Talk Like a Pirate Day is coming up soon – September 19th!
To celebrate, I’m taking my favorite pirate embroidery pattern and giving it away for free. Free!
Stitch up a fun Wanted: Dead or Alive poster. I include a Peg Leg Pete pattern with an image of a boy pirate and also a Hurricane Hattie pattern with an image of a girl pirate. There were lots of female pirates out there – this is a great book about some of them.
You can even personalize the poster with your own pirate’s name!
What You Get
Full-sized patterns for small (6 x 7 1/2 inch) and large (8 x 10 inch) images and alphabets – no enlarging needed
Reversed patterns for use with iron-on transfer tools
Complete color and stitch guide
Instructions for personalizing with a custom pirate name
Links to videos teaching all the stitches used
What You’ll Need
Fabric to be embroidered (I used unbleached muslin, soaked in hot tea for about half an hour to stain it)
Your favorite tools for transferring the pattern (you all know I swear by Sulky Sticky Fabri-solvy)
Embroidery needle, thread, and hoop
Difficulty
Easy! The whole pattern uses just 3 simple embroidery stitches – and there are links to videos teaching all three.
It’s easy – but all that fill stitching does take a lot of time. Expect to spend several evenings on this one.
If you like this free pattern, sign up for the Shiny Happy News! Members get a weekly newsletter full of sewing tips and tricks, free patterns, special discounts, and other things to make you smile. 🙂
Want to learn how to make a quilt with an easy online workshop – totally free?
Sign up for Let’s Make a Quilt here. You’ll learn how to get started, the tools and supplies you’ll need, and how to make a quilt from start to finish using Quilt As You Go and applique with fusible adhesive.
It’s the easiest, most fun way to make an applique quilt. You can do it!
Applique a pretty butterfly with this free pattern!
Nothing creepy. A ladybug, a bee and a butterfly. Maybe a grasshopper and a worm.
In the end I decided to just make it a wild riot of colorful flowers – bug free.
But I kept thinking about the bugs. The zinnias in my garden and the butterfly bushes in my yard are in full bloom right now and they are covered with swarms of beautiful butterflies.
I realized that I could release a free butterfly pattern, scaled to match the blocks in the Wild Flowers quilt. That way you can substitute one (or more) butterfly blocks for any of the square blocks in the quilt.
Fun!
Of course, you don’t have to make a quilt. You could use this solo block pattern in a pillow, a tote bag, a tablet cover, a wall hanging or more. You could applique it on a finished T-shirt or on a tea towel.
You could also go totally quilt crazy and make a bunch of butterfly blocks in different colors and join them into one joyous, colorful quilt!
Have fun with it!
Want to see a mock up of the butterfly applique pattern mixed in with the flowers from the Wild Flowers pattern?
See it? I tweaked the color a bit in photo editing to make it stand out more, but you’d let it blend in real life. 🙂
This is easy peasy applique. All of the instructions use my favorite applique with fusible adhesive technique (with links to video tutorials, of course) but you could also use needle turn or freezer paper applique.
Materials Needed
For each block you’ll need an 11 inch square of fabric for the background, scraps of fabric for the butterfly and one sheet of fusible adhesive. (I usethis printable product – no tracing!)
If you’re doing Quilt As You Go you’ll also need an 11 inch square of cotton batting.
The image has already been reversed, so just trace or print.
Step 2
Rough cut around each shape.
Leave a little bit extra all the way around Â- a little extra extra (at least 1/4 inch) where there’s a dotted line Â- the inside edges of the wings where they’ll tuck under the body.
Step 3
Fuse each pattern piece to the wrong side of the fabric.
Step 4
Cut around each piece.
Cut directly on the solid lines. Leave a little seam allowance on the dotted lines – that’s where the inside edges of the wings will tuck under the main body piece.
Step 5
If you’re doing Quilt As You Go then you can quilt your block before adding the applique. So easy!
Cut your background block and your batting 11 inches square. Layer them together and quilt any pattern you like!
If you’ll do the quilting later, simply skip this step. (That’s what I did for my sample block – so you won’t see a quilted background in the following photos.)
Step 6
Peel off the paper backing and arrange the butterfly pieces on your background block. Tuck the edges of the wings behind the body, and the top wings behind the bottom wings.
Remember -Â all the dotted lines indicate where pieces tuck behind other pieces.
Fuse the pieces in place, following the package instructions for whatever brand of fusible adhesive you’re using.
