Appliqueing letters

I've had several people ask me how I apply my letters to my playmats, burpcloths & quilts (like the EatPrayLove quilt). It is rather easy & quick to do. Here's an easy tutorial- sorry for the not so great quality pictures- late in the day the lighting in my craft room isn't great.

Things you'll need:

computer/printer/paper & pen

fabric scraps (5"X5" or so)

hot iron

needle & thread or your sewing machine

wonder under or pellon fusible material

heavy duty tear away stabilizer (not necessary, but helpful)

seam ripper

scissors

1. Print off your choice of letter(s) in your font (I used Smiley Monster) at 280.

2. Turn the paper over & hold against a window & trace the letters so you have the negative.

3. Get out your wonder under, rough side down, trace the negative of the letters onto your wonder under (tracing will be on the smooth side)

4. Lay your wonder under smooth side down on your ironing board and lay your fabric (right side up) on top. Use a hot dry iron to fuse together.

5. Once cool, cut out your letter, peel off the backing & lay on your 2nd piece of fabric & iron to fuse.

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6. Now that your pieces are fused together you can either hand stitch or machine applique the letter to stay on permanently. Lately I've been trying at my hand stitching more, which takes a LOT longer, but if there is a good movie on, it's a good excuse to do some hand stitching ;) I'm a multitasker!

7. If you are machine appliqueing the letters on, adding a piece of heavy duty tear away stabilizer really helps. I sometimes do a simple zig zag stitch, but I also use a simple straight stitch as well, like shown.

8. Stitch around your letters leaving maybe 1/8" or less around each edge. (i like it to fray a little when washed)

9. To secure your stitches (I didn't have enough light to get any close ups of this- I'll try again tomorrow) turn your fabric over & pull on your bobbin thread. A small loop will pull up (this is the top thread), using your seam ripper gently pull the top thread thru to the back. Tie your top thread & bobbin thread together in a double knot & trim the tails short. Do this for BOTH your beginning stitch & ending stitch. (and if you stopped at all in between.)

10. TA- DA! Easy peasy, right? This piece can now be added into a quilt as a block or square, or sewn onto clothing or burp cloths to personalize your piece.

PS- SAVE your printed off letters- I always label the piece of paper with the font & size so I can re-use it later when needed.

Just to show you another example of what you can do with wonder under & applique work- this was a little 'challenge' from my quilting group. They asked us to make our own name tags. Of course I waited until the night before our last meeting, but it was a quick little project. I think I might go back and put some actual binding on it with the matching teal fabric just to finish it off a little more nicely!

Eat.Pray.Love. Quilt

I made this "Ticker tape" quilt last month & finally got around to taking pictures yesterday. I was working on it during my 2nd attempt at reading Eat Pray Love (not simultaneously obviously) so a little inspiration there. finished the quilt, but not the book. ha! perhaps i should listen to an audio book instead while I quilt!

The Eat Pray Love quilt is a throw size quilt and really cozy with the new soy blend batting I got. What a great fun project to help get rid of your scraps lying around! Tutorial to soon come :)

Cancer SUCKS!

I got some not so good news this week that one of my closest friend's Mother in Law has been diagnosed with Breast Cancer this week. She starts chemo next week. The outlook is good, apparently her type responds well to Chemo. That is a blessing, but none the less, CANCER SUCKS. I would know, I lost my mom 4 1/2 years ago, and it still SUCKS.
"Mimi" is one spunky lady who has 6 sweet grandbabies & i think loves to give her kids grief, or at least some attitude. I can't wait to do that one day ;) Whenever I see Mimi, even though she has 6 grandbabies of her own she is quick to sweep up one of mine and give them some extra love. Can't say how many times I've heard her say, "Gimme that baby." whenever they make a peep just so she can love on them & spoil the heck outta them. She is an amazing Lady, Mom & "Mimi" and I constantly tell my BFF that her Mother in Law can adopt me anytime she feels necessary.

I'm a do-er & a giver & constantly think, 'how can i help?' What do I love to do? i love to sew & quilt. So i think I'm taking on another project (this has been bumped to project priority #2- gotta finish Dad's 60th birthday quilt before the 25th first!)

So my theme for this quilt to help her be comfortable thru Chemo & the upcoming cooler months- is CANCER SUCKS. Kind of funny that my mom was given this button & often wore it. My sister even put it on her during her viewing, which might sound kind of morbid, but my mom had a funny personality, and probably found that amusing. In memory of my Mom & in honor of Mimi who is going to show cancer who's boss, the slogan carries on.

Now, I'm in need of some inspiration. I'm not a typical pink kinda girl, so I think I'll have to do some brainstorming. I need some style inspiration & quilt design ideas to carry out this theme....let the gears start working! Please share any ideas or inspiration!

Dislike!

I *love* quilting & sewing. However, this is the part of quilting I strongly dislike.

Basting. I think I might actually prefer doing laundry than this!



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25 yards of fabric

Do you know how long it takes to iron 25 yards of fabric on a standard size ironing board?

TOO long is the answer. Actually about 2 hours. But to me that's 2 hours too long!

Amazingly..... No body parts were burned in the process....



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Jameson

Yesterday my good friend Jennifer had her 2nd little boy, Jameson. All her hard work deserves a good gift of course!
Happy BIRTH day baby Jameson!


Cute onesie for Jameson- appliqued on tie


Onesie, burpcloth & changing pad


Quilted playmat- J is appliqued on.


Quilted playmat - ended up being about 36" X 36"

Jake

I made this playmat back in May, but the pictures were being held hostage on my husband's computer. bad husband.
Size is about 40" X 40" and is a simple polka dot with primary colors- I appliqued "JAKE" on vertically for an extra accent. Fun tip- salad bowls make great large circle templates :) I'll soon do a tutorial on applique!