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Posted by  Q in Craftie Craft, Fambly Ramblings, Sewing on  August 4, 2011, at 9:17 pm
I have already completed a quilt top from a Moda Bake Shop Tutorial written by Kim Walus (See it on my Projects Page – Dresden Plates for Your Table) from Bitty Bits and Pieces. Another one got my attention but I didn’t really have a reason to make one exactly. That is the Hugs and Kisses Valentine Banner.
 Hugs & Kisses Banner by Kim Walus of Bitty Bits and Pieces for Moda Bake Shop Then Charlotte had her second birthday last month and was given a play house by my parents. I immediately remember having some serious itchy stitching hands when I saw this project and thought it would be great for the play house. I guessed that mantles are slightly wider than your average play house, so I measured how big I thought it should be for the play house and tried to estimate the size the ‘flags’ needed to be to accommodate it. I decreased the pattern by 50% to make a teenier version of the banner.
 Charlie's Banner Preparations I went to my local Discount Craft Store Spotlight and since they still had loads and it was on sale, I just had to get more of the Denyse Schmidt range that was on sale at JoAnn’s in the US, this time the Australians got to play too!. The walls of the play house are white and yellow and the roof is red, so what could be better 
 Charlie's Play House Banner Work In Progress I have a real tough time cutting out felt shapes – anyone else?! Kim uses a sizzix machine and mentioned being able to purchase pre-cut shapes, but we’re not quite there yet in Aus I don’t think. Mine turned out alright I think.
 Charlie's Play House Banner getting it's binding I made the little yo-yos and covered buttons first and then embroidered the felt circles onto the flags, because I wanted to do some hand work. The actual stitching, turning out of the flags and stitching of the binding was super quick and then all I had left to do was stitch the yo-yos and the additional buttons to the banner.
 Charlie's Play House Banner on my Chest of Drawers Because I just had to take a pic right away after I added the last button.
And then I used some double sided sticky velcro circles and added them to the playhouse How fun!!
Trust me, you want to find an excuse to make one yourself!
 Charlie's Play House Banner - (as she would say) "All Done, Finished!" Good Night Stitchers Whereever you are!
Posted by Q in Craftie Craft, Quilting, Sewing on August 1, 2011, at 7:31 pm
At the moment, I don’t think I should be making any posts without giving you an update of how my Vignette in Stitches Mystery Quilt is going. I’m happy to say that I do have some progress to show this time. [and I am saying that I think the kind of way you would say to a teacher you want to impress with your homework... look Miss, see what I did]. I am however, still slightly behind with it all, but I think if I get the next 3 blocks done in August then I will be at the same point as the Vignette Magazine issues are.
I have completed the shoo-fly blocks I was flying away from (and the additional 8 that I think will be used in other blocks later on, but not sure which ones – I probably missed it in the mag, somewhere)
 Vignette Block 1, 2 and 3 All Lined Up - progress as at end of July 2011 I keep showing my progress to my boyfriend who instead of saying, that’s nice dear or how pretty… Always just says, that’s a lot of work. I hope he realises how often he is going to have to look at it when it stays on the bed  after completion.
 Vignette Block 2 - The left part of the Block 2 and 3 Combination Block 2 starts from the right of the bird stitchery and ends in the centre of the birdhouse stitchery.
 Vignette Block 3 - The right part of the Block 2 and 3 Combination I think the next few blocks have a lot less cutting to do (as the instructions for cutting in the first 3 blocks include extra cutting that we put aside for the next). So looking forward to the next few. At the moment, I still have 5 hearts to needleturn applique to these.
I also have a mini finish for one of the projects from Inspired Stitches. The sunglass case, from Natalie Ross’s pattern – “Spring Market”. This is not that much of an achievement you know, as there were participants who finished this on the day, but it’s the first sunglass case I made
Here is the conversation with the boy:
“Did I show you the sunglass case I made?”
“I don’t think so, can I have it?”
“You probably won’t want it it’s a bit girlie”
I leave the room to fetch it…
“See?!”
