How to Use a Light Box to Layer Applique

March 1, 2022

In my never-ending quest to to make applique as easy as possible, I recently bought a light box.

Wow!

My mind is blown!

No more tracing those placement markings to the right side of the fabric. (***ahem*** I may have mentioned here how much I hate to trace.)

This makes layering applique SO EASY and SO ACCURATE!

How did I not get one of these sooner?

Somehow I had it in my head that this was going to be a Very Expensive Purchase.

The one I bought is 15.5 inches x 11.8 inches and cost $26.99. I’m going to use it a kajillion times just in the next year, so that is well worth it to me.

The silicone mat was $14.33.

Those are both affiliate links to Amazon. If you buy something using them, I get a small commission at no extra cost to you – but if you have a local store that sells these things, please support them!

Want to see how awesome it is in action? You’re going to love this!

Wow!

I’m going to say it again – wow!

This makes the process so easy! Especially for folks who are using cutting machines and have had a bit more of a laborious process to transfer those placement markings in the past.

I know some of you have been using a light box forever and can’t believe I didn’t know already how awesome they are.

I’m usually really slow to use new gadgets. I just don’t want a studio full of tools I’ll rarely use.

I’ve used a light box exactly once before – in a Craftsy class I taught several years ago. It was really huge and cumbersome and not something I had space for in my studio. I had no idea how slim and lightweight and inexpensive they are now!

Moving forward, all of my patterns will have numbers on the reference images and corresponding numbers on the template pieces.

I’m in the process of a year-long project to update all my quilt patterns. That update will include adding SVG files for use with cutting machines, and these numbered templates.

I’ll continue to include the placement markings for those who don’t want to get a light box. You can find a tutorial showing how to do that method here.

Update! One thing that can be tricky about using a lightbox is if you’re working with very dark fabrics AND you need the light to show through several layers. If this is the situation you’re in, you can actually fuse your faces in batches, so you never have to see through more than one layer of fabric at a time. I demonstrate this with the Billy Bison pattern made in very dark purple fabrics.

For those of you about to get a new light box – enjoy!!!

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.

Here are links to special posts about eyes.

Here are links to some extra fun things you can do with your applique.

Other Applique Methods

Finished with this topic?

Return to the Let’s Make a Quilt main Table of Contents.

Move on to the lessons about outline stitching.

Sewing Machine Feet

January 4, 2022
photo showing a close-up of a clear plastic applique sewing machine foot. text reads: Sewing Machine Feet

I get a lot of questions about sewing machine feet. Mostly people want to know one of two things. What kind of specialty feet should they buy for their machine? And do they really need to have a walking foot?

Well – it all depends on what you want to sew!

There are so many specialty feet out there! I have a few I’ve bought for specific projects – a ruffling foot when my daughter was little and liked ruffles and gathered skirts, a piping foot for I-don’t-even-remember-what. You get the idea.

But there are a few feet that I use ALL THE TIME – and they’re what I want to talk about here.

Zipper Foot

I don’t sew much clothing, but I do like to make little zippered pouches and pillows with zippered backs. A zipper foot is pretty essential if you’re going to sew zippers. I guess technically you can do without it – but I wouldn’t want to. 🙂 The good news is that most machines come with a zipper foot, and if yours doesn’t, there are lots of inexpensive universals available.

A zipper foot is also really handy for sewing piping or other fancy trims where you want to sew right up against a chunky bit.

Handy links. . .

Walking Foot

If you like to machine quilt, a walking foot is essential. Basically, what a walking foot does is give you feed dogs that sit on top of your fabric, pulling it through at the same rate as the feed dogs built into your machine below the throat plate. This keeps the top and bottom layers feeding evenly through the machine. Genius!

A lot of fancier machines now have a built-in walking foot, but there are universals available for every brand and some of them are pretty inexpensive. I highly recommend getting one!

Handy links. . .

Quarter Inch Foot

This isn’t one of the essential sewing machine feet, but I really love it for when I want to be super precise in my seam allowance.

Here’s what mine looks like.

close-up photo of a quarter inch sewing machine foot for a Bernina

That weird piece sitting beside the foot actually screws into the machine and becomes a wall that you butt your fabric against, to help you get an exact 1/4-inch seam allowance (or whatever depth you set it to). This is perfect for joining quilt blocks – especially for quilts with half blocks and double blocks where the seam allowance needs to be really accurate.

