BLOG: free

Free Santa Applique Pattern

December 9, 2014

Use this free Santa applique pattern to make all kinds of things! Here are just a few ideas (with links to free patterns) . . .

a pillow
a tote bag
a gift bag
a T-shirt
a mug rug or coaster
a wall hanging
a stocking
placemats

The pieces are designed to make an applique that fits in a 10 inch block. That makes it really easy to resize as needed. Do you want to make a 4 inch coaster? Print the pieces at 40% size. Do you want to make a tote bag that’s 17 inches square? Print the pieces at 170% size.

The question is – where can’t you use a jolly old elf?

A Little Extra Help

If you’ve never done any applique before, or are new to my method) there’s a free video workshop here. You can work through the lessons using any pattern – including this Santa.

There’s also a single video here that takes you through all the basic steps of my method.

You can find loads of single-topic tutorial videos here, and also by using the search box at the top of the page.

Prep Your Block

Cut an 11” square of fabric for the background, and an 11 inch square of batting.

Press them both (with steam) and let them cool. Layer the background square over the batting square and quilt the two layers together. Do NOT add the backing yet. This video shows some of my favorite straight-line patterns, and this video shows some of my favorite wavy line patterns.

Press the quilted block again (with steam) and let it cool.

This video has a general intro to my Quilt As You Go method, along with complete instructions for how to assemble the block. It’s a long video, but there’s timestamp info to help you skip to the specific instructions you want.

Cut Your Pieces

Download the template pieces and placement guide here.

If you have an electric cutting machine, you can use it to cut your pieces. Download the SVG file here.

The image in the SVG file is NOT reversed. If your cutting machine has you cut your pieces fabric side up, leave the orientation as it is. If your cutting machine has you cut your pieces fabric side down, you’ll need to flip the image horizontally.

Different cutting machine brands import the image at what seems to be totally random sizes. To fit the appliqué on a block that finishes at 10 inches square, check to make sure the small square in the image is one inch, and resize if necessary before ungrouping the pieces. Delete that square after resizing so your machine doesn’t try to cut it. 🙂

Print your templates.

If you’re cutting everything by hand you’ll need to print the reversed and exploded templates. If you’re using printable fusible adhesive (I use Heat & Bond Lite for all my quilts) you can print those pages directly onto the paper side of your fusible.

If you’re using a lightbox you’ll also need to print the placement guide.

Roughly cut around each shape. Leave a little bit extra all the way around each piece.

Follow the package instructions and fuse each piece to the wrong side of the fabric.

Cut out each piece neatly, directly on the solid lines.

Cutting after you fuse ensures that the adhesive goes right to the very edge of the fabric.

Trace the dotted lines onto the fabric. If you hold the pieces up to a window, the light will make the lines very visible – even on dark fabric.

If you want to skip this step, this video shows how to use a light box. If you use a light box, you only need to transfer the smile.

Put It All Together

Peel off the paper backing and arrange the pieces on your background block. Fuse in place according to the adhesive package instructions.

This video shows the assembly with me explaining how I’m layering the pieces.

This video shows the same thing – but using a light box to guide placement.

Stitch all the edges down. You can use any stitch you like, in matching or contrasting thread. I really love the cartoony look of a simple straight stitch with black thread.

I demonstrate sewing with different thread weights here.

This post will help you with the order in which to stitch.

This post has tips for stitching tight curves.

And this post shows three ways to add catchlights to the eyes.

Finished!

For this slightly subdued color palette I used colors from the Farmers Market collection.

The background block is one of these pre-printed quilt blocks in Farmers Market – Light.

The reds are from the Strawberry Blenders and the whites are from Salt & Pepper Blenders.

And here’s a version I did in the brightest, most saturated colors I have.

This color palette is called Classic Rainbow.

The background block is one of these pre-printed quilt blocks in Classic Rainbow – Medium.

The reds are from the Red Blenders and the whites are from Salt & Pepper Blenders.

Finishing

If you’re making a quilt, trim your finished block to 10 1/2” square.

