by Sherri Sylvester | Apr 11, 2017
Turns out there are four ways to quilt something – by hand, on your home machine, with a long arm machine or on your embroidery machine. Guess which one I’m going to talk about today?! (#spoileralert Check the title!)
When I was loaned the Janome Skyline S9 combination sewing and embroidery machine last year, I was excited to see a page in the embroidery designs called “Quilting Designs”. Fast forward to now, and I’ve finally managed to use them!
Here’s a little tutorial so you can do it too!
I’m quilting an Easter throw pillow for this project. You can find the instructions for the traditionally pieced 12″ block here: Spring Bunny quilt block.
This post is sponsored by Janome Canada. The Skyline S9, AcuDesign app and iPad Mini have been loaned to me as part of their Artisan program.
1) Prep your project as you would normally for quilting, with batting and backing. Since the backing won’t show on this throw pillow, I used some inexpensive broadcloth in place of a better quality fabric.
2) Use a removable fabric pen to mark the areas to be quilted. I chose to mark out four equal 6″ squares for my throw pillow.
3) Choose a hoop and a design to embroider. I chose the first design in the Quilting Designs folder – the center reminds me of a kite – perfect for spring! There are 12 quilting designs included with the Skyline S9 machine. You will also need to choose a hoop size that will accommodate your quilting. In my case, the largest RE20a hoop worked well.
4) Set up the machine. You will need to thread the machine, attach Embroidery Foot P and choose a needle. I used a blue tipped Janome needle and regular Gutermann thread in both the needle and bobbin.
5) Size the design. You can do this on the machine, or send it over wi-fi or USB key to the AcuDesign app – available for purchase and downloadable to Apple devices. Use the sizing feature to re-size the file as needed. I wanted the quilting to be square, and just smaller than 6″. When finished, send the file back directly to the embroidery machine.
6) Hoop your project. I found that the thin batting I used fit in the hoop along with the pillow front and backing. Be careful not to overstress the hoop.
7) Position the file. I used the free Acusetter app (downloadable to Apple devices) to position my file. First, receive the file to the Acusetter app. It will lead you to photograph and line up the hoop. Then position, angle and scale your file as needed and send it back to the machine.
8) Place your hoop in the machine and start quilting! (Here’s a fun Instagram video of the machine working.)
9) Repeat the steps to embroider the other areas of your project. I took time to mirror the image for each of the 3 remaining corners of my pillow using the Skyline S9 embroidery editing mode. This way they look like one cohesive quilt design.
Finish your project as desired!
I love this feature on the Skyline S9 machine, it makes quilting very quick and easy. Plus, my pillows look super professional, and it only took about 37 minutes of total embroidery time!
This week, I’ll also be posting a tutorial including how I used the quilt bar and dual feed feet to finish the front and how to turn any 12″ quilt block into a throw pillow. See you again soon!
Let me know what you thought of this tutorial. Was it helpful? How do you usually quilt your projects?
by Sherri Sylvester | Feb 24, 2017
I didn’t know I liked making quilts, but, it seems like I’ve been hit by the bug!
Before this year, I had made a lot of quilt piles. Little sets of fabric that must-never-be-separated because I wanted them to be made into something. I collected these for years until a few months ago I had had enough. Enough piles, enough scraps… I could never see myself finishing all of my piles and that was discouraging.
Around Christmas, I decided to make a scrap quilt and posted a few photos on Instagram as I worked – followed a few weeks ago by the sewn quilt top. I love it, despite a few things (I’ll not mention) that are driving me crazy! Now all I need to do is sew the quilt back and (I think) do some very simple in the ditch or straight line quilting. It’s a queen size, and despite my machine having a large throat space, I’m still nervous to try any free motion quilting on something this large.
That quilt got me started… the bug took on a life of its own and, in January, I decided to join 3 quilt samplers. It helped that my sponsor Sew Sisters asked me to design a block for their Canadian Sampler – Block of the Month. As part of the deal, I get to take part in the sampler and receive all of the block patterns. I had no idea it would be so addicting! (By the way, this round of registrations for the Canadian Sampler closes in just a few days at the end of February!)
