by Sherri Sylvester | Oct 28, 2014
Here’s the next Quiet Book Page (for last week!). I should have known I wouldn’t be able to finish it last Saturday while Creativ Festival was going on. Ah – the nievity of thinking everything can be accomplished in minimal time! We’ve talked briefly about this page before, mentioning that it might be a good idea to find an appropriate fabric to work with. This Quiet Book page is found along with other information and tutorials links on the Sew Along page.
This is a favorite page as well – due mostly, I think, to the perfection of the fabric. The matching squares make it perfect for a puzzle. Of course you can match animal heads and tails or the front and back of vehicles. I also think it’s pretty funny that I still have yardage in the blue versions of both fabrics I used over 3 years ago now. Though I’m not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing! Although the puzzle piece size is mentioned in the materials listing, you will need to wait until the instructions to cut anything so it is cut out correctly.
You will need:
- Background Fabric: 1 piece quilting cotton exactly 9″x9″ square
- Page Interfacing: 1 piece exactly 9″x9″ square, medium weight fusible interfacing (you will have this from your Week 1 shopping list)
- Puzzle Pieces – Left Side: enough fabric to fit 3 pieces aprox. 2 3/4″ wide by 2″ high
- Puzzle Pieces – Right Side: enough fabric to fit 3 front pieces and 3 back pieces aprox. 2 3/4″ wide by 2″ high
- Fusible Fleece: 1 piece about 9″ by 4″
- Ribbon to attach puzzle pieces: 3/8″ grosgrain, 3 pieces 7″ long
- Velcro: Three 1″ pieces of both sides (hook and loop)
- Ribbon Tab: 3 1/2″ long for the side tab
- Removable Fabric Marker
Before we begin/Important Notes:
- When you are sewing this book it is good to remember that some of the edges will be covered after the book is completed and sewn together. 1/2″ on the top edge of your page and 3/4″ on each side edge will not show in the final project.
- Remember to use your iron liberally when you are sewing this book. It is going to be a work of art when you are done! Since it is thick and some of the pages will not be iron-able once you are finished with them it is advisable to take all of the care you can to remove wrinkles so they are not accidentally permanent in your final book.
- Fuse the 9″ square fusible onto your 9″ square background fabric before you begin.
Here we go:
- Use a removable fabric marker to draw a 5.5″ x 2″ rectangle around the area you will use for BOTH puzzle pieces.
- Draw a line down the centre of the rectangle, creating two pieces 2 3/4″ wide by 2″ high.
- Draw your notches as desired, I used the number of notches that matched my fabric numbering. You could put one or two notches on all pieces – be creative. Maybe the notches could be curved lines, or other shapes, like rectangles or half circles.
- Fuse an over-sized piece of fusible fleece directly behind the puzzle pieces. Cut out the two pieces with the fusible fleece attached.
- Cut a small piece of backing fabric for the puzzle piece on the right side. To use the cut puzzle piece as a guide, place it wrong sides together with the backing fabric, then trace and cut.
- Repeat steps 2-5 for the other pairs of puzzle pieces.
- Stitch the soft side of a piece of Velcro onto the centre of each piece of backing fabric. A glue stick is great for holding the small pieces on while you sew.
- Place the right side puzzle pieces wrong sides together with their backing fabric. (Another great place to use a glue stick!) Insert about 1″ of ribbon into the side opposite the notches, between the fabric layers.
- Stitch around the edges of the puzzle piece with a short zig-zag stitch. Double-stitch over the end where the ribbon is inserted to secure it.
- Place the puzzle pieces onto the background fabric as desired – lining up the notches.
- Stitch around the left side puzzle pieces to secure them.
- Place each right side puzzle piece and mark where the Velcro is located.
- Stitch the hook side of the Velcro onto the backing fabric in place as marked in Step 10, so the Velcro will line up when the puzzle pieces are placed correctly.
- Baste the three long ribbons side-by-side along the centre-right edge of the background.
- Fold the 3 1/2″ matching ribbon tab in half and use the small safety pin to attach it to your page so it does not get lost.
And you’re finished with another page. Only three more to go! See you back again later this week.
by Sherri Sylvester | Oct 22, 2014
It’s time to head to Creativ Festival again! This will be my fourth time going, the others are blogged here: Spring & Fall 2013 and Spring 2014. I’ll be on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter a lot this weekend, I’m sure. So if you can’t be there I’ll try my best to share it with you.
I love being able to see my favorite online shops in person, buying fabric, and browsing fabric, talking to some of my local shops that have booths… buying fabric… ummm…. more fabric?! This year, though, I’m going to concentrate on talking to people, (instead of the fabric!) I am feeling that my stash is a tad overwhelming. While I’m sure I will buy more than fabric than I “need”, I’m going to do my best to keep the total down!
My friend Laura (Seams Sew Laura) and I are taking my brand new postcards down to Creativ early Friday afternoon. Side note… As I think of the number of amazing blog related things happening during the next little while I’m reminded how grateful I am to be working with so many amazing people – and especially for all of you reading! Thank you all so much.