Step 7
Stitch around all the pieces. I just did simple straight line stitching in black thread.
I love the cartoony effect.
This post has more information about outlining stitching your applique.
Done!
One free butterfly applique pattern becomes as lovely fabric butterfly block!
If you’re making one-Âblock project, go ahead and finish it up!
If you’re making a bunch of butterfly blocks to join into a quilt -Â have fun!
It’s finished! Jo’s T-shirt quilt is finished – and just in time.
Whew!
I finished the last bit of the binding at midnight the night before she had to leave for school. It’s a good thing Jo wanted to spend her final night at home watching a Doctor Who marathon (perfect for binding handwork) otherwise I was sure I’d be finishing it in the car on the way. 🙂
Yes – that’s Cuddle Fleece on the back. She’s just crazy about that stuff! She actually asked me to make her a pillowcase out of it the morning before leaving for school. I had to tell her I’d mail it to her. 🙂
The finished quilt fits a twin-size bed with an overhang all around. It’s 72 inches wide and 87 inches long – made up of thirty 15-inch squares.
I know you can’t see all the individual blocks with it wrapped around her, so here it is all flat.
The image is actually a digital mock-up of the finished blocks. I used it to help me decide on the final layout without crawling around on the floor.
The blank gray squares you see are where Jo didn’t have quite enough T-shirts for the size quilt she wanted. I filled those spots in with favorite fabrics she picked from my stash.
I love how it’s a collection of all the things she’s loved/been obsessed with over the last 8 or 9 years. I see a lot of cats in there. . .
. . . some geeky goodness. . .
. . . a reminder of a terrific Dragon*Con panel with the creators of Fraggle Rock. . .
. . . Minecraft and other video games. . .
. . .our trip to Japan. . .
. . . and (of course) Doctor Who.
Quilting was simple. She didn’t want batting – just the Cuddle Fleece backing – so I didn’t have to worry about quilting closely enough to hold the batting in place. I just stitched in the ditch between each block. Here are some videos to help you with the final steps of the project.
Try this easy chevron quilt pattern. It’s free. 🙂
That’s right – FREE! And that doesn’t mean it’s some skimpy abbreviated form of one of my regular patterns. You’ll get everything one of my regular quilt patterns normally includes.
Complete instructions – including yardage requirements, cutting instructions, and assembly diagrams – for five different sizes.
Crib (48″ x 61″)
Nap (60″ x 72″)
Twin (66″ x 83″)
Queen (84″ x 94″)
King (108″ x 94″)
Detailed instructions with step-by-step photos showing how to assemble the blocks.
Instructions (and diagrams) for pieced backs for all the quilt sizes.
Links to videos teaching you all the skills you’ll need to complete the project – including basting, quilting and binding.
This is a very easy quilt – easy to cut, easy to sew, and easy to machine quilt. And it’s designed to make efficient use of fat quarters and all your scraps. Wait until you see how this one goes together!
Want the pattern? Here’s the link to download it!
If you like this free pattern, sign up for the Shiny Happy News! Members get a weekly newsletter full of sewing tips and tricks, free patterns, special discounts, and other things to make you smile. 🙂
Here’s a free felt coaster pattern so you can stitch up some fancy floral finery.
Coasters are a bit of an issue for me.
I have a glass of ice water within reach all day long. I have a lot of potter friends – so most of my cups and glasses are lovely to look at and delightful to hold, but completely uninsulated so they sweat like crazy.
I’m always seeing pretty, pretty coaster tutorials online – and I’ve made a few. But the fabric ones (which are what I love to make) just catch the water and hold it in place. They usually soak completely through, so instead of getting a ring on my furniture – I get a big blobby smear.
Then I had a bit of an epiphany. Maybe everyone else has already thought of this – but none of the tutorials I’ve read mention it and it was a new idea for me, so. . . what if I put something waterproof inside a coaster – to block the moisture from soaking through to the bottom? Of course! *smacks forehead* I could make some very pretty – and also completely functional – felt coasters! Happy dance!
Fast forward to today. My felt coasters are finally finished – and I have a free pattern for you!
These are not hard to make – they only use very simple stitches – but they take a lot of time. Luckily, they’re small and easy to schlepp around for some portable handwork to pull out at the doctor’s office, the park, on long car trips, etc.
What You Need for This Felt Coaster Pattern
You can find links to sources for all my favorite tools and supplies here.
