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Free Butterfly Applique Pattern

August 28, 2014

Want to learn how to make a quilt with an easy online workshop – totally free?
Sign up for Let’s Make a Quilt here. You’ll learn how to get started, the tools and supplies you’ll need, and how to make a quilt from start to finish using Quilt As You Go and applique with fusible adhesive.
It’s the easiest, most fun way to make an applique quilt. You can do it!

Applique a pretty butterfly with this free pattern!

When I was designing the Wild Flowers quilt pattern, I thought about adding a few bugs to the garden.

Nothing creepy. A ladybug, a bee and a butterfly. Maybe a grasshopper and a worm.

In the end I decided to just make it a wild riot of colorful flowers – bug free.

But I kept thinking about the bugs. The zinnias in my garden and the butterfly bushes in my yard are in full bloom right now and they are covered with swarms of beautiful butterflies.

I realized that I could release a free butterfly pattern, scaled to match the blocks in the Wild Flowers quilt. That way you can substitute one (or more) butterfly blocks for any of the square blocks in the quilt.

Fun!

Of course, you don’t have to make a quilt. You could use this solo block pattern in a pillow, a tote bag, a tablet cover, a wall hanging or more. You could applique it on a finished T-shirt or on a tea towel.

You could also go totally quilt crazy and make a bunch of butterfly blocks in different colors and join them into one joyous, colorful quilt!

Have fun with it!

Want to see a mock up of the butterfly applique pattern mixed in with the flowers from the Wild Flowers pattern?

Lovely Butterfly - a free applique pattern mixed into a Wild Flowers quilt

See it? I tweaked the color a bit in photo editing to make it stand out more, but you’d let it blend in real life. 🙂

This is easy peasy applique. All of the instructions use my favorite applique with fusible adhesive technique (with links to video tutorials, of course) but you could also use needle turn or freezer paper applique.

Materials Needed

For each block you’ll need an 11 inch square of fabric for the background, scraps of fabric for the butterfly and one sheet of fusible adhesive. (I use this printable product – no tracing!)

If you’re doing Quilt As You Go you’ll also need an 11 inch square of cotton batting.

Download the free butterfly applique pattern templates here.

Step 1

Trace the pattern onto the paper side of the fusible adhesive.

free butterfly applique pattern templates - photo showing them printed out

I use this printable fusible adhesive so I just printed out the page. No tracing!

The image has already been reversed, so just trace or print.

Step 2

Rough cut around each shape.

Leave a little bit extra all the way around - a little extra extra (at least 1/4 inch) where there’s a dotted line - the inside edges of the wings where they’ll tuck under the body.

Step 3

Fuse each pattern piece to the wrong side of the fabric.

butterfly applique pattern pieces fused to the back side of the fabric

Step 4

Cut around each piece.

butterfly applique pieces cut out neatly

Cut directly on the solid lines. Leave a little seam allowance on the dotted lines – that’s where the inside edges of the wings will tuck under the main body piece.

close up showing the extra seam allowance at the base of the wings of butterfly applique pieces

Step 5

If you’re doing Quilt As You Go then you can quilt your block before adding the applique. So easy!

Cut your background block and your batting 11 inches square. Layer them together and quilt any pattern you like!

This link goes to a post showing all my favorite straight line quilting patterns, and this link goes to my favorite wavy line patterns.

If you’ll do the quilting later, simply skip this step. (That’s what I did for my sample block – so you won’t see a quilted background in the following photos.)

Step 6

Peel off the paper backing and arrange the butterfly pieces on your background block. Tuck the edges of the wings behind the body, and the top wings behind the bottom wings.

Remember - all the dotted lines indicate where pieces tuck behind other pieces.

Fuse the pieces in place, following the package instructions for whatever brand of fusible adhesive you’re using.

Step 7

Stitch around all the pieces. I just did simple straight line stitching in black thread.

I love the cartoony effect.

This post has more information about outlining stitching your applique.