” It’s a little bit girlie…”
“Yeah that’s what I said.”
“You could make one less girlie though, you know like with skulls and things”
 from Pattern - Spring Market by Natalie Ross - Sunglass Case I also signed up a while ago to participate in a charity quilting bee, hosted by Sew Fresh Fabrics. They sent me scraps.
 Scraps of Fabrics from Sew Fresh Fabrics I made a block, signed a signature block and posted it back to the US, it is going to be in a charity quilt for Margaret’s Hope Chest. I had never participated in anything like this and highly recommend it, it’s fun and definitely going to a worthwhile cause!
 Sew Fresh Fabrics Block for Charity Quilting Bee The block I made was kind of serendipitous (well maybe just accidental). I started out quite structured, I am a little too OCD to be able to ad-lib wonky blocks or just randomly put something together. I found a block I liked on Marcia Hohn’s Quilter Cache (the small block to the bottom left), I switched the 4 patch block places with the solid squares and then got to the end of making the block only too realise that I made a 9inch block when I was supposed to be making a 12inch block (doh!). I added the top strip and the right hand strip and I think it turned out ok after all!
I also started cutting out and working prepping the quilt I have been meaning to make for my niece Charlotte. The pattern is called Sleepy Sheep and the design is from Monica Poole from Moonshine Designs.
 Sleepy Sheep (with heads) Cut Out and Ironed on to double sided fusible interfacing It’s quilt as you go quilt and I will need to do a small amount of free motion quilting and what Monica refers to as Sketchy Applique in the pattern.
 16 Sleepy Sheep Ironed onto strips for Sketchy Applique So this sketchy applique thing which is supposed to approximate maybe a younger artist sketching and then sketching over a sheep. With my work is came out more like a mad meanderings (you like you would find on the walls and floor and ceiling of a cell at an institution with a not so sane occupant ) but I guess it approximates what it should.
 Sleepy Sheep Sketchy Appliqued Here is a close up of one.
 One Sleepy Sheep Sketched Sooo… after doing that loopy free motion in the background of the strip is what was called for. I slipped on my sexy quilting gloves stuck my tongue out of my mouth (without drooling on my work!) and got to it. My back hurt, my tongue hurt, but I thought I did well.
 Sleepy Sheep Free Motion Quilting Front until I turned it over….
 Sleepy Sheep Free Motion Rear So after stitching with the dark and thicker variegated thread to outline the sheep (with the same blue in the bobbin thread) I changed my top thread to white to match the strip and didn’t adjust the tension for the finer thread… It took a lot longer to unpick than it did to stitch 
 pattern Ruby Cottage by Gail Pan stitchery inset I also finished hand stitching this stitchery panel for the new pattern Ruby Cottage by Gail Pan, (another project from Inspired Stitches) it still has a couple of rows of borders and mini stitching to go, but I love how it looks with the Cottage Garden Variegated thread. What do you think?
So I’ve been doing much more hand stitching than machine stitching lately, mostly in bed in front of the telly (current favourites are Steven Spielberg’s Falling Skies and Game of Thrones!). The boy is often by my side, obviously with stitching and watching I pay less attention to him, so while I was busy (I think it was with the tree) this is what he did to get my attention, which is funny, but also not a unique event, since I do believe LeAnn’s hubby did something similar with her pear pincushion some time last month. Maybe it’s a boy thing
 Hi in Pins, artwork by Al on that note, I’ll go away.
Good Night Stitchers wherever you are!
Realising that my blog should come with a warning (and I will be expanding on this, I have decided to put up some permanent signage). If you are not from Australia, these signs are of constant amusement to tourists in fact you can buy them as fridge magnets, tea towels, oven mitts, mouse mats almost anything in souvenir shops and even places locals shop.
 Koalas Next X Kilometres  Roos Next X Kilometres  Wombats Next X Kilometres My personal favourite is the little wombat. Actually, not so little and if you make them angry you had better watch out. I think they are cute anyhow. So there are similar signs that people stick in their car windows. I think it’s supposed to help us drive better when we realise that there is a little person in their car. It’s supposed to be a warning to hooligans.
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 Baby on Board Warning Sign So you get the idea right, it’s shaped like a road sign, and it warns people.
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I thought I needn’t go all scary with the yellow and black, it’s only a blog right? but I do think you need to be warned so here is mine…
 Dummy Quilter on Blog I will be adding a page, explaining and warning others not to do the dummy quilting things I do!
So I don’t (well I have once or twice, but I didn’t last night) do Friday night sew ins, because unlike most of you, I need to be in bed and sleeping by some early hour I won’t mention, because I am embarrassed about having no energy to even sew. I did get some stitching done today though.
First up, I would like to show you (well I actually did do this on Friday night … part of it anyway) my very first hexagon flower! I know, I know… not another person doing hexies! Well I wanted to try and when I read about using the new Sewline Glue Pen (in Vignette Issue 2) instead of tacking, I grabbed my Sewline pen and my Hexagon pieces and gave it a go. My first attempt failed didn’t succeed as well as I would have liked. I had some directional pieces as the petal hexagons and when I was done sewing, they made no sense, so I unpicked 3 of them last night and restitched them, so they do make sense.
 My First 1inch Hexie Paper Pieced Flower This morning I followed the well written instructions in the Endless Summer pattern and completed sewing block 1 (or star 1).
 Endless Summer Star Block 1 using Sugar Pop Charm Squares by Liz Scott for Moda I continued chain piecing the rest , I just did the first one step by step to make sure I got it. Later in the day I felt like I needed a break and heard my brother and his wife talk about going to a national park close by, so I chucked some stitching into a bag and headed off with them to the national park. My parents and the family puppy Peppa joined us. I stitched a bit lying on the grass, it was a really nice Autumn day, not to hot and perfect in the shade. Wouldn’t you like to be sitting on the grass stitching, right here?
 Tall Gum Tree at Picnic Spot in Belair National Park In addition there was my favourite person in the whole world.
 Charlotte at Belair National Park I know one pic of her, is just not enough, so here are two more.
 Charlotte  Charlotte And did I mention the family puppy?! Peppa is an English Staffordshire Terrier and is about 3 years old ( I think). My parents adopted her from a breeder, she was a breeding mummy, but had problems after her first litter. My parents got her soon after their last dog passed away. Sindy was the first Staffie we had had and after her, can’t even think about other breeds. They are both the kindest gentlest doggies ever. Peppa is a bit easier to photograph, Sindy was petrified of cameras, so it’s fun to be able to take nice photos of Peppa. She is very attached to my dad so didn’t hang out with me for too long but I snapped this while she was sitting with me.
 Peppa She looks like she could be mean, but she is the biggest softie you could meet.
That was the break I needed from my machine and when I got back home I went straight back to getting Endless Summer sorted out. Whilst ironing the blocks after completion, I noticed one error and then went on with my life… only to pick it up again and consider unpicking it and re-stitching the block. I ironed a couple more blocks and decided that because I had the patience and wasn’t feeling too uptight about my mistake I would re-stitch it.
So I took it apart and then started to re-position only to realise that the block I had just unpicked, was in actual fact not wrong but right… I had picked up the wrong block to unpick. (Hence my dummy quilter on blog warning sign) So I unpicked the right wrong block (I had to write that sorry  ) and stitched them both back together (correctly)
 The Correct Endless Summer Block, Accidentally Unpicked doh! I finished all the nine star blocks, and have now started to add the sashing, but because the Dummy Quilter on Blog idea was going around in my head, I had to play on the puter a bit first. Here are the blocks, in pattern order sans sashing. I think I should finish the top tomorrow, which gives me just over a week to quilt it for the parade. The last 2 months I just sent pics of the top, but I would like to have this quilted before I send my photo to Sherri and Sinta.
 Endless Summer Blocks Laid Out in Pattern Order So an awesome Saturday stitching and playing. Hope yours was awesome too!
Posted by Q in Craftie Craft on December 24, 2010, at 8:38 am
So, I completed the groovy hostess apron from the tutorial at sew4home for my Sister In Law. You can view it in the previous posting.
I wanted to make a mini version of exactly the same apron for my niece (she is 17months old), but I was not 100% sure of what to do in relation to resizing the pattern. To me (in theory) for this kind of pattern I was almost certain I could just resize it on a copier, but I am not confident enough with sewing or patterns to know if this was actually a viable option.
 Free Retro Toddlers Apron Pattern and Tutorial Made with Laminated Fabric Whilst wondering around the sew 4 home site, I came across this adorable retro style toddler’s apron, made with laminated fabric. Isn’t it the cutest thing ever?!
I decided that I would instead of trying to miniaturise the groovy hostess apron, that I would make this one in the same fabric so that my sister in law and niece would still ‘match’.
I did not use laminated fabric and used a low thread count cute dress cotton fabric. compared to the quilting cottons I am used to (slightly more used to) it frayed like crazy… I had a lot of trouble stitching the binding onto the apron after doing the binding across the top of the pocket, so I decided ( as I do quite often when I have troubles accomplishing things on the sewing machine) to do it by hand. I am not the biggest fan of binding, but used emboidery thread in a similar colour to the binding and blanket stitched it on. I think it looks quite nice hand stitched ( particularly because it is for a toddler).
 Retro Toddlers Project Apron from Sew4Home Tutorial - Blanket Stitched Binding  Retro Toddlers Project Apron from Sew4Home Tutorial - Blanket Stitched Binding I also (just to add something) added appliqued flowers with vliesofix under the buttons down the centre of the pocket. The fabric is floral, so I just chose 3 flowers from leftover fabric to use for the appliques and cut them out.
 Retro Toddlers Project Apron from Sew4Home Tutorial - Buttons I made both aprons over the weekend (it would have been much quicker if I didn’t run out of binding and have to get more and – of course – if I did everything I could by machine). So I found both tutorials reasonably easy to follow and am very pleased with my results.
Neither my niece (who only currently watches Yo Gabba Gabba on the pc) or my sister in law (or as far as I know) anyone else… actually reads this blog at the moment, so I doubt it would ruin the surprise before Christmas. In case anyone was wondering (well you aren’t reading, so how can you be wondering hey?!)
 Retro Toddlers Project Apron from Sew4Home Tutorial - Completed
Posted by Q in Craftie Craft on December 18, 2010, at 3:25 pm
My sister-in-law loves to bake and is very good at it so I thought a cute apron would be a great craft gift for her, that I would like to accompany by a matching apron for my niece so that she can have one like mum mum has.
 Groovy Hostess Apron Tutorial - Free at Sew4Home I found this awesome free pattern and tutorial at Sew4Home, it is really clear and simple to follow, and I finished it in a few hours and am very happy with the results!
Here is the Tutorial - Groovy Hostess Apron
There are some great tutorials and projects on the site, that I would like to do, the next one I will be attempting is part 2 of the Christmas Present which will be my niece’s matching apron. Her’s comes from a different pattern but because I am making it in the same fabric, they will match and I hope they both like their gift.
I am still learning to sew and I am very impatient by nature so I did make a few mistakes, but they worked out ok. The problem I had was related to not reading the instructions… (go Q! he he he) so my waistband and ties are slightly different but not noticably I don’t think. The pattern uses straight stitching in some cases and I used diagonal because I thought it would look good.
Here is my attempt:
 Fabric I Chose for Hostess Apron Tutorial From Sew4Home I think the fabric range is called Apple Orchard, I purchased it from Spotlight.
 Hemming the sides and bottom of Apron from Sew4Home Tutorial  Adding the Apron Pocket from Sew4Home Tutorial I used diagonal stitching here to addd the pocket, the tutorial uses edge stitching, my edge stitching is not so straight, so I think that this stitch is friendlier for me.
 Completed Apron after Following Tutorial on Sew4Home
Posted by Q in Craftie Craft, Quilting, Softies - sewing on December 15, 2010, at 10:56 am
I made my niece another little softie, this time a bird from an American Quilting magazine (which I don’t have on me now, so I can’t credit properly.- will edit this later). But I also saw a free pattern on the connecting threads web site, that looks very similar to the pattern I made so if you want to have a try go over there and get the free one, then let me know if it looks the same I was however super disappointed to find that they do not ship to Australia, as I would probably go a bit crazy especially on the sales!!
Here is the free pattern it’s for a partridge and a pear!
 Partridge and a Pear Free Pattern from Connecting Threads So this one doesn’t have stuffed wings, the one I made has stuffed wings and this one has a head shaped to include the beak whereas the pattern I used you need to stitch in a separate beak.
I have to confess that I know nothing about partridges, do youI may (or may not) google them later.
I think the pear looks quite cute too, would be great in really bright greens I think. Love the curvy bottom!
If I try it will be sure to post about it.So Anyway on to the little birdie I made. I got carried away when I took the photos and perched her in a bright pink feather boa. Well it’s not every day you get to play with a boa right?
Birdie Softie – according to my niece this is also an owl (most of the flying variety softies she has – some made by me and some by her godmother and some from shops) are owls, so when she saw it, it was an owl. It’s not a favourite, none of the softies are, but I like making them, so I am not going to stop!
 Birdie Num Num Softie in Pink Feathers
Here is another Photo, just in case the first one wasn’t feathery enough for you!
 Birdie Num Num Softie in Pink Feathers And the coasters? They are another story. I made ( a while back) a ribbon block for my niece, they are supposed to be a big hit with babies, especially when they start working on their thumb and forefinger pinching. I got the pattern and idea from one of my most favourite sewing/quilting sites The Moda Bakeshop. The site is filled with eye candy from both a fabric and a project perspective and I currently have five projects on my to do list that come from there.
The pattern and tutorial (referred to as a recipe at the Bakeshop) can be found here and this is what it looks like with pretty moda fabrics.
 Baby Ribbon Blanket and Block from Moda Bakeshop I made the block, but not the blankie, and my niece did enjoy playing with it and grabbing at the ribbons. My sewing can be quite untidy, so mine was less square than the pretty product here and I think I used a little too much stuffing in it as well. But she liked it anyway.
So I had this brilliant (crazy?!) idea that I would make her a block for each letter of the alphabet and for each number. That would mean 26 letters + 9 numbers multiplied by 6 sides for each cube which makes…. (26+9)*6=210 blocks, simple right? Well… maybe for an accomplished sewer, but for this Auntie, it wasn’t to be. Halfway through cutting and quilting 5 inch square sides of cubes, I had another brilliant idea *scoffs* that maybe I would just make one side of the cube and have an appliqued letter or number on one side and a stitchery on the other. Effectively coasters. I thought this was my brilliant idea, but since then I have seen it on (drum roll please) Moda Bakeshop so, probably what happened was I might have glanced at it, then it implanted itself into my brain as ‘my’ idea at some later point. Here is the pattern for them on Moda Bakeshop. Much neater than mine.
Here are mine:
I knew that I had to make a choice between getting this done before my niece already knew her entire alphabet and getting it done neatly and nicely… I chose the former.
 Pile of Quilted Alphabet Coasters (binding not completed) I hand appliqued the letters to the squares using double threaded cotton (not embroidery cotton) They each have a single square of batting in between the sides. I used raw edge applique and vliesofix to attach the letters.
 Alphabet Coasters Applique Side A to H I used a diagonal stitch on the binding and to stitch the stitchery square to the coaster. By the time I was done I hated binding. I found it easiest to tack the binding to the square and then go over it with the diagonal stitching and then un-pick the tacking after.
 Alphabet Coasters Stitchery Side A to H As you can tell I did not use interfacing behind the stitcheries so you can see through them I didn’t know about that until after, but I know now, so future stitcheries will be safe from loud patterned fabrics. I chose to stitch an upper case letter and a lower case letter in each corner, the word in upper case and lower case above and below the picture kind of centred. I hand drew all the pictures with a marker that fades with air and then stitched over my drawing. My niece recognises some of the them so I think I did ok.