1 1/2 sheets wool-blend felt for the coasters (I used licorice)
4 squares of waterproof fabric for the inside of the coasters (I used scraps from some art aprons I used to make, but you could use anything waterproof like an old raincoat or shower curtain liner)
small scraps of wool-blend felt in assorted colors for the flowers and butterflies
embroidery thread in colors to match the felt
Sulky Sticky Fabri-solvy (optional)
freezer paper (optional)
size 8 embroidery needle (optional)
Thread Magic (optional)
So there you are! Download your patterns and gather up some felt and thread in pretty colors and start stitching! It’s fun – and the finished coasters are so, so pretty. 🙂
How to Make Them
Step 1
Download the base coaster pattern here and trace or print it onto a rough side of a sheet of Sulky Sticky Fabri-solvy. I use Sulky Sticky FabriÂSolvy every time I work with felt. I love it!
Cut the four squares apart (leaving a little extra room around each square), peel off the paper back and stick the film to a square of felt.
Step 3
Embroider the design right through the stabilizer and the felt.
I’m going to applique most of the flowers and the butterfly, so all I stitched here are the stems, butterfly trail, and the small flowers all around the edges.
I used backstitch for the stems of the applique flowers with four strands of green thread (DMC #522). I used running stitch for the butterfly trail with three strands of periwinkle thread (DMC #156).
For the star flowers around the edges I used two strands of green (DMC #522) and a single stitch for each stem, and two strands of fuchsia (DMC #601) for the flowers.
You have a couple of options when you stitch those star flowers.
In this first photo, I stitched the stem up to the base of the asterisk, then stitched the full asterisk for the flower.
In this second photo, I stitched the stem up to the center of the asterisk, then stitched the rest of the asterisk around it, skipping the bottom stroke of the asterisk so it looks like the stem goes up into the flower.
Which do you like better? That’s what you do for yours. :Â-)
Step 4
Trim around the edge of your stitched coaster, right on the line.
Soak out the Sulky Sticky FabriÂSolvy in cold water for at least an hour and rinse clean with more cold water. Hit any stubborn bits with a kitchen sprayer – don’t rub the surface of the felt.
Let the pieces dry flat. Don’t wring, twist or even smoosh them. Just set them on a towel and let them dry overnight.
You can see a coaster with the stabilizer removed at the bottom of the photo. Look! Now I know exactly where each applique piece goes. The stitched stems and flight paths are great guides!
Step 5
Applique and embroider the rest of your design.
Download the applique patterns here and print or trace them onto the paper side of a sheet of freezer paper. One sheet has enough applique pieces for 8 coasters. Make a second set for a friend!
Iron the freezer paper to the felt and cut the small pieces out – cutting the freezer paper right along with the felt. That keeps your cutting accurate on such small pieces.
Peel off the freezer paper and use a swipe of glue stick to stick the flower where it goes on the coaster.
Use whipstitch and two strands of matching thread to applique each flower to the coaster, then add all the little detail stitches.
Here’s a detailed color and stitch guide and a super close-Âup photo of one finished coaster.
Oooh! Such a pretty felt coaster pattern!
Use two strands of thread for all stitching Â- the applique and the embroidered details.
Blue Flower
Whipstitch the flower with DMC #3846 and the center with DMC #726. French knots and lazy daisy stitches with DMC #726. Use straight stitches at the base of the lazy daisies with DMC #3746.
Yellow Flower
Whipstitch the flower with DMC #726 and the larger center with DMC #741. Satin stitch the small center with DMC #726. Straight stitch the pink lines on the petals with DMC #601.
Purple Flower
Whipstitch the flower with DMC #3746, large center with DMC #333 and tiny center with DMC #741. The orange French knots in the purple center are DMC #741. The blue French knots and straight stitches on the outer ring of the flower are DMC#3846.
Pink Flower
Whipstitch the pink flower with DMC #601. Lay the green bit so it overlaps the base of the pink petals and whipstitch with DMC #522. The orange highlights on the petals are lazy daisy stitches in DMC #741.
Sew the two layers together around two edges. I used whipstitch. Whipstitching felt edges is a tiny bit different from whipstitch applique. There’s a video here showing how.
You know I love working with felt and designing things for kids – so that was an easy yes! 🙂
I love Christmas tree ornaments that also hold gifts! This mini stocking is about 6 inches tall – perfect for holding a gift card, some candy, a small toy, some jewelry, or any other little gift. Fun! It’s easy to make too! It’s all hand-sewing, so it’s perfect for toting around with you to stitch a little bit at a time. And the whole thing uses just one easy stitch – whipstitch. Ready to make it?