Done!

One free butterfly applique pattern becomes as lovely fabric butterfly block!

If you’re making one-block project, go ahead and finish it up!

If you’re making a bunch of butterfly blocks to join into a quilt - have fun!

Happy quilting!

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5 Tips for Selling Your Crochet Items

August 27, 2014

It makes me so happy that many crocheters use my designs as a way of making an income for themselves… by selling the finished items! (Yup, it’s allowed! Read here)

I’ve asked Michaela, the woman behind Crochet City KC on Etsy to share some of tips for selling crocheted items.

Hopefully, these tips will help you avoid some common problem spots and sell with success!

And a huge thanks to Michaela for taking the time to write this guest post!

1: Get Payment up front for Custom Orders

When I first started crocheting I was very lax in requiring payment for my creations. Since then, I have revised my policy to require payment up front on orders, as I had a few bad experiences of not receiving payment for my work.

Here’s an example: I took an order for a very large project that took me about 6 months and a large amount of yarn. And although I had quoted the person a price at the beginning of the project, because this person was a coworker, I didn’t feel comfortable asking for money up front. When the project was finished, the customer claimed I had quoted a lower price, and I felt like I needed to take it because there was nothing in writing and the work was already done.

Looking back, I realize how silly I was for not standing up for myself and its definitely one of the experiences I look back on most and think to myself… wow I’ve come a long way! Trust me, you want to receive the money up front for your hard work!

2: Always Communicate!

I can’t express enough how important communicating with your customers is, if you think something isn’t turning out quite right, you aren’t sure about exactly what a customer wants or if you are behind on an order communicating from the beginning is so much easier then dodging them and then having an upset customer in the end.

For example, one time, I received an order for a blue octopus. But what blue? Royal blue? Light blue? Green blue? or who knows what kind! Instead of guessing, I took my phone to the store and sent photos of the various blue yarns available. I sent picture after picture until we found the right one, and I’m so glad I did. The little boy who received the octopus sleeps with it every night and it matches his bed room perfectly, which would have never happened if I hadn’t taken the time to clarify the customer’s desires.

3: Be Honest about Your Abilities/Time

Sometimes, a request may be out of your crochet comfort zone or just may take too much time for you to complete. Earlier this year a customer came to me asking if i could re-create a very complicated monster from a TV show and after looking at all the detail and weighing the time it would take, I decided to turn down the customer.

It may sound bad to turn down an order, but it’s actually much better than getting in over your head and being unable to deliver. It’s in everyone’s best interest to just be honest about what is in your comfort zone.

4: Keep Accurate Records

In my experience, customers often change their minds or “forget” certain aspects of your original discussion. If there’s no record of the original discussion, this can lead to disappointment!

I do a lot of orders through Etsy and Facebook (which automatically leave a written record), but there are often times I take orders in person. If I take an order in person I write out the details of what they what and have the person look over each detail and sign off on it – that way they are acknowledging it and I have proof later in case they decide they want something different.

Last year I had a customer ask why the item they ordered had blue eyes when they asked for green. I was able to send them a copy of their original message to me where it stated exactly what they asked for. Needless to say they were happy about their blue eyes after that!

5: Put Yourself out There!

I am a very shy person when it comes to meeting people and socializing, so this advice is a little weird coming from me. One of the biggest favors you can do for yourself if you are trying to sell crocheted item is to put yourself out there. No one will know about you unless you tell people!

Maybe your version of telling is maybe just carrying around your crocheting in public and having a business card on hand for when that person who asks “What are you making?” You can easily tell them and then point them in the direction of where they can see more of your work!

Just try one little act of putting the word out about what you do and chances are it will go a long way. I’m not the most active facebooker/etsy seller/tweeter in the world but I still manage to keep pretty busy with orders by just putting it a tiny bit of effort every so often!

Thanks, Michaela!

