Settler's Pride: Re-Boot Time!

I was looking through some of my old blog posts, and came across a bunch of posts with photos from my favorite UFO (you quilters will know that UFO stands for UnFinished Object!) I went to the cupboard in my studio and started pulling out blocks- I have 8 finished! Only 1 block, plus 2 borders to do to finish this project! So why did I set it aside? I don't know- I guess I got busy and figured I'd "get around to it" but forgot all about it. You can click on each photo to see the original post where it was first featured.

This block was finished but never appeared on my blog (I guess I never "got around" to that either!):

This project is a wool applique quilt designed by Maggie Bonanomi. I saw it at a quilt show, fell in love with it, and signed up for the Block of the Month program- way back in 2009! I am glad that I found it in my cupboard- my goal is to get it all finished this winter. I really love stitching wool because there are no edges to turn under, and it's so soft on your fingers when you are working with it. But I have to admit (and this is probably the reason why it got set aside...) I hate doing the prep work, for any applique project, wool or cotton. I don't like cutting out all of those pieces and then pinning or gluing them to the background. But it must be done before you get to the fun part- stitching!

And of course, when I laid all of the blocks out on the floor, Maddie decided to "help" again- she's good at that:

What's your oldest UFO? Or your favorite- the one you really can't wait to get finished? Let me know!

By the way, I had a great time joining Pat Sloan on her American Patchwork & Quilting radio show on Monday. Pat is super fun and friendly and I always enjoy chatting with her. I was really nervous beforehand, but once we got to talking, it was like sitting in a coffee shop with one of your best girlfriends. If you missed the show, you can catch the podcast here.

I spent the weekend re-reading over all of your wonderful comments and suggestions from last week's big giveaway- so many great ideas. It was really hard to pick a winner! The first winner was Marcia W. of Florida who entered via email. She suggested that the free embroidery patterns in the newsletter have some sort of stitch guide. Great idea, Marcia! We will try to do that in future editions of the newsletter. The second winner, chosen randomly, was Judy R. from Oregon. Although her name was chosen randomly, Judy also happened to have some nice suggestions regarding a new name for the newsletter. So congratulations, Marcia and Judy- your prizes are on their way :) And thanks to everyone who took the time to comment and give their suggestions- I really appreciate it and will keep it all in mind over the next several months as we work to improve the newsletter & blog. (I have to say "we" because my husband & kids help me a lot... it takes a village to build a blog ha ha!)

This Week's Ornament Tutorial : Patchwork Bird AND Pat Sloan's American Patchwork & Quilting Radio Show

(Wow! that was like, the longest blog post title in history, right?)

For the month of December, we will be doing a tutorial for an ornament every week. This week's ornament is a patchwork bird. It's an excellent way to make use of your scraps! If you have bags full of tiny pieces that you've been saving for someday- today is your day!

If you are short on time, there is also a plain version- you can sew up a "flock" of these in an afternoon.... You could also add lavender or a few drops of scented oil to your stuffing to make sachets. I've done "modern Christmas" colors of bright green, fuchsia  and turquoise- you can use whatever fabric scraps you have lying around (I know you've got some fabric there, somewhere... ha ha)

Supplies:

• Scraps of fabric
• Polyester filling/stuffing
• 1/8" ribbon
• Embroidery floss
• For the eye: a tiny button, seed bead, or thread (such as embroidery thread or wool thread) to make a French knot

Print out and cut out pattern pieces (link at bottom of post).

To make the patchwork version, piece together scraps of fabric until you get a piece about 5 x 9” big.

For the bird's body: For the patchwork version, place you patchwork piece right sides together with a plain piece of fabric. For the plain bird, place 2 pieces of fabric right sides together, pin pattern to fabric. Cut out around pattern. Remove pattern piece. Pin fabric pieces together.

Sew the pieces together (still right sides together) with a 1/4" seam allowance, leaving an opening as indicated on pattern piece. Backstitch at beginning and ending of stitching.

Hint for sewing around curves- shorten your stitch length, and as you go around the curves, go slowly and stop every few stitches to lift the foot just slightly and pivot the fabric slightly.

Clip seam allowance at points of tail and beak. Make a few small notches at the curves. This will eliminate some "bulk" of the fabric and make your seams flatter when you turn it right side out.

Turn bird right side out. You can use tweezers to help pull tight areas right side out. Use a wooden skewer to gently push out the points of tail and beak. Press (press the raw edges of the opening in.)

Loosely stuff bird with polyester filling. Use a wooden skewer to push filling into head and tail. Hint: stuff bird with many small pieces of filling, instead of a few large pieces.

Hand stitch opening closed with matching thread. 

For wing, place 2 pieces of fabric right sides together, pin pattern to fabric and cut out. Remove pattern piece. Sew together (do not leave an opening.) Trim seam allowances.

Carefully cut a slit about 1 1/4" long into 1 side of the wing.

