I love this time of year - even though I no longer have small children and so can't go to the pantomime any more!
I did a tutorial on my website a few weeks back for redwork embroidery using the eagle on the right and I found it so relaxing that I made the festive redwork shown on the left.
I've used calico for the backing so that I can write on the back if I decide to give it away as a very special card. The angels are a primitive design and I love them. I think I might try some primitive applique on a quilt some time in the new year.
It's been a fairly hectic week because I wanted to send out a newsletter showing the quilt as you go fun and done technique. It's made by machine sewing the backing fabrics together and then hand sewing the backing fabric down as sashing on the front of the quilt.
If that doesn't sound too clear here's the video:
I've just realised that there are only two clear weeks now for me to get everything ready for the family coming home at Christmas. It's finding somewhere other than the children's beds for my fabric stash that is a major problem - that and deciding on a hand sewn project to begin while my sewing machine is tidied away.
Thanks for visiting my blog. Hope to see you again soon.
With Christmas approaching, I'm going to try and start posting more small projects that would make great gifts and don't take too long to make. This shadow applique heart would make a great dressing table coaster for someone special. It’s really easy to make and I’m sure that you could make yours more flat than mine is.
Shadow applique is just normal applique with a layer of organza, net or some other fabric that is totally see through laid on top. It gives a lovely sheen to the fabric.
Begin with the applique shape of your choice. I have chosen a simple heart. Back it with fusible interfacing and press to the background fabric – a 9.1/2” white square in this case. The right hand photo shows the organza layer on top: you can see how it tones down the fabric and gives a lovely sheen.
Place the backing fabric right side down and lay the batting on top. Lay the heart on top of this and then the layer of organza. Baste the edge of the square and baste the heart.
Using a small running stitch, quilt around the edge of the heart. I’ve shown front and back here. I then added a further echo line of stitching ¼” outside the first line of stitching.
Using a plate or something similar draw a circle as large as possible on the square and cut along the line. Pin as the basting will now have been cut off. I know that this seems an odd way of doing it, but I wanted to be sure of how far out the heart and quilting went before I cut the circle.
Bind as for any quilt, but don’t forget to use binding cut on the bias. Because the binding is on top of the organza layer, it shows up as a richer colour than the heart itself, giving a lovely contrast.
This was made as a gift for a girl – somewhere for her to put her jewellery when she took it off – but it could just as easily be made with another shape (holly leaves for example) to make a lovely Christmas gift. You can't beat handmade gifts for really showing that you care.
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I've often looked at jewel box quilts longingly but felt that I couldn't be doing with all those triangles everywhere. It took my tiny brain a while to work out that they were in fact squares for the most part, but I got there in the end!
I've seen many jewel box quilt patterns with much smaller pieces than I have used, but for this quilt pattern I have stuck with my favourite 2.1/2" size because it is such an easy size to work with.
I rummaged around in my fabric stash looking for pairs of colours that I could theme together: one dark and one light. I ended up with six pairs of colours (12 fabrics) and cut a 2.1/2" strip and a 4.3/4" strip across the width of each of these fabrics. Batiks would look absolutely gorgeous in a jewel box quilt but I didn't have any of them. You will also need twelve 2.1/2" strips and twelve 4.3/4" strips in black.
Using a 1/4" seam and with right sides together sew a 2.1/2" black strip to a colour strip along the length. cut across the width at 2.1/2" intervals. Do the same with another black strip and the colour that themes with the first one.
Take a black/light colour 2.1/2" strip and a black/dark colour strip and sew together to make a four patch square as shown below.
Take a black 4.3/4" strip of fabric and a colour 4.3/4" strip. Lay them with right sides together and cut across the width at 4.3/4" intervals to make 4.3/4" squares. Mark a line along the diagonal of each square (these are pairs of squares, black and colour) and sew a 1/4" seam either side of the marked line. Cut along the marked line and you will have two squares each made up of one black triangle and one colour triangle.
These two quilt blocks are all you need for the entire jewel box quilt pattern: that's how simple it is.
The video shows the block construction:
To make the centre of the jewel box quilt block, take four of the four patch squares and four of the triangle squares and arrange them as shown. The small squares (the jewels) are starting to form a frame around the big square (the jewel box) in the middle, so make sure you place them as shown with the light and dark alternating.
The rows above and below the central square are both made of a triangle square at each corner with two nine patch blocks between them. Again, be careful to alternate the colours so that you continue the frame around the central square of the jewel box quilt block.
The central square is obviously the two themed colours that you began with: the triangles in each corner of the jewel box quilt block will form another square (jewel box) with the three different colours of the blocks around it.
Keep going and make more jewel box quilt blocks with all the other colours of fabric. I had enough fabric to make two quilt blocks in each pair of colours, so that I ended up with twelve jewel box quilt blocks. There are two options: one quilt using four rows of three quilt blocks or two lap quilts each using three rows of two quilt blocks. Each quilt block measures 16" square so the first option would give you a quilt 48" by 64" (before the border) and the second option of the lap quilts would be 32" by 48" before adding the border. I decided to go for two lap quilts.
After completing the twelve jewel box quilt blocks, I was left with enough triangle squares to be able to use them in the border - you know how I hate having fabric left over.
Sew them together in pairs and then make two strips of eight for the short ends of the quilt.
In the photo on the right the quilt border has been added along the bottom edge of the jewel box quilt. The border strip to sew along the edge needs to be fourteen squares long but notice that the end square is a single colour rather than a pair of colours. that way you get the effect of a square going into the corner, which I quite liked.
I hope you enjoyed quilting this jewel box pattern as I did. It really does have simple building blocks, doesn't it?
Thanks for visiting my blog. You'll find more ideas for quilt patterns at Ludlow Quilt and Sew.