For some machines, the quarter-inch foot has the “wall” built right into the foot, but those aren’t adjustable. They ONLY do a quarter inch seam allowance.

Handy links. . .

Clear Applique Foot

I saved my very favorite sewing machine foot for last – a clear applique foot.

If you do ANY machine applique (or any topstitching or edgestitching) this foot is absolutely necessary.

Here’s what a typical sewing machine foot looks like.

It’s metal and it might have a small opening like this one – but you can’t see much. And there’s very little visibility where the needle is actually going in – that smaller slot behind the main “toes.” It’s REALLY hard to see where you’re stitching with this foot.

Here’s a clear applique foot.

Close up photo of a clear applique foot - one of my favorite sewing machine feet.

Look at that! The base of the foot is made entirely of clear plastic – giving you total visibility as you stitch. That ability to see what I’m doing is what allows me to outline applique shapes like this so neatly.

cute applique chameleon made with striped green fabric and the Carter Chameleon - easy applique pattern from Shiny Happy World

Handy links. . .

So there you are – the four sewing machine feet I use most often.

Here are handy links to all the posts about quilting tools and supplies.

Sewing Machine

Iron

Rotary Cutting Tools

Scissors

Other General Sewing Room Supplies

One More Hugely Popular Post that Seems to Fit Here Better than Anywhere Else

Return to the Let’s Make a Quilt main Table of Contents.

Move on to the posts about choosing your quilt pattern.

Happy stitching!

Choosing a Quilt Pattern

September 14, 2021

Time to talk about choosing a quilt pattern!

All of my quilt patterns have links to video tutorials teaching you any skill you’ll need to make that pattern. Basically – my patterns are really workshops just disguised as patterns. 🙂

You can work your way through all the lessons using any of my patterns.

So where do you start?

Here’s a quick rundown of a bunch my patterns, arranged by difficulty.

There are several free patterns for individual blocks in the mix. Those don’t include instructions for making a full quilt, but you’ll find those instructions for free here at Shiny Happy World.

You do not HAVE to start with one of the easiest patterns!

I’m a big believer in choosing a pattern that really excites you and then just taking it slow enough to learn as you go. But that’s my learning style and you know your own style best. How comfortable are you with fiddly bits? Does making a mistake ruin all the fun for you? Do you like to sew really fast and going slow makes you want to stab things?

Think about what makes sewing fun for you and choose your pattern based on that.

The Very Easiest

These patterns have very few parts, all on the biggish side, and are easy to cut, arrange, and stitch.

cover image of a large pink flower for the free Pretty Posy applique pattern from Shiny Happy World
Lovable Mutts applique quilt pattern

Use these links to get those patterns.

Easy

This is where most of my patterns fall. They tend to have a few more pieces than The Very Easiest patterns, which means there’s a bit more arranging and stitching. But they are not in any way HARD. You can absolutely start with any of these.

Spooky - free cat applique pattern from Shiny Happy World
three stacked bunny faces made with the free Mix & Match Bunnies applique pattern from Shiny Happy World
Bunches of Bears - easy applique quilt pattern from Shiny Happy World
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer - a free applique pattern from Shiny Happy World

Here are the links to the patterns.

The Fish quilt also falls in this category.

Easy – But with a More Challenging Layout

These blocks are just as easy to applique as all the Easy blocks – it’s the assembly into quilts that makes them a smidge more difficult. These quilts break out of the basic square grid by including half blocks or double blocks, or adding sashing. Again – these aren’t hard – you just can’t assemble them on autopilot. 🙂 You can make any of these quilts into a basic Easy quilt by leaving out the rectangle blocks or sashing and assembling them on a basic grid.

Woodland Critters quilt pattern from Shiny Happy World
Safari Applique Quilt Pattern from Shiny Happy World
Noisy Farm quilt pattern from Shiny Happy World
#8
Beep! Beep! Cars quilt pattern
#12

Here are the links to the patterns. . .

