers – go figure. (I share my favorite markers and paints here.)
2. You can embroider the eyes by hand.I really like this stitch for eyes. If you’re using Quilt As You Go you won’t even need to worry about a visible thread carry between the eyes because the batting should completely block it – even with a light color background block and skin color.
3. You can machine stitch the eyes. By machine! And you don’t need an embroidery machine, though it will need to have some fancy stitch options.
I’ve heard from a lot of you who have arthritis and appreciate as many machine options as possible – so I think a lot of you are really going to like this method. I loved it!
Here’s how I did mine. . .
Scroll through your decorative stitches and find one that is a series of round or oval satin stitches.
On my Bernina it’s stitch #407. My much-less-fancy Pfaff has an identical stitch #26. Most machines with decorative stitches will have something like this.
Now comes the slightly tedious part. Start playing around with the length and width of the stitch until you find one that’s right for your project. Once you find the settings you like – write them down! I actually make a little sample of the stitch on white fabric and write the settings directly on the fabric.
I stitched up one eye and made a note of the stitch number, the length and the width. See how this matches the settings on the screen above? Now I can make eyes all the same size whenever I want – and skip the playing around with settings step. 🙂
I have a whole stack of these swatches for any decorative stitch I think I might possibly use again.
When you’re ready to machine stitch eyes, you’re all set!
Check to make sure your bobbin is full. You don’t want to run out in the middle of an eye.
Put your block in the sewing machine and carefully lower the needle right into the top of the eye.
Lower the presser foot.
Stitch one oval. Watch carefully and stop stitching when it gets to the bottom of the oval. Backstitch just a stitch or two and remove it.
One eye done! Pause to admire the neat (easy!) stitching and be excited that we live in a time when such wonders are possible. 🙂
Repeat for the second eye.
Troubleshooting tips. . .
The combination of fusible adhesive and batting behind the block makes a great stabilizer. If you’re not using those (of if you find the fabric is bunching up under your eyes) use a stabilizer behind your stitching. It can be as simple as layering a piece of tissue paper behind the block. You might also need to adjust your tension.
Don’t push or pull or hold back the fabric going through the machine. You really need to just let it go through on its own or you might find that you are making the eyes longer or shorter than what the stitch really should be – and it will be nearly impossible to match every time. Just let those feed dogs do their thing. 🙂
That’s it!
The examples in the post are from the Paper Dolls quilt pattern – but you can use this method to machine stitch eyes any time the eyes are really tiny. In the cover image for the Peekaboo Mouse pattern you can see I used applique eyes on the cat, and machine stitched eyes on the little mice.
Here are links to all the posts showing how to applique with fusible adhesive – my favorite method. It’s fast and easy and (with the right materials) it holds up beautifully to rough use and repeated washing.
I rely heavily on three products/stabilizers for the work I do.
Freezer paper
Sulky Sticky Fabri-solvy
Heat & Bond Fusible Adhesive
(You can find links to sources for all of these – and all my other favorite tools and supplies – here.)
I recently had someone ask when I use each one – and that’s a great question.
Here’s the rundown. . .
Freezer Paper
Freezer paper is an excellent stabilizer.
I use it most often to cut out felt pieces. I print the pattern pieces directly onto the freezer paper. (You can trace if you’re not as lazy as I am.) I iron the paper to the felt and then I cut the pieces out – cutting through the felt and the freezer paper at the same time. Since I label all my pieces it means I have a nice pile of labeled felt pieces, cut perfectly accurately, waiting for me to stitch them together. Awesome!
Freezer paper also works this way when cutting out regular fabric, but I only use it on fairly small pieces – so small that I can’t use pattern weights. I use it for ALL my felt cutting.
Freezer paper is also excellent for fusing to the back of any fabric that you’re going to draw or paint on. If you’ve ever tried to do that without a stabilizer, you know that the pen or marker will tend to drag the fabric along with it. It can be really hard to keep it flat and smooth. Freezer paper makes the fabric act like paper. Handy!
