A couple of weeks ago I sent out a survey asking readers which block from each of my quilt patterns you’d like to see as an individual pattern. Your responses were awesome! I’ll be working over the next several weeks to release the patterns you chose – and I’m starting with the one that was most clearly a favorite.
I had so much fun with the Bears in the Hills project that I immediately needed another way to play with felt applique and embroidery. I had been having glimmers of an idea about using traditional quilt patterns as felt applique and I thought it would be fun to do that as a frame around one of my applique patterns.
It was so much fun to make that I decided to put together a tutorial showing how to make the frame. I want you to be able to use it in combination with any of my applique patterns you already have. I’m always looking for ways you can get more use out of your library of patterns. 😄
So here we go!
This layout works for two different possibilities. If you want the full rectangle, use a double-sized sheet of felt (I carry them now in the shop in some colors) and a 12″ x 18″ frame. That’s a standard size I know for sure you can get at Michaels because I checked over the weekend. 😄
If you want just a square frame around your square image, ignore the blue striped parts of the image and use a 12″ x 12″ frame – also a standard size.
What You’ll Need
One 12″ x 18″ sheet of felt for the background. I highly recommend wool-rayon blend or bamboo felt. Don’t use acrylic felt – it will pill and look grubby before you even finish making it. This is the felt I use in all my projects.
Assorted felt colors for the other parts. I used the following colors. . .
Optional – I like to use a Q-snap frame for this kind of handwork, so I bought a couple of extenders for my 17-inch frame so it could go all the way to 20 inches. I also used some cheap muslin as a base for my felt so I didn’t need to catch the felt in the clamps.
That’s it!
Prep the Pieces
You’ll need to cut some strips, triangles and circles from your felt.
For the triangles, cut four strips of felt 1″ wide and 12″ long. From each strip, cut 1″ squares. You need a total of 40. Cut each square in half on the diagonal to get 80 triangles.
For the blue stripes, cut 8 strips 1/4″ wide and 12″ long.
For the pink polkadots, cut nineteen 1/2″ circles. (I buy mine pre-cut from Woolhearts on Etsy.)
Choose your pattern for inside the frame and print it at 80% size. I used one of the cats from the Cuddly Cats quilt pattern, but changed his eyes to happy sleeping eyes. There are also a bunch of free patterns available here. Cut out all the pieces. (I like to print mine on freezer paper to make it easier to cut out the pieces accurately.)
Put It All Together
I started by gluing my large background sheet of felt to some cheap muslin so I could easily hoop it without covering up any of the stitch area. Here you can see my piece in its hoop.
I used a couple of batting scraps under the clamps to give them more to grab onto, since the muslin was pretty thin.
Next I started to arrange the cut pieces onto the background felt. Here’s the plan. . .
Each square in the grid is 1/4 inch. I don’t like to mark on felt, so I used a ruler as a guide to position my pieces.
Here you can see that I’ve laid the ruler across the bottom of the background piece so that the top edge of the ruler is exactly 3 inches up from the bottom edge of the felt. That’s where I lay down the purple triangles in a pinwheel arrangement. I originally positioned one triangle in each inch of the background felt, but I photographed this after I finished all the stitching – which draws up the width a little bit. (You can see that the finished width is now a smidge less than 12 inches, which throws off the alignment of the triangles a bit – but you get the idea.)
Once you get the bottom row of triangles in place, it’s easy to build out the rest of the pinwheel frame. When you’re happy with how it’s all laid out, glue each piece in place with a swipe of glue stick.
Use the ruler as a guide to position all the skinny blue stripes as shown in the diagram and glue in place.
Position your face. I shifted mine a bit to the right, just to make things more interesting.
Sprinkle some polkadots in the background and glue them down too.
Here are several free patterns that work with just some simple resizing. This post about making coasters has info about resizing an applique pattern that can be applied to any of these projects.
Darius is the new Funny Faces Quilt Block of the Month Club pattern – just released today! (Darius means “maintains possessions well” which I think is the perfect name for a dragon.)
If you’re not in the club, click here to join. You’ll get instant access to the Darius pattern, plus all the other lessons and patterns in the clubhouse.
Want to see how to assemble that block? It’s easy!
Last week in the comments on one of the Bears in the Hills work-in-progress posts, someone asked if they could see it finished.
How did I never post a photo of the finished piece? That’s crazy!
But it’s true. 😛 I shared it in the newsletter, but I never posted a photo here.
