by Sherri Sylvester | Jul 5, 2014
Here is the tutorial for the Getting Antsy Picnic Quilt! I went over the background for this quilt in the previous quilt background post, so I’ll just jump right into the tutorial here. I used the Charlie Harper Fat Quarter Bundle from Warp & Weft as the base and inspiration for the quilt.
A word of warning about this tutorial. It is simplified and assumes that you know some basics about quilting and have made a quilt before. If you have any questions please feel free to email me – sherri@threadridinghood.com and I’ll do my best to help you out.
You will need:
- 1 set of 7 Charlie Harper fat quarters (from Warp & Weft here)
- 6 solid coloured fat quarters
- 3/4 yard/metre border (cut to 2 3/4″ strips)
- 1/2 yard/metre binding (cut to 2 1/2″ strips)
- 4 yards/metres non-directional backing
- 1/8″ black ribbon (100% polyester)
- 1/4″ black ribbon (100% polyester)
- scraps of black quilting cotton (fits within 1 fat quarter)
- quilt batting to fit – aprox. 75″x75″
If you would like to colour in your layout instead of laying it out you can click here to print out the quilt template and use it to plan your quilt. I laid out my fabrics with the “cool” colours on the top left and the “warm” colours on the bottom right and worked my way to the centre with each.
Here we go…
- Cut each of your 13 fat quarter into 3 rectangles 5.75″ high x 19.75″ high each. You should have 39 rectangles in total.
- Make 9 black hexies. If you’d like you can use my no-baste hexie tutorial. In the tutorial post there is also a template for creating the hexies in the proper size. They should be 3.5″ from point to point and 3″ high.
- Lay out your rectangles in the order you want them. You will need 3 columns with 12 rectangles each. You will have 3 rectangles left over. Lay out your ants as well so you can make sure to position them where the background is not as busy. This way they will show up better when you stitch them on. (As you can see I was going to mark a “trail” for the ants in ribbon and changed my mind at the end.)
- Stitch each column together in the order you placed the rectangles.
- Press each seam open.
- Pin the columns together at each seam and stitch them together. Press your seams open.
- Piece the border strips together to make one strip aprox. 250″ long.
- Stitch the border to the top and bottom of the quilt first.
- Trim the strip to 90 degrees at each corner as you go. Stitch the border to the left and right side once the top and bottom are sewn and trimmed. Press all of your seams open.
- Piece your backing together. I used the 3 extra rectangles + a few small scraps of my favorite prints and a solid red square. I cut my backing fabric in half and pieced one half on each side of the scrappy stripe. Then I trimmed off enough height from the top piece of backing fabric to allow the stripe to be approximately 1/3 of the way down the back. (see a photo in the last post)
- Lay your backing right side down on the floor or table, place your batting on top of the backing. Add your quilt top right side up to create your quilt sandwich. Make sure to align the stipe on the backing and the stripes on the quilt top so they match up with where you will be quilting/tying your quilt. Baste/Spray/Pin to hold everything together.
- Remove the paper hexie template from each hexie and pin them in place where the ants will go. This marks the quilt, so you can avoid tying it where the ants are attached. The body of the ant is made by matching two straight hexie sides. The head is made by matching the point on one hexie with the centre straight edge of another. (Please ignore the ribbon “trail” under the bottom ant.)
- Tie your quilt at the corner of each rectangle and twice in-between along the lines. I used painter’s tape and my quilting ruler to keep track of where I was tying.
- Machine quilt the border. I stitched my lines about 1/2″ apart.
- Cut 6 legs from 1/4″ ribbon per ant. The front legs are 2 1/2″ long and the back legs are 3″ long. Also cut 2 antennae from 1/8″ ribbon per ant. These are also 2 1/2″ long. Use a flame to *carefully* melt both ends of each leg or antennae. This will prevent them from fraying.
- Pin the ribbon legs and antennae to your hexies as indicated in the photo. About 1/2″ of one end of each ribbon will be underneath the hexie. Pin along the edges of the hexie to keep it in place as well.
- Stitch each ant to the quilt. Sew along the centre of each ribbon and around the edge of each hexie. Repeat until all three ants have been stitched on.
- Sew the binding strips together to make one long strip aprox. 300″ long. Bind your quilt using your favorite method. I use the cluck cluck sew tutorial to machine stitch my bindings.
All finished and ready for picnicing. Go take some photos and show it off! And of course, I’d love to see your creations. You can share your projects on Twitter and Instagram @sherrisylvester with the hashtag #alongforthreadride or #threadridinghood, or post them on the Thread Riding Hood Facebook page. (As usual, this tutorial is for personal/charitable use only – thanks!)