A Little Harder

These quilts have a few more pieces for many of the blocks, and usually a few smaller pieces than the Easy quilts. It also includes a couple of Mix & Match patterns which will push/encourage your creativity a bit more than a regular pattern. Paper Dolls is the most challenging pattern in my collection, with lots of small, fussy pieces and mix & match possibilities – but holy cow is it fun! If you’re up for the challenge, you can even start with that one. 🙂

Paper Dolls - a fun mix & Match quilt pattern from Shiny Happy World
Parliament of Owls - an easy applique quilt pattern from Shiny Happy World
#17

Here are the links to the patterns. . .

This isn’t anywhere near all of my quilt patterns – but it gives you an idea of what kinds of things make one pattern more or less difficult than another.

Here’s a list of links all about choosing a quilt pattern – and even designing your own!

Return to the Let’s Make a Quilt main Table of Contents.

Happy quilting!

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How to Add a Baby to Any Block – video tutorial

August 4, 2021
Mama and baby cats appliqued on a grey fabric background. Text reads: How to Add a Baby to Any Block

Want to add a baby to any block in my quilt patterns?

It’s easy!

You just need to print the baby at a reduced size!

There’s a post here with more info. (scroll down to the section called “Print at 100% Size – No Scaling”)

In a nutshell – tell your printer you DON’T want to print at 100%.

Here’s an example of my print screen. The exact layout and terminology will be different for every printer and operating system, but they all have the same basic info.

Print digital patterns at 100% for the correct size.

In order to print patterns at the “correct” size you make sure the scale is set at 100% – but really you can set it at anything you like!

How do you know what size to use? Well, that takes a little trial and error and I recommend doing some test printouts on inexpensive paper before you print on your fusible adhesive. Here are some samples I tried for my cats. In all the samples below, the mama is printed at 100% size – I just changed the size of the baby.

Mama cat printed at 100% size, baby cat at 90%.

Here’s a mama at 100% and a baby at 90%. Too close. It looks more like a mama and papa – which would also be fun!

mama cat printed at 100% size, baby at 80%

Here’s the mama at 100% with the baby at 80%. Maybe the baby is a teenager?

mama cat printed at 100%, baby at 70%

Here the mama cat is 100% and the baby is at 70%. This is getting closer to what I was imagining.

mama cat printed at 100%, baby at 60%

Here the baby is printed at 60% size. This might be perfect! But I’m going to go down one more step just to see. The eyes might be too small to work with if I go smaller.

mama cat printed at 100%, baby at 50%

This is it! The baby is printed at 50% to make a tiny little kitten. The eyes are JUST big enough that I can still applique them, and I love the look.

So – here’s the video showing how I did it!

See? Easy peasy – and so sweet!

Here’s the link I promised to the post about all the different alternatives to applique eyes.

And here’s the link to the Cuddly Cats quilt pattern where this cutie is just one of the fourteen cats included. But you can do this with any blocks from any of my applique patterns. Just play around with the sizes until you’re happy with the look you get!

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.

Here are links to special posts about eyes.

Here are links to some extra fun things you can do with your applique.

Other Applique Methods

Finished with this topic?

Return to the Let’s Make a Quilt main Table of Contents.

Move on to the lessons about outline stitching.

Happy stitching!

Fusible Applique the Easy Way

June 15, 2021
blue gingham applique chameleon on a blue background - text says Fusible Applique the Easy Way

Fusible applique is my favorite applique method. It’s fast and easy and it really lets me play with my designs.

I’ve been using this method for some time now, and I’ve refined the method I use. The most recent big change was adding SVG files to my patterns for use with electric cutting machines like Cricut and Silhouette – and that meant a change in how I design some of my template pieces.

Time for a new tutorial! This video shows all the steps for how I do fusible applique. It’s on the long side, and I mention several other tutorials, so scroll past the video for a list of topics at each timestamp, and all the links I mention in the video.

Introduction – Fusible Applique Made Easy

Quilt As You Go (2:29)

I give a quick nutshell view of my method. Visit this post for much more detailed info – Quilt As You Go: Everything You Need to Know. I also mentioned the following tutorials.

Printing or Tracing the Pattern onto Fusible Adhesive (5:33)

I use Heat & Bond Lite for all my quilts. You can get it at most big box fabric stores, either in a roll, by the yard, or in printable sheets. All of my applique patterns are formatted to work with the printable sheets.

Rough Cutting and Clean Cutting the Applique Pieces (7:15)

I show what I mean by rough cut and clean cut in my patterns, and explain why rough cutting, then fusing, then clean cutting gives you the best results.