Once we get to Creativ, I’m going to abandon my usual methodical (start at row 1) way of shopping and make a beeline straight for the centre booths. I’ve got two very exciting things to see right away. I’m super happy to say that I’ve been working with Fabric Spark (booth 525) and Warp & Weft (booth 624) behind the scenes to kit my new patterns and sell them during Creativ!
Here’s a sneak peek of two new patterns I’ll be releasing as pdf patterns here next week. (I’ll save the proper introductions, and just write about the kits today.) Daryl from Fabric Spark and I have been working together to produce The Reusable Lunch Bag and Fabric Gift Bag Patterns specifically for the Creativ Festival! They are super beginner friendly and super-fast and fun advanced sewist projects! I was over at Daryl’s shop Monday of this week kitting them with her. It was a treat to see her stash of fabric and get to mix and match bolts together for the kits. (Wow!)
The Fabric Gift Bags are kitted in several different combinations (including the amazing one above!) – everything from gorgeous pinks and yellows to masculine gray and blue to Christmas-themed (… yes.. it’s coming!). The Lunch Bag Kit will be available in 4 different laminated cottons – Tula Pink (x2), AMH and Amy Butler. These two patterns will be available for sale un-kitted as well, and the Gift Bags are especially made to fit in exactly 1 yard of fabric – so you can mix and match whatever colour scheme your holiday season fits into!
The Forest Glen Satchel pattern is finished and I’ll be releasing it as a pdf download here in the next few weeks. In the meantime, it is available as a paper pattern, exclusively from Warp and Weft during Creativ Festival. The satchel was designed with Elizabeth Olwen’s Cloud9 collection, Wildwood, and kits of all three Wildwood fabric combinations chosen by Elizabeth will be available. It was also fun to collect six of my Warp & Weft-related projects from around my house and deliver them to Esmari today. It’s a shame I didn’t think to take a photo! They are all related to free tutorials that I’ve written for use with Warp & Weft fabrics and will be on display over the weekend, so you can see them up close and in person.
On a seriously amazing other note! The Forest Glen Satchel is photographed in Elizabeth Olwen’s Wildwood Look Book and I’m fairly certain the Satchel Elizabeth made at the workshop is on its way to Quilt Market in Houston to live at her booth. (Eeeeekkkk!) I am so re-gramming any photos it shows up in this weekend!
I’ve got a list of other booths to visit at Creativ and I’m hoping to be surprised by a more modern fabric selection. Every year it seems to increase – lucky us! There are also a few sponsor shops and some I’ve interviewed that I can visit as well. Fabric Spot (booth 327) always has a huge selection – and I picked up the Cotton & Steel tigers (above) from her last week, along with a Lush Uptown charm pack. I’m excited to see Sylvia from Country Clothesline (booth 323) and Alanna from Fridays Off (booth 118) again as well.
Wow – I guess that’s “it” for now. What a lot of stuff to fit in with such a small word! Most of all I’d love to meet you. I’ll be there Friday and Saturday if you’re in the area. The most fun part of my job is connecting with all the fabric lovers I’m surrounded with!
Will you be at Creativ this weekend? What are you most looking forward to doing there?
by Sherri Sylvester | Oct 21, 2014
I’ve decided to start a new series that has been in the back of my head for a while. Every so often I am sewing or reading a blog and find a way to make my sewing simpler, easier or faster. I’ve always thought I should write them down, and what better way to do it than to have Granny share them with you.
Within all of the patterns and downloadable pdf’s I design, (+ more coming this week!) I’ve included a “Notes and Tips from Granny’s Sewing Basket”. Granny capitalizes on the story of Little Red Riding and takes a little creative license in proposing that Granny loves to sew! Throughout the patterns, these Notes and Tips are included to make your sewing go more smoothly. I thought it would be fun to continue the series here, and share these ideas as they come up in my personal sewing.
These tips are all graphics, so they can be pinned and are easy to keep around. I’ve also pinned them to my “Sewing Tips & Tricks” Pinterest board if you find it easier to follow them around that way instead.
A while ago I was sewing ribbon on the edge of a couple of pillowcases I made for my girls. I don’t use a lot of ribbon, but I’ve always found it tricky to get a perfect edge when sewing it on. This time though, I discovered that lining the ribbon up with the inside edge of the presser foot kept my seam straight and perfectly even. The trick is to find a presser foot in your supplies that allows the left edge to rest on top of your ribbon and the right edge of the presser foot to rest on your lower fabric. The depth of the presser foot rests beside the ribbon edge and they keep each other in line!
I have had quite a few projects this past week that it is a relief to get another post up for you all! I’ve been working on a few (brand new) patterns that will be available at the Creativ Festival in Toronto happening this weekend! I’m so excited and I get to share them with you later this week. Hooray! The Quiet Book post is coming up for this week as well, so we’ve got a great few days ahead. See you soon!