If you’re using your block to make something else, just follow the pattern instructions for whatever you’re making. You’ll find a bunch of project ideas (and free patterns) here.

Merry Christmas!

Fancy Schmancy Felt Garland – free pattern

December 5, 2014

I’m going to be honest, you guys.

This project is insane!

I mean – it’s lovely. A paper-chain inspired garland of hand-embroidered felt rings with hook & loop closures so you can store them easily. It’s sooooo beautiful and looks so warm and cozy and wintry. I’m absolutely enchanted with how it turned out!

But seriously. Hand-embroidered felt garland rings? Twenty-four of them? This is hours and hours and hours (and hours!) of hand embroidery. Of course, I enjoyed every minute of it. But I’d be the first to admit that I’m a little crazy about hand-embroidery on wool felt. This is a project that will keep your hands busy for a LOT of cozy evenings.

If I haven’t talked you out of it yet, here are the instructions. . .

The pattern includes six different band decorations and they all fit on one piece of Magical Embroidery Stuff (aka Sulky Sticky Fabri-solvy). So I did six bands each of four different felt colors for a total of 24 rings. That made a chain 42 inches long. For the materials below I’ll assume you’ll do the same crazy thing. 🙂

What you need

wool-blend felt – 2 sheets of each color you plan to use (I used grape jelly, babbling brook, denim, and ruby red slippers)
embroidery thread in matching and contrasting colors (I used DMC #550, 502, 336, 600, 3746, 522, 726 and 3846)
2 feet of hook & loop tape
the pattern (download it here)
Sulky Sticky Fabri-solvy (optional, but very strongly recommended)

You can find a list of my favorite supplies (with links to where to buy them) here.

Throughout the pattern, the links go to video tutorials teaching that skill. If it’s a new stitch or technique for you, just click through to see how to do it!

Here’s how to make it. . .

1. Print the pattern. You can download it here. Print the pattern at 100% size onto four sheets of Sulky Sticky Fabri-solvy (aka The Magical Embroidery Stuff).

2. Peel the backing off and stick the stabilizer/pattern transfer onto the felt.

Cut the pieces out on the lines.

Embroider the designs right through the stabilizer.

I didn’t embroider the designs the same way every time – preferring instead to just play around. You should play too! You can find tutorials for plenty of stitches here. . .

For the lines I used. . .

For the dots and flowers and leaves I used. . .

lazy daisy stitch
French knots
cross stitch (the little stars are just cross stitches, with an extra stitch taken across the middle)

By all means – don’t be limited to these stitches! They’re just what I used. You can find lots more stitch tutorials here.

3. Soak off the Sulky Sticky Fabri-solvy. I soak mine in cold water for at least an hour, then rinse off the mushy stabilizer under cold running water. Don’t rub it to remove any stubborn bits – just hit them with a kitchen sprayer if needed.

Lay the pieces flat on a towel to dry. Do not wring, twist or even smoosh them. Just set them sopping wet on a towel and let them be. I promise they’ll dry. 🙂

(If you’ve never used Sulky Sticky Fabri-solvy before, I ramble on endlessly about how awesome it is and why I love it so much and how I use it here.)

4. Finish the bands. Cut second piece of felt for the back of the band. I just laid the front band down and cut around it so the back would match the front exactly.

Sew a small piece of hook & loop tape to the blank end of the top of the band, and to one end of the back of the band.

I used a sewing machine, but you could do it by hand if you prefer. I left enough space on the embroidered side to use the narrowest big-box-store hook & loop tape (like you see on the top band) but if you order one of my kits you’ll get the special less-bulky skinny hook & loop tape I prefer (like you see on the bottom band).

Put the front and back together so that the hook & loop tape is on opposite ends of the band and sew the pieces together around the edge. I used whipstitch, but you could certainly use a sewing machine – especially if you want to finish before the end of the year. 🙂

5. Wrap them into rings and build your chain.

In the photo above you see the six designs in the pattern, stitched up on purple felt.

Finished!

*happy sigh*

I do so love handsewing felt. 🙂

Happy stitching!