 Alphabet Coasters Applique Side I to P  Alphabet Coasters Stitchery Side I to P  Alphabet Coasters Applique Side Q to X  Alphabet Coasters Stitchery Side Q to X  Alphabet and Number Coasters Applique Side Sorry about this fuzzy pic, the stitchery side was even worse, so I am not uploading that one. For the numbers I stitched large novelty heart shaped buttons to the other side so 4 has 4 buttons, 5 has 5 buttons etc.
So far my niece knows all her numbers and A to H on sight so I think I got them done in time. I can’t help that she is such a smarty pants, learning all that at 17 months!
Posted by Q in Craftie Craft, Softies - sewing on November 20, 2010, at 2:32 pm
I wanted to make something for my cousin’s daughter’s baptism and decided on a little teddy bear. Mum had made a cot sized quilt for little Maggie and had some of the flannel she used as a backing left over, so I thought it would be a nice idea to make the bear with the same flannel.
The pattern came from a book titles 50 Quick and Easy Crafts it is published by Express Publications who publish a large variety of quilting and patchwork and stitching magazines as well as scrapbooking magazines. This seems to be the type of projects that would be in Country Crafts and Handmade so I think its a compilattion of projects that were in the magazines. I borrowed it from my mum, so can’t confirm right now, but it looks like it was purchased in the newsagent not a bookstore. So have a look at yours, price is only $9.95 (Australian).
 50 Quick and Easy Crafts There are several projects in this book that I will be tackling so watch out for more items from it in the future.
The teddy pattern was made in chenille, so mine looks a little different I also did very different embellishing. I added some ric rac and some laisy daisy stitches to the edge of the vest, added felt cheeks, felt heart elbows, felt inner ears and paw lines. I also embroidered a personalised message to Maggie with the date on one of teddy’s legs and echoed some of the swirls in the felt as decoration around the message with backstitch in a lilac thread.
 Teddy Bear gift for my cousin's daughter's Baptism  Teddy Bear gift for my cousin's daughter's Baptism  Teddy Bear gift for my cousin's daughter's Baptism
Posted by Q in Beading, Craftie Craft, Quilting, Softies - sewing on November 2, 2010, at 9:10 am
 Kitten Softie from Pointed Kitty Pattern by Wee Wonderfuls I haven’t just been sitting around the last month. I am still looking for work, so that has been taking up most of my time, but I have continued dabbling with my sewing and craft and have finished some little projects that I would like to share with you.
The first is another softie pattern. The free pattern is available here, the pattern is designed by Hillary Lang, the crafty and generous (pattern is free yeah!) soul behind Wee Wonderfuls.
I found the instructions good and the pattern very forgiving despite the warnings about the pointy bits being well … pointy! (As you can see my kitty is not so pointy in the face.
Another view!
 Kitten Softie from Pointed Kitty Pattern by Wee Wonderfuls So next I was looking at making a little bag of some sort, I had some left over charm squares from Moda’s Freshly Squeezed Fabric Range designed by Sandy Gervais and some left over fabric from the stripey oranges I used for the Kitty. I used the tutorial available here. It was designed by Trish Preston of Two Peas in a Pod Homegrown Design. Trish’s instructions are for making by machine but I made mine by hand (I wanted a project to work on in front of the telly)
 Hand Quilted and Sewn Wristlet with Wire Beaded Dangle- Front This is the front, showing the charm squares cut into strips. When quilting the squares I used the pattern in the fabric print and quilted around them, so around the citrus fruits and the swirls in the dark orange fabric. For the spotted fabric I just used a diagonal grid for the quilting.
The wristlet is completely lined and I used plain calico for my lining. I also made a beaded wire dangle to use for the zip pull. The instructions are very clear and the mistakes I made were entirely due to me not reading properly (as usual!) and nothing to do with the tutorial so generously created and provided by Trish.
Here is a view of the rear of the bag, I used the leftover stripey fabric from the Kitty (see above) and quilted this in a diagonal grid as well.
 Hand Quilted and Sewn Wristlet with Wire Beaded Dangle Rear Last but definitely not least the teeniest of the projects I worked on lately (well in the last 3 weeks since my last post).
This is a combination of two tutorials and patterns (both available for free). The first tutorial is this one for making teeny little bottle cap pin cushions by Jen Segrest of Ohio. Jen also has a photo how to set for the basic bottle cap tutorial, a ladybug version, a mushroom version and an african violet version. They are totally adorable, you have to look at Jen’s Gallery of her works here.
The second tutorial is one for a larger pin cushion or just a decorative cute softie, there are two versions available in pattern form, one for a mushroom and one for a toadstool cottage. Check it out here. It was designed and created by A Little house by the Sea.
This is what I ended up with
 Bottlecap Pincushion Mushroom Cottage  Bottlecap Pincushion Mushroom Cottage - Side View  Bottlecap Pincushion Mushroom Cottage with AA battery for Size Reference
Posted by Q in Craftie Craft, Quilting, Softies - sewing on October 13, 2010, at 3:49 pm
I have had this pattern for a while and felt like making something quick today and also felt another softie would be a nice idea to make for my niece she is currently 15 mnths old and the apple of my eye. After reading the accompanying blog post that accompanied the pattern I wasn’t so sure I would do that well but I think it turned out ok, what do you think?
 Pernellie (short for Pernelliepee) the Ellie And as there are no accompanying instructions for her, I thought I would add them here.
First you will need the free PDF pattern, that can be found here on Cicada Daydreams it was designed by and kindly made available for free by Michelle Engel Bencsko (thanks!) on her blog. I will re-iterate for those who don’t get it, I did not design this, I just used the pattern.
The pattern is larger than A4 size, but I reduced it to A4 and printed it out at that size, so my Pernellie is smaller than the intended version.
Disclaimer
My instructions are just what worked for me, and not endorsed in any way by the pattern designer, if they don’t work for you, that is my fault and I apologise in advance. Let me know and I will add amendments.
What you need:
- Download the pattern from the link above and print it out
- Scraps of material (I used mostly charm squares, and if you printed the pattern at A4 size like I did, you need 2 pieces just bigger than charm squares (5X5 inch) for the body.
- sewing machine (optional)
- needle and thread
- small teeny pieces of quilt batting (if you don’t have any you can use felt)
- some twine or wool (for the tail)
- template plastic or baking paper or an additional printout of pattern for pieces
- oh yeah… stuffing
- I traced the pattern pieces onto template plastic (you can do it on any paper or plastic – this is usually done so you don’t destroy the original pattern – baking paper works ok if you aren’t so worried about reusing the pieces again). You will have 2 Face pieces, 2 Body Pieces, 4 Ear pieces, 4 Tusk pieces and 2 pieces of Ear cut out of batting as well as 2 pieces of Tusk cut out of batting. When you cut you will need to add on a seam allowance, I used maybe 0.5cm. Basically cut your material slightly bigger around the entire edge of the pattern.
- Make Some Ears (well only 2 are required)
a) Stitch one piece of batting to the wrong side of one ear piece - I cut 2 pieces in one fabric and 2 in another as per Michelle’s pattern, this means the inside of the ear is one fabric and the outside is another
b) Now place the piece of fabric with the batting attached, with the wrong side attached to the other side of the ear, so what you have is batting and 2 pieces of fabric with wrong sides facing. Stitch around the ear most of the way leaving a gap about the width of your finger.
c) Cut tiny triangles out of the seam allowance where the ear curves (this is so that the curves turn inside out properly)
d) Turn the ear inside out so that the right sides of the fabric are showing
e) Use whip stitch to close the gap on the ear
f) (optional) I then shadow quilted the ear (stitching inside the ear edge about 5mm away for the edge).
g) repeat for the other ear.
- Make Some Tusks
as for the ears above, repeat the process with the tusk pieces and batting, the only difference is that the tusk pieces are the same fabric on each side.