I finally figured out why… Turns out I love the “mystery” behind following lots of little instructions to get the final block, but not making tons of the same block over and over again – the only kind of quilting I knew before now.
(Oh, and I also love 12″ blocks, because they are BIG and you don’t need a lot of them to make something!)
Here are the details for each sampler:
- Sew Sisters Quilt Shop (Canadian!) – The Canadian Sampler – 2 blocks sent monthly (paid subscription, paper pattern)
- I’ll be making all 20 blocks, and am excited to show you my block when it’s released.
- Sew Fresh Quilts (Canadian!) – Have a Jolly Little Christmas– bi-weekly block on Saturdays
- I am making most of these, but not all of them, in a blue and gray palette. Hopefully something different and fun for a Christmas Quilt!
- Maureen Cracknell and Sharon Holland – Sewcial Bee Sampler – weekly block on Wednesdays
- I will make all of these, but I’m not adding the framing pieces until I find the perfect fabric for it. Something pink and yellow I think!
I’m hoping to post monthly photos and explanations where necessary all year. So you can keep me accountable, and feel free to bug me if I forget *please do!* You can follow me along in “real-time” on Instagram too if you’d like.
Maybe some of you want to join me? I’ve linked all of the Samplers and blocks so you can find the tutorials. If you’re sewing along let me know, I’d love to see what your versions look like.
2017 Samplers – Update No. 1
The Canadian Sampler
Fabric Pull
January: Pacific Stars by Daphne Greig, Patchworks Studio
January: Keep’n Warm by Sandy Whitelaw, Upstairs Hobby Room
Have a Jolly Little Christmas
Fabric Pull
Block 1: Christmas Stockings
Block 2: Winter Mittens
Block 3: Christmas Bow
Sewcial Bee Sampler
Fabric Pull (Mostly a Fat Quarter bundle I made for my sponsor, Fabric Spark.)
Block 1: Patience Corners
Block 2: A Dandy
by Sherri Sylvester | Dec 16, 2016
I have a general lack of Christmas pillows, so I’ve been trying to make one each year to add to my collection.
This pillow was designed to be super simple. Two square sides, some quilting, and an invisible zipper closure + pompoms for some fun! My husband isn’t sold on them (yet?), but the kids and I think pompoms are definitely the way to go.
I’ve been stashing the materials for this in a project bag since before last Christmas. Which (of course) is when I planned to make it. As usual – the number of ideas “to sew” were bigger than the time there is to actually sew them. Sound familiar?!
This year I decided to buy all of my gifts, save a few simple zippy pouches for the babysitter and our teachers. I am so much more relaxed, and (thanks to online shopping) we only need to find a couple more things! I really miss planning homemade ideas and sharing them. But to be honest – it’s pretty stressful since I am a procrastinator and never (ever) start early enough. (Plus, there are always birthdays to make up for it!)
I’m also happy to be part of Janome Canada’s series “12 Days of Best Loved Accessories“ and this pillow fits perfectly into my favorite! I have LOVED the AcuFeed Flex (dual feed) system on the Skyline machines I’ve been loaned.
The dual feed system works like a walking/even foot – but the top feed dogs are connected directly to the machine – so it’s more accurate. Since I’ve been using it I’ve haven’t had any bunching or shifting on my quilted projects – and they worked great when sewing the matching the plaid pattern on the seams of my new pajama pants.
The Skyline S9 (and some other Janome machines) include more than one width of the foot – so I have a narrow and a wide foot available to me. Plus a 1/4″ quilting foot, open toe foot and a zipper foot! Great for making sure everything moves along evenly!
I spray basted these layers together and quilted them in a grid pattern with creme thread. I marked a few lines and then used the quilting guide bar to keep them “even”. I prefer a slightly wonky look to my quick projects since I generally can’t keep the lines perfectly straight anyhow! After that, it was simple to trim the pillow into a square, add the pompom trim and zipper and done.
Hmmm… as I’m writing this I just realized there’s a gold shirt in a project bag that is due to be upcycled into a pillow as well… maybe next year?!
Are you hand-making your Christmas gifts?