What you’ll need. . .
1/2 sheet wool-blend felt for the stocking. I used Babbling Brook from my shop.
scraps of wool felt for the reindeer. I used Tahitian Sunset for the face and ears, Sandstone for the antlers, and Barnyard Red for the nose.
embroidery thread to match the felt (I used DMC thread in 502, 3858, 3032, 816, plus black #310 for the eyes and mouth – also available in my shop)
small bit of baker’s twine or other yarn for the hanging loop
Instructions
Download the pattern here. Print or trace the pieces onto freezer paper. Fuse them to your felt and cut out the pieces. Leave a little extra seam allowance wherever the line is dotted (the base of the ears and antlers). That extra bit will tuck under other pieces for a neat finish.
Arrange the reindeer pieces on one stocking piece. The antlers and the ears should tuck behind the head just a bit.
Whipstitch the antlers and ears in place with 2 strands of matching thread. (Here’s a video showing how.)
Whipstitch the face and nose in place with 2 strands of matching thread. Using 4 strands of black thread, embroider the eyes and backstitch the mouth.
Use the baker’s twine to make a hanging loop in one corner. Done!
Like all Shiny Happy World designs – you’re welcome to sell items you make with my patterns, but please don’t sell or distribute the patterns themselves.
If you like this free pattern, sign up for the Shiny Happy News! Subscribers get a weekly newsletter full of sewing tips and tricks, free patterns, special discounts, and other things to make you smile. 🙂
I was out of my studio last week so I didn’t get a block made, but I’m back this week with a brand new color. Yellow! This is its first appearance in the quilt and I definitely like it paired with the blue. (It’s crazy how many blue scraps I have. . .)
Ready to make block #6?
What You’ll Need
70 two-inch squares in color A (shown in blue)
30 two-inch squares in color B (shown in yellow)
Instructions
Use 1/4″ seam allowances for all sewing.
Arrange your squares according to the diagram below and sew them together into columns.
(I know usually I saw rows here, but this block will be easier worked in columns. That way you have two types – some that alternate blue and yellow and some that are all blue.)
Press all the seams. I’m pressing mine open for this quilt. I think it will make things simpler in the end.
Sew the columns together to make the finished block.
Here’s the exploded view. . .
Here’s what my six blocks look like so far. . .
Love! By next week’s post I’ll decide what the finished size of my quilt will be. I’m thinking about hand-quilting mine. Crazy, right?
Brighten up your world a bit with Petal – a free felt bird pattern.
Isn’t she pretty?
She looks complicated – but she’s really not hard to make. It’s all hand embroidery and hand sewing, so it’s not fast. But this is a project that takes more patience than skill. Expect to spend a couple of evenings on her. Or him. I guess in real life it’s the boy birds who are all fancy – but I thought the finished one looked like a gentle girl named Petal. 🙂
It uses just a few of the most basic embroidery stitches and simple whipstitch to put all the pieces together.
This project uses one half sheet of lovely wool felt (I used banana cream) plus a tiny scrap of contrasting color for the beak (I used mac & cheese) and some colorful embroidery thread. I also use The Magical Embroidery Stuff to mark all that pretty embroidery. It makes things sooooooo easy!
You can print all the pieces needed for two birds on a single page, so that’s how it’s laid out. Save the other pieces to make a matching bird for a lucky friend. 🙂
Step 2
Roughly cut out the pattern pieces and stick them to the felt.
Embroider right through the stabilizer. I used 2 strands of embroidery thread for all stitching. These are the stitches and thread colors I used – but you can use any colors you like! (The links all go to video tutorials showing how to do the stitches.)
Cut them right on the solid lines – no need to add seam allowance.
Step 4
Soak off the stabilizer in cold water. Let it soak for at least 15 minutes (I often leave mine soaking for an hour or more) then rinse it off under cold running water. Use a sprayer to remove any stubborn bits, but do not rub the felt.
Lay the pieces flat on a towel to dry. Do not wring, twist or even smoosh them. Just let them dry flat.
Step 5
Time to start putting it all together! Use 2 strands of matching embroidery thread to whipstitch all the pieces together.
Sew one embroidered wing to one “naked” wing, all the way around the edge. Repeat for the second wing.
Step 6
Sew the belly to one side of the bird.