Turn right side out; press. Stitch opening closed and/or put a few drops of Fray Check on the raw edges. 

Use embroidery floss to stitch around edges of wing- you can do a blanket stitch, whip stitch, or make an X stitch. To make the X stitch, bring up needle through A, bring it around to the back, then bring it up through B (to the right of A). Continue making X’s.

Use matching thread to stitch wing to bird (you don’t have to stitch down the whole wing, just the top.) 

For the eye, sew on a tiny button, seed bead, or make a French knot.

Tie a bow around the neck with 1/8" wide ribbon.

Use a sewing needle to attach a 12" piece of embroidery thread to top of bird; knot to form a loop for hanging. 

Click here for a PDF of this tutorial (including pattern pieces.)   

  

(Here is the link to last week's ornament, Glittered Forest Friends, in case you missed it.)

What colors would you make your birds in? I think this would be a really cute project any time of year, not just during the holidays.

Oh! and don't forget I will be on Pat Sloan's American Patchwork & Quilting Show later today! I am excited, and pretty nervous- I hope I don't say anything stupid, you know??? I mean, it's one thing to say something stupid to the bank teller or the store clerk, but with so many people listening on the interwebs..... it's a bit nerve wracking!

Merry Moss: A DIY Christmas Decoration

Guest blogger Samantha has come up with an easy project for your home! I love this idea, it will add "rustic elegance" to your home. At the end of the post, I will have an announcement...

Happy December!
While I am sad to leave Fall behind, I am looking forward to the Christmas season.  It's my first Christmas as a married person (!!!!) so it's extra special for me this year.  To get myself into the spirit, I've been listening to Christmas music, doing lots of baking, and of course, making decorations!
My first decoration is actually something I've been wanting to make for a while as a permanent "non-holiday" decor item.  But once I had the Christmas music on, I was like, "Aw yeah, Christmas. Here we go."
Want to make your own? It's surprisingly simple and endlessly customizable!

Here's what you'll need:
wire, about 18 gauge (it needs to be easily bendable, but hold its shape when you add the moss)
fake moss (available in floral department of craft store)
clear fishing line
needle nose pliers

1. Form the wire into whatever word you would like it to say.  If you get it perfect, it might help to take a picture for yourself to refer back to, since you'll be bending the wire a little bit to attach the moss.
2. Cut a piece of fishing line about 18" long and tie it to the end of the word wire with a square knot. Take your first, small piece of moss and hold it against the wire. Carefully begin wrapping the wire around the moss in a spiral motion to hold it to the wire.  It should look like this:

3. Continue adding on more pieces of moss to be wrapped to the wire until your fishing line runs out.  Give yourself a little bit of extra line so that you can tie it off.  Once you have tied and clipped the fishing line, tie on another piece and continue wrapping the moss to the wire until the whole word is covered.

As I said, you could make this moss word say anything; "Christmas," "joy," "welcome," or even the name of your family.

I hope this project has gotten your holiday gears in motion, and that this rustic and whimsical decoration brings warmth into your home!

Happy weekend!
Samantha

So here is my (Jacquelynne's) announcement- in case you haven't heard yet, I will be on Pat Sloan's American Patchwork & Quilting radio show this coming Monday, December 10! Please join me- I'm sure it's going to be a lot of fun! (Can you from all of my !!!!! that I'm excited???!!!) Please tune in and tell all of your quilt-y, craft-y, sew-y friends about it.....

This weekend we are going Christmas caroling, and I'm going to try to finish putting all of my decorations up. And then, maybe some much needed down time and relaxation on Sunday afternoon. What's going on with you this weekend? Holiday decorating? Baking Christmas cookies? Maybe just catching up on laundry and other domestic necessities?? Remember to take time to do something fun....

This Week's Ornament Tutorial: Glittered Forest Friends

I do love my glitter. I love hedgehogs. So when I was trying to think up some ideas for ornaments, of course Glittered Hedgehogs came to mind. Why not? And I didn't want Hedgehog to be lonely, so I made him an Owl friend....

The trickiest part of this project is trying not to lose your glitter by handling too much... Handle the cardstock pieces as little as possible, and always on the edges.

Supplies:

• White cardstock
• 2 pieces of wood, 1/8 - 1/4" thick (such as Balsa wood), cut to 3 1/2 x 4" (for mine, I actually used some scraps of beadboard that my husband had laying on his workbench)
• Acrylic paint in Brown (Americana Burnt Umber) and Light Green (Delta Ceramcoat Leaf Green)
• Glitter- Brown and Light Green (Martha Stewart Brownstone and Green Agate)
• ModPodge decopauge glue for paper
• Scrap paper
• X-acto knife and/or sharp small scissors
• Small old paintbrush for applying ModPodge
• 1/8 - 3/8" drill bit
• #240 sandpaper
• String or cord for hanging
• Optional: 1/8" hole punch

Print out pattern sheet. 