** Please note: This is a sponsored post and some of the fabric was provided to me at no cost by Warp & Weft. However, as always, all opinions are my own and I will never promote something to you that I do not love myself. **
by Sherri Sylvester | Feb 4, 2014
This week I’m getting ready for Valentine’s Day, and today I thought I would share a no-sew project with you – our Valentine cards! Every year I rack my brain trying to think of something that does not involve candy, since we cannot send any to school. This year, my trip to the Dollar Store revealed that you can buy 6 glow stick bracelets for $1 – Perfect! So we had a family meeting to think up some punny, cheesy sayings using the word “glow” and I designed these cards.
My kids are crazy about glow sticks and have been after me for weeks about when they can use these. I’m pretty sure their friends will be just as excited to get them! This is a really fast project, ready to make some?
What you need:
- Glow stick bracelets (1 per card, mine were 8″ long, 9″ with the plastic fastener)
- Card Stock
- Colour Printer
- Washi or Clear Tape
- Hole Punch
- Scissors or Paper Cutter
- Free Valentine Card Printable (click on the link to download)
What to do:
- Print out as many cards as you need onto the card stock. The printable pdf has 4 pages, the first has all 3 versions of the card on it. Each page after has only 1 version of the card, so you can print all of them or pick and choose which saying you like best.
- Cut out the cards on the gray lines. A paper cutter is helpful, but not necessary.
- Using the small black dots as reference, punch a hole on either side of the “happy valentine’s day” text.
- Insert your glow stick through the punched holes – be careful not to bend it too much or you will activate the chemicals that make the bracelet glow. (Breaking the glow sticks is easier than it seems, I ruined a few bracelets before I figured out how to gently bend the paper to get the bracelet through safely.)
- Attach a plastic fastener to one end of the bracelet and centre it on the front of the card.
- Turn the card over and attach a small piece of Valentine themed washi tape or regular clear tape. This holds the paper flat and also makes sure the glow stick doesn’t slide around.
- Repeat steps 1-6 until you have finished all of your cards – the kids will be so excited!
I think I am going to send these to school in rigid reusable plastic containers so they don’t get broken prematurely. Especially since I’m going to be making over 50 of them! I’d love to know if you end up using these, and if glow sticks aren’t your thing you can try the free printable Bubbly Valentine from last year. ‘Cuz you know – kids love bubbles too!
by Sherri Sylvester | Nov 19, 2013
We had my oldest’s 6th birthday party over the weekend – the best/simplest party yet I think. She is growing up much too fast. I love that she wore her princess dress to open gifts in the morning, read all her own cards and properly thanked her sister for the hand-sewn “stuffie” she had made herself! We are so proud of her!
She decided we should have a Movie Star party… and as it turns out it is a really great simple party to host and the kids loved it! We got them all movie star sunglasses, decorated popcorn buckets with names and jewels and set out movie snacks – candy and popcorn of course, with flavoured popcorn shakers.
They got their take-away gift (can’t really call it a goodie bag) before the movie. I made them each a Star Stuffie – going with the movie theme here! – and each star had it’s own personality, introduction poem and adoption certificate. They each chose a numbered star from a bucket and then went to choose a gift bag in that order. We read the poem and named their star on the spot. Then they took their buckets and stuffies to watch the movie – and I got to clean up a bit, prepare for the cake and sit and hang out with a friend – hooray! Seriously – when do you sit at a kid’s birthday party?
I would also like to say a huge thank-you to Shannon from googiemomma, the whole idea is a great post I found when looking up the S.tuffed A.nimal C.hair tutorial. She has did this with owls – which are super-cute, but don’t match the “Movie Star” theme, so I got creative and made stars instead. Shannon got the idea from Anj, who writes Snowy Bliss and has the most ridiculous amount of patience and planning ability for her decorations and owls – seriously – you have to see them! And, since you are there – check out her Magic Party where she uses the same idea with bunnies – so cute!
I thought it would be fun to share the pattern pieces and a few notes on how each star was made. One would even be cute as a birthday gift by itself! As far as materials – each is different, except for the star shape. The best thing to do is to download the pattern pdf and then sort out the fabric yardage from there. I bought 1.5 metres of yellow fleece and still have about half of it left over. The clothing can be made with fabric scraps and the eyes and mouths cut from felt. I hand-stitched them on because it was the easiest option and it only took 2 hours to finish all of the faces. I’m not including the face templates because my husband cut and painted them for me so I don’t have anything to make the pattern from. I’m so grateful that he took the time to do it, and I think he had fun cutting out different “looks” for all of them based on their character.
Here we go! The downloadable pdf pattern pieces and the poem and adoption cards can be downloaded at the bottom of the post. I’m including sewing/other notes for each star in the pattern pdf as well.