Jo’s Finished T-shirt Quilt

August 25, 2014

It’s finished! Jo’s T-shirt quilt is finished – and just in time.

Whew!

I finished the last bit of the binding at midnight the night before she had to leave for school. It’s a good thing Jo wanted to spend her final night at home watching a Doctor Who marathon (perfect for binding handwork) otherwise I was sure I’d be finishing it in the car on the way. 🙂

Yes – that’s Cuddle Fleece on the back. She’s just crazy about that stuff! She actually asked me to make her a pillowcase out of it the morning before leaving for school. I had to tell her I’d mail it to her. 🙂

The finished quilt fits a twin-size bed with an overhang all around. It’s 72 inches wide and 87 inches long – made up of thirty 15-inch squares.

You can see all the posts about making it here.

I know you can’t see all the individual blocks with it wrapped around her, so here it is all flat.

The image is actually a digital mock-up of the finished blocks. I used it to help me decide on the final layout without crawling around on the floor.

The blank gray squares you see are where Jo didn’t have quite enough T-shirts for the size quilt she wanted. I filled those spots in with favorite fabrics she picked from my stash.

I love how it’s a collection of all the things she’s loved/been obsessed with over the last 8 or 9 years. I see a lot of cats in there. . .

. . . some geeky goodness. . .

. . . a reminder of a terrific Dragon*Con panel with the creators of Fraggle Rock. . .

. . . Minecraft and other video games. . .

. . .our trip to Japan. . .

. . . and (of course) Doctor Who.

Quilting was simple. She didn’t want batting – just the Cuddle Fleece backing – so I didn’t have to worry about quilting closely enough to hold the batting in place. I just stitched in the ditch between each block. Here are some videos to help you with the final steps of the project.

If you make a T-shirt quilt with this method, I’d love to see it!

Happy quilting!

Best,
Wendi

Leon Lion is Here!

August 22, 2014

Leon Lion is here – the third animal in the Party Animals series.

Leon Lion loves to bake! He made an extra fancy cake for this party with lots of pretty swirls. 😄

You’ll notice he’s not wearing a party hat. That’s because he NEVER takes off his crown. He takes his duties as King of the Jungle very seriously.

Check out that shaggy mane! You’ll get to practice your new Turkey work skills on this guy.

Get the pattern here.

It’s really starting to look like a party!

You may be feeling a little nervous about that mane. Don’t be nervous! It’s a relatively easy stitch called Turkey work and the pattern has a link to this video showing how to do it.

I had a question asking me to get more specific about the spacing of the stitches in the Turkey Work for his mane.

I didn’t get terribly specific because a little variation here won’t be a problem. It’s not like eyes which really need to be placed just so. If you start his hair a little farther back, he’ll just have a bit of a receding hairline. If you go lower on his forehead than I did, he’ll have a shorter forehead. It’s all good. 🙂

Here’s a bit more info. . .

I started stitching with a row of stitches right down the back of his head, starting a bit back from his forehead and stopping a bit short of the nape of his neck.

This shows an approximation of starting and stopping places. Again – you don’t need to stress too much about this.

Then you just basically circle around that first row of stitching, giving him a wider and wider Mohawk until it’s not a Mohawk at all anymore and starts to look more like a mane.

I stitched up one side, across the front, down the other side, across the bottom, etc. until I used almost the whole skein of thread. At some point I decided that it was far enough down the nape of his neck and I stopped adding loops when I went across the bottom and just skipped over to the other side by slipping my needle through his head. Every time you finish a circuit, take a look at him and decide if you like the way his hair is growing. You can add an extra row or two across his forehead if you want, or make it go lower on his neck the same way. It’s totally up to you!

I do recommend going around in circles. It’ll be the easiest way to keep your stitching even on both sides so his mane is balanced – which is more important than the particular placement on the head.

I also had a question about coverage.

You can see in the loopy photo that there are bits of head showing through the mane before cutting and fluffing.