If you like this free pattern, sign up for the Shiny Happy News! Every week I send out things to make you smile – free patterns, new tutorials, recommendations of patterns by other people, fun videos, yummy recipes and special discounts. 🙂

Best,
Wendi

Free Elf Ornament Pattern

December 2, 2014

Make this sweet little elf ornament! Hang her on your tree or attach her to a package for someone special.

It’s a free pattern!

Here she’s a Christmas elf. But she doesn’t have to be! I made a couple of “everyday” pixies that you can see here, along with their holiday friend.

Make a bunch of them in a rainbow of colors!

And did I mention they’re posable? They have a pipecleaner “skeleton” so you can bend and pose them however you like. This little cutie is sitting on a spool of thread.

Want the pattern? Here’s the link to download it. It’s free!

Download the free Elf Ornament pattern here.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Best,
Wendi

Controlled Chaos Block #13 – Scrap Quilt Tutorial

November 19, 2014

I realized that I didn’t have much diagonal action in the quilt yet, so I’m correcting that with the next few blocks.

Here’s block #13 in the Controlled Chaos Quilt!

What You’ll Need

48 two-inch squares in color A (shown in purple)
52 two-inch squares in color B (shown in yellow)

Instructions

Use 1/4″ seam allowances for all sewing.

Press all the seams. 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 sewed things up in rows. First we’ll sew some groups of like colors together. . .

1. Sew up 12 sets of three purple squares.

2. Sew up 14 sets of three yellow squares.

3. Sew up 4 pairs of two purple squares.

4. Sew up 4 pairs of two yellow squares.

Use the diagram above to sew those groups into rows.

Then sew those rows into one fabulous block. 🙂

That’s 13 blocks done – just 7 more to go!

I still haven’t decided whether I’ll use sashing between the blocks or not. If I do it will be in a nice slate grey. If I d0 use sashing it’ll be 310 seams I don’t have to match up – a major plus in my book. 🙂

Click here for all the Controlled Chaos posts.

Happy piecing!

Best,
Wendi

Free Thanksgiving Embroidery Pattern

November 18, 2014

It’s beginning to look a lot like Thanksgiving!

Time to remind everyone about this free embroidery pattern. It’s one of my favorite reminders, and hangs on my studio wall all year. 🙂

It only uses basic embroidery stitches. So it looks complicated, but really it’s just slow.

As in, park yourself in a warm place for a few hours and savor every stitch. That kind of slow. 🙂

Download the free Thanksgiving embroidery pattern here.

Happy stitching!

Best,
Wendi

Gingerbread! A Free Felt Christmas Ornament Pattern

November 12, 2014

This project is part of the 2014 Crafty Christmas Tutorial Link-Up over at Bugs & Fishes. Go check out all the fun projects!

As much as I love to cook, and as much as I love the flavor of gingerbread, and as much as I love candy and fussy details – I’ve never made a gingerbread house. Until now.

Maybe the problem is that I know a real gingerbread house is not really edible, even thought it’s made of edible goodies.

No such illusions with this little house made of felt and embroidery thread! You get all the pretty decorations and fanciness and it will last for years. Plus you can make it on your couch in front of the fire instead of in the kitchen. 🙂

Here’s what you’ll need. . .

You can find links to sources for all my favorite tools and supplies here.

scraps of wool felt (I used Tahitian sunset for the gingerbread and lavender, grass skirt, blue bayou and fuchsia for the decorations)
matching embroidery thread (I used DMC floss in white, 3858, 3746, 550, 907, 699, 326, 601, 603, 3846)
1 sheet of Sulky Sticky Fabri-solvy (optional, but recommended – will make two ornaments)
small amount of polyester fiberfill stuffing (a few cotton balls will do if you don’t have it)
scrap of string or yarn for the hanging loop

Throughout the pattern, the links go to video tutorials teaching that skill. If it’s a new stitch or technique for you, just click through to see how to do it!

Here’s how to make it. . .

