chocolates

Valentine's day is almost here with pretty chocolate boxes in mouthwatering flavors tempting at every turn. I got to thinking about making a cute candy of patchwork kind with our own favorite fillings and shiny wrappers that won't disappear in a matter of seconds but are safely satisfying.

A short tutorial if you are also in a chocolate mood :)

Candy block size = 2.75" square.

Choose a fussy cut center ( a ) - cut 1 square - 1. 5".

choose background ( b ), candy wrapper  (c ) - cut 1 of each, 1. 5" square.

background (d ) -  cut 4 rectangles - 1. 5" x 1 1/8" wide.

background (e) - cut 2 squares - 1 1/8".

Make 2 Half square triangles with b, c. Trim to size 1 1/8".

( steps to make Half square triangle block is in the above photo )

For a snowball like center piece..

* Cut 2 squares from background ( f ) = 3/4" 

* Take center square ( a ). Place ( f ) on opposite corners. 

* Draw a line from corner to corner diagonally. Sew on this line.

* Trim the edge leaving 1/4" seam allowance. Press corner piece to outside.

* Now follow the above photo and sew the pieces together one row at a time, pressing seams toward ( d ).

* Sew top row to center row, press seams open.

* Now sew the last row to the center row, press seams open. 

* Enjoy your colorful candy!

I don't know if a pattern for this block already exists, I just made this out of a whim and I hope the measurements are correct. I did test them on two blocks, if there is a mistake or a typo, please forgive me ( ^ o ^ )

♥ Have a Happy day! ♥

winter treats quilt

Spring is not far, we hear robins singing in the morning lately and sunlight creeping into the house in the evenings, which happens only in warmer months. In the meantime I was spending more time in the kitchen trying recipes, staying close to the stove to escape the chill. Very little progress to show on the projects, but today I am excited to have a finish to share.

I had no hopes of completing it in time for our anniversary.. I ran out of thread in the middle of quilting and had to wait until last week to go to the quilt shop. But I barely made it, putting last stitches into the binding early in the morning when I should be making a nice breakfast for us. We decided to eat cake and not bother with stirring oats :)

Because of all the linen fabrics on the front and back, this quilt was somewhat heavy to handle. I was going to stitch-in-ditch for center squares but found it difficult to squeeze and turn bulk of the quilt in tight throat space. After trying two blocks, I gave up.

So the quilting remained simple with straight lines in the sashing, just enough to keep it all together. I used 'Quilter's dream request ' batting which is light & soft and didn't add any extra weight.

I felt pink and green of these tiny flowers belonged in the binding, spreading their springiness to a wintery quilt.  

I made up silly stories around each block, even things that we do everyday like grinding coffee in the morning or picking out favorite socks to wear..  but most of the stories revolve around treats, especially the ones we crave in winter when there is little comfort otherwise.

There are so many treats in this quilt, I am afraid I am going to be hungry more often. I don't know if I should be happy to have a snuggly quilt to enjoy the quiet hours in, or worry about all sorts of sweets tempting me the whole time!

This is what the backing looks like. There are flowers and trains on a yellow background and playful kittens on one side. With 63 blocks in a 7 x 9 setting, the quilt came out to be around 68" x 86".

These are the measurements to cut the pieces for the block. I thought I will put them here in case anyone is interested. Please note that the single digits are meant to be cut as squares and rest of them as strips. The sashing and corner stones are not pictured here but I used them to sew the rows together in the quilt. And the borders are random sizes, adjusted to fit the limited fabric I had.

Thank you for taking time to visit. Have a wonderful week ( ' v ' )

cafe' apron

Just like fabrics, dolls are also my biggest weakness. I have some very cute dolls collected during our travels in India. I feel so nostalgic looking at them. The tiny village people with innocent expressions carrying clay pots or vegetable baskets with them just melt my heart!

This apron for zakka along is inspired by dolls and tiny doll houses with their sweet scented kitchens containing porcelain sugar bowls and tea cups, little vases and lamps.. every nook and corner filled with comfort and calm.

In the original pattern there is no separation between blocks and I was planning to stitch them together exactly like that. But then I noticed that the corner triangles with kitchen items were next to each other losing clarity. So I added these thin flowery linen strips in between. I am also probably copying what sewzalot and lv2create have done with their blocks ;) 

I liked the shortness of this apron in the pattern but as I am intending this to be a gift for a friend I increased the length by 4 inches.

I wanted the apron to be girly and fun, so I added these fabric tassels to the straps. These kinds of tassels are very common in handmade crafts and clothing in India. I love that there is no concept of silliness and any extra decorations are considered a most welcome addition and greatly enjoyed by both makers and takers.
This is my first time trying to make these tassels with some trial and error. Somehow it came out okay without too much hassle. This is how I made them...

1. Cut 2" square or larger depending on how big you want your final tassel to be. Cut this square diagonally in the center to give you two triangles.
Make a strap with contrasting fabric. Trim one end of the strap at an angle and place it on top of the triangle aligning the edges as shown in the first picture.