That fluffing really fills things out! I took this photo after fluffing, but spreading apart the mane so you can see his scalp underneath.

You can see that there’s actually a LOT of scalp visible if you work your way down there – rather like a doll’s head. So don’t worry about getting perfect coverage there. The fluffing will really fill things out.

One other note. I made mine an adolescent lion with a shortish mane that doesn’t grow very far into his face. If you wanted to make a more mature lion you can buy an additional skein of the thread and keep making more circles until he looks the way you want. If you decide to do that, I’d make the loops a little longer too. My loops were about 3/4″ tall and not perfectly even. I left them a little shaggy after trimming – I just cut the loops in half and left them mostly untrimmed because I wanted a pretty shaggy look.

Did you notice how many times I said things like “a little variation is good” and “don’t worry too much about the placement here” and other things like that? That’s because it’s really not that fussy. I understand you being nervous – it’s a brand new stitch for most of you and it’s very different. But fluffing those loops out covers a lot of little “mistakes” – so relax and have fun! And imagine all the other things you can do with that new stitch! Fancy fringes, bushy eyebrows, dignified beards – the possibilities are endless!

Get the Leon pattern here.

Happy stitching!

Best,
Wendi

T-shirt Quilt – Almost Finished

August 21, 2014

Here’s a quick update on the T-shirt quilt.

22 blocks finished, 8 still to go.

But I only have 5 T-shirts left in my pile!

Jo’s cleaning out her closet today and she may pull out a couple more that are getting too small. If that doesn’t net us three more I’ll be hitting my fabric stash and just cutting 3 big blocks of fabric she loves for the last few squares.

We had one of her favorite T-shirts that didn’t make it into the quilt. It was just too tall and she didn’t want to lose any of the image – not even a smidgen. So she asked if I could make her a pillow out of it.

Done!

It’s a nice squishy pillow and she loves it!

I used this method to make the pillow – only instead of adding framing all the way around I just added strips to the sides. It’s the same idea though! And I always put a zipper in the back so I can remove the cover and wash it.

Jo LOVES these pillows and uses them instead of bed pillows. In case you’re wondering, it’s Fairfield brand Home Elegance Ultimate Luxury PIllow – it feels exactly like a pricey down pillow but it’s less expensive and machine washable. Win!

You can see all the posts about making a T-shirt quilt here.

And don’t forget about Diane Gilleland’s online T-shirt Quilt Class happening today!

Happy sewing!

Best,
Wendi

Fletcher – a FREE Chevron Quilt Pattern

August 15, 2014

Want to add a dramatic angle to your quilting?

Try this easy chevron quilt pattern. It’s free. 🙂

That’s right – FREE! And that doesn’t mean it’s some skimpy abbreviated form of one of my regular patterns. You’ll get everything one of my regular quilt patterns normally includes.

Complete instructions – including yardage requirements, cutting instructions, and assembly diagrams – for five different sizes.

Crib (48″ x 61″)
Nap (60″ x 72″)
Twin (66″ x 83″)
Queen (84″ x 94″)
King (108″ x 94″)

Detailed instructions with step-by-step photos showing how to assemble the blocks.

Instructions (and diagrams) for pieced backs for all the quilt sizes.

Links to videos teaching you all the skills you’ll need to complete the project – including basting, quilting and binding.

This is a very easy quilt – easy to cut, easy to sew, and easy to machine quilt. And it’s designed to make efficient use of fat quarters and all your scraps. Wait until you see how this one goes together!

Want the pattern? Here’s the link to download it!

Download the Fletcher quilt pattern here.

If you like this free pattern, sign up for the Shiny Happy News! Members get a weekly newsletter full of sewing tips and tricks, free patterns, special discounts, and other things to make you smile. 🙂

Happy stitching!

Making a T-shirt Quilt – Part 4

August 12, 2014

Today I’m going to share a bit of problem-solving with you for your T-shirt quilts.

Most T-shirt designes are pretty well centered, with some room all the way around.