Transferring the Placement Markings (9:28)

I show all my favorite tools for marking placement lines when I applique

If you want to skip the placement markings, there’s a tutorial here showing how to get perfect placement without them.

Layering and Positioning the Fusible Applique Pieces (14:43)

I show how I layer all the pieces together – with extra info about how to mark your fusible adhesive to help you get a directional pattern to run in different directions to help create contrast between overlapping pieces. (Look at the legs on the chameleon block at the top of this post to see what I’m talking about here.)

Outlining the Pieces (20:47)

You have to outline the pieces after fusing to get a permanent hold. I use a simple straight stitch. A lot of people ask if that’s durable enough with withstand washing and drying. It is! I show a quilt here after many trips through the washer and dryer.

Whew! That is a LOT of info!

I do love fusible applique – and I hope this helps you love it too. 🙂

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.

Here are links to special posts about eyes.

Here are links to some extra fun things you can do with your applique.

Other Applique Methods

Finished with this topic?

Return to the Let’s Make a Quilt main Table of Contents.

Move on to the lessons about outline stitching.

Happy stitching!

Quilt Sizes and Supplies Needed

May 27, 2021
Quilt sizes and supplies needed - I did all the math - photo showing a calculator and math notes on an aqua cutting mat

All of my quilt patterns are really just starting places. I design everything based on a 10-inch square grid, so that you can mix and match individual block patterns however you like.

Even if you buy one of my multi-block patterns or bundles, the layout I use for my samples is just one way to put your block together. I may show the Lovable Mutts laid out in a simple grid, but you might want to add half blocks full of barks and yips and howls and woofs. Go for it!

If you purchase your own collection of individual block patterns, or decide to use a different layout than the sample I made for a pattern, you lose the handy materials list, cutting instructions, and assembly guide for all the different quilt sizes I show in my samples.

That’s where these guides come in!

There’s no reason for every individual to have to calculate all the math for all the different quilt sizes and layouts. I can do that once and then share it for everyone!

Each of the guides below is a downloadable PDF for one layout style. It includes all the following information for six different quilt sizes, from Itty Bitty Baby to King size.

  • fabric requirements
  • cutting instructions for background blocks, backing, and binding
  • quilt assembly diagram
  • backing assembly diagram (where any piecing is needed)
  • links to tutorials for quilt assembly and finishing

All fabric requirements are based on 40-inch wide fabric.

Pick Your Layout

If you need more info about what the different layouts look like, you can see lots of examples of each layout style in this post – Play with Your Layouts.

Choose your layout and click on the link below to download your PDF.

If you’re just getting started, you’ll find a very simple How to Make a Quilt guide here.

Have fun!

Find links to all the posts about pattern size and layouts here.

Quilt Sizes and Supplies Needed

Play with Your Layouts – Multiple Possibilities for One Quilt Pattern

Sashing

How to Make Applique Bust Out of Its Frame

Alternate or Broken Grid layouts (adding half and double blocks)

How to Make an Applique Rag Quilt

How to Make a Polaroid Quilt

How to Make a Wonky Churn Dash Frame for Any Block

Finished with this topic?

Return to the Let’s Make a Quilt main Table of Contents.

Move on to the lessons about choosing your fabric.

Happy stitching!

Papa and Baby – Emperor Penguin Applique Pattern

May 15, 2021

In time for Father’s Day next month – a Papa and Baby Emperor Penguin applique pattern!

Yep, the 15th of the month means it’s pattern release day in the Funny Faces Quilt Block of the Month Club!

We have a vote last month in the club to see what the next block of the month pattern will be – and this month the penguin pair were the winners – just barely edging out the dragonfly.

If you’re in the club already, head over to the clubhouse to download the pattern. This link will take you straight to the penguin page.

If you’re not in the club yet – here’s the link to join.

Members get an exclusive new pattern every month!

Here’s a quick peek at my penguin pair coming together.

I made the penguins with the Warm Neutral Batiks fabric bundle – plus a scrap of white-on-white print I had. The background block is from the Rainbow Sherbet fabric bundle.

I can’t wait to see all the penguins you make! (Penguins are antarctic, rather than arctic – but they’d be a fun addition to all the cold-loving critters in the Arctic Chill quilt pattern.)

