Hi!!! I'm Sally of Sally's Angelworks and I am sooooo blessed to be a part of Amanda's new Creative Team. Now, I have to start off by telling you that I have a several addictions. Amanda's fabric, definitely...my husband, of course...and one of my biggest is SHEEP!! (sheep and exclamations points are my weakness! LOL!!)
So today I'm going to share with you a little tutorial on how to make a Double-Sided Mini Quilt featuring Sheep!! yipeeeee!! You'll want to hang around until the end, because I'll be giving you some hints as to how to use this to decorate your life.
Here is the final project...both sides...
Ready??? Hang on to your embroidery thread...here we go!! :) (remember, you can see the pics a little bigger by clicking on them, but be sure to have your back button handy!!)
Supplies:
*Sweet Divinity Fabric needed:
FRONT: 3 different pink patterned fabric scraps (*see cutting instructions for total yardage needed)
1 solid pink fabric scrap
BACK: 2 different aqua patterned fabrics
1 solid aqua fabric scrap
1 solid WHITE fabric scrap
border – 1 fat quarter is plenty
*PDF embroidery pattern (download link included in this tut! yay!)
*matching quilting thread
*light table and pencil (or you can use the window…use painter's masking tape in that case)
*two pieces of batting approx. 12”x17”
*Quilt Basting Spray (or quilt basting pins)
*two buttons
*DMC embroidery Floss (red and pink)
*Pearl cotton black embroidery floss (wt 10g)
*Embroidery Hoop and embroidery needle
*Steam-a-Seam fusible web (or your choice of fusible web)
*one cat for your craft room (optional!!)
Cutting instructions:
For the FRONT:
*cut the three different patterned Sweet Divinity scraps into 10 4"x4" squares
*cut one solid pink scrap into a 7.5”x4” rectangle
For the BACK:
*cut one aqua patterned fabric scrap into two 14 3/8”x4" strips
*cut one aqua patterned fabric scrap into two 4”x4” squares
*cut one solid aqua scrap into a 7.5”x4” rectangle
Directions:
For the FRONT:
1. Arrange your cut pieces the way you LOVE them with the rectangle piece in the middle!
2. Sew the two side rows together first.
3. Sew the middle pink piece to the top and bottom square. Press your seams of the side strips in the same direction, and press the middle section in the opposite direction.
4. Pin your sides to the middle section, matching the seams.
5. Press your seams to one direction.
6. Download the embroidery pattern for the FRONT HERE. Download the embroidery pattern for the BACK HERE.
7. Get out your light table (or tape your pattern on the window using masking tape) and place your pattern down first. Use the outline as your guide as to where to put your middle solid piece. Trace the words only at this point. (Don’t trace the sheep yet!! Trust me…you’ll be glad you waited!)
8. Iron some Steam-a-Seam onto the back of a white piece of fabric. Leave the paper on the back for now. (Amanda’s white fabric in her Sweet Divinity line is soooo cute with this part…It has little faint flowers on it, which are perfect for these sheep. You can put the steam-a-seam on the patterned part if you want it to be solid white.)
9. Place your white fabric face down, steam-a-seam up on the light table on the sheep and trace one of those little guys!! (both patterns have them, but you can trace two here if you want-one for the front and one for the back!)
10. Use the light table again with your background to place the sheep in just the right place. Then go and iron that cutie right on there!! (I love SHEEP!!!)
11. Go back one more time to the light table to trace the sheep’s head. We like to call it the yoda sheep head in our house! {adore}
Before we go on, we are going to make the back now!!!
For the BACK:
12. Sew the two squares on the top and bottom of the aqua solid fabric.
13. Sew the two strips on either side of the middle strip.
14. Using the above techniques, transfer the scripture onto the middle panel.
15. Don’t forget to trace the sheep onto the steam-a-seam and white fabric, not the blue panel!! (I did it twice…you can learn from me!! Teeheee!!) Iron your sheepy on there and trace his cute little yoda head on him, too!
16. Here’s where we get our batting on! Find two pieces of batting approximately 12”x17”.
17. Grab your basting spray and let’s get to spraying
Now, my trick when I am using this very messy medium is to use a huge old sheet or old piece of fabric that I can wash later. I place that big piece of whatever over all of my stuff in my craft area where I’ll be spraying and I go to town! I also make sure my kids and cats are out, because it does get a little stinky…oh, and maybe candles are not such a great idea at this time, either!! LOL!!!