But sometimes the design of a T-shirt goes right up to the armhole, making it difficult to cut a square corner and get all the important bits.

Take, for example, this Fraggle design.

I cut this out as close to the arm seam as possible, but Mokey Fraggle is right up against the cut. The sleeve fabric was kind of yucky and worn there – so I definitely wanted to cut it away – but I didn’t want to lose Mokey!

I made the cut and did the interfacing as though there was fabric there. (I didn’t press that loose corner of interfacing – that would have fused it to the ironing board. I just left it unpressed while I fused the rest down.) Then I cut out the image – again pretending that there was fabric in that corner.

Of course, the next step is to sew in some real fabric to replace the pretend stuff. 🙂

I cut a strip of fabric big enough to cover the missing corner, laid it along the edge of the armhole cut, and sewed it in place with a straight seam.

Then I flipped the strip over the corner and pressed the seam flat (from the back so I didn’t smear the image).

Trim the corner to square up the block.

Then frame it out just like all the other blocks.

Problem solved!

I ran into the same issue with the Nyan Cat T-shirt.

And solved it the same way. 🙂

Here’s what the blocks look like so far.

I’m hoping to finish all the blocks this week, so next week will be joining, basting, quilting and binding. In my dreams I’m handsewing the binding while I watch Diane Gilleland’s T-shirt Quilt class and learn all the things I could have done better. (It looks amazing and it’s free! Sign up here and watch with me!) In reality I’ll probably be doing it in the car on the way to drop Jo off at school. 😛

Read all the posts about my T-shirt quilt here.

Happy quilting!

Best,
Wendi

Fancy Flowery Felt Coasters – a free pattern!

August 11, 2014

Here’s a free felt coaster pattern so you can stitch up some fancy floral finery.

Coasters are a bit of an issue for me.

I have a glass of ice water within reach all day long. I have a lot of potter friends – so most of my cups and glasses are lovely to look at and delightful to hold, but completely uninsulated so they sweat like crazy.

I’m always seeing pretty, pretty coaster tutorials online – and I’ve made a few. But the fabric ones (which are what I love to make) just catch the water and hold it in place. They usually soak completely through, so instead of getting a ring on my furniture – I get a big blobby smear.

Then I had a bit of an epiphany. Maybe everyone else has already thought of this – but none of the tutorials I’ve read mention it and it was a new idea for me, so. . . what if I put something waterproof inside a coaster – to block the moisture from soaking through to the bottom? Of course! *smacks forehead* I could make some very pretty – and also completely functional – felt coasters! Happy dance!

Fast forward to today. My felt coasters are finally finished – and I have a free pattern for you!

Fancy Flowery Felt Coasters - a free pattern from Shiny Happy World

These are not hard to make – they only use very simple stitches – but they take a lot of time. Luckily, they’re small and easy to schlepp around for some portable handwork to pull out at the doctor’s office, the park, on long car trips, etc.

What You Need for This Felt Coaster Pattern

You can find links to sources for all my favorite tools and supplies here.

1 1/2 sheets wool-blend felt for the coasters (I used licorice)
4 squares of waterproof fabric for the inside of the coasters (I used scraps from some art aprons I used to make, but you could use anything waterproof like an old raincoat or shower curtain liner)
small scraps of wool-blend felt in assorted colors for the flowers and butterflies
embroidery thread in colors to match the felt
Sulky Sticky Fabri-solvy (optional)
freezer paper (optional)
size 8 embroidery needle (optional)
Thread Magic (optional)

So there you are! Download your patterns and gather up some felt and thread in pretty colors and start stitching! It’s fun – and the finished coasters are so, so pretty. 🙂

How to Make Them

Step 1

Download the base coaster pattern here and trace or print it onto a rough side of a sheet of Sulky Sticky Fabri-solvy. I use Sulky Sticky FabriSolvy every time I work with felt. I love it!