1. Print the pattern. You can download it here. It’s formatted to give you the pieces for two houses – make one for yourself and one for a friend. Print the pattern at 100% size onto a sheet of Sulky Sticky Fabri-solvy (aka The Magical Embroidery Stuff).

2. Peel the backing off and stick the stabilizer/pattern transfer onto the felt. I used Tahitian sunset for the gingerbread, fuchsia for the pink lollipops on the sides of the door, grass skirt for the green stick candy sills, blue bayou for the door, and lavender for the purple candy.

Cut the pieces out on the lines.

Embroider the designs right through the stabilizer.

I used the following stitches and colors. . .

For the snow along the roof I used U-stitch and 4 strands of DMC #white.
For the snowflakes I used 2 strands of DMC #white.
For the center window I used backstitch in 2 strands of DMC #white, with French knots in the same color below it.
For the candycane stripes on the windows and door I used whipped backstitch. Backstitch the lines first with 4 strands of DMC #white, then whip with 2 strands of DMC #326.
For the lollipop sticks on the sides of the door I also used whipped backstitch. Backstitch the lines with 4 strands of DMC #699, then whip with 2 strands of DMC #907.
For the swirls on the purple candy I used chain stitch and 2 strands of DMC #550.

Lay the pieces flat on a towel to dry. Do not wring, twist or even smoosh them. Just set them sopping wet on a towel and let them be. I promise they’ll dry. 🙂

(If you’ve never used Sulky Sticky Fabri-solvy before, I ramble on endlessly about how awesome it is and why I love it so much and how I use it here.)

4. Layer the small applique pieces onto the house. The stitching makes such a nice guide to help position everything!

I usually just hold them in place while I stitch them down, but this time I experimented with using a fabric glue stick. I used Prym brand and it stuck really well, but there was also a noticeable hardness to the glued bits. It wasn’t so hard that it was difficult to sew through – especially since I was mostly just sewing around the edges and I put a dab of glue in the middle of each piece – but I’d be careful not to use too much.

5. Use whipstitch and matching thread to applique each piece in place.

Here’s a video showing how to do whipstitch applique.

Add a tiny bit more detail stitching because there wasn’t enough already. Really – if you can’t go overboard on a gingerbread house then when can you? It’s supposed to be slightly insane. 🙂

I added little diagonal stripes on the green stick candy with 2 strands of DMC #699. I also added little starbursts in the centers of the pink lollipops using 2 strands of DMC #603.

6. Layer the ornament front and back together and whipstitch all around the edges.

Whipstitching the edges of the felt is a little different that whipstitch applique, so it has its own video. You can watch it here.

Leave the bit under the door open for stuffing.

7. Add a few pinches of stuffing through the hole, then switch to matching blue thread and sew up the opening.

Thread a 10″ piece of string through the peak of the roof and tie a knot to form a hanging loop.

Finished!

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 with updates, special offers and links to happy things. Sign up here.

This ornament is the same style and size (and difficulty level) as all my other holiday ornament patterns. Here are the first ten ornaments in this year’s Christmas Club collection.

*happy sigh*

I do so love handsewing felt. 🙂

Happy stitching!

Best,
Wendi

Free Doll Pattern – Itty Bitty Sleepy Baby

November 7, 2014

Here’s a free doll pattern to make a sweet Itty Bitty Sleepy Baby – a cuddly beanbag doll.

She’s a sleepy little girl who wants to curl up and take a nap in a special someone’s pocket. :)

She’s super easy to make - great for beginners. And she’s just the right size to be a mini doll for the dolls in The Dress Up Bunch. Fun!

Want to make her?

Here’s how!

Throughout the pattern, the links go to online video tutorials demonstrating the techniques used, or to sources for the materials. All seams are 1/4 inch seam allowance.

Happy sewing!

Materials

• scrap of people colored fabric
• scrap of wool felt for the hair (I used black)
• less than a fat quarter of pajama fabric
• embroidery thread for the face (I used Sulky 12wt. cotton thread in black)
• plastic pellets (I like PolyPellets Weighted Stuffing Beads)
• polyfill stuffing (I like Soft Touch Polyfil Supreme Fiberfill)

Step 1

Download the free doll pattern here. Print it at 100% size.

