I like playing with fabric strips. There are so many ideas out there to try out. Check out these three:
My book Turnabout Patchwork
“Turnabout Patchwork. Simple quilts with a twist” is all about playing with blocks – making a block, slicing it up, and turning or repositioning the pieces to make a completely different block (sometimes two smaller blocks) to yield endless quilt tops.
These beeswax wraps have been around for a while and they use different ingredients.
I’m sticking to the two basic ingredients: beeswax and jojoba oil.
1. Grate the beexwax or use small pellets
2. Place a piece of oven paper on a tray or plate. Then place the fabric right side up on top of it and sprinkle with jojoba oil and a layer of beeswax.
3. Ensure the edges and corners have enough beeswax, but don’t worry. You can always add more later.
4. Place the tray in the oven for 10-15 minutes at 100 C. The beeswax will melt. Once it melts make sure that the wrap is completely covered in beeswax.
Remove from the over. You can just hold it from two corners and place it on a piece of oven paper. It’ll dry very quickly.
It’s ready to use.
That simple!
If you omit the resin the wrap isn’t as tacky and doesn’t adjust as well but I don’t find that to be an issue.
To clean, you can use a damp microfiber cloth to wipe it clean.
This tutorial is for a notebook cover that measures 9″ x 15″ but you can make it for any size.
Check out how it’s made.
Materials
Fabric
Lining: 1 rectangle 16″ x 10″
Pockets: 4 rectangles 10″ x 5″
Cover: 1 rectangle 16″ x 10″. Mine is made of 3 pieces patched together with the following measurements:
1 rectangle 16″ x 6 1/4″
1 rectangle 16″ x 3 1/2″
1 strip 16″ x 1 1/4″
Fusible interfacing (iron on one side)
Lining and cover: 2 rectangle 15″‘ x 10″
Pockets: 4 rectangles 10″ x 5″
1 elastic ban (optional)
1 fabric covered button (optional)
Stitch all three rectangles together to make the cover.
Iron with the hems open.
Cut all your other pieces.
Stitch your pockets to make 2 squares. Iron with the hems open.
Fold the cover in two along the long side and make a marking in the middle. Stitch the elastic band where the marking is with the elastic band placed facing inside the fabric (see picture).
Iron the interface to the inside of the fabrics. Getting the interfacing to stick to the fabric when the cover is turned inside out is tricky.
Iron the pocket in half, wrong sides together and pin to the sides of the lining as per the above picture.
Place the cover on top, right sides together, as per the picture.
Pin in place and stitch all around leaving a 4 inch gap to turn the cover inside out.
The corners need to be trimmed after stitching to reduce the bulk after turning inside out.
After turning the cover inside out you end up with a neat cover. The turning is quite tricky because the fusible interface tends to come loose. Pinning it in place temporarily may work.
Try to fit the notebook in the cover now. This may give you an indication of how closely you need to stitch around the cover.
Top stitch around very close to the edge, about 1mm or 2mm depending on how tight you want the cover to fit.
The corners are almost inevitably round unless you have removed much of the fabric on the inside hem.
The book cover is finished.
Place the notebook inside.
Voila!
I used a fabric covered button because I think it looks smart but you could use a plain button. Also, instead of an elastic band you could use a ribbon, in which case it would need to be stitch to both sides of the cover.
I contributed 3 projects to the book. I designed and made the projects and worked with Aimee on the art work.
All the projects have a patchwork component as well as embroidery.
Have a look at my projects. Which one do you like best?
A lunch box
A tic-tac-toe board
This one is my favourite and the easiest to make of the 3.
Australian animals baby book
The book is beautiful, as all Aimee’s books are. I totally recommend it – disclaimer: I’m not making any money out of this book because I made the projects on commission.
The stitches I used are very simple. You can learn them with this video:
My book Turnabout Patchwork
“Turnabout Patchwork. Simple quilts with a twist” is all about playing with blocks – making a block, slicing it up, and turning or repositioning the pieces to make a completely different block (sometimes two smaller blocks) to yield endless quilt tops.
I seem to have a soft spot for Christmas tree craft. I have done 5 types of Christmas trees using different techniques in the past three or four years.
One of my favourites is the Patchwork tree softie. This tree softie is made with the smallest of scraps and is super easy to make. You can even make a little forest in different sizes!
The easiest and quickest by far is possibly the Christmas tree softie. I recommend you use the Patchwork tree softie pattern instead of the one provided as the patchwork tree sits a lot better.
There’s a third tree softie I made last year using embroidery as the main technique. It is the Embroidered Christmas tree softie. I like the effect of using long and short stitch in a gradient.
Finally, if you prefer a no sew project I have made two trees this way using head pins and polystyrene cones.
The Snowed top Christmas tree was my first of this kind. Unfortunately I don’t have a pattern for this tree as it belongs in a book I contributed this project for.
And finally there is the No sew Christmas tree ornament that I made as I got into fabric manipulation (see my 41 fabric manipulations I have used in the making of 2 textured quilts). It uses fabric scraps, ribbon and sequins pinned to a polystyrene cone.
I hope you enjoy making these. And if you do please share a photo in my Flickr group.
