When You Care Enough to Send the Very Best...But Don't.

Years ago I was the "go to" person at my office in New Orleans when someone was having a last minute birthday celebration, but no one had remembered to buy a card. A brief, personalized poem would quickly be drafted and with a bit of office-supplied card stock, and signatures all 'round, we were set. It happened so often that the office quit buying cards and started giving me a little heads up about upcoming celebrations. Eventually, I would letter a small line at the bottom back of my cards that read along these lines: "Ace* - when you care enough to send the very best...but don't."

  This year I ran across this nifty tutorial for making scrappy Christmas tree ornaments and decided they were just the thing for my card list.  [The tutorial is preceded by an ad.] Of course, I did not find the tutorial until well into November. So, though finding scraps is no problem here (there's an abundance of those), time  proved to be less easily garnered. 

So, here are the three cards I managed to put together. They are fun to do. Embellishments can take whatever turn suits your fancy. For me, though, these may be only for a chosen few. That other card manufacturer...the one with all the stores and movies and such...they're safe: no big threat from this production line.

* "Ace" is my "cyber name".

Little Triangle Thread-Catcher and More

These are not reversible. There is a time of decision for which will be the turn-down tab and which the bag's base. Pattern is cut the same for each, so there's time to decide which will be which just before you begin sewing up those fold to stop-mark seams.

These small "thread catchers" are supposed to keep me company sitting by my machine ready to receive any little thread snippets that I normally toss on the floor...if I bother snipping them at all. I'm going to have to change my messy ways, if this is going to be used as intended. Good thing I've already thought of alternate uses for these in the mean time. Don't you think they would be great little Dove chocolates holders for gifting? Or maybe a nightstand earring holder for when you are away from home for a night or two? Or...hair clip or elastic band holders...or desktop paper clip boxes? Seriously! It's just cute, even if not being used for anything. 

If you needed a larger based catch-all, I think you could size them up a few inches. My sister-in-law suggested making them to match placemats and somehow put napkins in them, but they have a closed bottom, so I'm not sure how that would work. Still, it could be revamped for that, I suppose. 

Definitely the hardest thing about making it is figuring out what buttons to use on the flaps.

Click on the link below to see where I found the pattern and the "how-to" of assembling it:

Here! Right here! Click. Click. Click!

Choosing Fabrics and Pattern Do Si Do

Donation fabrics plus a solid cotton sheeting gathered. The butterflies along with the preponderance of dark fabrics inspired the name, "Midnight in the Garden",  for my version of a quilt pattern found in the April 2011 issue of American Patchwork & Quilting magazine using a different color palette .

The fabric was selected at a local quarterly gathering of volunteer quilters connected with Project Linus. A church in town offers the use of its fellowship hall for the organization to have two sewing days. Half of the room is set up with bins and bins of color-sorted donation fabric in sizes ranging from less than an eighth of a yard to several yards. Some of the fabric is old and musty; some is fresh and sturdy. Sometimes pieced blocks are among the donations. Most all of the fabric is 100% cotton. Making selections is only a very small portion of the time spent there, as most time is spent piecing or sewing on binding or labels for the donation quilts in progress, or being finished.

Because the colors or prints appealed to me,the fabric pictured above was gathered, not necessarily to be used in a single project, or even together, for that matter. No pattern had yet been chosen. That is backwards to how I do fabric selection for the quilts I keep, but the "store" of donation fabrics is only open quarterly, so decisions must be made in a more nebulous fashion. For my "Midnight in the Garden" quilt, I added a few strips of solid aqua sheeting to complete the palette.

On the left is my completed project. Top right shows the Stars & Bars pattern as featured in the magazine. Bottom right is a whimsical take on my "Midnight in the Garden" title.. ;o)

Since I liked the butterfly prints and wanted to feature them, I searched for a pattern that would have at least a five or six inch uninterrupted square. I settled on this "Stars and Bars" quilt pattern from the April 2011 issue of American Patchwork & Quilting. The colors and prints in the magazine's featured quilt did not particularly appeal to me, but I thought the size of the blocks was perfect. That square in the middle of each star block was where my butterflies would eventually take flight.

