Little Red House By The Sea

 The last two tops are done. There's not a lot to add because they are made the same way as the others. With the one in the picture to the right, you have to be careful to make your centre pumpkin joins as close as you can. The first thing you should do is iron the seams on the middle pumpkin to be opposite from the ones to the right and left of it. Then pin as in the earlier post. You will make it easier on yourself if you sew from the side where you can see the seam for the pumpkin. If you want a sharp corner, your new seam will meet at this point but won't cut into any of the corner. If you trimmed your edges to just a hair over a quarter inch away from the seam like Jenny suggested in the video, that will also make it easier for you to keep a sharp corner. If you lose a bit of your corner, don't fret! Practice makes perfect, and you can always get out your trusty seam ripper! Remember when you are putting this together that you have to add half a...

The pumpkin sides of each of these placemats are going to be different. The pumpkin in part 5 was made using the 10" half hexi template. These 2 are made with the 5" half hexi template. Go ahead and make 2 exactly the same way you made the 10 inch one in part 4. I used a 1 1/4 inch strip between the hexis to make the pumpkins. Since we have to put the Appliqué stems on, you need at least 1 1/2 inches between the pumpkins, so I added a strip 2" wide. Then I measured what I had and what I needed to make it the height of the already sewn back. I needed a 2 1/2" strip on the top and bottom.  I wanted the 2 pumpkins to be at least 3" from the right side, so I cut a strip 3 1/4" by the height (14 7/8") and sewed it on.  That left 11 1/2 inches to be the same width as the back, so I cut a strip 11 3/4" by 14 7/8".  I sewed, ironed, and added the 2 stems using the method in my Easy Appliqué tutorial. I still have to sew around the e...

This will be a very quick post to explain how to use Appliqué to put the stems on the pumpkins for my fall placemats. First, draw a stem on a piece of paper. I hope you are better at drawing then I am! If you want your stem to look exactly like what you have drawn, you need a reverse image. I just turn over my paper and use a marker to redraw the lines on the other side. Now you need a piece of fusible web. You can buy it at any quilting store. Place your paper pattern under your fusible web and trace the pattern on the paper backing of the web. Follow the instructions on your fusible web, but basically it will be trim the web around the pattern, and iron it onto the wrong side of your fabric. Then trim on your pattern lines.  Remove the paper backing and iron in place on your fabric. Next you have to either use your sewing machine to sew around the edges, or sew around by hand using blanket stitch. Since here I have placemats that will be washed o...

This is what the reverse side of the first placemat will look like. Now to tell you how to get there! I'm using a 10" half-hexi ruler template here, and I will use the 5" half-hexi for the next 3 placemats. These are available from most quilting stores. If you are near me, you can certainly borrow mine!  First off, Jenny Doan of Missouri Star Quilt Company has a great tutorial on how to make pumpkins, and she will explain it much better than I will, so go here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpCrxbr9hjE&autoplay=1 When Jenny explains she doesn't really show how to line up the pieces. See in my picture I touch the corner of my hexi with the edge of the brown piece just before it straightens.     On the other end you will have a quarter inch gap. That disappears when you press. Magic! Don't worry if your edges aren't perfectly straight. You can trim them off even with the edge of your hexi later.    A...

We're going to finish this side in this tutorial. If you want to stop here and make one sided placemats of course you can. There are 2 ways of doing it - put the placemat and your backing fabric right sides together, place on top of a piece of batting, and sew around the edges, leaving about a 2 inch gap so that you can turn the placemat right side out. Then hand sew your gap, top stitch around the outer edges, and then quilt as you like. The other way is to make a quilt sandwich with fabric right sides out on the bottom and top, sew on your binding, and then quilt. There are several ways to make binding, and several ways to sew it on. I will explain in a later tutorial. Back to the final sewing for this side for now. CAREFULLY take the top layers from each fabric bundle. I used caps because I wasn't careful enough and I ended up with a jumble. I suggest laying the pieces on a flat surface before you sew to be sure you have them in the correct order. Remember the column wid...

Last time I posted I took you up to the end of the first cut. Now we sew. The order of sewing is really quite simple as long as you keep your fabric bundles pinned together and don't let them get mixed up. First take the top strip from each bundle and sew them in order ABCDE I typically don't pin at this stage but I do use my quarter inch foot on my sewing machine. When these are sewn, iron all the seams one way. I chose towards the biggest strip of fabric.   Then take the second strip (now on top) from each bundle and sew that placemat. Keep sewing and ironing until you have 4 rectangles.  They should be ordered like this!  And they should look like this! Now back to the cutting board. Stack with colour 1 as the top and bottom piece of the top rectangle, colour 2 as the top and bottom of the second rectangle, colour 3 next, and colour 4 as the top and bottom of the rectangular on the bottom of your pile. Pin the rectangles ...

I'm going to make some reversible fall placemats, and attempt to describe how to make them as I go along. While each of them will be unique on either side, one side will look like the photo to the left with the fabric changing positions for each placemat. The other side will have a pumpkin theme. You're going to need 4 fat quarters for this side, as well as thread and the normal quilting supplies. Last fall I was lucky enough to visit quilters Disneyland, aka Missouri Star Quilt Company in Hamilton, Missouri. I didn't see Jenny Doan, but I shopped in all the stores. One of the stores had fat quarters on sale, so I bought some that were fall themed. All were 100% cotton, but some were brushed cotton and some were regular weight cotton. I have 16 in all, and I need 4 for side one of my placemats. I divided into groups of four that go well together because I'll likely make more placemats later as gifts. This is the group I chose for this project, laid on my cut...