Finally, people use freezer paper for this appliqué method. That used to be my favorite method – until I tested some of the new fusible adhesives out on the market and found a new favorite. 🙂
In all cases – the freezer paper will peel right off when you’re done. It doesn’t leave any residue behind, and you can reuse it a LOT of times before it loses its ability to fuse.
You can find rolls of freezer paper in the grocery store, or shop for printable sheets.
Fusible Adhesive
Fusible adhesive is what I use in all my appliqué projects. That’s mostly quilts, but also T-shirts, tote bags, pillows and more. Unlike the freezer paper – which sticks temporarily to the fabric – the fusible adhesive is a permanent glue.
So the only time I use this product is when I want to permanently stick one piece of fabric to another.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE using Heat & Bond Lite fusible adhesive in printable sheets, as opposed to the stuff you can buy by the bolt. It’s more expensive – yes – but it lets me skip over the tedious tracing step and jump right to the fun part of my appliqué project. That’s worth money to me. 🙂
I use it to transfer embroidery patterns to EVERYTHING. There are other products you could use to transfer a pattern to light-colored, smooth, woven fabric – but Sulky Sticky Fabri-solvy makes embroidery on every surface possible. And it makes stitching on smooth woven cotton easier and better.
With this stuff you can embroider stretchy fabrics like T-shirts and baby onesies (no extra stabilizer needed). You can embroider dark fabrics. You can embroider nappy fabrics like velvet and terrycloth and fleece. You can embroider felt. Oh! How I love embroidering on felt!
I use it to stabilize stretchy fabrics when I appliqué on them. It just washes away – leaving no itchy stabilizer behind.
I freehand all my quilting designs – but if I did anything fancy I would print or draw it on this and stitch through it, then soak it away later.
Freezer paper vs. Sulky Sticky Fabri-solvy
I think this is where most people get confused, because I use both of them extensively when I work with felt.
If I’m just cutting the shape out – I use freezer paper. It’s cheaper and doesn’t require soaking to remove.
If I’m embroidering something on the shape and then cutting it out – I use the Sulky Sticky Fabri-solvy. Sometimes you’ll see me recommend both things in one project – like this snowman ornament.
The hat, hat band, and carrot nose have no embroidery on them. Neither does the back of the ornament. I cut all of those pieces out with freezer paper.
The snowman front and the scarf both have embroidery on them, so for those I printed the pattern on Sulky Sticky Fabri-solvy, stuck it to the felt, embroidered the details, cut it out on the lines, and soaked off the stabilizer. (You can see how this works in this post.)
All of my patterns tell you which product to use where.
I hope that answers your questions about which product I use in which situation! Let me know if you have any other questions about any of them. I love them all and I’m always happy to share info about products that make your crafting easier and more fun. 🙂
These links go to all my posts about quilt supplies.
In fact, one of my most popular blog posts is this one where I talk about putting colors together.
But maybe you’re not into wearing lots of different colors. I have another great color combo for you: a neutral + a pop of color!
How to do it
My philosophy for mixing neutrals and color is to mix warmth, but keep the darkness the same. For example, I mix a warm color with a cool neutral… but keep them about the same lightness.
Here’s a little chart showing some ideas:
See it in action!
I just finished knitting Dromos (well… actually, I finished knitting it a long time ago, but I just finished weaving in the ends!), and I just love it. It combines a medium brown with a soft blue.
Here’s a close up:
Yummy, right? It’s a warm brown mixed with a cool blue, and they’re both similar darkness and a similar muted tone.
And do you remember Phi?
A cool grey plus a warm orange… both fairly dark. Delicious!
Dark grey and lime green? Oh, yeah.
Bonus: whenever you use different colors in a project, it’s an opportunity to stash-bust and use up some odd skeins you might have on hand! Stripes are a stash-busters best friend!
Have you done this before? What’s your favorite color combination?
Here it is! The very last block in the Controlled Chaos scrap quilt!