First I assigned letters to the fabric and determined if I had enough of each for the pattern requirement. This took more time than I had anticipated. That done, however, it was on to cutting and piecing, which went pretty smoothly! Here I have to plug larger pieces and big blocks. Quilt tops do not have to take forever to piece.

This was my largest quilt project to date, so I will have other posts about various aspects of its production. This post was meant to show both the inspiration and the end product. 

Quilt Design Transfer by Four Methods

Top left using construction paper tracing; top right tissue paper tracing; bottom left (butterfly design) trace to freezer paper stick and stitch around; bottom right ... tulle trace and transfer with chalk marker. And the verdict is....

Difficult to decide. Each has its own favorable points and each its less favorable. Let's consider them one at a time.

Construction Paper:  

On the plus side, it was easily traced to using a sunny window as back lighting. Also, of course, it was easy to see. I pinned it to the project and sewed directly on the drawn line. My sewing was not smooth, but that was likely my own timing issue. Removing the paper was not too difficult, but there was some trapped paper that had to be coaxed out. I imagine this was the worst transfer method in regard to wear on my machine and the needle. 

Tissue Paper:

Tracing the design was super easy. Placement of the traced design onto the quilt top, also easy. Following the traced line and removing the paper from the project was not too difficult. My issue with this one was with how flimsy the paper was, and therefore having to take care not to tear it in the  sewing or placing of it.

Freezer Paper:

This one did require a back light to confidently trace the design, which then had to be trimmed on the resulting line. Placing the shiny side directly onto the quilt top, the design is pressed with a dry hot iron and ready to sew around...not through. I liked how well the paper stayed in place for the sewing, and removal of it was easy. Also, it can be used more than once, though eventually the sticking power will deteriorate. I do think that sewing around the edges made the design a tad more general than if the design had been traced directly to the fabric. 

Tulle Trace:

Using a Sharpie, I traced the design onto a piece of tulle. Once dry, I laid it onto the quilt top and drew over the design with a chalk pencil. The chalk goes through the tulle veil and marks the fabric with the design. Next, remove the tulle and sew the design. The tulle pattern can be used over and over again....as long as you can find it. This was by far the easiest method to sew, though not the easiest line to see; chalk lines are dusty and dim. 

And the winner is...

Tulle! 

I think the Freezer paper method comes in as a very respectable second.

The construction paper is probably too stiff to be a particularly good choice...especially if using for a design measuring more than six inches wide.

A Nod to Non-Transfer Free Motion Design

Finally, of course, free motion on a particularly confident day would beat all of the above for no fuss no muss design making. Cannot imagine having great consistency with all that freedom, though. 

Free Motion dragonfly...recognizable, not perfect; asymmetrical, but quickly done. Done! Best aspect!

And now... I'm done reviewing transfer methods!

Small Reversible Table Topping "Quiltlet"

Finishes at 24 inches square.

For this little project I started by sewing 2 inch wide  strips (four at a time) into strip sets and cutting them at 2 inches. Next the resulting four color strips were joined, four at a time, to form sixteen patches, measuring 6.5, unfinished.

a 16 patch

Using 3.5 inch squares as the base, I added 2 inch squares to opposing corners, or one corner, depending on my need in constructing the overall pattern, and sewed on the diagonal from point to point of the squares, trimming at .25 inch before turning back to reveal a “snow-balled” corner.

Ready for snowballing of corners.

Below you can see the layout of the pieces and how they would be joined. For each side of this double-sided “quiltlet”, I used:

• 24 single snow-balled squares (unfinished at 3.5)
• 20 double snow-balled squares (unfinished at 3.5)
• Four 16 patch squares (unfinished at 6.5)
• Four 3.5 inch unfinished squares 
• Binding ...  flanged on one side with rickrack on the other. 

Here you see how four double snowballed squares can form the X pattern with the base fabric. Also, on the edges, combining  two of the double snowballed squares against two single snowballed squares gives a floating look to the little colored corners; a happy surprise!