Tips, Tutorials & Freebies Archives - Page 13 of 13 - The Little Mushroom Cap: A Quilting Blog

About A Quilt Sampler QAL #4 : Quilting Block 1

February 20, 2013 12 Comments

Hi!

Firtsly I am sorry for putting this up a bit late. I was totally wrapped up with moving to a new house and unpacking.

Which; the whole thing had caused me to lose my block 1, so I piece another one. LOL.

Anyway, I am done quilting it!

Here it is :

So, for your block, you can try and design how you would want to quilt it. I suggest you to try and do a feature in the plain background.

In mine, I had that squiggly seaweed that I want to pop out.

You can be free and do whatever you fancy. It can be a triangle forming a star feature for the whole block like the one I design in photo below (in blue); or you can add curves (eg the green one) which would definitely give a new look to your block. This is why we call it custom quilting.

Once you determine the main feature, determine what type of filler quilting design you would like to use.
If you really want to pop out some parts of the quilting design, make sure you use very dense filler design.

I love scribbling as it is very dense and very easy to do and to travel from one place to another.
Here is a great VIDEO TUTORIAL for scribbling by Cindy Needham. Practice the filler quilting on a piece of scrap sandwich (by sandwich, I mean a small scrap of top, batting and backing)

I first outline the outer 1/4inch seam and outline my feature. Then I start quilting the filler surrounding the parts where I want the design to pop out. (in this case I quilt densely around the seaweed)

Layer your block with the batting and backing. Spray baste if required. Then off to the machine!

First quilt following the outline you drew, then quilt the dense design surrounding the outline.

I continue to do the corners by adding some swirly. I travel to these corners by quilting in the ditch. Do not worry, it doesn’t have to be really perfect, mine is far out but I am happy with them.

Back of the block:

As you can see, I also tried to to pop the octopus out.. if you do not have any fussy cut, don’t worry – even better, you can outline a diamond or and kind of shape in the middle and do a dense quilting around it. It will create a great texture and pop the featured shape out!

If you are a beginner in free motion quilting, here are some wonderful videos to start with:

Beginning and ending by Cindy Needham

Tons of filler designs by Leah Day

and many more inspiration on my pinterest board.

Till then,

I hope you have fun quilting them!

I love to see your work, so if you like, please share them on Flickr group!

XOXO,

In Custom FMQ Sampler Quilt Along

About A Quilt Sampler QAL #3 : Block 1

February 5, 2013 6 Comments

Hi!

The first block of this QAL is this block :

From the fabric chosen, cut as per measurement in the photo below:

From the 4 7/8″ square, we are going to make 4 pieces of Half Square Triangle. Put one dark value fabric with background fabric right side facing one another and draw the middle diagonal line.

Sew quarter of an inch on each side. And Cut it in half and press towards the darker fabric or press open if preferred.

Sew the pieces in three rows of HST and the 4 1/2″ squares together and press seam open or to side as shown. Piece the three rows together.

Trim to 12.5″ block. You are done!

Have fun making the block!

See you in the next round where we will be quilting it customly!

XOXO,

In Custom FMQ Sampler Quilt Along

About A Quilt Sampler Post #2 : QAYG Inroduction + Other Requirements + Lets Link Up Fabric Choices

January 15, 2013 14 Comments

Hi!

So, today I want to just give a brief

Quilt As You Go (QAYG) Introduction.

There are many ways of QAYG, you can see some tutorial here,here and here.

But the one we are going to use in this QAL is basically,

Quilting block by block.

Trim the batting and the backing off.

Attach the sashing fabrics for the top and the back.

Slit in strip of batting in the sashing.

And finish it off by hand or machine.

The detail of all of this steps, will be in a complete tutorial when the time comes (October).

Today, I just want you to have a general idea of how we are going about to do this quilt.

————————————————————————————–

Other Requirements

So, since we will be quilting as we go, we will also need to prepare the backing fabrics as we start.

You can use various fabric for backing, and one colour sashing like this:

(you’ll need 9 pieces of 13.5″ square, 1 yard of sashing fabric)

Or all the same for all blocks and another colour sashing.

(you’ll need 1.5 yards for the blocks and 1 yard for sashing)

Other things you will need:

Quilting threads – either one colour or various – matching to your fabrics

9 piece of 13″ square batting and 2.5 Strips of batting (start collecting scrap batting about that size from now or you can always cut the strips from the large batting piece anyway)

Free-Motion foot

Walking Foot

Standard Quilting Tools

An advantage if you have Supreme Slider and Machinger Gloves but not necessary

…………………………………………………………………………………………….

Now lets link up our fabric choices for this Quilt along!

You can also add your photo to flickr group here.

In Baby Quilt

Vintage Modern I Heart Quilt DONE!

January 14, 2013 41 Comments

Finally I have time to post this..

It was done the first week of this year, making it my first quilt of the year 2013! Oh..its so good to say that..LOL

You can see the progress of this quilt here. Pattern available here

And I can’t tell you how happy I am with this quilt, but I really am happy with the final look of it.

Polka Dot Binding. Polka dots are always great as bindings. The pop of white dots here and there makes it more whimsical!

‘

I just can’t stop loving the scalloped edge! I think this is the icing on the cake for this quilt. I just love it frames the whole quilt.

I did a simple loop all over free motion quilting.

Quilt Stat:

Size : 60″x 60″

Quilt top Fabrics : Vintage Modern by Bonnie and Camille, scraps of white on white

Backing Fabrics: Infinity Designed for Spotlight

Binding Fabric : Dumb Dots by Michael Miller in Red

Batting : Bamboo Batting

Pattern available here

Finished on 5th January 2013

XOXO

In Custom FMQ Sampler Quilt Along

About A Quilt Sampler Post #1 : Schedule + Fabric Requirements

January 5, 2013 10 Comments

Welcome to the second post for the About A Quilt Sampler QAL! In this post, I will be sharing the QAL schedule and the fabric requirements.

If you happen to land here without having to know what it is all about, please visit the previous post here or you can go ahead to the archive page HERE.

ABOUT A QUILT SAMPLER QAL SCHEDULE:

In Custom FMQ Sampler Quilt Along

Blog Hopping and Quilt Along 2013

January 3, 2013 6 Comments

Hi!

This year I plan to join the fun of blog hops and quilt along including my own quilt along “About A Quilt Sampler” here.

(For those waiting for the post of the About A Quilt Sampler, there will be one this weekend on fabric requirements, hope you’ll join in!)

This January I will be a part of In Your Words Bloghop hosted by non other than the best cheerleader of them all, Madame Samm and for this hop, we have Lindawho have been working hard sorting all of the participants!

Isn’t it a great way to find new blogs and share our love of quilting and sewing. You can hop on the day of their blog hop or hop on now to see what they are already up to! Mine would be on the 10th!

Monday, January 7 Stitch, Stitch, Stitch, Stitch Kwilty Pleasures Debby Kratovil Quilts Sew Darn Quilt Mary On Lake Pulaski Traveling Quilter Just Let Me Quilt Vroomans Quilts Cate’s Linens Nini and the Sea Sew Much 2 Luv	Tuesday, January 8 Piece Peace A Stitch in Time krislovesfabric Sew Mollie Sue, Quilt Much? Marjorie’s Busy Corner Grandmamas Stories Mrs. Pickles Garden Patchouli moon Studio Till We Quilt Again The Slow Quilter Quilting With Terry and the Cats	Wednesday, January 9 Kathy’s Quilts Sunshine Quilting Sew Incredibly Crazy Quilt Doodle Doodles Doodling in My Mind I Like to Quiltblog Michelle’s Romantic Tangle Grammie Q’s Dancing Moon (Betty V.) at “that other blog” The Fuzzy Hat Quilter	Thursday, January 10 Life in the Scrapatch Just Sew Sue Nati’s Little Things Amy’s Crafty Shenanigans Pig Tales and Quilts Scrappy ‘n Happy Little Mushroom Cap Kwilty Pleasures Moosestash Quilting Sowing Stitches Just Quilt It
Friday, January 11 Jane’s Fabrics Jane’s Quilting Nuts 4 Redwork Cherry Blossoms Quilting Studio Bits and Pieces Life in Every Breath Quilting Lines Travel Thru Greece Meadowbrook Count It All Joy! Sophie Junction	Monday, January 14 Gracie Oliver Arts Clothes and Crafts Cherrys Prairie Primitives Simple Sew Woolie Mammoth RocknQuilts Celynn’s Sunflower Patch A Quilting Sheep Sane and Crazy Quilting Quiltsmiles Feathered Nest Studio	Tuesday, January 15 BQuiltin Studio Hill Valley Quilter Bumbleberry Stitches Buzzing and Bumbling Outback Crafter In Stitches and Seams Englating Stitchin by the Lake Selina Quilts Sheila’s Quilt World Words & Stitches	Wednesday, January 16 My Collection of Things Quiltin’ Jenny Shade Tree Quilting Rosemary) at “that other blog” Pat Sloan, The Voice of Quilting Dachsies With Moxie Sew Many Yarns Tomorrows Treasures Today The German Mom Christa Quilts Read, Quilt, Cook, Pray Sew We Quilt

Other than that :

These sounds fun though I doubt that I have time for them.

The informal QAL : Scrappy Trips around the world (tutorial here)

Foundation Pieced Star Quilt @don’t Call Me Betsy

Paper Piecing of sewing things by Kristy @ Quiet Play

Scrappy Swoon Quilt Along by Hopeful Homemaker

Skill Builder BOM @ Pile’ofabric

Herringbone block QAL @ Sew Can She

Aurifil Designer of the Month (Flickr group here)

Compass Collection by Quilting in The Square

something new sampler header Something New Sampler

How about you? Joining in any bloghop or quilt along this year?

Till then,
XOXO
Amira

In Custom FMQ Sampler Quilt Along

About A Quilt Sampler 2013 QAL : A sampler quilt with custom quilting

December 12, 2012 34 Comments

This is my first post on introducing you to a “About A Quilt Sampler” Quilt Along (QAL) which I wish to do beginning early next year (2013)

I do wish you join along if you are interested in learning and practicing free motion quilting on your domestic machine, or if you would simply want to make a sampler quilt. A sampler quilt is great as it provides quick exposure to learning lots of different techniques and different kind of blocks. So, I think this sampler quilt it would be perfect for beginners and intermediate quilters.

The idea to this QAL is to keep a good journal of myself making a sampler quilt and to share with all of you tips along the way as well!

So! What is so special about this Sampler quillt?? Well, I have decided to pick just 9 block, all simple and easy, because I rather focus on how to quilt them. So this will be a quilt along where I will not only share with you tutorial of how to make the blocks but also a guidance on how to do free-motion quilting on them! Wait …. before you think that it sounds too challenging… read on.

In Bag Sewing

Drawstring Lunch Bag with Handle – TUTORIAL

November 24, 2012 19 Comments

NOTE : I no longer promote Craftsy/Bluprint as I used to due to the way the subscription is currently being carried out. I had the issue of cancelling my subscription when the company changed hand and I find that cancelling through calls is inconvenient. However, I do still stand behind these classes I promote and if you are subscribed, you can surely check these classes I recommend on the platform. If you are looking for another online platform to learn craft such as quilting, do check out CreativeBug. It is much cheaper in subscription (subscribe now 3 months for only $5). Thank you.

In this post, I am sharing with you the tutorial for drawstring bag with handle. Like these ones I made :

These are perfect for lunch bags, I have made many to gift friends and for myself. They are the perfect size (I have here a tutorial for 2 sizes). They are easy to grab, use and wash. Believe me, my friends love theirs!

In Quilt

Make your own Gift Wrapper – TUTORIAL

November 20, 2012 9 Comments

Hi!

I am not the kind of person who has gift wrappers in stock – They often got crinkled up if I kept them too long..LOL..

I have found love with scrappy quilt, scrappy patches.. so today I am going to share you a tutorial for making your own gift wrap out of magazines pages… “the scrappy style”.

DIY gift wrap, recycle magazine, handmade gift wrap

Requirements:

You’ll need transparent tape, Scissors and magazine pages. Choose those ones that have lots of colours, or even themed like Christmas or Fall whatever the season may be.

1. Cut the first piece according to your preference, possibly remove some texts.

2. Piece two pieces together at one side using the transparent tape. Don’t overlap too much.

3. Trim away the excess. You want new smooth sides.

4. Do a couple of pieces like this. Piecing two pieces together and trimming.

DIY Handamade gift wrapper recycle magazine

5. Then you’ll want to tape together the pieced segments together, making a larger patched piece.

6. Again, trim every time you piece them together, making sure you have all smooth straight sides.

7. Repeat until your wrapper is large enough. You may need to piece three pieces together at one point, just so that it is large enough to cover the sides of the enlarged piece.

8. Trim the final piece and

9. Use it!

I really do love the merry look of the wrapper. You can even customize it to have images that suits the person who’ll receive it.

Most magazines have pretty decent paper-weight and shine, making it the perfect medium to work with when wrapping too!

Have fun trying it!

In Completed Projects

Tutorial | Ruby Table Runner using leftover Jelly Rolls

June 30, 2012 12 Comments

In between cutting the Vintage Modern for a lap quilt, I decided to use some of the Ruby Jelly Rolls (Just so tempted to use it) This line is also by the same designer; Bonnie and Camille. I made a table runner with a few jelly rolls to start with. A quick little project to get my sewjo going, in between what seems like endless piecing with the other quilt project.

The table runner uses only 6 Jelly Rolls Strips for the blocks, making it a perfect project for those leftover Jelly Rolls strips!

[bctt tweet=”Make a table runner using leftover jelly rolls strips!” username=”amira_lilmushroomcap”]

The table runner pattern is simply a quarter log cabin. I made mine to look scrappy so I have no particular positioning of the pieces. I just made sure that I have the colours distributed evenly across the runner. While I am at it, might as well I put a tutorial here for my future reference and for you too!

There are affiliate links within this post, in which I may earn a small commission if you take action. Please find my full disclosure here.

Quilted Table Runner Tutorial

Finished size : 19″ x 45″

Materials requirement:

Leftover Jelly Rolls or 2.5″ strips (6 Jelly rolls strip is sufficient for the runner)

A quarter yard of the final border fabric (mine is the red dots)

2 Jelly rolls strip for binding

I yard for backing (or 22″ x 48″)

20″ x 46″ wadding

I am using Bonnie And Camille Ruby (Out of Print but you can check out all of her fabric HERE)

Cutting instructions:

From each Jelly Roll strips (2.5 x 44″),

From border fabric :

cut 2 pieces of WOF ” x 3″ (WOF: width of fabric ~ 40″)

cut 2 pieces of 20″ x 3″

Piecing instructions:

Chain piece the first two 2.5″ squares for all blocks, followed by the sequence as per diagram shown.

Sewing the border on:

Once all the blocks are pieced together in rows, it’s time to put the border on.

Sew the border along the lengthwise first. Both top and bottom border. Trim excess.

Then, piece the side border. Trim excess.

Baste and Quilt:

For small projects, I love spray basting! I use 505 Spray baste and it never fails to work like a charm. Spray on the wadding, and place your backing fabric flat and smooth it out. Then turn it all around and again spray onto the wadding and place the top quilt and smooth it out.

I quilted mine with simple stippling motion all over the block and I left the border unquilted. You can quilt yours as desired.

Check out some of the free motion quilting tutorials I have on the blog.

Binding:

using 2 Jelly Roll strips or 2 of 2.5″x44″ strips, sew them together to form long binding tape. Fold them in half lengthwise and iron them. Use this as the binding tape for the quilt.

So here it is, all done and bound.

Those pieces in the bowl are the pieces of blocks from the Vintage Modern.

Update: The blocks in the bowl are already pieced into a quilt and the quilt pattern is available here.

If you are in for a quick little quilty project – placemats and runners are my favourites! So why not go make it yourself now!

make sure you pin it for reference!