2. Fold the triangle over the strap to meet the two corners.

3. You can use 1/8" to 1/4" seam to stitch the pieces together as in picture 3. I used 1/8" seam here as my triangle piece was small. Make sure that the top corner where you start the stitch, that stitching line has to be parallel to your strap otherwise it can come out wonky. I learned this tip from my own error :p
Remember to back stitch on both starting and ending point to secure your stitches.

4. Flip the tassel right sides out and trim the peaking seam if there is any. I used a gauze fabric for this, so it has a delicate frayed edge.

 If you like your tassel to have a finished edge, then fold your 2" square diagonally across the center (wrong sides together), this gives it a triangle shape which we need. Place the long folded side towards the bottom and sharp points towards the top as in the first picture. Then repeat rest of the steps. It is really simple and easy and adds a pop of color.

Hope you are staying cool and taking it easy in this heat ( ' u ' )

pincushions

These are some pincushions I made recently as presents for friends we were visiting in California.

First one is for our friend Andres. He is just now starting to quilt and I thought he might be in need of a pincushion. I used some of my favorite prints to make tiny 'plus' blocks for the front.

And a scooter print for the back. I didn’t want it to be girly looking in anyway. I am glad he likes it.

While I was browsing on the internet for some fun pincushions, I came across this Ladybug tutorial. It is my first time making pincushions, so it was very helpful! I was thrilled to find this vintage blue ribbon in my stash. It matches well with blue eyes of the pretty girl in the window ( ' u ' )

I took the same Lady bug pattern and drafted a Honeybee to make this Bee pincushion for someone who loves BEES!!

Even the wing pieces have a slightly different shape. I am posting these pattern pieces for the body and wings of the Bee here if you want to make a 'helper-bee' for your sewing room ;)

Please click here for the pdf pattern.

This is how the backside of the cushions look. For the Ladybug cushion I cross-stitched initial of my friend and a ladybug on top of it. For the Bee cushion, I thought it will be funny to have a sneaky bear ready with a big bottle to fill up with honey :) Poor Honey Bee!

I used ground walnut shells as filling. I wanted to use natural materials instead of polyfill or steel-wool. I came across this idea while googling. But it tends to stain fabrics slightly, so I lined the pincushions. It added some more work but was worth it.

There are more advantages too..
-This filling makes the cushions heavy, so they don’t move easily when we are using them.
- It keeps the pins sharp.
- Cleanup is easy if there are any spills because unlike sand it doesn’t stick to the surfaces.
(But please avoid using it if you have any allergies to nuts.)

A funnel would have worked best to fill the cushions, but I didn’t have one, so I used Coffee filter cups and it worked out well. I got a bag of this ground walnut shells at a Pet shop for only $6. They are in the reptile section.

I hope you are enjoying a pleasant day and keeping cool! ( ' u ')

Machine applique' tutorial

Catherine is our local quilt shop owner (Button box) and a wonderful teacher. She is incredibly generous with her time & knowledge always and infinitely patient even with a slow learner like me! ^_^
I had this idea of doing a basket quilt for sometime but as my hands wouldn’t agree with hand stitching so much, I had to think about machine appliqué. But I was totally lost with what materials to use or even how to use that scary looking zigzag stitch! So I went to Catherine for help. Even while managing a busy bustling shop, she devoted an afternoon to teach me the basics of machine appliqué. I can’t express how grateful I am for her timely guidance and making it possible for me to dream this quilt.

I experimented a little bit with the materials & machine settings along the way and want to list them here in case anyone is starting out in Machine appliqué like me.

Materials:

~ These Gingher 6-inch Applique' scissors were very helpful in cutting out finer details without putting any strain on the hands. They are very sharp and nice & heavy!

~ Using this Appliqué foot improved my stitches very much. I could clearly see where I was going and it made a big difference.

~ Lingerie & Bobbin thread is very thin. It comes in two colors, white and black. Since the thread is much thinner than the regular thread, using it in the bobbin gives you a much finer applique' stitch. I used white Bobbin thread for the Basket blocks as my background and most of the applique pieces were light colored. Even for the few dark pieces that I used, it is hardly visible to the eye. (I adjusted my sewing machine tension to 3)

 *You could also use Invisible monofilament threads instead, but I haven't tried them. 

~For the top thread, I used Mettler fine embroidery(60 wt.) cotton thread.

I prefered to cut my Applique' pieces from a fabric with a white or off-white background so that they would blend into my main fabric easily, but on occasions where they had a different background color, I tried to match the top thread with it like these macaroons or berries..

Here is an overview of the steps I followed... 

1. Pick one main fabric for the background and another one with a cute print that you want to fussy cut.

2. Roughly cut around the print you like to appliqué. It doesn’t have to be precise at this point.

3. Now trim around the piece accurately, you should be left with a little less than 1/8” seam (it also depends on how wide you want your zig-zag stitch to be. Mine is very small!)

