Delightful Department Store Fabric Tour

Hi there! It’s been a while since I added a post here and I’m so happy to share todays make with you. I made a sweet pillow from Poppie Cotton‘s newest fabric line Delightful Department Store by Amy Jordan. This fabric is an absolute must have line with these wonderful colors and those great 50’s dress pattern ladies!

I pulled a classy pattern from Heidi Staples book Patchwork USA and made them as blocks instead of a needle book and just went from there. The pattern was simple and a great weekend project to make some blocks and a pillow.

I used the sweet yellow gingham for the sashing and added a simple fold over backing, adding a boarder of ladies to make the most of my fabrics ad for fun.

I have been busy working and with kids home for the summer, it’s not often that I get time to just sew something for fun and it sure felt good to make something sweet and simple.

Head over to Poppie Cotton to follow along with them for more wonderful fabric lines and be sure to enter their giveaway as well!

Until next time!

My Favorite Things Fabric Hop

Hi, and welcome to my stop on the My Favorite Things Hop. My name is Faith and I’ve dusted off my blog just for this special project. I have been a fan of Elea Lutz‘ and Poppie Cotton both and when I heard Elea would have a new fabric line with Poppie Cotton I was so excited. Let’s get right to the fabrics!

My Favorite Things Fabric is not only full of literally the sweetest things, but the colors of each print are just perfect and made me think of all the old, traditional quilts. I went with the Ohio Star block from a book I love Quilt As You Go Made Vintage and cut up all my blocks so I could just sew as time allowed.

I just love when you start laying out blocks and see the whole design and how the colors play together. I sewed these up and then took the rest with me for a girls weekend of sewing.

Here with my dear friend Jenni. Next best thing to a finished quilt is a finished quilt top. I will think of our time together when I’m snuggled under it. This one I made extra big since I know my growing boys will be using it as well.

Elea did such a beautiful job on these colors, the dusty blues are my favorite. I quilted it in simple lines down each block. This quilt is going to get a lot of use. I made it for the guest bed in our back room, but my quilts always have a way of making their way around the house onto other beds and into favorite reading spots.

Possibly my favorite block, it’s just so happy.

I used the patchwork cheater print for binding and left the salvage ends on so there are bits of bunnies and text print for fun. The background is a combination of the low volume prints from this line as well as Country Confetti from Poppie Cotton. I backed it with a flat sheet in light blue.

Now that this quilt is finished and taking up the quilt life of traveling around our home from room to room, I’m going to be dreaming up my next Quilt with Elea’s next line and making a plan for how to use the rest of these scraps. In the meantime you can find me over on Instagram @faithessenburg

Thank you for stopping by, I hope you leave here feeling inspired and ready to sew something of your own.

Faith

Vivacious Applique Quilt

When I saw the Vivacious fabrics from Anna Maria Horner for Free Spirit, I knew I had to do some sort of applique with fussy cut flowers but I also wanted some quilt blocks as well. Sometimes quilts just sort of tell you what they want to become and you almost just have to sit back and see where it takes you. I started with the four center blocks and a whole lot of Wonder Fuse and very relaxing scissor work, then stood back to see what needed adding next. I was inspired by a soft background quilt that I had seen in a class I took years ago by Anna Maria so those blocks came next. Bit by bit things came along and were hand cut with scissors and machine sewn, a lot of raw edge sewing and applique as well as bias cut vine work that has edges folded under. I wanted a garden feel, adding vines and more of her gorgeous flowers. Last touch was adding binding, and hand quilting. All threads used will be available in August from Aurifil when Vivacious fabric will also be available.

I often sew with lawn fabrics and just as I had hoped, these are a dream to work with. Thin but not see through, soft yet strong, and the extra width of the fabrics made backing this quilt a breeze. Perfect summer quilt weight, soft, light and squishy.

Vivacious Tunic Dress

Welcome to my sadly neglected blog, I can’t believe it’s been two years since I posted here but like most of us these last two years have held a lot of changes and for me that meant separation, work after 14 years home, a move and divorce. While life has eased up just a bit I have enjoyed slowly dipping my toes back into creating and this past Sunday I jumped right back in and made this little tunic dress from start to finish.