Reader Feedback: Do you use a lot of ribbon in your sewing?
by Sherri Sylvester | Oct 14, 2014
It’s been a great relaxing long (Canadian) Thanksgiving weekend over here – extra long, if you count the fact that my youngest was home (unplanned) from school last Thursday, and Friday was a PD day so both kids were home. My husband and I spent much of the weekend planning and re-organizing our work space. We’ve both got a bit more counter space and it’s a lot easier to move around in our little 9′ square shared office. When it’s finished I’ll have to share photos and a little review of my new sewing machine with you. I’ve had it for about a month and I’m loving it!
I’ve been enjoying quilting lately, and thought I’d share my progress with this one today. I’m calling it a “proper” quilt – since it’s more than “just pieced squares” this time! Interesting side note – I’ve found that repetitive-block quilts are extremely relaxing. The difference between sewing garments and this type of quilt, is that a garment rarely requires the same instruction to be followed more than twice – once for the outer and once for the lining. And sometimes there is no repetition at all. Because of that, you are constantly checking the instructions, re-reading, sewing, and moving on to the next step. With the blocks in this quilt, you must follow the same steps over and over – creating space in your mind to ponder other things, tasks, life or just the process itself. Ahhhh….. (long pause while I remember relaxing!)
This quilt is a personal project, since it’s made with my blogger bundle from Fabric Spark. When they asked me if I would to create a bundle earlier this year I was over-the-moon excited and I knew it would have to become a very special quilt. This bundle and quilt mean so much, and are such a good reminder and encouragement along my bloggy journey. To be able to choose fabrics that I love and have someone put them up for sale. What an amazing opportunity, and I am still so grateful to have been chosen for it. (The bundle is available for sale here.)
I am making an hourglass quilt with these, using this tutorial from Cluck Cluck Sew. She calls it a baby quilt, but I am adding in more squares than she mentions, randomly using up every last scrap of fabric that I have – so we’ll see how big it is in the end! I’ve mostly used some light gray Kona I had around for the background pieces. But since I don’t have enough I’m winging it with a few solids in other colours – I can’t wait to add these in and see how it turns out! I also added two Bonnie Christine “Sweet As Honey” Art Gallery prints to the bundle fabrics to increase the prints, hoping to make this as large as possible!
I’ve yet to decide if I’ll add any borders to this and of course I’m not sure about backing and binding yet. But I think I’m supposed to choose that after the front is finished – so I’m getting ahead of myself! I do have quite a bit of Kona Charcoal from another project – so it might make an appearance later on – I’d love to find a good print for the back though. Makes it seem more cheerful I think! I can’t wait to get to spend some serious time making the little hourglass squares so I can lay them out, that seems like a lot of fun too!
Reader Feedback: Are you quilting anything right now? What project are you working on?
by Sherri Sylvester | Oct 10, 2014
Another week, another Quiet Book Tutorial. I love how these are turning out. I got to use my metallic star fabric here and it’s so much fun! My stack of finished pages is growing taller – how’s yours coming along?
You can customize this page with fun shoe laces from the Dollar Store and scraps of your favorite fabrics. As usual, I am always amazed when I break down the steps for these pages and they turn out to be 10 or 12 simple steps. That is the case with this page – quick and easy, not too much work for a great result! This Quiet Book page is found along with other information and tutorials links on the Sew Along page.
As a bonus, here’s a good page for those people looking to make these Quiet Book pages into other projects! It would make a great pillow for a tween or teen – just enlarge everything to about 150 or 200%. The shoe opens up at the top to become a pocket. If you are scared off by the eyelets, consider changing them into button holes.
By way of a “life update”, this week I had a child unexpectedly home from school on Thursday and a holiday today – so the Satchel pattern has been delayed again. Soon… very soon!
Ready to sew?
You will need:
- Background Fabric: 1 piece quilting cotton exactly 9″x9″ square
- Page Interfacing: 1 piece exactly 9″x9″ square, medium weight fusible interfacing (you will have this from your Week 1 shopping list)
- Shoe: fabric scraps
- 8 eyelets or small grommets
- Sole: leather or vinyl scrap cut to 3/4″ high by 4 1/4″ wide
- Ribbon Tab: 3 1/2″ long for the side tab
- Small Safety Pin
- Shoe Pattern Pieces -> Click here to download
Before we begin/Important Notes:
- Print out the pattern piece pdf on letter size (8.5″ x 11″) or A4 paper. Important: Do not select “fit to page” when printing, make sure you print at the original size. Once you have printed the pages, measure the 1″ test square to ensure the pattern is the correct size.
- When you are sewing this book it is good to remember that some of the edges will be covered after the book is completed and sewn together. 1/2″ on the top edge of your page and 3/4″ on each side edge will not show in the final project.
- Remember to use your iron liberally when you are sewing this book. It is going to be a work of art when you are done! Since it is thick and some of the pages will not be iron-able once you are finished with them it is advisable to take all of the care you can to remove wrinkles so they are not accidentally permanent in your final book.
- Fuse the 9″ square fusible onto your 9″ square background fabric.
Here We Go:
