Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Part 18 free pattern!

Is it warm anywhere yet? Brrrrrrr! My hands are so cold, I can't get my block stitched! I have half of the stem done, which is cotton, by the way, cut 7/8" wide on bias, and put through a bias maker tool from Clover to make a 3/8" wide finished stem! You will need about 18 1/2" of vine. I used wool for the rest in lots of pretty hand dyed colors! The template will be on my website soon, http://www.woolenwillowdesigns.com.

The background was cut 7" x 13", and I drew lines with chalk, marking 6" x 12" which will be the finished size, so I know where to put my applique pieces. After the stitching is complete, I'll trim the block to 6 1/2" x 12 1/2." I do it this way, because I don't pre-wash my fabrics, and when I'm done with the applique I like to press the block with a touch of steam. Steam will make the block shrink a little after its dry, so I don't trim until after I steam press the block. That way it will end up the correct size to piece with the rest of the blocks! Now, if you steam your fabric, before you ever cut your block in the beginning, you probably won't have much trouble with shrinkage, but sometimes people may have a little shrinkage just during the process of the applique. So I like to give a little wiggle room for just in case! Better to have more, than not enough!

I hope you all stay warm and cozy, and stitch a lot!

Jeni

 

 

Monday, February 16, 2015

Update to part 16 Free sew along!

Good evening!

As I was catching up on my flying geese unit from last week, I realized that we need 7 flying geese in this unit, so add another!! Here is a picture of last weeks blocks and this weeks!

Have a good night, and sweet dreams of stitching!

See ya soon!

Jeni

 

Part 17, A Life of Plenty!

Happy Snowy Monday! Well, happy for me, since I don't have to go out in it! I have to say that I am really looking forward to spring though! So in honor of spring, here is a sweet little Robin for our next block!

 

Her background should be cut 5" x 9", and trimmed to 4 1/2" x 8 1/2" after applique is complete! You will find the template on my website, http://www.woolenwillowdesigns.com. Her body is a black print cotton, needle turned. Her wing is a grey velvet, I bought from Blackberry Primitives, also needle turned, and her breast is a textured pumpkin hand-dyed wool from my stash of my hand dyed wools! I stitched her feet with pearl cotton and a stem stitch! Happy stitching!

Jeni

 

Monday, February 9, 2015

Are you ready? Part 16 free Sew Along!

Silly question, I know you must have thought I forgot you! I promise I have not! I got my quilts and wool projects all finished and sent off! I'll get right to it.......

For this cute little sunflower block, you will need to cut your background fabric 7" x7", get the templates from my website http://www.woolenwillowdesigns.com, ( they should be up soon!) and after you applique, trim the block to 6 1/2" x 6"

For the flower I used a mottled gold wool, with a cotton black print center. I needle turned the cotton center onto the gold wool. I used two different hand dyed green wools for the stem and leaves.

Also, you will need to make one more house block ( directions found in "Part Two") with the word "Faith" embroidered on it. This can be found on the template sheet with the sunflower.

We also will need one more unit of 6 flying geese! I'm working on these today, and will post a picture of them with the next block all together!

Just three more blocks after these, then we are on to the borders! Yippee! I can hardly wait to see what it will look like all completed!

Let me know how you plan to quilt your quilt! Will you hand quilt, or machine quilt? If you machine quilt, will it be on your regular machine, or will you use a long arm machine?

Thank you for your nice emails, while I took my break to finish my book projects, and squeeze in Christmas! I really appreciated it! And again, thanks for sharing your photo's!!! I do have a facebook page for Woolen Willow Designs, so be sure to check over there and share your sew along pictures!

It's great to be back!!

Jeni