So I’m fixing that now. 🙂
Ta da! The Bears in the Hills are finished! Here they are. . .
Aren’t they cute?
I’m so happy with this project! I loved every bit of the stitching (so many lovely stitching hours on the sofa!) and now it’s framed and hanging in my studio where I see it every day.
Today I’m going to show you how to make your applique bust out of its frame!
It’s so much fun. 🙂
Here’s the video showing how.
See how easy that is? The hardest part is remembering that those loose bits are there so you don’t accidentally iron them somewhere they don’t belong. 🙂
Here are some more examples of critters busting out of their frames. . .
This is so much fun to do! Here are a few more I’m eager to play with – to make busting out versions. . .
I want to put this crocodile on a square background block, letting the extra length of his snout flow into the next block. (He’s one of the blocks from the Safari quilt pattern.)
I want this nosy goose (from the Noisy Farm quilt pattern) to poke her beak into the business of her neighbor’s block.
But my favorite method is actually to add fake WONKY sashing to my blocks. That makes blocks that dance around in your quilt, tipping slightly in different directions. It makes the appliques look like they’re peeking out of slightly Seussian windows. 🙂
It’s really easy to do! Here’s a video showing how. . .
Here are those dimensions. . .
Cut your background blocks 10 1/2 inches square
Cut your batting 13 inches square (you’ll trim it later to 12 1/2 inches square)
Cut your strips for the sashing 2 1/2 inches wide
And here are the rest of the links I promised. . .
Of course – once you make some wonky sashing to frame your applique, your next step will be to sometimes make your applique bust out of its frame – like these silly monsters.
I get a lot of questions about how to stop seeing through fabric applique – especially on my frog and monster patterns that have big googly eyes.
When you use fusible adhesive and layer a light color (like white) over a boldly patterned fabric, the print below can show through.
In this video I show you how to minimize that show-through. It’s really easy!
I rarely use light-colored solids, so this isn’t often an issue for me – but it does come up when I want to make big googly eyes. 🙂
I actually don’t mind seeing through the fabric applique a little bit (it can be kind of cool to be able to see how something is made) so sometimes I’ll use a lighter-weight interfacing like you see me use in the video.
If you want more complete coverage, I recommend this Heat & Bond Medium Weight fusible interfacing. It’s one step thicker than the one I use in the video – still nice and flexible, but with better hiding properties. 🙂
Now that you know how to stop seeing through your fabric applique, want to practice?
You can get that pond frog pattern here, a tree frog here, and there are fun googly-eyed monster patterns here, here, and here.
Here are links to all the posts showing how to applique with fusible adhesive – my favorite method. It’s fast and easy and (with the right materials) it holds up beautifully to rough use and repeated washing.
I was a little stiumped when I started to design this giraffe. How to crochet four legs together?
I really love making amigurumi that stand on two legs. Some of my favorite patterns use this basic shape and it’s really easy to do. Byron Bear here is a good example.
But when I designed this giraffe I wanted him to stand on four legs.
I did some digging online and I found that there are a lot of very different methods out there to do this, but all of them felt a little trickier than I wanted for beginners, so I came up with my own method based on how I like to crochet two legs together. The process is really the same – just with more parts!
Here’s a video showing how. . .
It works really well – and it’s pretty easy! If you can crochet two legs together (as I do in so many of my patterns) you can definitely crochet four legs together for this guy.
Every month (on the 15th) members get a new pattern for a fun applique quilt block.
The blocks are all sized to finish at 10 inches square – so you can join them together into a funny faces quilt, or mix and match them with my other quilt patterns. They’re so much fun to play with!
This is Paxton Penguin – he’s the first block in the club, available to members right now. Isn’t he a cutie?
Here’s another version – in classic black and white.
You don’t have to make a quilt. You’ll also get free patterns for lots of other projects you can make with a single quilt block – pillows, tote bags, receiving blankets. placemats, and more. 🙂
The club includes complete video instructions for Quilt as You Go and applique with fusible adhesive – my favorite way to make quilts.
As long as your membership is active, you’ll have access to the virtual clubhouse where you’ll download your new pattern every month, find all the video lessons, ask questions, and chat with other club members – and share photos of your finished funny faces!
It’s going to be so much fun!
The current club pattern is always the first pattern in this section of the shop. You can join any time EXCEPT the last day of the month. That’s my change-over day to switch from the old to the new pattern every month. 🙂