If you’re wondering how it works with felt, read this post.

Step 2

Cut the four squares apart (leaving a little extra room around each square), peel off the paper back and stick the film to a square of felt.

Step 3

Embroider the design right through the stabilizer and the felt.

felt coaster - partially stitched with flowers

I’m going to applique most of the flowers and the butterfly, so all I stitched here are the stems, butterfly trail, and the small flowers all around the edges.

I used backstitch for the stems of the applique flowers with four strands of green thread (DMC #522). I used running stitch for the butterfly trail with three strands of periwinkle thread (DMC #156).

For the star flowers around the edges I used two strands of green (DMC #522) and a single stitch for each stem, and two strands of fuchsia (DMC #601) for the flowers.

You have a couple of options when you stitch those star flowers.

pink star flowers embroidered on dark grey felt

In this first photo, I stitched the stem up to the base of the asterisk, then stitched the full asterisk for the flower.

more pink star flowers embroidered on dark grey felt

In this second photo, I stitched the stem up to the center of the asterisk, then stitched the rest of the asterisk around it, skipping the bottom stroke of the asterisk so it looks like the stem goes up into the flower.

Which do you like better? That’s what you do for yours. :-)

Step 4

Trim around the edge of your stitched coaster, right on the line.

Soak out the Sulky Sticky FabriSolvy in cold water for at least an hour and rinse clean with more cold water. Hit any stubborn bits with a kitchen sprayer – don’t rub the surface of the felt.

Let the pieces dry flat. Don’t wring, twist or even smoosh them. Just set them on a towel and let them dry overnight.

felt coasters work in progress - showing several pieces in different stages of completion

You can see a coaster with the stabilizer removed at the bottom of the photo. Look! Now I know exactly where each applique piece goes. The stitched stems and flight paths are great guides!

Step 5

Applique and embroider the rest of your design.

Download the applique patterns here and print or trace them onto the paper side of a sheet of freezer paper. One sheet has enough applique pieces for 8 coasters. Make a second set for a friend!

Iron the freezer paper to the felt and cut the small pieces out – cutting the freezer paper right along with the felt. That keeps your cutting accurate on such small pieces.

Peel off the freezer paper and use a swipe of glue stick to stick the flower where it goes on the coaster.

Use whipstitch and two strands of matching thread to applique each flower to the coaster, then add all the little detail stitches.

There’s a video showing how to applique felt with whipstitch here.

Here’s a detailed color and stitch guide and a super close-up photo of one finished coaster.

Finished felt coaster made with a free pattern from Shiny Happy World

Oooh! Such a pretty felt coaster pattern!

Use two strands of thread for all stitching - the applique and the embroidered details.

Blue Flower

Whipstitch the flower with DMC #3846 and the center with DMC #726. French knots and lazy daisy stitches with DMC #726. Use straight stitches at the base of the lazy daisies with DMC #3746.

Yellow Flower

Whipstitch the flower with DMC #726 and the larger center with DMC #741. Satin stitch the small center with DMC #726.
Straight stitch the pink lines on the petals with DMC #601.

Purple Flower

Whipstitch the flower with DMC #3746, large center with DMC #333 and tiny center with DMC #741. The orange French knots in the purple center are DMC #741. The blue French knots and straight stitches on the outer ring of the flower are DMC#3846.

Pink Flower

Whipstitch the pink flower with DMC #601. Lay the green bit so it overlaps the base of the pink petals and whipstitch with DMC #522. The orange highlights on the petals are lazy daisy stitches in DMC #741.

Butterfly

Whipstitch the wings with DMC #156 and the body with DMC #920. The antennae are French knots with stems in DMC #920. The highlights on the wings are lazy daisy stitches in DMC #601.

Step 6

Cut a second piece of felt to match the first.

Sew the two layers together around two edges. I used whipstitch. Whipstitching felt edges is a tiny bit different from whipstitch applique. There’s a video here showing how.

