A Very Vintage Christmas Sew Along: Vintage Pinwheel

Welcome to my second post for the A Very Vintage Christmas Sew-along! with Fat Quarter Shop and Lori Holt.  Catch up with all the SAL info including the schedule here.  

You can read my book review and Gingerbread house block post here.

As with my first block, I turned to the Vintage Christmas Projects section of the book which includes a tablerunner, place mat, two pillows and a Merry Mug mat.   The mug mat uses a 6" block with a little extra fabric for sashing and the side pocket- perfect for a cake fork or a small pair of scissors!

I made two: one for me and one as a gift for my daughter so she can get into the Christmas spirit with her uni friends- they have already started on flat decorations!  It's a quick make and an ideal gift if you are making presents for friends or sewing swaps.  Each year,  I find that part of getting into the mood for this time of year is making a few extra Christmas themed items and Vintage Christmas is perfect for this.  

Fabrics Used

Aqua, Robin, Cherry Christmas by Aneela Hoey for Moda

Pink, Little Joys, Elea Lutz, Penny Rose Fabrics for Riley Blake

Green (pocket), Little Joys, Elea Lutz, Penny Rose Fabrics for Riley Blake 

Binding, Color Theory Selection, V and Co for Moda- Ta Dot in Ceda by Michael Miller

Vintage Christmas is available at The Fat Quarter Shop (USA)

In the UK, stock has arrived  but is selling quickly. It's due to arrive back into stock here at Patchwork Dreamer.  Currently sold out at Sew Hot maybe contact them to see if more are due?

A Very Vintage Christmas Sew Along

Welcome to my post for week two as part of A Very Vintage Christmas Sew-along!  with Fat Quarter Shop and Lori Holt.  You can read all the SAL info including the schedule here.  Before I get into details about my make (Gingerbread House block made into a Snowglobe cushion) I'd love to show you a little more from Lori's brilliant new book!

I don't know how Lori does it.  Her books are packed full of makes - quilts and small projects - and her designs have such wonderful retro references; she must never stop sewing to make all the things, and as with her other books, the photographs are beautifully styles.  This book one is obviously Christmas themed, but many of the blocks and projects could be used for other times of the year, and as with her other books, it's spiral bound for easy use and the blocks instructions are for both 6" and 12"finished squares.

I especially liked the Vintage Christmas projects.  These are quick useful makes and I can never resist making more Christmas things, even when I already have quite a few!

     

The two colour quilts caught my eye, book marked as a future project maybe!?

The Gingerbread House block was fast to sew up.  Lori uses her tried-and-trusted technique of drawing diagonals on the reverse of squares and rectangles to create the 45-degree angles that make up details like the window awning, chimney sides and roof.  I like to tick the cutting list as I prep the fabric, as well as using a design board to lay all the pieces out before I sew.  The Snow Globe cushion used the 6" block and it only takes a few pieces of background fabric to create the snow globe effect.  I cut my red background slightly wider to produce a cushion bigger than the 12" square size in the book.  Mine is approx 16" square.

For the chimney smoke, I drew the line on removeable marker, threaded my machine with Aurifil 12wt in the top thread/50wt in the bobbin and stitched slowly, tying the ends in on the back.   A larger needle size helps with this.  I used a 100/16 Superior Needle.

Fabrics Used

Chimney/House -Kona Wheat

Roof- Riley Blake?  It was given to me and I'm down to tiny scraps.

Window/Door Glass- Cherry Christmas by Aneela Hoey for Moda

Door and Window frame- unknown scraps

Window Awning- Red Hatch from Day Sail, Bonnie & Camille for Moda

Grass and Path, Eat Drink and Be Ugly, Sandy Gervais for Moda

House/Globe Background- Sevenberry Dots blue on white

Globe Base- Cosmo Cricket Early Bird for Moda (I really miss Cosmo Cricket fabrics!)

Red background - Cherry Christmas by Aneela Hoey for Moda

Binding- Ta Dot in Ceda by Michael Miller

The Vintage Christmas book is available at The Fat Quarter Shop (USA)

In the UK, it looks like stock is still arriving but these shops usually sell Lori's quilting books: Patchwork Dreamer, Sew Hot, Hulu Crafts.

I'll be back later in the Sew Along with a Vintage Pinwheel block!  

House Quilty Pocket

 Fat Quarter Shop kindly sent me a copy of Lori Holt's Cosy Cottage Calendar.  It arrived a little late for the blog hop but in time for making Christmas gifs.

The Calendar is full of Lori Holt vintage style eye candy, lots of quilts, kitchens and domesticity plus a regular calendar with USA dates which is a bit of a novelty to a Brit!  It also comes with two rotary cut versions of the school house pattern- different sizes- and instructions to make a mini quilt and a pillow.  UK/EU quilters who want the calendar in time for new year can find it at Pretty Fabrics and Trims.

I started on the smallest house.  I love how the big pieces shrink down quickly when sewing them together.  I then made the little block into a quilty zip pocket following Lori's free pattern from her blog; it's a great tutorial to use for single blocks and easy to adapt for different sizes. The seams are finished with zig zag inside but you could also finish with twill tape to hide all the edges.   Mine ended up 6" x 8" approx. 