- Stitch Ellie’s Face to her Body
You will need to repeat this for each body piece. This is kind of strange to explain without pictures, so hopefully what I am saying makes sense.
a) Visually place the face piece next to the body so that it fits like a jigsaw piece
b) Now flip the face piece onto the body piece, and don’t freak out because now the edges don’t match (that is what I did, I did it for you, stoppit!) The idea here is to stich from one end of the curve to the middle of the curve, don’t think about the rest of it. (I know it feels wrong but clearly it worked right, there is a pic of the thing up there if you don’t believe me)
c) Now readjust and stitch from the middle of the curve to the other end of the curve.
d) Now flatten out your body and face and you should have your jigsaw puzzle pieces fitting nicely with a face and a body attached. Yay!
e) Repeat for the other body and face piece
- Make a Tail
a) Tie a big fat knot in one end or both ends of your twine or wool, use multiple pieces if you want to. Technically my tail effort is not appropriate for an elephant but I think people understand when they are made of funky fabrics that well, they are not _real_
- Read step 12 now and decide what you would like to do about that!
- Give me something to stuff already!
a) I didn’t pin, but if you really want to you can pin the 2 body and face pieces together with the right sides facing.
b) place your tail where it belongs, with one of the fat knots sticking outside of the body pieces and the other end of the tail inbetween the fabric, so you should only see the fat knot sticking out.
c) Decide where you are going to leave the hole for stuffing ( I chose the lower butte or upper thighs – between the top of the leg and a little down from the tail)
d). Start stitching on one side of the hole and stitch right around your body and face pieces and over the thread of twine or wool that is your tail. Do some reverse stitching when you start and end your stitches
e) Do the triangle cutting thing on the curves and corners (see 2c above)
e) Turn inside out so that you have the right sides on the outside and the tail sticking where it belongs. You can use the wrong end of a pencil to stick into the trunk bit to help turn that inside out if your fingers don’t reach or fit.
- Stuff it! – smaller bits of stuffing works better for uniformness (I read that somewhere it’s not something I came up with). Stuff the small spaces first (ie face and trunk and legs) – again I read it somewhere.
- Whip stitch the gap that you used to stuff it closed.
- (Optional) – I decided to make a saddle blankie as well – I used two half square triangles stitched together, quilted it and blanket stitched it to Ellie’s back with embroidery cotton on the diagonal)
- Stitch the tusks to the body (I only stitched a corner)
- Stitch the ears to the body ( I stitched from the top of the ear to just below the eye level)
- I realised that embroidering the eyes would probably have been better before stitching the Body and Face pieces, this is where I did it, so you can do it here to if you want to or do it at the preferred place which is between step 5 and 6. I used some colonial knots and just stitched around them till I was happy, I pulled the thread through the other side of the face, so that the eyes were level, and pulled tight to leave a kind of indent for them.
- I think you should now have a completed Ellie, if you don’t refer to the Disclaimer
Posted by Q in Digital Scrapbooking on July 2, 2010, at 9:26 am
At the Scrapping Site I choose to call home (The Digital Scrapbook Place) they have a wonderful event every month where they choose a member to be a spotlight for that month. There are challenges related to this and other members are encouraged to Scraplift (I would define it as nice legal plagiarising – emulating their style or taking design ideas from their work in praise of the original) the member spotlight.
This month the spotlight was a lady who goes by the digital name of nekobus and this is a Scraplift of one of her layouts that I did.
 - First Time in a Pram
It is a photo of my darling niece when she was 3 months old, This is the first time she was put in her pram, initially she was unsure what was going on, but after some prompting mummy and daddy got a beautiful smile.
Digital Scrapbooking Product Credits:
Happy Day Page Kit by DSP Designers
Designed by Rene Bros
Fonts – Century Schoolbook and DSP Crash designed by Suzanne Walker
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Blurbie Thing Hi, I'm Quanita, Q for short and this is my space... Qspace
30-something - IT Geek - totally neurotic - In an wonderful relationship with a cool cable guy - Aunty to Charlotte Rose (and another niece coming in August 2012!) - introverted extrovert - Gen X - Arty Crafty
Welcome and enjoy your stay!
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