You could also use blanket stitch, running stitch, or even sew it on the sewing machine.

adding a waterproof layer to an embroidered felt coaster

Slip a piece of waterproof fabric (cut a bit smaller than your coaster) between the layers and keep stitching all the way around.

Done!

Now make three more so you have a pretty set! :)

set of four stitched felt coasters with flowers and butterflies - made with a free pattern from Shiny Happy World

Happy stitching!

Do you like making coasters? Apparently I love it – because I have three more free felt coaster patterns for you!

Sign up for my weekly newsletter so you never miss another free pattern like this one! You’ll also get new tutorials, sewing tips and tricks, fun videos, yummy recipes and special discounts. 🙂

Play with some felt! Try the Oddballs – a fun pattern for silly monsters.

Making a T-shirt Quilt – Part 3

August 8, 2014

Here’s where things stand right now on Jo’s T-shirt quilt. I’ve fused the interfacing and cut images from all the T-shirts in the stack, and I’ve got finished, framed blocks for eight of them.

I wrote about the tools and supplies I’m using for this quilt here.

And I wrote about the hows and whys of the interfacing here.

Today I’ll show you how I’m framing the images to make uniform blocks.

The shirts I’m using in this quilt range from children’s XS to men’s XL. That, my friends, is a big range of sizes.

There are some amazingly complex T-shirt quilts out there that fit all those sizes together like a jigsaw puzzle. You can see some of them in this Pinterest board I’ve been building.

Frankly – the thought of planning that out made my head hurt. And then the cutting and piecing would have to be really precise and I would be quickly getting far away from the kind of quilts I like to make.

(One of the things I’m most eager to hear in Diane Gilleland’s class about T-shirt quilts is how she plans the layouts. Her T-shirt quilts have a lovely harmony and simplicity to them, and I can’t figure out how she does it just by seeing the finished quilts. I can’t wait to learn more about her approach! RSVP for the free video workshop happening on August 21 and 22 and take the class with me!)

Until I learn Diane’s magic secret – I decided to keep things simple.

1. I already own a 15 inch square ruler – so all the blocks will be 15 inch square blocks. Easy.

2. I cut the T-shirt images whatever size works best for the image. Then I add fabric around the image until it’s bigger than 15 inches. Then I use that handy-dandy ruler to trim it to the exact right size.

Today I’m going to show how I do that framing.

Here’s where we left off in the interfacing post.

The T-shirt has interfacing fused to the back and it’s trimmed where I like it.

I hit my stash and pulled some blue that very closely matched the blue of the T-shirt.

My original plan was to use contrasting fabric for the frame – like pulling out the green of her tail or the orange of her hair – but in the end I decided that would be too busy. I want the focus to be on the T-shirt images, so my frames add a bit of extra texture (none of them are solids) without adding additional color.

I added strips all the way around the image until the block was bigger than 15 inches. I added strips to the top and bottom first, then pressed it and added strips to the two sides and pressed again.

You can add to the sides first and then the top and bottom. Or you can work your way around the block log-cabin-style. It doesn’t really matter – just get fabric on all four sides.

Press all your seams away from the T-shirt center. And press everything from the back so you don’t smear your image!

Here’s the framed block with my 15 inch ruler set on top so you can see the extra all the way around.

Now – position that ruler where you want it and cut around all four sides. I wanted my blocks off center – but straight – so I lined one of the ruler lines up with a seam between the T-shirt image and the frame so everything stays nice and straight. If you look closely (click on the image to zoom in) you can see that the one-inch line on the ruler is lined up with the seam on the right side of the block.

I think it would be fun to have the images at interesting angles in the quilt, but Jo wanted them straight. 🙂

And here’s the finished block!

You can see I added wider strips to some sides, and narrower to others. I don’t want the image centered in the block, so unevenness is good. Also – then I don’t have to measure anything. 🙂 The effect is even more noticeable in some of the blocks with smaller images. Scroll back up to the top of the post to see the rest of the blocks so far.

