Repurposed Pillow

There are these two pillows on my couch that well, are not so loved. The numbers, the letters, idk. Thankfully I know my way around a sewing machine and happen to have a full box of fabric and scraps hanging around.

The humble (ugly) pillow became the focus of my renewed attention to quilting and will soon be joined by another.

I used my new iOS favorite app Quiltograhy to design the block and after a few choice words got the hang of piecing a complex design.

Armed with a seam ripper I set out to release the component of the existing pillow, realigned the binding and zipper and walah! New seaonsal throw pillow.

Super Simple Squares

If you can cut and sew a straight line, you can make this simple yet beautiful runner. I think that it would make a great quilt too if you kept going. Four different fabrics are used here, cut into long strips with or without a border. I really like the silly, happy little characters on these fabrics and the way the colors are carried throughout.

Super Simple Squares

• Four fabrics cut into 2.5 inch strips 
• Border fabric cut into 2.5 inch strips
• Backing fabric 
• Batting 

For every two strips of each fabric you will yield two squares. Here that means one with santa on the outside and one with santa on the outside. 

Cut and ready to go

Often times while I'm sewing, studying, typing or just about anything my little helper will jump up and "assist". She is great at holding fabric down and stealing pins.

Ninja wanted to help too

 Using a 1/4 inch seam allowance sew the strips to one another long ways. Be mindful to keep the patterns going one direction, like the trees here I want pointing toward the snowmen.

Iron each one flat with the seams going the same direction 

 My dad says quilting is "cutting up perfectly good fabric to sew it back together again." He's quite right, and not only do we cut up good fabric once in this pattern, but twice! Using a right angle and a cutting wheel cut out triangles, you should achieve two triangles of each side (Santa and snowmen).

Using a right angel and cutting wheel

Here are four triangles all ready to be sewn into one block of our table runner. Take care to line up each of the fabrics before sewing the block so you get nice, crisp lines.

Ready to sew the first square

Once you have your desired number of blocks for the length of your table sew them together and add on the triangles to the ends. For a finished look use a solid colored fabric as a border. Sandwich with the backing and batting and finish off by sewing over the seams in either red or green. 

Christmas Warmth: an Honest Quilt

This beautiful Christmas themed throw has a sister living in New Jersey. My mother and I devised a pattern for this delightful double star pattern based on a fellow quilter's Pinterest post. I live using a photo as inspiration for my projects and creating the pattern and learning techniques as I go.

The key to this quilt is precision cutting, I love using my cutting wheel, ruler mat and 24x6 ruler, to achieve accurate dimensions and crisp corners. Each piece is sewn together using a 1/4" seam allowance and creating as many straight lines as possible. 

This quilt is finished with a wine fleece backing and double loft batting. 

Scrub Caps - Hiding Your Hair in Style

Help! Those bouffant lunch-lady style scrub caps aren't just ugly, they itch. And not much is worse when you're scrubbed in and sterile than needing to scratch your forehead - and you can't..... for four hours.

For Women:

After lots of trial and error I present to you my tried and true pattern for crafting a comfortable and cute ladies scrub cap without the lunch-lady look. This is my favorite style, clean lines and room for all of my hair.

Clean lines and secured hair

Any cotton print fabric does the trick, I've got a collection with one for each season and holiday. 

Begin by cleaning off your work space and ironing out your chosen fabric. There are only two cuts of fabric required here:

• One 7x28 inch rectangle 
• One 9.5x6.5 inch tear shape 

In the Photo you'll notice that I shadow cut my 9x6 tear shape, this works great too. Don't forget to snip off the point of the teardrop. Once we've got out fabric cut its time to pin and sew.

Take the long rectangle and fold the short edges over about 1/4 inch twice so you hide the raw edge and sew over with a straight stitch. Fold the remaining raw edge of the long rectangle up about 1/4 inch twice and sew it down using a straight stitch. 

Starting at the front - the rounded side of the tear drop - pin the right sides together of the center of the long side of our rectangle with the teardrop. Pin all the way around to the back, yes the fabric will wrap around the back to the other side and over lap one another, thats what we want. Sew at 3/8 inch seam with a straight stitch, then again with a large zig-zag catching the edge of the fabric. 

Now the top of the hat is connected to the sides, with over-lap in the back to create room for your hair. 

Ready for the elastic 

To finish the cap we add elastic to the back. I really like using thin, round elastic and often utilize a Scrunchie at this point. Insert the elastic into the hat band we created by folding and sewing the bottom of the hat five inches into one of the open sides. Secure the elastic by sewing it in place. Scrunch up that side and work the elastic another four to five inches into the other side and using a seam ripper pull the end of the elastic through the folded band. Take a moment to size the cap - do not make it tight, but fitted enough to contain your hair.