Cut out all materials as directed on the pattern pieces. You should have:

1 body front piece
2 body back pieces
1 head cut from people-colored fabric
1 head cut from felt
1 front hair cut from felt
2 pigtails cut from felt

Step 2

Trace the face onto the people-colored head piece.

Embroider the eyes, nose and mouth using backstitch and a single strand of Sulky 12 wt. embroidery thread (the equivalent of two strands of regular embroidery thread).

embroidered doll face with felt bangs - partially made with a free doll pattern from Shiny Happy World

Step 3

Sew the hair to the face piece.

Stitch very close to the edge and use matching thread.

Step 4

Sew the two body back pieces together along the center back line, making sure to leave a few inches open for stuffing.

Don’t forget to backstitch at the beginning and end of your stuffing opening.

Step 5

Open up the center back pieces and press the seam nice and flat, including the edges of the stuffing opening. That will give you a nice clean edge to sew when you’re closing up that opening by hand.

doll body showing stuffing opening - part of the sewing instructions for a free doll pattern from Shiny Happy World

The stick shows where the stuffing opening is.

Step 6

Fold the bottom of the head and the top of the body in half to find the centers. Line those centers up so the head is exactly centered on the body.

Sew the face to the body front and the felt head piece to the body back.

Step 7

Fold the heads up and press.

doll front and doll back pieces waiting to be sewn together

The seam allowance should be pressed toward the head so the body remains flat.

Step 8

Lay the body front face up on a flat surface.

Lay the pigtails over the face as shown in the photo. Don’t worry about making them perfectly even - crooked is cute. :-)

partially sewn doll with pigtails pinned in place

Pin or clip in place.

Step 9

Place the body back face down over the front, sandwiching the pigtails between the layers. Pin or clip the layers together carefully.

I match the neck seams first, then the center bottoms, then the dips at the sides and then the tips of the arms and legs and the head.

doll front pinned to doll back - ready to be sewn

Step 10

Sew all the way around the body using 1/4 inch seam allowance. Make sure you’re catching the pigtails.

I changed the thread color when I got to the hair. I didn’t want specks of pink colored thread to show at the seam.

Clip into the seam allowance at all the concave curves and points as shown in the photo.

partially sewn doll body with clipping locations indicated

Step 11

Turn the body right side out.

Awwww! Isn’t she a cutie? Take a moment to admire your work so far. She’s almost done!

Step 12

Stuff the head pretty firmly with fiberfill.

Pour 1/2 cup of plastic pellets into the body and sew up the opening in the back using ladder stitch.

Finished!

Give her a big hug and then slip her into a special someone’s pocket. :-)

finished Itty Bitty Sleepy Baby sitting in the lap of a Pip the Cat doll - both patterns from Shiny Happy World

I designed her to be just the right size to work as a sweet baby doll for everyone in The Dress Up Bunch. Because dolls need dolls to play with, of course. :-)

If you like this, there are two more similar free doll patterns you should take a look at – the Itty Bitty Bunny and the Itty Bitty Pocket Pirate.

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 doll pattern, sign up for the Shiny Happy News! Subscribers get a weekly newsletter with updates, special offers and links to happy things. Sign up here.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

The Dress Up Bunch is a collection of cute and cuddly rag dolls. Get patterns for the dolls, plus all their fun outfits and accessories!

How to Make an Easy Charity Quilt – a simple and fun tutorial

November 4, 2014

The easy charity quilt I made for Craft Hope is finished and on its way. I love how it turned out!

Craft Hope is an organization that partners with different organizations to collect handmade items for donation. I know lots of crafters like making items to donate and there’s always a demand for patterns for easy charity quilts, so when I made my Craft Hope Quilt I decided to share the how-to so you could make one too, if you’re so inclined.

It’s an easy and fun technique – great for beginners of all ages. I’ve been posting lots of in-progress photos as I go and I’ve been getting a ton of questions, so I’m going to answer them here all in one place. . .