What You’ll Need
52 two-inch squares in color A (shown in purple)
48 two-inch squares in color B (shown in green)
Instructions
Use 1/4″ seam allowances for all sewing.
Press all the seams as you go. I’m pressing mine open for this quilt. I think it will make things simpler in the end.
Arrange your squares according to the diagram below.
For this block I worked in big chunks. I sewed things up in the following order. . .
Sew all your individual squares into pairs of matching colors. You should have 26 purple pairs and 24 green pairs.
Sew the purple pairs into 2 x 2 squares.
Pull out four of those purple squares. Sew two green pairs to opposite sides of each purple square. Sew the remaining green pairs into eight 1 x 4 rectangles.
Sew these rectangles to the top and bottom of your purple squares, so that there’s a green ring around each of the four purple squares.
Sew the rest of your purple squares into one 2×10 rectangle and two 2 x 4 rectangles.
Sew a 2 x 4 purple rectangle between two purple/green squares. Repeat with the last 2 x 4 purple rectangle and the last two purple/green squares
Assemble your chunks in rows and sew the long 2 x 10 purple rectangle between your other two rows.
Finished!
Well – finished with the blocks. 🙂 I still need to join them all together with sashing strips between them and then quilt the whole thing. Here’s what it’s going to look like. . .
I’ll have a tutorial showing how to do the sashing strips (there’s a little trick to that!) and then tutorials showing basic hand quilting, quilting without marking, and big stitch hand quilting. Yes – I’m going to spend the winter hand-quilting this beauty!
But all of that is going to have to wait just a little bit. I have a new and improved website that I’m really close to launching, so that’s taking a lot of my attention behind the scenes these days. It’ll be worth it! While you wait – finish all your blocks!
Remember – you don’t have to make your quilt the same size or number of blocks as my quilt. You can make fewer quilts for a crib size, or repeat some of the designs in different colors (or make up your own additions!) for a larger quilt. Mine is going to be just the right size for curling up on the couch. 🙂
When I’m teaching new knitters, I notice that a lot of them get caught up in the terms for the different styles of knitting. What is continental knitting? What is throwing? And which one is better?
Do what’s most comfortable
When I teach beginning knitters, I don’t tell them anything about how to hold the yarn. I let them do what’s most comfortable. Most folks intuitively grab the needles and yarn in the way that works best for them!
What is Continental Knitting?
‘Continental Knitting’ refers to holding your yarn in your non-dominant hand. For right-handers, that means holding (and tensioning) the yarn with your left hand.
It’s called this because it’s thought to be the style of knitting most popular on ‘the continent’ of Europe (as opposed to England), but I’ve spoken to a number of international knitters that reveal this generalization isn’t completely accurate. The finer-grained truth is that there are a variety of knitting cultures (with their preferred yarn-holding styles) within Europe… but that’s a whole ‘nother blog post!
I made you a video so that you can see me knitting ‘Continental’:
Most crocheters knit this way, as they are used to tensioning their yarn in their non-dominant hand.
What is Throwing?
Throwing refers to the action of moving the hand holding the yarn around your dominant knitting needle. It is most commonly used with ‘English’ knitting (where you hold your yarn in your dominant hand), but not necessarily.
Most people consider this to be a slower method of knitting… but let me tell you, I know some throwers who make my continental knitting look like it’s happening at a snail’s pace!
I made a little video of me throwing. I’m a bit slower at it because it’s not my usual style!
And more…
There are all kinds of styles of knitting that describe how you hold your hands and where you hold your yarn. We’ve only scratched the surface!
And there is no ‘best’ technique! Each style takes practice and suits different knitters!
However, if you want to do stranded knitting (colorwork), then you’ll probably want to learn both of these techniques for faster two-handed knitting.
But first – let’s move my big head out of the way so you can see the whole quilt. 🙂
You guys saw bits and pieces in the sneak peeks last week, but here’s the entire thing – my Woodland Critters Quilt.