With these Vivacious fabrics by Anna Maria Horner from Free Spirit Fabrics I was asked to create one fashion item and one patchwork project. The patchwork I knew would be wonderful to get me back to my love of quilting and the fashion item would be the little nudge to help me do something I’ve been wanting to try more of; garment sewing.

I selected this blue leopard print and found a simple tunic pattern in a book I have called Liberty Love. These fabrics are buttery soft, lightweight cotton lawn and are a generous 54 inches wide, perfect for so many projects. I added a double layer of sheer fabric for the top that I found at Joann.

I’ll be honest, animal print is a bold choice and I was a bit nervous to wear this but I felt so good pairing it with leggings and a sweater. This will be a fun summer look with sandals too.

Little hook and eye detail I added to hold the sleeve cuff up. I also tacked the sleeve under the arms to keep the cuff folded over.

Now that I’ve got my creativity back, I have started work on my Vivacious patchwork project and I am very excited to watch it unfold and come to life in front of me. Thank you for stopping by and please make sure to follow along on Instagram to see all the Vivacious makers and their projects and stay tuned for more from me as well including a giveaway!

Liberty Flower Show

Liberty’s newest quilting cotton; Spring Flower Show feels so happy with soft colors and tiny flower prints, perfect for Spring that can’t get here soon enough.

I chose one of my favorite patterns from Amy Sinibaldi’s book Sweetly Stitched Handmades, instead of making one Starburst Dresden for a pillow I went all out and made nine for a whole quilt.

The centers of each starburst are made using various low volume fabrics I had in my stash that include Blossom fabrics and other Riley Blake staples.

Somehow this quilt seems to have an instant heirloom quality to it, I’m not sure if it’s the dresden shapes or the soft tone of the background or the fact that it’s already a bit crinkly to start with but I’m happy with the look and feel.

Iv’e added a few Wiltshire Shadow fabrics into the mix here, this is a line of fabrics that were made to coordinate with all the Liberty quilting cotton lines and they really do add to the collection nicely. Plus who doesn’t love the classic Wiltshire print!

Each block measures just under 20 inches and this quilt finishes at 58 inch square with a nice heavy feel from the weight of the dresdens, perfect for snuggling under.

Beautiful colors and classic florals make for a dreamy fabric collection, I especially love the green tones in here.

I had to laugh this morning when I came downstairs to see my freshly finished quilt had already been put to use by one of my boys. Quilts are made to be used and loved, over and over again.

 

Sew Cute Quilts and Gifts Book Tour

Hi! Welcome to my stop on the Sew Cute Quilts and Gifts Book Tour, I am excited to share what I’ve made from this beautiful new book from Atsuko Matsuyama and Zakka Workshop. If you are not familiar with Atsuko’s work, she is a fabulous fabric designer from Japan and has several books available in both English and Japanese.

This book has many sweet projects that include machine and hand sewing and range in size from small pouches that can be finished in an afternoon to a beautiful hand sewn quilt that is truly a masterpiece.

I decided to go with this Flat Zipper Pouch and used these cute fussy cut fabrics instead of the floral applique that the original pouch shows. It was a great way to showcase some favorite fabrics and also save on time.

My favorite part is the zipper and binding which were surprisingly fun to work on!

A little cherry print lining to add with the cherry theme on the outside. It was surprising how much fruit fabric I’ve collected over the years. The assembly was really fun and the directions in the book were clear and well laid out with plenty of illustrations for visual learners like myself.

Hand quilting added to the front and back in a soft mint 40 weight thread that is a little thicker than basic 50 weight thread, Aurifil 2800.

All of my fabrics used are from Sunny Day Supply and have been collected over the past couple years, most of these are still available in their shop I believe, along with SO many other beautiful fabrics. These are all Yuwa and I absolutely love the feel of this brand for small projects as well as quilting, you can see and feel the quality. Sunny Day Supply is also hosting a wonderful fabric giveaway for two which you can find HERE on Instagram and each of the makers this week have a book to giveaway as well from Zakka Workshop, so be sure to check them out for more chances to win!