Fabric: Riley Blake Designs “Lost & Found Christmas” by My Mind’s Eye, from Country Clothesline (out of stock)
by Sherri Sylvester | Sep 17, 2016
Whew – time flies when you are turning your house upside down and moving everyone around! I want to make sure I squeeze a post into this week though, and I’m excited to share a throw quilt with you today.
Waaaaay back at the Creativ Festival in April, Rita from Fabric Please gave my youngest the cutest bundle of Kate and Birdie fabric. Four fat quarters to use for her very own sewing project! We decided that it should be a quilt and off we went one weekend, her and I sharing the task of piecing it together on her Janome New Home 3/4 size machine.
I have to admit, when we got the bundle I was not sure how we could create something large enough to cuddle under. But with some thought and a brilliant 4-at-a-time-HST sewing tutorial, we succeeded! I added a bit of fabric from my stash to the ends,some stripey red for the binding and we were good to go.
What about the backing you say? Ummm yes – the un-matchy backing fabric… (insert blushing embarrassed emoji here) She chose the blue ice cream flannel on her last trip to the fabric store. I almost couldn’t go through with it… I mean it DOESN’T MATCH! And it’s permanent… argh – in a quilt no less! But she was five and it was “perfect” to her – so that’s what it needed to be. Don’t argue with the child that wants to learn to sew! (She was also adamant that the middle striped block should be vertical – and not horizontal…. *sigh*)
In the end, I did quite a bit of the sewing, we worked together on the fat quarter HST’s and she decided on the final layout. We sewed them together and then it was up to me to finish the borders, binding and quilting. Which, I LOVE! It is a simple diamond pattern and it turned out great! I made them as large as I could and used the HST diagonals as a guide for the stitching. I’m definitely going to do more diagonal quilting like this in the future.
By the way there’s a #momfail video of her opening her “surprise” (finished quilt) and not giving me quite the reaction I was expecting. Ooops! She’s a good sport about it anyhow 🙂
Do your kids like to sew? What do they like to make best?
Oh – and she sewed wearing my second most favorite dress make – ever! That she just outgrew…. argh. I may never, ever get rid of this one!
by Sherri Sylvester | Aug 25, 2016
This blog post is brought to you today by the letters “L” and “B” and by the number 2! Kudos to everyone who remembers where that reference is from. Ah, the days of childhood!
When I worked with my sponsor Fabric Spark to make my daughter’s isogram mini-quilt earlier this year, I wanted to make sure I used up the other letters in the alphabet panel. Enter two quick and easy projects with the letters “L” and “B”. Fabric Spark is sold out of this Tamara Kate panel – but has the Joie de Vivre – Joyeax Alphabet from Bari J in stock – it’s just as pretty!
First, I sewed up a quick quilted pillow for my daughter’s friend as a birthday gift. I really, really loved making this pillow. Using up scraps and piecing them log-cabin-style made a quick and easy finish. (My husband had just bought me the perfect tulip bouquet for the photo shoot – super extra bonus points for him!) I always love the quilting, it’s just so satisfying – and always looks amazing. I even dug out my rusty free-motion skills to make a few loops as well. The automatic settings on my Janome Skyline S7 are really helpful – they set everything up for you!
The second project I made was a monogrammed hand towel for my mom’s birthday this July – though she may never use it for fear of dirt! Their last name begins with “B”. I used a simple hand-towel, turned under the edges of the fabric and stitched the letter on. If I had more time I would have loved to embroider some texture into the block. But since I was finishing it the morning we were leaving to take it to her – I wasn’t able to! #procraftinators #unite!
Since I think I have an “M” and a “P” in my alpha-stash (it’s a thing!) I am excited to make my kids some monogrammed pillows too. We are playing “musical rooms” in our house this summer. Moving the sewing room to the (much larger) basement space (yay!) so the kids will each have their own space. We’ve got a “Red Riding Hood” room on tap for the little one and a “pink/teal-blue/yellow” design up for the oldest. Kids are fun and I can’t wait to see how their rooms turn out!
by Sherri Sylvester | Apr 21, 2016
So there’s thing called an isogram, which I didn’t know about until my sponsor Fabric Spark emailed to see if I wanted to make a project with a Nature Walk Alphabet Panel. It’s gorgeous, but right away I was worried… my kids are too big for alphabet projects, no matter how amazing the fabric is! Of course, I now *needed* the fabric, so for a couple of days my husband and I thought of things to write with one panel of the alphabet until I Googled it and found out what I needed was an isogram: “a word or phrase without a repeating letter”.
