Accessorize with Hello, Bear Art Prints!

We waited with bated breath for the arrival of Bonnie Christine's newest fabric line, Hello, Bear to arrive at our quilt shop. When it finally arrived we were perfectly enchanted! Filled with sweet faced woodland creatures and forest elements, each bolt evokes a childhood adventure to be had right in your little one's own bedroom!

Sweet enough on it's own, the nursery, playroom or bedroom can be even sweeter with Bonnie's coordinating art prints for Hello, Bear! I'll give you a peek below, but you can see more at Bonnie's Etsy Shop, (there's even a set of woodland masks!)  and read more about them on her blog, Going Home to Roost. Oh, and there are wall stencils in the works, too! Did you know you can find coordinating wall stencils for many of Bonnie's fabrics at Royal Design Studio? Watch for Hello, Bear Stencils soon!

By the way, I'm sure you know that I'm blessed to be Bonnie's mother, and did you know that Hello, Bear celebrates the birth of my grandson, Bear?

Thanks for visiting! Happy Sewing and God bless! Maxie

AGF Stitched with Kimberly Blog Hop!

I'm so happy to finally be able to share what I've been working on for weeks! You've seen snippets on Instagram and Facebook, but today you'll see the completed project! In fact, you'll see lots of completed projects! My quilt is pictured below, but let me back up a little bit and fill you in on the details.

Art Gallery Fabrics and Kimberly of Fat Quarter Shop are collaborating together to bring a series of projects to you on a regular basis. Not only will this partnership bring you a great quilt made from Art Gallery Fabrics, but it will include a blog hop featuring several bloggers that whip up their own version of the same project...all made with their chosen Art Gallery fabrics.  When I was asked to join this first AGF Stitched with Kimberly Blog Hop, I was thrilled to hear their first collaboration would feature Bonnie Christine's newest fabric line for Art Gallery, Hello, Bear! As Bonnie's Mom, you know that I was all in!  You'll see Kimberly's beautiful Birchen Quilt at Fat Quarter Shop's blog, and you can download the pattern for free! Kimberly also made a video tutorial to show how to make the two quilt blocks:

Fat Quarter Shop is offering a kit for sale using Hello, Bear, which is pictured behind Kimberly in the video, and is featured on the downloadable pattern.

My version of the Birchen quilt features another of Bonnie Christine's fabrics, Winged. I made the block according to their directions, but, after playing with it a bit in my EQ7 software, I settled on a different block arrangement. I also kept my teal/coral fabric placements the same in both blocks.

There were half square triangles...lots of them...but we all used Triangles on a Roll, (shown in Kimberly's video) which made fast work of them!

After stitching the half square triangle units into rows, the rows are sewn together. Pressing was made easy by using one of my very favorite pressing tools: the Strip Stick! This little jewel elevates the seam allowance so that other pressed seams aren't disturbed!

I hope you enjoy hopping from blog to blog to see how we all have interpreted the Birchen Quilt! Happy Sewing and God Bless! Maxie

Pattern Weights

No matter what your sewing style, garments or quilts or bags or any other type of sewing activity, you're sure to love using pattern weights! Pinning can be time consuming when cutting out pattern pieces, and totally unnecessary when you have pattern weights! I was gifted with these handmade weights from two fellow sewists! The little green ones, pictured left, are filled with rice. Sarah Overton made them for me for Christmas and I just love them. Instructions are found at Tea Rose Home's blog. The larger, square weights were made for me, also for Christmas, by Ann Johnson. You can find a great tutorial on Zaaberry's blog. I love them both, and use them together on larger pattern pieces. So, make a set for yourself and a set to give to a sewing friend!

Thanks for visiting! Happy Sewing and God bless, Maxie

Hemstitching 101

You're going to love this, I just know it. Hemstitching.

Would you like to quickly make a lovely set of hemstitched napkins, (above) or a hemstitched baby's receiving blanket (below)? It's very easy, thanks to a couple of things you need to know. First of all, start with a natural fiber. The napkin is made from a blue yarn-dyed shot cotton fabric. There is no right or wrong side, and the loosely woven fibers hemstitch beautifully. The receiving blanket is made from 100% cotton double gauze fabric. It's so incredibly soft, these elephants were in heaven!

Hemstitching requires a Wing Needle.  Do you recognize this guy? Notice that there are wide flanges, or, wings on each side of the needle.

