Monthly Archives: March 2010

Patrick Lose’s Happy Birthday Poster Quilt

March 4th, 2010 in Free Projects, Quiltmaking
By Danielle Dews

This lighthearted wall quilt will make someone special have a very happy birthday. Or make it for yourself and bring it out for display whenever it is birthday party time.

Click here to download a full color, 5 page project sheet PDF file that includes a materials list, project instructions and diagrams, and appliqué templates. Then have fun and hold on to your seat, because this project goes together in a hurry. Fused appliqué all the way!

This project is an excerpt from Poster Quilts with Patrick Lose

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March is National Craft Month and we are celebrating by posting one project every day this month! If you are joining us late, click here to see the full list of Craft Month projects that have been posted so far.

Introducing Stash

March 4th, 2010 in News & Events
By Susanne Woods

Do you remember my Dr. Seuss post back in October of last year when I said that I was working on some exciting new projects that I couldn’t tell you about until the Spring?

Well, Spring is almost officially sprung and everyone at C&T Publishing is excited to introduce Stash, our new line of how-to books celebrating fabric arts for a handmade lifestyle. If you’re craving beautiful authenticity in a time of mass-production…Stash is for you.

Officially, Stash is an imprint of C&T Publishing. What is an imprint, you say? I’ll try not to be too much of a publishing geek when I say…in book publishing, it is a way for a company to respond to the needs of a new or growing group of readers.

This imprint concept is very common in publishing but more easily understood in the automobile industry. For example, Toyota has their main Toyota cars but in recent years has launched Lexus and Scion to accommodate a variety of aesthetics. Similarly, Stash is a line of books that compliments the C&T list by providing content that accommodates the craft sewer.

Quickly Quilting up an Olympic Flag

March 3rd, 2010 in Inspiration
By Ruthmary Schauer

What do you do when you are visiting in another city, at a house where “makers” don’t live, and a child needs an Olympic Flag, immediately, for his 6^th birthday party? You IMPROVISE, of course.

It was my grandsons’ 4^th and 6^th birthdays and there wasn’t a rotary cutter, or thread anywhere to be found. So I got 5 fat quarters, used 2 sizes of plates for circle templates, a half-yard of white muslin and some fusible web…et voila! Interlacing the circles, using a photo on the internet, was the hardest thing, but the rest was easy and fun. (You can’t discourage a quilter by taking away her tools!)

So now, when Apolo Ono wins another medal, Sam has a flag to wave.

Silk-Covered Lampshade, Boudoir Box and Wild Fiber Necklace

March 3rd, 2010 in Free Projects, Surface Design & Mixed Media
By Danielle Dews

Bring out those Batiks of yours, because today we have a delightful trio of color rich, stash-busting projects for you in the arenas of home decor and wearable accessories. Click here to download the full color, 4-page project sheet PDF file.

Silk-Covered Lampshade

by Kerry Graham

Using silk chiffon fabric, ribbon yarn, and glass beads

Boudoir Box

by Susan I. Jones

Using silk satin fabric, self-adhesive fabrics, beaded fringe, and assorted glass crystals

Wild Fiber Necklace

by Susan I. Jones

Using cotton ribbon yarn, eyelash yarn, and beads

These projects are excerpted from Color Your World with Princess Mirah Batiks

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Quilting Tips: C&T’s Technical Editors Want to Hear From You!

March 2nd, 2010 in Quilting Tips Series
By The Tech Editors

If you regularly check C&T’s blog, you know that every few weeks, the technical editors include a quilting tip or technique. Over the past year, we have shared with you some of our favorite “tricks of the trade” to help make your quilting and sewing easier.

Now we want to encourage you, our readers, to give us your input as to the topics you would like to see covered. What kinds of quiltmaking, sewing, or crafting tips would you like to see on our blog in the next few months? Just put your request in the comments section below and we will try to cover what we can over the next year. In the blog, we try to address topics that may come up in several types of projects, and not those limited to a specific project in a specific book.

We are looking forward to hearing from you.

Technique Tuesday with Gladys Love

March 2nd, 2010 in Free Projects, Surface Design & Mixed Media
By Danielle Dews

Today’s techniques are:

stamping on fabric
thread painting on soluble stabilizer
simple beading
adding a fringe of woolen yarns

Gladys Love uses these techniques to create these stunning leaf vine luggage tags in her book Embellishing with Anything.

Click here to download a 6 page, full color PDF file that will guide you through these techniques as they apply to these luggage tags. The PDF also includes a bonus project! You’ll learn to make this beautiful leaf sprig ATC card, which has curved piecing and twin-needle top stitching. Gladys made the original with scraps of background cut from another quilt she was working on at the time.

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Cupcakes! A Mini Quilt

March 1st, 2010 in Free Projects, Quiltmaking
By Danielle Dews

March is National Craft Month and we are celebrating by posting one project every day this month! Click here to see the full list of Craft Month projects that have been posted so far.

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Cupcakes! A Mini Quilt

By: Lynn Koolish

Finished Size: 24″ x 24″

close-up of quilt block

Ingredients

Block background fabric: 9 squares 6˝ × 6˝ (½ yard)
Scraps for cupcake appliqués
Border corner blocks: 4 scraps 3˝ × 3˝
Sashing fabric: 6 strips 1¼˝ × 6˝, 4 strips 1¼˝ × 18½˝, and 2 strips 1¼˝ × 20˝ (1/4 yard)
Border fabric: 4 strips 3˝ × 20˝ for borders, additional strips for binding (¼ yard)
Backing fabric: 26˝ × 26˝ (¾ yard)
Batting: 26˝ × 26˝
Decorative trim: 4½ yards (optional)
Buttons
Paper-backed fusible web, 17˝ wide: ½ yard

Instructions

Note: Seam allowances are 1/4˝.

1. Iron paper-backed fusible web to the wrong side of the fabric scraps for the cupcake appliqués. Remove the paper backing.

2. Click here to download the cupcake patterns. Use the patterns to cut out the top and bottom pieces for 9 cupcakes.

3. Reduce the cupcake pattern 50%, and cut out pieces for 4 mini cupcakes for the corner blocks.

4. Create 9 blocks by fusing the cupcake pieces to the block backgrounds.

5. Sew the 11/4˝ × 6˝ sashing pieces between the blocks to create 3 rows. Press.

6. Sew the rows together with the 11/4˝ × 181/2˝ sashing strips. Press.

7. Sew a 11/4˝ × 181/2˝ strip on each side. Press.

8. Sew the 11/4 ˝ × 20˝ sashing strips on the top and bottom. Press.

9. Sew border strips to the top and bottom. Press.

10. Fuse the mini cupcakes to the corner blocks. Sew the corner blocks to each end of the remaining border strips. Press.

11. Sew the remaining border strips to the sides. Press.

12. Layer the backing, batting, and quilt top. Baste.

13. Quilt and bind. Embellish with trim and buttons.

quilt assembly diagram

This project is an excerpt from Cupcakes! edited by Lynn Koolish which includes 29 other yummy projects for sewers, quilters, knitters, and bakers!