Spray the backs of the quilts first…then the batting…you have to spray both to get the best hold!
Spray all over!! Then sandwich the quilts to the batting, separately still!
{if you want to avoid the whole spray thingy, you can pin baste each side to the battings! It’s okay…I won’t tell!!}
18. Now you want to zigzag around those cutie sheep. Go slowly…it helps with the curves. I’ll tell you that on my machine I use these zigzag stitch settings: width – 4.0, length – 0.70
19.Time to embroider…this is my favorite part…well, actually, it’s all my fave…but handwork is very calming for me, and with 4 homeschooled kids, this is important!! LOL!! Grab an embroidery hoop and one of your quilts and some pretty embroidery thread (I used red on the front and pink on the back. You may want a dark red for both! And I used the black Pearl Cotton for the sheepy's head)
20. Add a button either over the text or under the sheep, depending on where you placed your text and sheep.
21. Do the same for the back…
***Here’s where the cat can come in…remember, this part is optional!!
{had to add this pic, because she rarely sits on me for very long while I’m embroidering…notice the sheep on the wall…my niece painted it for me for Christmas! (adore)}
22. Okay, it is now time to put your two pieces together to make one double-sided quilt! This may seem daunting, but remember, be calm and quilt on!! (yep, wild attempt at keeping things light here!!)
Your key is pinning, pinning, pinning!! Put your two sides together and take a straight pin and stick it straight in the corner of the front and match up the mirrored corner on the back…
{I actually pinned from the back to the front, but either way is okay…as long as they are very close!}
Can you see the pins there? Pin all four corners and get your quilting foot on your machine!
23. Quilting…I did straight line quilting, starting with the edge of the middle piece. After I stitched in the ditch (in the seam) around my middle panels, I then went to the right edge of the front and did straight line quilting. I used that cool little bar thingy (there’s a technical name for it, I’m sure, but I’m a thingy type person…much more personal, dontcha think?) to keep my lines the same width apart throughout the whole quilt. I did lines on the middle two squares in a horizontal fashion instead of the vertical lines on the side panels. I like the contrast. You are free to quilt as you see fit!!
{check out the purple quilting gloves…stylin’!!}
24. After you’ve finished quilting, cut strips of borders at 2.5” width the long way on the fat eighth (22” strips), and bind your quilt! I finished mine by hand. Again, it’s calming for me…{adore}!
25. To finish, use pieces of the binding strips to make little tabs. I just zigzagged these onto the back…and Voila! Perfect double-sided quilt!
and some close-ups of the embroidery, etc...
Now, you may be thinking...why do I want to go through all that trouble of making a double-sided quilt??? Well, let me tell you by explaining where my idea came from.
My mom's church has a friendship brunch every year, and several of the ladies "host" tables. My mom has this beautiful gift of hospitality and hosting, so this event is perfect for her!! And this year, I got to help her "set" her table up. Each hostess gets an 8ft round table to decorate any way they want to. They can use any dishes they want to...any theme...any color scheme. So this time, my mom told me she wanted some ideas around the theme of sheep!! I knew I was going to do a blog tutorial for Amanda, and I realized that I could whip up some fantastic table decorations using this wonderful line of fabrics! And my mom actually has dishes that match!!
Ohhh we had so much fun, mother and daughter, creating for this event. Here are some shots from the brunch:
I used this mini quilt as the table centerpiece surrounded by sheep!! adorable!!
I also created little fabric cones that I placed inside these very cool Crate and Barrel "french fry" holders. (Stay tuned to my blog for a little tut explaining how I made the fabric inserts!!)
And to top everything off, I made a bunting to go around the circumference of the table. I had some extra pennants, so I pinned one to each chair. Fabulous!!! (here my mom is dropping jelly beans all over the table! It took my kids one day to eat all of them off of our kitchen table the day after Valentines!! teeheee!!)
If you've stuck with me this far, I have one more idea for you...You aren't setting the table for 8 for dinner tonight? Here's another idea for this fun mini-quilt!! You can use it with your sheep display on your mantel! When you get bored, turn it around!! Yay!! I love spontaneity!!
Thanks so much for reading through all of this!! If you create a little sheep mini-quilt, be sure and leave me a link on my blog or in the comments of this post! I'd love to be able to leave some love! yay!!
Download a printable PDF of this tutorial!
Happy Quilting...
blessings,
sally
