UFO Complete

by Alisa

Back in June of 2013 I went with my Mom, Aunt Sue and several friends to the Shipshewana Quilt Festival in Indiana.

This is the only non-quilt photo I have from the trip!

I wasn't much of a quilter back then, but I fell in love with the charm pack from the Comma by Brigitte Heitland for Zen Chic for Moda collection.  I picked up a Bosal preprinted grid (1" Craft & Quilt Grid On Point 1 yard) to use with the charm pack to make a wall hanging for my living room.

I don't remember much else about this project until last week when I found it stashed in a project box in my closet.  I didn't want it for my living room any longer, but thought that it might brighten up my office, so I decided to finish it up since it was nearly done and all the materials were at hand.

The top was complete and the sandwich was fused using June Tailor Low Loft polyester Quilter's Fusible Batting.  The back was cut from orange yardage which I assume was from the Moda Bella Solids line.  I also had yardage of a medium grey from Moda Bella Solids that the edge triangles were cut from and a yard of one of the prints from the collection.

The top looked really good, nicely sewn and ironed but the sandwich needed re-fusing and I wasn't happy with the orange backing so I pulled it apart, ironed the top, cut a new back from the grey solid and re-fused the sandwich.

I fired up my Janome Skyline S3 with the Convertible Even Feed Foot and did some straight-line quilting using Gutermann Natural Cotton thread - yellow in the top and grey in the bobbin.





I wanted a thin unobtrusive binding, so I bound it with 1.5" straight-cut binding in the same fabric as the back.  I should have gone for at least 2", the small size was hard to attach neatly.

To finish, I added my 'Alisa Theil Handmade' tag to the front...since it is an art piece... and hung it up in my office.  I love it!

Advent Calendar Wall Hanging

by Alisa

I found this Makower UK 'Wrap It Up' advent calendar panel on Etsy when I was searching for another Makower UK fabric earlier this year.  I bought it and began planning to make it for my nephew and two nieces this Christmas.

The instructions for the calendar are printed at the top of the panel.  I found this video tutorial from Makower UK very helpful in putting it together.  They demo a different panel but the assembly is the same.

I started by cutting the panel and the pocket strips on the solid lines.   I then used my mini iron to prep the pocket strips - creating the hems and box pleats and then sewing them to the calendar panel.

After I had finished sewing all the pockets to the top, I played around with the fancy stitch options on my new machine and added some stars and a 'Merry Christmas' greeting to the borders.

I used coordinating fabric from the same line (ordered from Needle In A Fabric Stash on Etsy) for the backing.  

I added a sleeve of that fabric to the backing for hanging.  They demoed this technique on the video tutorial.  My sleeve was about 12" long by 3" wide.   One helpful tip on the video was to sew the 2nd side of the open sleeve close to the first seam to create a tunnel for the dowel. Make sure to sew the sleeve close to the top of the backing.

I layered the backing (right side up), batting and then the top (right side down) and used my even-feed foot from Janome to sew around all 4 sides, leaving about 6 inches open at the bottom for turning.

I turned it, ironed the unsewn hem at the bottom, and then top-stitched all four sides using the even-feed foot.  I then ironed the entire wall hanging to fuse the batting to the top and back.

I added a .5" dowel cut to size and a ribbon for hanging.  Once I added the candy to the pockets the Advent Calendar was complete.

This was my first project on my new Janome Skyline S3 and I just love it; the machine and the advent calendar!

I can't find this panel, but Makower UK has several other advent panels available that are very cute.  

This is a fun project and it was very well received by my nieces and nephew.  They love it!

More Memory Games!

by Alisa

I'm still going strong on memory games as gifts for babies and little kids. I've made two more sets in last year or so - the first is an update on the 'jolly jungle' set with a cute little pouch and the 2nd is no-sew!

Jolly Jungle Memory Game v2.0

I had enough flannel left over from the previous version of the Jolly Jungle memory game to make a set for a baby shower last December. I followed my original tutorial for the game and added in a pouch and a card with the game instructions. 

The pouch is from the design demonstrated by Sew Very Easy in their "Fat-Quarter Friendly Draw String Bags" video tutorial. The bag is great for this use because it has a handy pocket to hold a card with the instructions for the memory game.  

The instructions for play were adapted from rules for playing Memory.

No-Sew Memory Game

I wanted to make a new memory game for a friend's two-year-old granddaughter so I went looking for fabric and found the "Windy Day" collection from Makower UK. I purchased a yard of the Teal Circles from NovartCreative on Etsy. I purchased the 'foxglove' wool blend felt from Benzie Design on Etsy for the backs.

After some trial-and error in deciding between square or round pieces and whether to stitch or not, I decided to simply fuse the fabric to the felt using Steam-A-Seam 2 fusible webbing sheets and then cutting out squares. I think they will hold up fine and it was simpler than trying to cut and stitch circles!

I wanted a simple pouch to hold the game pieces and after digging around in my stash and not finding anything I purchased a pack of multicolor 5" x 7" organza pouches from Amazon and picked out the pink color to use.

The last time I made this game, I included the instructions on a card I tucked into the pouch pocket, this time I thought I would make another game piece that listed the instructions.  I printed the instructions onto an inkjet fabric sheet that I had on hand and then fused that to the felt and cut to the same size as the pieces. It turned out great!

  

Moda PB&J lap quilt

By Alisa

We are finishing up a 5 year project at work and I have been thinking of making something to commemorate the completion. I ended up making the small quilt below for one of my teammates. It came together really easily and I love how it turned out.

Back in April I was rummaging around looking for something else and came across this single PB&J by BasicGrey for Moda charm pack. I don't remember where or how I got it, but I opened it up and really liked the washed out floral prints so I went on a hunt for more.

The only place I found with any of the fabric was Kammie LouLou. Honestly, I wasn't even sure what I was buying as the site only listed 'quantity'. I crossed my fingers that I was getting three yards of fabric and waited for the package to arrive. When I opened it, I had one yard each of three floral coordinates from the line: Aqua 'Fluffer Nutter'; Red 'Jelly' and Navy 'Picnic'. And, the red was 60" wide!

I wanted to do something simple with the charm pack so I googled around and settled on half-square triangles. I matched up all the charms and sewed 42 blocks. I then laid them out on my design wall in various 5x7 variations until I came up with one I liked.

I ended up with layout with a secondary diamond pattern off-center.

Since I had the most red, I added a 2" red floral border and then a 1.5" navy floral and then started trying out different border/backing combinations to finish off the quilt.

A final 6" border of the red floral was added, the back was cut from the red floral and my mom quilted it for me using Hobbs Heirloom Fusible Crib Size.

She finished it up with the aqua floral binding and a custom tag by Border City Quilts on Etsy.  And, she made a sweet pillowcase to go along with it!