They do magical things when paired with the right stitch. Did you know that some stitches are designed specifically to be used with winged needles? Chances are good that you have these stitches on your sewing machine. Speaking of sewing machines, my new Baby Lock Destiny arrived today and I am floating in the clouds! I’ll be sharing more on this machine, but today I’m going to share the wing needle hemstitch. Don’t have the Destiny machine? Check the machine that you own and see if the stitch we'll be using today is there; even Baby Lock’s basic machines have it. Here's the stitch to look for:

At first glance you might think it is a basic blanket stitch, like the one you use for appliqué. The illustrated stitch on our machine menu looks very much that way, but when you stitch it out you see that it’s no blanket stitch. Well, maybe a blanket stitch on steroids! A regular blanket stitch typically just stitches a line of straight stitching and then jumps over to the left to stitch into the edge of your appliqué fabric. A Parisian Hemstitch, which we are using today, stitches the straight stitching line several times so that the winged needle will repeatedly stitch into the same hole 8 times, wrapping the hole with thread as it stitches. Then it makes one jump to the right to catch the edge of your fabric.

So, let’s make a hemstitched napkin! A dinner napkin is about 18” square. For this technique, you’ll need to begin with a square that is about 22”. Since fabric is usually 44" wide, we should get 2 napkins with one 22" length of fabric. If your fabric is slightly less than 44”, just make two squares as large as you can. As long as all your napkins are the same size (and square) they will be just fine. No one will measure them, right?

Now, we will simply miter the corners. Don’t leave! Look what I’ve found: The No Math Mitered Ruler Set! Let me show you how easy and fast this is!
 

With these rulers, we can make just about any size of miter called for. We will use the 1 1/2” ruler.

Referring to the photos below: Photo 1: Place it on the corner of your napkin. Trace around the shape. Photo 2: Cut out the shape and discard the cutaway piece of fabric.  Photo 3: The extended edge on all four sides will be come the hem, so press that under now. Photo 4: All four side hems are pressed under. 

Referring to the photos below: Photo 1: Open out the pressed hems and fold the napkin diagonally at the corner, right sides together. I have a ruler placed on the corner so that I can actually mark my seam allowance. It's 1/2" (no brainer here, because the ruler tells you what the seam allowance should be)! Photo 2: Stitch on the drawn line. Photo 3: Trim it, like this, clipping all the way to the corner stitching. Photo 4: Press the corner seam allowances open. I'm using the Dritz EZY-Hem tool to get a crisp corner.

Referring to the three photos below: Photo 1: Turn the corners right side out with a point turner to get the corners nice and square. Photo 2: Slip the EZY-Hem tool back inside the hem when pressing to keep the hem width even. Photo 3: Press well and pin, and we're ready to stitch!

Photo 1: Choose thread for the bobbin and top matches your fabric. Place a stabilizer underneath the edge of your napkin hem. You can barely see mine extending out the right side of the napkin. I use a clear, wash-away stabilizer.  Play with a sample piece to adjust your width and length to your liking, but I prefer my straight stitch to fall just beside the fold (on the single layer of fabric), and the needle jump to land just a few threads over the fold. Photo 2: Stitch away! Put your needle in the down position and pivot at the corners. Pivot after the needle has completed it's right swing and is back on the single layer of fabric.

The ruler set will allow you to choose from a 1" hem to a 3" hem. For the receiving blanket, below, I chose the 3" hem. I began with 1 1/4 yard, cut it into a square and hemmed in the same manner as the napkin. I finished with about a 37" square blanket. Double Gauze fabric is so dreamy, I wish you could feel how soft it is! I do stock it in my quilt shop, but not online yet, so give me a call if you'd like to order. Here is a picture of my stock. 828 524-3300.

Thanks for visiting! Happy sewing and God bless, Maxie

Square Up Rulers that Light Up My Life.

Sometimes it's the simple things that make our tasks just easier. Such is the case with Friday's Feature today. I found these little rulers at Quilt Market, and was able to have them customized for my quilt shop, which made me oh so happy. Not only do the colors of these rulers make them easily recognizable, the material they are made of seem to cause the edges to glow as they reflect light onto the surface of your fabric. This makes it easier to achieve accurate placement when fussy cutting, and to see the edge of the ruler for more precise cutting. They come in a set of six, measuring 1 1/2', 2 1/2", 3 1/2", 4 1/2", 5 1/2" & 6 1/2". Diagonal lines are etched in both directions on each ruler to help when squaring up quilt units for blocks. Simply very helpful. Yes, you'll find them on my shopping page!

See how the edge of the ruler seems to glow? It's reflecting light onto the surface of the fabric!

This handy set of six different sizes comes in an assortment of colors. Each color is reflective.

Thank for visiting!  Be sure to sign up for my email newsletters (right column) for occasional special offers for subscribers only! Happy Sewing and God bless! Maxie.