Moving ahead for a second, this project is the last thing I need to finish before my Trunk Show at the Creativ Festival in 2 days! Wow! I am running around like crazy person over here. If you are in the Toronto area, I will be presenting a Trunk Show – “Be Brave and Sew” on the Fashion Arts stage at 2:30 on Friday and 9:30 am (gulp!) on Saturday. You can also see the original sample projects from the Sewing Diaries, other past projects and the girls’ Easter Dresses. I’m so happy to be working with Janome to present this!
But, back to isograms, it turns out there are tons of these things! I got a few from this website – “Stand By Me”, “Rocket Man” or “Rhapsody in Blue” (plus lots more) if you are a music enthusiast and Playground, Trampoline, Ambidextrous or Subdermatoglyphic (!) according to Wikipedia. I also found a great example of a sewing isogram after I finished my project, from Sherri Noel (great first name, btw!) – she wrote “Sew Crazy” on her sewing machine cover! Of course, you could always think up another phrase and buy two or three alphabet panels.
One last thing still bugged me – cutting up the panel without a use for the leftover letters. But, I’m in luck and know a whole bunch of people with first and last names that start with each of the leftover letters – so, if you know me – you “might” be getting a pillow or zippy pouch (or other sewn something) with a letter on it for your next birthday/Christmas or other random holiday!
This project, however, is for my oldest daughter. I thought the isogram “Quick on the draw” was perfect for her bedroom wall. She does not stop drawing – and you rarely find her without a drawing implement of some kind in her hand. She visits art supply stores like they are candy shops – she needs this mini quilt! Fabric Spark was amazing and sent me the alphabet panel and some of her other fabrics from Tamara Kate’s Nature Walk collection for Michael Miller Fabrics. I love that this Tamara Kate art can inspire my little girl!
I’ve made up a little mini tutorial for the project below, with links to all of the fabrics I used, plus the gorgeous Little World in Amberthat didn’t make it in – vetoed by the fact that after it was pieced in it didn’t really match my daughter’s room so well.
Keep in mind that the amount of fabric you need will drastically change depending on the phrase/word you want to spell! This mini quilt is actually quite large at 35″ x 23″. If you are coming to the Creativ Festival, it will be on display in the Fabric Spark booth, #248!
As a gauge I used this much fabric:
1) Cut alphabet rows apart. Measure the halfway point between the rows, mark first, cut after!
2) Cut letters apart with 1/4″ seam allowance on both sides, making sure to keep the sides parallel. We will trim the top and bottom after sewing each line.
3) Sew the letters together into words with a 1/4″ seam, I pressed my seam allowances open. Make sure to align the letters so they line up side by side before sewing, don’t align the top/bottom of the white space or they will be uneven.
4) Cut and sew 2 1/2″ wide strips for spaces between words and sew words into lines. Trim the top edges, including a 1/4″ seam allowance on each, so everything is square. My letter rows ended up about 7 1/4″ tall each. Make sure each row is the same height.
5) Add 2 1/2″ strips to each row end, then the top and bottom and between your rows. I pressed these seams open as well.
6) Sew all the rows together to make the center of the mini quilt.
7) Cut & sew 2″ strips to the top, bottom and sides to create the border.
8) Piece your backing if desired, make a quilt sandwich and quilt your project. For lack of more experience, I mostly stitched in the ditch around the letters. Then did a few border rows around the edge.
9) Add quilt hanging sleeve if desired.
10) Make enough binding with 2 1/2″ strips to go around project. Then bind with your favorite method.
I hope you love your new mini quilt! My daughter is so excited to hang this in her room.
Fabric Pull
January: Pacific Stars by Daphne Greig, 
Fabric Pull
Block 1: 
Block 3: 
Block 1: 
Block 2: 