I will be holding my book giveaway over on Instagram, so check that out as well! Thank you for stopping by, I hope you leave here feeling inspired to try a bit of your own creativity.

 

Pemberly

I just love Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and all things that go along with it, so when I saw Riley Blake had a Pemberly fabric line I had to have it. The colors in this line from Rachel Erickson are right up my ally and the illustrations couldn’t be sweeter!

From the grounds at Pemberly to ballroom dances and the famous letters Mr Darcy wrote to Lizzy, this is a must have collection for all Austen fans.

I made a quilt from Emily Dennis‘ book Modern Quilts Block By Block, which has been my go to easy quilt book this year. I love how she has every last detail laid out in her patterns, even for an experienced quilter it’s just nice to sit back and sew once in a while.

I went with simple wavy line quilting to keep the focus on the fabrics and design, I love the classic clean look of white sashing and I finished it off with a soft green binding.

Nothing like a beautiful quilt finish to make you want to start another one all over again! Put this fabric line on your Christmas list this year and make a quilt just in time for Spring.

The Summer House Collection

The Summer House Collection from Liberty Lasenby Quilting cotton had me at Hello. Actually it had me at the description on the Riley Blake page that says “The latest collection from the Liberty Fabrics design studio drew inspiration from the interiors of 17th and 19th century orangeries. The Summer House quilting collection illustrates the grand architecture of these structures – paying homage to the details of decorative tiled flooring, iron works and trellises. Archival artworks are translated into conversational prints inspired by citrus fruits, plants and vines weaving amongst detailed ironworks, while floral geometric designs evoke the forms of intricate tiles.” This stirred my old soul and drew a picture in my mind which I sketched out for reference.

With fabrics in hand, I set to work to create something that was a bit out of my comfort zone and required new to me techniques such as; blocks on point, invisible machine sewn applique, and bias applique. Sometimes your work evolves as you go and you end up with something very different than what you had pictured, this was not the case here and I feel immensely proud that the vision I had in mind and sketched on paper actually translated to fabric in a beautiful and cohesive way.

Once I had my log cabin blocks set on point with a center blank canvas running through, I set to work on the applique shapes. I used templates for those that you can find here. I knew I wanted to try invisible machine applique stitching so I played around with the machine settings on my Janome Memory Craft 6700P until I was happy with the look (or lack of) stitches. This was my first time working with a monofilament thread from Aurifil and I just loved it!

With all the applique sewn down I added echo quilting and a bit of accent on top of the shapes as well. I was debating what thread to use for quilting the blocks and what design when my 12 year old son said I should use the monofilament thread on the blocks as well to keep the focus on the quilt design rather than the quilting. Brilliant thinking and I just love having an artist to bounce ideas around with in my very own home!

The quilting might be my favorite part but it’s a toss up between that and the lemon print boarder! My backing is a basic yellow Swiss Dot from Riley Blake which is one of my go to low volume fabrics for any project.

I wanted to show you a close up of this stitch that tacks down the applique every few stitches and can be adjusted as needed for the size and shape of your work. I used a white thread in my bobbin and you can see that a bit here on the black leaves. I will be using this method again as it was a fun way to sew and I just love the look of it.

I am just so pleased with this project, I feel like it could easily be at home in one of those 17th century orangeries or even hanging over the railing at Liberty of London. Maybe that’s a bit of a bold statement but I believe in taking pride in your work especially when it’s showcasing the works of others as well, from the fabrics that are designed so carefully and curated over more than one hundred years, to the products I use that help to create something that is truly a collaborative work of art. I could not have done any of it without Riley Blake, Aurifil, Janome, Clover tools, Soak Wash flatter spray, Anna Maria Horner’s templates, and Hobbs batting. Sometimes it takes more than just a quilter to make a quilt!

Thank you for taking the time to stop by, I hope you leave here feeling inspired to try new things and have fun in whatever you do.

