Showing posts with label Goals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Goals. Show all posts

Tuesday, 6 August 2013

Tutorial for Tuesday - 4 Houses Cushion



Do you have some layer cakes squares left over or some fat eight's or even scraps that you want to use up? This 24"pillow/cushion project might just be of interest. I had great fun making this so thought I'd write it up as my first project based tutorial.

I used 12 layer cake squares and some background fabric to make this and have enough left over for another set of roofs to make a matching pair of cushions. If you go with matching roofs it's possible to do this with even less fabric squares.



I have downloadable piecing instructions here including how to make the half rectangle triangles for the roof. Otherwise step by step instructions are below with lots of photos!

I stacked the four layer cake squares together that I wanted for the houses and cut 3 rows 2.5" wide and the remaining 1.5" wide.

  1. The first row is for the windows and doors. Sub cut two 2.5" squares and one 2.5" x 3.5 rectangle.
  2. Sub-cut row 2 into one 2.5" square and four 2.5" x 1.5" rectangles for the window sashing.
  3. Cut row 3 into two rectangles 2.5" x 4.5" long
  4. Lastly take row 4 and cut 2 rectangles 1.5" x 4.5" long
Lay out as follows and mix and match windows and doors for a nice contrast


I chain pieced the sashing on either side of the windows first, then the top and bottom. There will be 2 of these House units per house.

 Sew the mantel to the door and sew a House unit on either side of the door unit.
For the roofs you will need 2 rectangles 5.5" x 6.5" in background fabric and 2 in patterned fabric matching or in the same colour way .
Place BGF and one of the patterned squares right sides together. Mark a quarter inch from top and bottom and draw a diagonal line from mark to mark.
Repeat for the second matching rectangles but the slope going in the opposite direction. This is important to get a left hand half rectangle triangle and a right hand one to make the roof.



Cut along this line through both rectangles. You only need one of each for each house.



Take a BGF triangle and a patterned triangle and lay them right sides together like this. Yes it looks wonky but this is correct!

Put the remaining aside for a second house or cushion if you don’t want matching roofs. Sew with a 1/4" seam along the long edge.

I chain pieced them to speed up the process.

Do the same for the opposite sloping triangles. You should have 4 of each kind. Press the seams and open.



Match up right to left hand triangles to make the roof.

These rectangles are oversized and will need to be trimmed down. I squared up the short edge where I am sewing them together and trimmed the whole roof down afterwards. It is easier to do this to keep the point at the roof top.
Trim to 10.5" x 4.5" keeping 1/4" at the top. Don't worry if this doesn't work out. I clipped points and the roof still looks great when its all put together.
Attach the roof to the House body. Don't do what I did and attach the roof to the bottom of the house! Dope that I am I did this and didn't notice until I had the whole thing quilted. It's my cushion and I can live with a wonky version! 

Attach 2 houses together to form a row - yes this is the house I sewed the roof to the wrong side! So now you know not to do it like me!


Cut 4 strips from the background fabric 9.5" x 2.5" and sew to either side of the 2 row of houses.
Cut 3 strips 25" x 2.5" for sashing between rows and top and bottom of the rows.

And you should have a finished cushion top measuring 24.5" square.

I layered with wadding/batting & utility fabric and quilted using this stencil pattern:




I made a simple envelope cushion with 2 pieces of fabric measuring 24.5" x 18" (instructions in the piecing pattern). You can trim to 24" if you want a plumper fit.  And here's my wonky version! Hope you like this project!






Tuesday, 9 July 2013

Finish-A-Long Quarter 3 goals

This is what my sewing (ahem kitchen table) looks like at the moment.  I have 8 separate projects on the go at the same time in various stages of completion (in addition to UFO's from last quarter!) so choosing the projects I hope to complete by September has been a bit of a problem for me.

A lot of the projects I'm doing are BOM that won't be finished by September but there some above I really could do with getting finished so after much pondering here's my list:

Carryovers
  • Bounce
    Nearly there with this one, 80% quilted and binding material purchased.
  •  A Dog's Life,  2 blocks out of 4 done.
    • Boo to you (UFO from last Halloween).  A finish in spetember would be perfect for this! Top done just have to quilt it with orange and purple thread to fill in those cream squares.


    New projects started
    •  Swoon 2013, pattern bought, fabric bought, SAL on flickr joined now to start cutting!
    • 4 Houses Cushion, designed,maths all worked out, test block completed, ready to make the real thing now.

    I think that's plenty to keep me going for a while!


    Saturday, 6 July 2013

    Finish-A-Long Quarter 2 update


    Linking up to the Finish-A-Long at SheCanQuilt it's time to review the sewing goals I set myself last April.
    she can quilt
    Nothing like a deadline to push those unfinished objects to the finish line! Ahmm yup that's what I thought 3 months ago. Except this last quarter, I started more new things than I finished. There was just so many lovely projects going on that I joined in on and a few weekends to Galway and a week in Chicago visiting family ( though I did visit the Quiltology store and bought fabric for a Swoon quilt so not all of it was non-quilting time! )

    So here's the round up:
    1. Bounce : in April here's where I was
     In June Bordered and Basted - not yet quilted
     Finish = 0

         2. A Dog's life - applique project for myself - no progress, nope, nothing at all
    Finish = 0

        3. Karavan Cushions - 2 finished, 1 to go!
    Finish = 2/3
      
      4.  Scrappy Trip - 2 blocks completed and given away, no finished quilt


    Finish = 0

       5. Strip & Flip quilt
    In April this was the pieced top
    In July Basted and quilted! Yay

    Finish = 1


    So all in all 1 2/3 out of 5.  Yup I can definitley improve on that score in the next qtr.  Hope you guys managed a little better!

    Tuesday, 9 April 2013

    FAL Goals

    So beginning a new quarter, just the time to set some sewing goals.  I'm linking up to FAL at She Can Quilt.  Nothing like a deadline to push those unfinished objects to the finish line! 


    she can quilt


    My UFO's that I really want to finish are:
    1.  Bounce - present for Gordon's Aunt: at the stage where I'm adding borders.
    2.  A Dog's Life - Applique quilt project (present for me from myself!)

    3.  Karavan Cushions - just love these elephants!


    4.  Mini Scrappy trip around the world lap quilt - strips ready to sew
     
    5.  Strip & Flip baby quilt present for friends expecting in the summer.  There seems to be a baby boom at the moment!

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