There are 9 different animals, 6 mushrooms, and 4 trees. You also get an alphabet so you can add animal sounds like this. . .
These examples are crib size, but I also include layouts for napping and twin size quilts. That’s the napping size hanging on the wall behind me in the top photo – my favorite size for couch use.
What’s that in front of me? It’s an owl quilt!
I took just one block from the Woodland Critters Quilt and went crazy with all my favorite colors and fun decorative stitches and made this beauty. I love how some of the owls are sleepy and some of them are grumpy. It’s super easy to make the change and I show you how in the class.
The class! Let me tell you what’s in the class!
(I can’t believe how much we packed into seven video lessons!)
I get a lot of emails from people saying they wish I could just come to their house and show them how to make a quilt from start to finish.
This is the next best thing. I show EVERYTHING!
How I choose fabric
How I true up my fabric and cut background blocks
How I quilt my blocks before adding applique
Fusible applique basics – my favorite products and how to use them
My tricks for marking faces and how to handle overlapping bits
Lots and lots of options for doing the eyes (the hardest bit)
How I outline stitch all the pieces
Fancy stitching options
How to appliqué on knits (you’ll see me appliqué a fox on an adorable baby onesie)
How to join those already-quilted blocks
How to back the quilt and finish quilting it
How to bind the quilt
See what I mean? It’s not just an appliqué class – it’s also a beginning quilting class and a QAYG class. You get to keep the class forever and watch it as many times as you like. You can pause it at any time. There’s a handy “go back 30 seconds” button. And you can ask me questions at any time. It’s fantastic!
Update – Please be aware that Craftsy (now Bluprint) has added a subscription plan to their offerings, which changes the way instructor support happens. If you buy the class for your Forever Library, you get instructor support – which means your questions are posted to a special instructor dashboard where I can see them and answer them. If you watch the class as part of the streaming subscription, any questions you post go to the larger class community – not to me. I never even see them, so I can’t answer them.
It’s normally $34.99 (which I think is a terrific price for an exclusive pattern plus all that video content) but for the first week of the release I have a special discount for you. $20 off!
Use this link to get the discounted price.
And use it now – because that is a crazy price and it’s only available until midnight EST on Monday 8/10.
Here’s block #18 in the Controlled Chaos Quilt! There are only two left after this!
What You’ll Need
64 two-inch squares in color A (shown in aqua)
36 two-inch squares in color B (shown in red)
Instructions
Use 1/4″ seam allowances for all sewing.
Press all the seams as you go. I’m pressing mine open for this quilt. I think it will make things simpler in the end.
Arrange your squares according to the diagram below.
For this block I worked in big chunks. I sewed things up in the following order. . .
Sew all your individual squares into pairs of matching colors. You should have 32 aqua pairs and 18 red pairs.
Sew the aqua pairs into large 4 x 4 squares. You’ll need four of them.
Sew the red pairs into 2 4×2 rectangles and 2 rows each 10 squares long.
Sew the long red rows together into one long rectangle 2 x 10 squares.
Sew one aqua block to one short red 2 x 4 rectangle and then to another aqua block. Repeat with the remaining aqua blocks and 2 x 4 red rectangles.
Assemble the final block by sewing an aqua/red row to the long red 2 x 10 rectangle and then to the last aqua/red row.
That’s 18 blocks done. I can’t believe we’re down to the last two!
Here’s what I calculated I’ll need to finish the quilt. I’m going to use a grey solid – I’m looking for a nice slate color. I’ll need. . .
1 1/4 yards for the sashing
5 yards for the backing
3/4 yard for the binding
I usually use Cuddle Fleece to back my quilts, but I want to hand quilt this one and I think the Cuddle Fleece will be too thick for that, so I’m going to use the same grey fabric. I’m going to big stitch quilt in a lot of different colors – it should make pretty speckling on the back and they’ll show up nicely on the solid.
I’ll be back next week with the penultimate block!