How are you piecing and quilting the blocks all at once?

That is the magic of Quilt As You Go. It really is the perfect no-stress way to make a scrap quilt of this kind.

You can see a full tutorial for the process here.

Did you really make it all from scraps?

Yep. I have (had) a lot of scraps and I store them in baskets sorted by color – which made it really easy to make this kind of quilt without making a HUGE mess in my studio. It was more of a manageable mess. 🙂

If you did all the quilting while you pieced, how are you backing it? Do you have to quilt it again?

Here’s what the back of the quilt looks like.

I backed it in Cuddle Fleece – delightfully soft, cuddly, and easy to work with. I used it as the back of a quilt for my daughter a little over a year ago and she loves it so much that she basically told me I should never use anything else. 🙂

You can see that the front is nice and crinkly after washing – every seam is also quilted so it crinkles up nicely.

The back has a lot less quilting. I sewed all the finished, quilted blocks together, pressed the seams open, backed it with the fleece, basted it (I use safety pins) and then quilted 1/4″ from each block-joining seam. I like the kind of frame-ish effect around each block and I like the big grid on the back.

There’s a video here showing that technique in more detail.

How big is the finished quilt?

Each block is a 10″ square, finished, so the full quilt is 60″ wide and 90″ tall. You could very easily make it bigger or smaller just by adding or removing blocks. You could also change the size of the blocks, but I don’t think I’d make them much bigger – a 10″ grid on the back of the quilt works very well but there might be some bagging or sagging if you went a lot bigger. I’ve done some quilts with 12″ blocks and that works fine too.

Why don’t you spray baste?

I tried it once (many years ago) and it was a disaster. The fumes are pretty intense and you’re supposed to do it outside – but there’s no clean place in my yard to do it and I don’t have a clothesline to use for that method. So I tried it inside where the fumes almost killed me. I got overspray in my carpet (which was very hard to wash out) and then the adhesive gummed up my needle the whole time I was sewing. The product has probably improved a lot since then (I don’t even remember what brand I tried) but it will be a while before I’m ready to try it again. 😛

How do you pick your binding on a quilt with so many colors?

I really love to use black and white or dark grey bindings with a rainbow quilt like this. I actually would have preferred a nice crisp black and white stripe for this, but I didn’t have enough of that and I needed to ship the quilt out to make the deadline so I went with the black and white gingham-ish print you see in the photo above. I love black and white with bright colors!

That’s it!

With winter and the holidays coming, a lot of organizations are calling for quilts – especially twin quilts and crib quilts for kids in need and lap quilts for seniors. This is a fun technique for an easy charity quilt that even beginning quilters can make successfully. Kids can do it too! Give it a try!

Happy quilting!

Best,
Wendi

Spooky – a free cat applique pattern

October 17, 2014

Spooky - free cat applique pattern from Shiny Happy World

You can add this free cat applique pattern to your Cuddly Cats quilt pattern if you like. I designed it especially to have really terrific eyes for a black cat – but you can make it any color you like.

I love black cats! I grew up with two of them – Nasty and Gandalf. But it can be tricky to applique the eyes on a black cat. Almost all of my animals in all of my applique patterns have simple black oval eyes. That helps give all my designs a cohesive look – and they’re also simple to applique. But what if the animal you’re making is black? Black bears, black panda eyes, black raccoon eyes, black penguin eyes, and, of course, black cat eyes.

This post shows you a quick and easy trick to applique dark eyes on dark faces. But I really love black cats and I really wanted to make a free cat applique pattern with big, glowy cat eyes.

So I did!

Especially for Halloween, I created this spooky black cat applique – a single block applique pattern – with huge luminous green eyes. I love her! And the pattern is the same size as the blocks in the Cuddly Cats quilt so you can mix and match if you like. 🙂

There’s a tutorial here with instructions for making a hanging sleeve so you can make your block into a Halloween wall decoration. It’s easy!

Here’s how to make the block. (This video shows all the steps for working with fusible adhesive – if you’ve never done it before you’ll find it helpful.)