Baker Star Stuffie
Ballerina Star Stuffie
Cowgirl Star Stuffie
Fairy Star Stuffie
Mermaid Star Stuffie
This one is my favorite. I love the ruffle fabric scales, the fins and the star eyes. The trim I kept for “something in the future” works perfectly for a necklace. I have to give all of the credit to my husband for coming up with this one. I can see a whole ocean of them in different colours for giveaway gifts at a Mermaid Party.
Pirate Star Stuffie
Princess Star Stuffie
Group Shot!
It was so hard to get these guys to stay still for the photos – this shot turned out a bit wonky!
Click here to download all of the Pattern Pieces and Instructions.
Update: * Please print the pattern pieces at their original, or actual size. Make sure you do not choose the “Fit to Page” option. *
Click this link to download all of the Poem Cards.
Click this link to download the Adoption Certificate Cards.
Hope you had fun checking these out! Which one is your favorite? I’m super-happy that these went well, but also that they are done and I only had to make seven of them! I have to admit that the star shape was a challenge to work with and the stars – though cute – do have a “body builder” feel to them. The wide shape of the star lends to some broad shoulders! The kids really liked them though. So they get a kid-friendly “Gold Star” of approval. Speaking of which, a “Gold Star” would be cute, as would a “Super Hero Star” complete with cape. Next time then?!
I’m off to clean my office so I can post my sewing space next week. See you again soon!
by Sherri Sylvester | Jul 28, 2013
Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway! I really appreciate all of your kind words and great ideas for this coming year’s posts on Thread Riding Hood.
Our winner, as chosen by Random.org, is: #16: Pam who said: “Thanks for the awesome giveaway! I love Tula Pink too. I would love to see some tutorials for quick-to-make gifts.” I’m sending out Pam’s Tula Pink Fat Quarter bundle along with a fun little surprise. You can get your own bundle .
If you didn’t win – don’t despair! I have a roundup of all of the Sew Essential posts here for you. Hopefully even just a few of these Tips, Tricks and Notions will make your sewing easier and faster! If you’d like something tangible, you can print out the free kids’ measurement chart from Sew Essential day #14, just from me to you!
by Sherri Sylvester | Jul 25, 2013
** This post and images have been edited as of February 2016 with an updated version of this chart. **
Alright – the last Sew Essential post is here, and just as the giveaway ends. I hope to be able to tell you who won tomorrow or over the weekend.
I thought, because again – I can’t give you all something in the giveaway, that I would do up a free printable that you can use instead! I like to keep track of my girls’ measurements – because sewing genius usually strikes me at night, when I can’t measure them!
These are called the “Measure-Me Chart” because whenever I measure anyone in this house for a project one (or both) of the kids immediately run over to me and say “Measure me, Measure me!”. Aside from the obvious benefits of being more ready to sew for the kids (or grandkids!), it would be fun (and useful) to keep a series of these, one every 4-6 months, and save them in their baby books.
Download the BOY pdf here: Sew Essential #14 – Measurement Chart Boy and the GIRL pdf here: Sew Essential #14 – Measurement Chart Girl. These print easily one to a page (click the “fit to page” option when printing) or you could print them 2 or more to a page if you want to save paper.
Of course, I would be remiss if I did not profusely thank my husband for drawing the super-cute illustrations for these printables. Aren’t they great?! I’ll be back tomorrow or on the weekend with a Sew Essential roundup.
by Sherri Sylvester | Feb 12, 2013
Here you are – and only 1 day left to make these before they get shipped off to school!
I based these off of another idea I found here. I like that they don’t have any treats in them. Which, aside from the obvious (no crazy sugar-powered children!), they are allowed at school. Since we are not supposed to send any food because of allergies, this one fits the “fun” bill as well as the “follow the rules” bill.
Things you will need:
- Packages of small bubbles (I found mine at our party store – 12 for $3.00)
- Lollipop/Cookie bags – clear or coloured (Mine are 5″ across, from your local craft store)
- Cardstock or Photo Paper (1 piece per 4 cards)
- Printer
- Scissors/Paper Cutter
- Stapler
- This free downloadable printable (prints 4 cards per sheet of paper)
Print out the cards on cardstock or photo paper. They come 4 on a page. Cut on the solid gray lines and fold on the dotted gray lines.
Have your child write their name on the back in the space provided. I think this is good practice and also a good habit to get into. If they want Valentine’s treats, they should be willing to spend 5 minutes writing their name on the cards for their friends!
Now, put a bottle of bubbles in the bag. Fold over the extra at the top of the bag (or you can cut the bags shorter if they are too long). Staple twice on the bottom or sides of the printout, making sure to catch the paper and the bag.
YOU ARE DONE (already?!) – And your cards are at least 100 times cuter than the 24 in a box kind you can get for a dollar!
If you would like to colour in your layout instead of laying it out you can click here to print out the quilt template and use it to plan your quilt. I laid out my fabrics with the “cool” colours on the top left and the “warm” colours on the bottom right and worked my way to the centre with each.