Secure this side of the elastic and sew over the seam ripper hole. Enjoy your brand new scrub cap!

For Men:

Men's caps are super simple as well, and don't require any elastic. Simply cut out:

• One 9.5x6.5 inch tear shape
•  5x24 inch rectangle - slope top corners down like shown

Take the long rectangle and fold the short edges over about 1/4 inch twice so you hide the raw edge and sew over with a straight stitch.  

Again, with right sides together begin pinning at the front and continue around to the back. Straight stitch to secure and follow with zig-zag on the edge to prevent fraying. Fold the remaining raw edge of the long rectangle up about 1/4 inch twice and sew it down using a straight stitch. 

Add ribbon or double fold bias tape for ties to either side of the back and enjoy. 

Squares & Triangles: Fall Placemats

A cute and quick decorating fix for the fall table that's pairs perfectly with the Sauares and Triangles table runner.

Wonderful way to dress up the table.

Use the same fabrics or mix it up with different colored leaves for each placemat. Here we use the cheater sandwich technique to quickly create beautiful quilted placemats.

• Small Square - 2"
• Triangle - 2x2x2.8 right angle 
• Border - 2" long rectangle 
• Base fabric - desired placemat size 
• Batting 
• Backing fabric 

Were going to use cardboard patterns of he desired shapes to iron our fabric pieces around to achieve crisp edges and corners. Don't forget to snip the extra fabric from the corners of the triangles! Begin by piling the base fabric on top of the batting and backing fabric making sure right sides are facing out. 

Find the center of the base fabric and begin by placing the first small square on the center point, continue pinning down the remaining squares and triangles to create the leaf. Next, using the border fabric ensure that one ironed under edge is ironed under twice, lending a smooth edge to the turned under side, this is going to be the outside edge that wraps under the base sandwich to seal the placemat. 

Once the border is pinned in place situate the four accent triangles, one in each corner and pin down. 

Sewing these cheater sandwiches is quick, take care to stay near the edge of each piece and to sew down each edge. With these I like to use a wide zig-zag stitch running down the seam between the blocks. 

Holiday Stars Table Runner

Another "cheater" quilt pattern, devised by my mother, is this three fabric holiday star table runner.

It utilizes the same principle of cutting cardboard patterns to iron the pieces around and pinning them into place on top of the "sandwich" with right sides facing out, then sewing them down. I love this cheater style with precision pieces that require points to match up perfectly.

Holiday Stars 

Here we use:

• Small triangles - 3.5" equilateral triangles 
• Hexagon & large triangles - 7" equilateral triangles & 4" sided hexagons
• Base fabric 12" x desired length rectangle.

The difference with this project is that to decrease the amount of ironing, we can sew the small triangles to the hexagon before ironing under the edges. Make sure to leave 1/4" hanging over each hexagon edge, and use a 1/4" seam allowance. 

The star is one unit

Also, the large triangles only require 2 sides to be ironed under.

Assemble the pieces with the points all meeting in the center of the base fabric rectangle, 6" from either edge starting from the center of the base fabric and working out to the ends. 

We'll finish off this piece with the small triangles' fabric as a 1" border around the whole thing. 

Squares and Triangles

This beautiful table runner is super simple to make, and is the first piece I made quilting in the midwest. Using a ton of pins and a iron you can create this festive set too.

Fall leaves are great all season.

Begin by selecting four fabrics that highlight one another, using a mix of light and dark fabrics lends a nice drama to the finished quilt. As well as material for the back, and either interfacing (for a thin runner) or batting (for a puffier runner).

• Outer border & triangles 
• Large square 
• Small square
• Base color 

Next measure and cut cardboard templates of each shape. Shoebox cardboard work best, its thin and durable.

• Large square -  5 & 3/4"
• Small square - 5"
• Triangle 3x3x5 (right angle)
• Border - 2"  

Cardboard cutouts, iron, pins and sewing machine.

The "cheater" part of this style is that you don't have to be precise in cutting the fabric, nor with stitching perfect seam allowances. Each piece is ironed into its designated shape using the cardboard templates, and arranged on top of the base fabric then pinned into place.

Before sewing, add the batting and back fabric to create a "sandwich" with the right sides facing out. Add few pins to make the sandwich stick together while you sew.

Using a color thread that either highlights or hides will give your table runner a different look. Here I went with a light yellow that is just visible, but not a huge contrast to the color scheme. Sew just along the edges of the pinned down shapes, taking great care to not let the stitching waver.

I like to finish the edges by wrapping the border fabric around to the back and ironing the edge under and hand sewing it down for a clean look.