4. Peel the paper on one side of your fusible and place this trimmed appliqué piece on this sticky surface. Switch to paper scissors and cut around this piece as closely as you can.

Note: You can skip step 3 and directly place the roughly cut piece on top of the fusible and then trim around the shape but I was switching between my applique’ scissors and paper scissors, so it took me two times the work!

5. Press on the fusible paper of the appliqué piece to set the adhesive following the instructions given for your product.

6. The easy way to remove the backing paper is by scratching it with a pin and then peeling it off. Keep this piece aside.

Prepare your background fabric:

1. Place your appliqué piece on where you want it on the main fabric and lightly trace around it with a pencil. Remove the piece.

2. Now position the sticky-side (shiny side) of stabilizer on the wrong side of the main fabric where you will likely appliqué. Press it following the instructions for the product. (Unlike the double stick fusible web, the stabilizer has one sticky side and one non-sticky side.)   I didn't always use the stabilizer in the basket blocks which worked out fine maybe because my background fabric was thick enough. But it especially helps with tight corners or curves, avoids any kind of puckers and keeps the applique' smooth.

3. Finally, position the appliqué piece on right side of your main fabric where you marked earlier and press in place.
Once the applique' is stitched you can tear away the Stabilizer.

Machine settings:

 My Sewing machine is Pfaff Performance 2058. So I am writing down the settings I’ve used on this machine.
Also, feel free to experiment with the stitch length and choose what fits your needs best.
Don’t forget to change your straight stitch throat plate to zigzag throat plate! ( " u " )

If your machine has these options, choose 'needle down' and also 'sew slow' to slow down the machine speed while stitching. Set the stitch-width to 1.0 and then set, how close you want your stitches to be, between .60 to .40

If the stitches are too close they might look lumpy.

 Choose "Tie-off at end" option.

Position the needle anywhere you like to start stitching.

Bring the bobbin thread to the top. Push the threads out of your way and proceed with the stitching.

When you are nearing the end, continue stitching 2 or 3 stitches into where you began and stop.

Gently tap this 'reverse button' to activate your "Tie-off at end option" and press on your presser foot.

This will tie-off the threads automatically.

Yay! we are done!! snip the threads and admire your lovely creation! ( * V * )

Add any cute messages or other details if you like..

There are really nice video tutorials on the web that explain how to do the zigzag stitch for applique'. So I didn't go into the detail here. I hope you can refer to these tutorials if in doubt.

I still have to put a flex frame in this coin purse. But the kitties seem happy with the progress ;)

Pattern is from this Japanese book - ISBN978-4-391-63131-9

It has clear step-by-step pictures for all the projects. So it is easy to follow even if the instructions are in Japanese.

Thank you so much for patiently reading through this lengthy post. I hope I didn't bore you..( ' u ' )
Have a beautiful day!

pillows

Diwali is coming which means time for renewal and celebrations. Other than cleaning the house, washing the windows, rolling cotton wicks for oil lamps and preparing sweets, I thought I would make some fresh pillows to spruce up the place. I got these linens just for this purpose when we were in New York City last year. They have been impatiently waiting ever since. I wrote about the linen shop here.

Selvages on linen fabrics are irresistibly beautiful. I wanted to ornament the pillows with their rustic charm where ever possible.

One of the linens had this peachy fuzz on the selvage which was too cute to ignore. So I made up this easiest of pillows. This is how I did it roughly…
Finished size is 18” x 18”.

- Cut two pieces 19” x 18 ½” with selvage on the longer side of each piece. ( Front and Back of pillow)
- Cut 2 strips 3” x 19” for the straps on the top edge. You can adjust the width to any size you like it to be.
  Fold the raw edges towards the center of the strap as shown in the picture
- Cut 8 strips 1 ¼” x 9” or any size you like your ties to be.

To make the ties, pin two pieces, right sides together and sew on 3 sides with a 1/8” seam. Turn them out and press. Make 4 of these.

-Take one of the 19” x 18 ½” piece. Mark a dot, measuring 5.5” from the edge on either side. This is where we will pin the ties.
-Place the inner edge of the tie aligning with this mark. Also align the half-inch mark on the tie to the top edge of the pillow piece.

 - Now place the folded strap on top of the pillow piece and the tie, aligning with the top edge.
- Pin and top-stitch along the top and bottom of the strap.

-Repeat above steps for the Back pillow piece.

-Pin Front piece and Back piece, right-sides together and stitch on 3 sides with ½” seam allowance, leaving the top side open. Trim the corners close to the stitching line at a diagonal and turn right side out.

-Press and insert a pillow form. Knot the ties.

I hope I didn't confuse you with my tutorial of sorts ( ' u ' )

How are your festival preparations coming along? Be it lighting rows of oil lamps on window sills or decorating the front porch with pumpkin lanterns, the wind seem to be blowing festival magic and everything is glowing that autumnal orange and smelling of pinecones and sweetmeats! Yum!  Enjoy the season!
Wish you all a very Happy Diwali and a Hauntingly Happy Halloween! ( * V * )