 I filled it with some bits and pieces as a little extra gift for my granny, hand cream, emery boards, sweets- that sort of thing.  She loves birds and her garden so the fabric choices have her in mind.

#farmgirlfridays Week Nine: Feed and Seed

Hi, welcome to the week nine in the Farm Girl Vintage Sew Along #farmgirlfridays that the Fat Quarter Shop and Lori Holt are running for Lori's new Farm Girl Vintage book. The pace is gentle; one block a week, each Friday feature's two guest bloggers and you can either drop in and make a single block, small project or go for the whole quilt!  I chose to make the 'Feed and Seed' block.  It's a classic quilt block and I am a sucker for blocks like this one that feature a square on point within a square, I like the way they look like they are blooming!

You can find Sew Along schedule here.  The Feed and Seed block is on page 30 of the Farm Girl Vintage book.  Jessie has another block on her blog today and Lori posts on her blog each week.   This link will take you to a big picture post by Lori so you can get an in depth look inside the book. The hashtags will helps you find other's taking part and insertion for your block- try these! #feedandseedblock #farmgirlvintage

As with Lori's other books published by It's Sew Emma, the book making arm of The Fat Quarter Shop, Farm Girl Vintage is spiral bound with great photography and clear diagrams and instructions.  There are tables, diagrams for each part of the block making process and lots of sizing options.   There is a grand real of fourteen projects which includes ten quilts, two table runners, a table topper and a potholder.  There are forty five sampler blocks, all featured in the sew along.  I chose to make a 6" block and extend the sides and edges with extra pieces to make a mat for our table.

My fabric choices came out of a block I did for My Small World Quilt Along.  I liked the colour palette so much I wanted to repeat it!  The fabrics are a mix of Lori Holt's (the text prints,) Ayumi Takahashi's Lighthearted, Pam Kitty Morning's dots and a Sevenberry pink floral.  

The binding is Michael Miller Painter's canvas in Mermaid.  It is bias cut to curve round the corners but otherwise 2.25" wide, double folded quilt binding, machined to the front and hand finished on the reverse.   If you are making a square cornered pot holder,  Fat Quarter shop have put together a helpful video  on using the backing fabric as binding.

Farm Girl Vintage Stockists:

USA Fat Quarter Shop

UK Sew and Quilt, Sew Hot, Hulu Crafts, Kaleidoscope Books, Poppies and Polka Dots

Many of these shops will send elsewhere in the world.

Quilty Fun Birthday Block

Lori Holt of Bee in My Bonnet and Fat Quarter shop are celebrating a year since the publication of Lori's Quilty Fun book with cutting instructions for a free birthday block which you may have seen popping up on Instagram, blogs etc.  This is my version- I added a little flame to the candle too!

I went for saturated colours and a bright background- Michael Miller cotton couture in turquoise.  The little flame addition was a mix of a little Y seam and then paper pieced, fiddly but I like the effect.

The download is cutting instructions only- its easy to assemble if you are familiar with Lori's easy techniques like easy corner triangle which she covers in Quilty Fun and in her blog tutorials. 

For UK and non USA people looking for the book, it is available here at Kaleidoscope quilting and books.  Its an easy block to make, I cut mine out and laid it as the diagram on a tray and then worked my way through the main sections of the cake.   It would make a lovely block for a first birthday baby quilt too!

Quilty Fun Blog Tour

Welcome to the first stop right at the beginning of the Quilty Fun Sew Along and Blog Tour: Apples!

I am a huge fan of Lori Holt's work, she is such  a sweet person and she shares so many tips and ideas  at her blog Bee in My Bonnet so I jumped at the change to take part.   Her new book is a collaboration between Lori and the Fat Quarter Shop. You can see detailed photos of Quilty Fun book here- the photos, taken in Lori's home are to die for, all the retro styling and colours which I just know is not just for the cameras but how Lori lives her life.  The Sew Along is to make a quilty sampler from many of the blocks in the book and each stop on the hop comes with its own companion PDF that works alongside the book so you can make this quilt- Download 1 Apples is here

The book is well laid out and the spiral binding allows it to lay flat and makes it great to work alongside.  The instructions are displayed in a checklist style as is the download so you can cut exactly what you need for the sampler apples.  I did all my prep in order of the list and labelled and lined the pieces ready to use. 

 ***Edited to add***

Additional Yardage 

You will need 3 yards of background fabric in total for this quilt top

½ yard for red postage stamp border

1 ¼ yards outer border

All the blocks in this quilt are rotary cut and simple to make. Lori has such a systematic, efficient approach with tips along the way.  You can put the time into chosing your fabrics as the construction is very straightforward.  

This block took me 15 mins to prep and 1 hour to sew together.  

I love her graphic picture style, and the book is packed with ideas like these apples.  Other favourites in the book include the Town Square quilt the Apple-licious quilt- obviously.

Each stop on the tour comes with a giveaway and for this stop you will find two 3.5" Rolie Polies of Lori's new fabric line, Gracie Girl up for grabs.  To enter,  you must make the apple block using the tip sheet and page 22 of the book and post it to the Quilty Fun Flickr Group and the winner will be announced on the Jolly Jabber 11th Nov.   Enjoy!