 

 

Rainy Day Sewing and a Giveaway

Today I have the honor of kicking off the Rainy Day Sewing Tour for my friend Amy and Kristyne’s book! If you’ve been following along here for a while you may know that Amy is truly the reason I was inspired to try sewing in the first place. Her’s were the sweetest projects and the first time I actually thought “hmm, maybe I could make that”. A while later Amy put out her first book Sweetly Stitched Handmades, one I ordered just for the pretty pictures and later ended up making every last project in the book during the sew along! A couple years after that I spent a weekend in Vermont with Amy and 20 other girls who are all dear friends now. I knew this second book of Amy’s would be special too and with Kristyne on board it could only get better!

When you can’t decide what you want to make first it’s a good problem to have! I decided on the little doll mattress and quilt, along with the Kitty, you know just for starters! I pulled some of my most hoarded fabrics and set to work. I especially love the visual instructions in this book, something I find helpful for not only beginners but visual learners like myself.

The mattress has instructions for making it any size to fit the bed you have which was helpful since this is a one of a kind doll bed that my grandpa made years ago. The quilt was just right with a few strips left off of the sides. This block is so fun it could also be made up into a full size quilt with repeat blocks!

For such a sweet little project with some of my favorite fabrics I decided to go the extra mile and add hand stitching. I used one of my favorite neutral Aurifil threads in a 28 weight (2311).

It’s all in the tiny details – – – – –

This Kitty was especially fun to make, from choosing her little socks and ear prints to making her dress and stitching her face. This is a great weekend project or Saturday sewing in a time crunch, think birthday gift! I will note that I used a zipper foot to sew her body together which I find helpful for all my small scale sewing.

My boys are asking me to make a boy kitty next and I think it can be done. For now this little girl is hanging out in my sewing room.

The mattress is extra plush, fit for a kitty princess and ready for play!

Just like Amy’s first book, I already have several other projects marked for sewing and I know it’s one I will be turning to over and over again. If you would like a chance to win a copy of your own, head on over to my Instagram page for more details!

This morning when I was looking for this little bed set I found it in my youngest boys room, he had tucked his two favorite bears in before heading off to school and it made my heart full.

Be sure to follow Amy and Kristyne to see the full lineup of makers this month and order your copy of this wonderful book available mid September from Sunny Day Supply and other shops.

The Seedling Quilts Book

This beautiful book came a while back and I’ve slowly been enjoying some hand sewing all summer long. Jodi of Tales Of Cloth has beautiful patterns and English Paper Piecing designs in her shop and her book is no different.

The Seedling Quilts book has a gorgeous sampler quilt along with all the individual blocks made up into their own quilts. You can take her designs and EPP a whole quilt or make a smaller project which is what I have done.

I loved the look of this Honeycomb design and was so pleased to find they came together really quickly especially since I decided to make a very long table runner.

I’ve wanted to pair Liberty fabrics with classic ticking for a while now and decided this would be the perfect project to run with and I couldn’t love it more!

I decided for durability and time that I would machine sew the finished Liberty piece onto the runner using a soft white Aurifil thread.

And because I wanted to give the smaller honeycomb papers a try I made place mats as well. Only four so far but I’ve got more on my stand to keep working at the rest. For these I used a natural linen with a ticking back on each mat.

My color pallet here was intentionally random to let the eclectic Liberty prints and colors really shine in all their individual glories. I think it brings a fun feel to our Victorian dining room.

If you’ve never tried English Paper Piecing I highly recommend starting with Jodi’s help either from her book or right from her shop. Her instructions are clear and the templates and papers just work really nicely. Remember my Mandolin quilt I finished this year? That was all her pattern and guidance!

Most of these prints can be found at Ava and Neve or Duckadilly Fabrics. I hope you’ve enjoyed this post and leave here feeling inspired to try something creative of your own. To see the rest of the Seedling Quilts projects, follow Jodi on Instagram and stay tuned for a sew along she will be hosting just in time for Fall sewing.