Tony the Tiger was the only image big enough to cut 15″ square with no framing – so he’s in there just just from the T-shirt. Everything else is getting at least some framing.

Next week I’ll be back with a post about handling T-shirts whose images go right up to the armholes.

See all the T-shirt quilt posts here.

Happy quilting! Have a great weekend!

Best,
Wendi

Making a T-Shirt Quilt – Part 2

August 7, 2014

Yesterday I wrote a bit about the tools and materials I’ll be using to make Jo’s new T-shirt quilt.

Today I’m actually getting started!

As I mentioned yesterday – the main challenge in making a T-shirt quilt is that T-shirts are stretchy. Stretchy fabric is usually the LAST thing you would choose to make a quilt. It stretches – which makes precise measuring hard. And the edges curl when they’re cut which is really annoying.

So the first step is to make your stretchy T-shirts no longer stretchy.

For that I used interfacing.

Specifically – Pellon 906F. It’s the lightest weight interfacing I could find.

Here’s how the interfacing works. . .

The Pellon 906F is a fisuble interfacing. That means you iron it to the back of your fabric and it creates a permanent bond. You’re basically gluing a non-stretchy fabric to the back of a stretchy fabric – which makes the stretchy fabric no longer stretchy.

Clever!

I chose the lightest weight interfacing I could find because I didn’t want to make my fabric overly heavy or stiff. With the 906F it still drapes nicely – so that’s good!

Here’s the step-by-step. . .

Step 1 – Cut away the front of the shirt

I cut right up the side seams and across the shoulder seams, as close as I could get to the seams without being too crazy fussy about the whole thing.

Step 2 – Add interfacing

See the interfacing peeking out where the armholes were? That gives you a sense of how big I cut the piece of interfacing. From the back it’s just a big square of white fabric stuck to some blue fabric – not the most useful image.

Cut a piece of interfacing larger than the image on the front of your shirt.

Lay the shirt front face down on your ironing board.

Iron the interfacing to the back of the image. Follow the package instructions as best you can.

This involves slowly counting to ten over and over and over and over again. It’s very boring – but it’s not hard and it’s what makes the whole thing work. Just listen to some music or a podcast or watch TV while you do it. 🙂

Important note – the instructions for the Pellon 906F say to flip the fabric over after the initial fuse and iron again with steam from the front.

Don’t do that!

A lot of the inks and image transfers used on T-shirts will melt and smear if you iron directly on them. Instead I lightly spritzed the back all over with water and pressed the whole thing again until it was dry.

Step 3 – Cut the image however you like

I’m cutting all the images for this quilt with square corners. That’s easy if you use clear rulers and rotary cutting tools. You don’t have to do it – but it will make for easy framing.

For the technique I’m using I’m not measuring at all. Easy peasy! I’m just cutting around the image in a way that looks good to me for that image.

And that’s it! The T-shirt is no longer stretchy. The cut edges don’t curl. And I have a nice, easy shape to frame out for the final block. Tomorrow I’ll show you that step – how I frame the images to get blocks that are all the same size. With no measuring!

Disclaimer – This is my first T-shirt quilt ever. I’ve made a lot of quilts and I’ve worked with knit fabrics – so I’m not starting from nowhere. But I am in no way an expert! If you want to learn from an expert, sign up for Diane Gilleland’s class here. She makes some BEE-YOO-TEE-FUL T-shirt quilts and I’m definitely taking the class myself. It’s free if you RSVP for the live version!

Happy quilting!

Best,
Wendi

1: Get Payment up front for Custom Orders

2: Always Communicate!

3: Be Honest about Your Abilities/Time

4: Keep Accurate Records

5: Put Yourself out There!

What You Need for This Felt Coaster Pattern

How to Make Them

Step 1 – Cut away the front of the shirt

Step 2 – Add interfacing

Step 3 – Cut the image however you like

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