Step 1

Download the template pieces here.

Step 2

Trace or print the pattern onto the paper side of the fusible adhesive.

I use Heat & Bond Lite printable fusible adhesive sheets so I just printed out the page. No tracing!

The image has already been reversed, so just trace or print. If you’re tracing, be sure to trace the facial features too. You’ll need those for Step 5.

Step 3

Rough cut around each shape and fuse it to the back of your fabric.

applique pattern pieces cut out - from the Spooky free cat applique pattern from Shiny Happy World

Leave a little bit extra all the way around - a little extra extra (at least 1/4 inch) where there’s a dotted line, like the top of neck shoulders and the base of the ears.

Step 4

Cut around each piece neatly. Cut directly on the solid lines.

Leave a little seam allowance on the dotted lines - the top of the neck and the base of the ears will tuck behind the head.

Step 5

Remember when I told you to make sure you traced the facial features in Step 1? Now you’re going to use that. Hold the face up to a window so the light shines through it. You’ll be able to see the lines, and the adhesive will stabilize the fabric so you can trace on it without it crinkling up.

Since this is a dark fabric, I traced with a white chalk pencil.

Here you can see all the tracing I did – without the light shining through.

I traced the whiskers and mouth exactly, since I’ll be stitching over those lines. I traced the nose a little smaller, and just marked the corners of the eyes to help me position the applique pieces later.

Step 6

If you’re doing Quilt As You Go (I did) then you can quilt your block before adding the applique. So easy!

I used a bunch of orange scrappy strips all sewn together for a super textured background, but you can use just one solid square.

Cut your background fabric and a piece of 100% cotton batting 11 inches square.

Layer the block with a piece of 100% cotton batting. Quilt any pattern you like!

Find all the Quilt As You Go tutorials here.

If you’ll do the quilting later, simply skip this step.

Step 7

Peel off the paper backing and arrange the pieces on a background block. Tuck the ears and the neck behind the head.

Remember - all the dotted lines indicate where pieces tuck behind other pieces.

Fuse the pieces in place.

Step 8

Outline all the pieces with black thread and a simple straight stitch – or choose your favorite decorative stitch.

This video has some tips for outlining those tight curves.

Done!

One free cat applique pattern, all finished!

If you’re making a one-block project, go ahead and finish it up!

If you’re making a bunch of cats to join into a quilt - have fun!

Please share a photo of what you make! You can share it in the Shiny Happy People group or tag it with #shinyhappyworld on Instagram.

Happy stitching!

Block 12 in the Controlled Chaos Scrappy Quilt-Along

October 15, 2014

Here’s block #12 in the Controlled Chaos Quilt!

What You’ll Need

64 two-inch squares in color A (shown in red)
36 two-inch squares in color B (shown in yellow)

Instructions

Use 1/4″ seam allowances for all sewing.

Press all the seams. 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 sewed things up in chunks in order to keep the edges of each color perfectly straight, even if my seams weren’t lined up perfectly.

We’re going to sew the whole thing into three fat columns, but we’re going to sew some parts of those columns into chunks first.

1. Sew up four yellow 3×3 squares.

2. Sew up two red 3×4 rectangles and one red 4×10 rectangle.

Arrange those chunks as you see below.

Now sew all those chunks into columns.

Finally – sew those three columns into one fabulous block. 🙂

Here’s what my twelve blocks look like so far. Just eight more to go!

Click here for all the Controlled Chaos posts.

Happy piecing!

Best,
Wendi

A Little Extra Help

Prep Your Block

Cut Your Pieces

Put It All Together

Finished!

Finishing

What you need

Here’s how to make it. . .

Here’s what you’ll need. . .

Here’s how to make it. . .

How are you piecing and quilting the blocks all at once?

Did you really make it all from scraps?

If you did all the quilting while you pieced, how are you backing it? Do you have to quilt it again?

How big is the finished quilt?

Why don’t you spray baste?

How do you pick your binding on a quilt with so many colors?

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4

Step 5

Step 6

Step 7

Step 8

Done!

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