Start sewing at the tail of the bird, matching it to the wider end of the belly piece, and sew all the way to the top of the belly piece.
Step 7
Sew the other side of the belly to the other body piece. Start again down at the tail and sew all the way up to the top, but this time keep going past the belly, sewing the two sides of the face together.
Continue sewing up over the top of the head and down the back.
Stop when there are a few inches left open, but leave your thread tail hanging.
Step 9
Start adding small bits of stuffing to the head and working your way down the body.
When you get to the tail, slip in a couple of pennies or other weights to keep her from tipping forward. I used two American pennies in mine. If you want her standing up even straighter (like Flora) use three pennies.
Step 10
Add a bit more stuffing to the tail and finish sewing her up.
Step 11
Pin the wings in place, one on each side of the body.
Use the flowers as a guide to line them up exactly. Thread a long needle with a long piece of thread. Start sewing underneath one wing, near the top, leaving about 6 inches of thread hanging. Sew through the body and out the other side, through the opposing wing. Take a small stitch back into the wing, through the body and out through the first wing. Stitch back and forth like this a few times to secure the wings. Don’t pull the thread too tight or you’ll distort the shape of her body. Knot your thread underneath one wing and bury the tails.
Here’s block five in the Controlled Chaos scrappy quilt. I still had lots of purple scraps out from last week, and I love purple and green together so I went with that pairing. I love it!
I know I say that every time – but I really love how this quilt is coming together.
Here’s how the blocks look so far. . .
Barely controlled chaos. I like it!
I love the way the blocks blend together with no sashing. It’s hard to tell where one stops and the next starts and I really like the unruliness of it. One quilter who’s playing along mentioned that she might put sashing between her blocks – so I thought I’d share that version of the mock-up here too. . .
This chaos is definitely more controlled. I like it too!
I think both versions look terrific. How much chaos are you comfortable with? 🙂
Ready to make block #5?
What You’ll Need
49Â two-inch squares in color A (shown in purple)
51Â two-inch squares in color B (shown in green)
Instructions
Use 1/4″ seam allowances for all sewing.
Arrange your squares according to the diagram below and sew them together into rows.
Press all the seams. I’m pressing mine open for this quilt. I think it will make things simpler in the end.
Sew the rows together to make the finished block.
Here’s the exploded view. . .
I have to be away from my studio all next week, so we’ll be taking a week off of Controlled Chaos. But check in tomorrow for a new video! This one shows how I match seams to sew the blocks together when I’ve pressed the seams open.
Block #4 is finished for the Controlled Chaos quilt!
I realized all my blocks so far included blue – so this time I grabbed some purple and orange. I’m loving how they look together!
So far. . .
Speaking of how they look together, here’s a quick mock-up of the first four blocks. . .
Love!
I’m so happy with how this is coming together!
Ready to make block #4?
What You’ll Need
70Â two-inch squares in color A (shown in purple)
30Â two-inch squares in color B (shown in orange)
Instructions
Use 1/4″ seam allowances for all sewing.
Arrange your squares according to the diagram below and sew them together into rows.
Press all the seams. I’m pressing mine open for this quilt. I think it will make things simpler in the end.
Sew the rows together to make the finished block.
Here’s the exploded view. . .
A Word About Randomness
It’s really HARD to be random when you’re sewing blocks together. The inclination is always to put two fabrics together that look good together, but if you do that you’ll have two things happen. . .
It will take longer to make your quilt because you’re making decisions with every single square.
You’ll tend to put the same fabrics together over and over again and a pattern will emerge. It’ll be a subtle pattern, but your scrappy quilt will look just a little less scrappy.
Some people throw all their blocks in a paper bag and draw them out without looking. I like the idea of that, but it makes my squares wrinkly and that bugs me.
Instead, I lay out one stack of squares for each fabric. I just stack them up near my sewing machine as I cut them, and I don’t go for any kind of order. Then when I sew, I just take them in order, regardless of what comes up together.
Did you see the video yet about chain piecing? Even if you already know what chain piecing is, take a look. IÂ show my randomness method at the beginning of the video.
Block #5 coming next week! I don’t have any yellow or green yet, so I’ll definitely be using one of those colors.
If you’re stitching along – please send photos of any finished blocks! I’ll include them in future posts. You can email them to me at blockhead[at]wendigratz[dot]com.
Talk Like a Pirate Day is coming up soon – September 19th!
It’s finished! Jo’s T-shirt quilt is finished – and just in time.