Use an X-acto knife and/or manicure scissors to cut out the details in the owl. Once the details are cut out, use scissors to cut around the outside of the owl shape. 

For the hedgehog, you can either use the manicure scissors to cut out the eye and then cut around the outside of the hedgehog shape, OR cut out the hedgehog first and then use a 1/8” hole punch to cut out the eye.

Place one of the shapes on a piece of scrap paper. Use the paint brush to apply ModPodge to the shape (Hint- on the shape that will get dark brown glitter, apply glue to the printed side of the cardstock. For the shape that will get light green glitter, apply glue to the unprinted side of the cardstock. This will give you better coverage.) 

Quickly and carefully (before ModPodge dries), transfer shape to a clean sheet of scrap paper. Sprinkle (dump) a generous amount of glitter onto the shape. 

Wait several minutes to give ModPodge a chance to dry, then gently tap excess glitter from shape. Use the paint brush to reapply ModPodge to any spots that you missed and sprinkle with glitter. Allow to dry. (Don't forget to do the little circles for the owl's eyes).

Drill a hole in each piece of wood (for one piece, drill on the short side of the rectangle, and for the other drill on the long side.) The size of the hole needed will be determined by the size of the string or cord you are using to hang it. Sand the wood lightly.

Paint one wood piece green, and the other brown. (Don't forget to paint the sides and back.) Allow to dry, then lightly sand away some of the paint just on the edges. Remember that your brown glittered cardstock will go on the green wood, and the green glittered cardstock will go on the brown wood, so paint the pieces accordingly.

Holding the edges of the cardstock shape carefully, use a paint brush to apply ModPodge to back of cardstock (you will have to work quickly, because ModPodge dries quickly). Place cardstock on wood piece. Use brush handle to gently press edges down (this will work better than using your hands to push edges down- the handle won't remove glitter like your fingers will.) To place the owl's eyes, you may want to use tweezers. Or just drop it on and hope it goes in the right place, like I did :)

When glue is completely dry, you can use a small paint brush dipped in paint to touch up around edges and cover any glue or glitter smudges.

Allow to dry completely. Attach string for hanging.

You can also skip drilling the hole, and use them for little pieces of artwork. They look cute on a miniature easel: 

Click here for PDF of tutorial (including pattern sheet).

Newsletter LUV & Visit to the Christmas Tree Farm

Thank you for all of your suggestions! While the intention of my post was not to elicit compliments, you all warmed my heart and showed me some LUV! I am overwhelmed by your kindness and truly appreciate your nice comments and encouragement- we spend a lot of time making the newsletter the best that we possibly can, and it's nice to know that people like it... I have really enjoyed reading over all of your comments and suggestions, and over the next several months I am sure that we will be implementing many of them. (By the way, if you haven't entered the giveaway yet, you have until Tuesday at 11:59 pm EST. Click here for details.)

And by "we," I mean my whole family works on the newsletter in some capacity. I develop recipes & projects, write the instructions and the rest of the "copy," and do the illustrations and artwork that we use to "decorate" the newsletter. My husband handles all of the technical stuff- laying out content, scheduling, following up on statistics, etc. My oldest daughter, Samantha, who is also a guest blogger here every Friday, does the beautiful color celebration collages for every issue and also helps develop recipes and projects. My youngest daughter, who is 17, does some graphic work in PhotoShop and also helps with the recipes. So you see, it takes a village to write a newsletter! My many, many thanks to them for helping out with "Mom's project."

On Saturday, we went to the Christmas tree farm that we go to every year. The weather was warm- a little too warm for Christmas time activities, if you ask me- but we were happy that daughter Samantha and son-in-law Jeff were able to go with us. We chose our tree, and Sam and Jeff picked out their very first tree together.

When you get to the farm, you climb on a wagon pulled by a tractor. They drive you out to the middle of the farm and drop you off. It smells so good and pine-y! Then, you start looking for your perfect tree....

 (My 2 favorite girls in the world....)

(Jeff and Sam look for their first tree....)

When you find your tree, one of the workers cuts it down for you (they don't trust the general public with chain saws.... gee I can't imagine why....)

Then they put your initials on the bottom of the tree, and throw it on the wagon for you, and you get back on the wagon and ride back up with your tree...

(Someone had a nice suggestion for Sam and Jeff, that they cut the bottom off their tree when they get home, put a hole in the wooden disc with their initials, and have an ornament from their first tree forever...)

They put the tree in a bundler. It goes in like this:

And then it comes out like this:

All bundled up and ready to go on top of your car.

While you are waiting for them to bundle your tree, you pay for it and have complimentary coffee, hot cocoa and cookies.

When I was a kid, we always had a fake tree, and I never visited a tree farm until about 10 years ago- now it is one of our favorite family traditions.... I can't imagine a Christmas without it.

What's your favorite holiday family tradition?