Happy stitching!

Choosing Fabric for Your Backyard Birds Quilt

April 23, 2021

I’ve got a post here with general information about choosing fabric for any of my quilts, but choosing fabric for the new Backyard Birds quilt pattern is a whole different beast – worthy of its own post.

I’ve been making sample blocks for this quilt pattern for months now. This one was a doozy!

I’ve been getting a lot of questions from people who are starting to shop for fabric for their Backyard Birds quilts – wanting to know if there’s a list they can shop with.

Yes! Sort of. 🙂

Fabric Shopping List for the Backyard Birds Quilt Pattern

Click here to download the fabric shopping list for the Backyard Birds quilt.

Please understand that this is by no means a definitive list! It really depends on what birds YOU want to make. I’m making sample blocks (and including instructions for) 100 birds, but there are THOUSANDS of bird species out there – and when you consider the fact that male and females of the same species often look very different. . . well, that’s a lot of variation.

I’ve designed the templates to be mix and matchable – so you can use them to go way beyond the 100 samples I made. That means you’ll probably also go way beyond the fabrics I used. BUT! I can give you some guidelines to create a really useful stash to start with. Just be aware that you may need to go searching for just the right fabric for some of the birds in your quilt.

Before I go into specific colors and patterns, I want to include just a couple of the “rules” I used for my sample blocks. I often decide on rules for a quilt before I choose fabrics. It helps me keep a cohesive look to a jumble of different blocks. For my bird samples, the only solid I used was solid black for the eyes. ALL the other fabrics are prints or batiks. I did this because even the smoothest-looking birds have some variation/texture in their feathers. So I used batiks for the very smooth, uniform-looking birds (less common) and other prints for the rest (more common).

I recommend choosing one color palette for your background blocks, but I’ll have more info about that (and lots of sample photos) at the end of this post.

Solid-ish Neutrals

Not surprisingly, you’re going to need a lot of neutral fabrics. A LOT of backyard birds are colored to blend in with their backgrounds. The Animal Kingdom color collection is a great starting point. That contains multiple shades of grey (ranging from almost white to black), multiple shades of brown (again ranging from very light to very dark), a rusty brown and a golden color. Each of those colors is available in multiple prints, so you can find lots of variety there. You’ll definitely want more variety in the browns and greys – I often liked to use different prints of the same shade to get some contrast between different parts, like you see in this yellowthroat.

The wings, tail, and back of the bird are the same brown – but I used different prints to help create definition.

Applique of a yellowthroat - demonstrating how to choose fabric for a realistic bird

If that large collection is a bit much, you can shop by color here.

Here are some links to the colors you’ll use the most. . .

All of these that I’m talking about here are the tone-on-tone prints that read as solids.

Printed Neutrals

Now we’re talking stripes and spots. You actually don’t need many of these fabrics – but what you need is pretty specific. Here’s a list of the most common prints I used.

  • streaky brown – cream or tan with darker brown streaks or stripes
  • cream or tan with darker brown spots
  • brown with cream speckles
  • a darker brown and a lighter brown dappled print (all-over florals can work here)
  • brown stripes – medium brown with darker brown or black stripes
  • grey with black stripes

Of course, this is not comprehensive – but it’s a good start.

Black and White

You’re going to want some black and white prints.

  • wide black and white stripe – very useful for birds with black and white heads
  • white with black spots
  • white with black speckles
  • narrower black and white stripes (mainly for woodpeckers)
  • black and white check (also mainly for woodpeckers)

Colors

You’ll definitely want some yellows. I was surprised by how many birds have yellow! Get a couple of really bright yellows, some softer yellows, and also some dull mustardy shades.

Blue. Lots of birds have some very bright blue. Get a couple of prints in the same rich shade for the definition I talked about in the neutrals section. The darker shades of these Blueberry blenders work well for iridescent and blue-black birds.

Red. Most red birds tend to be orangey red rather than blue-ish reds, so keep that in mind as you shop. These blenders are true red, and these have a touch of orange.

Pink. We have a lot of pink and pinkish-purple birds here on the east coast. You’ll find a pink with grey undertones (or even grey streaks) pretty useful, and also a bright mulberry shade for several finches.

Greens. Surprisingly, there aren’t a lot of green birds here in the US. You’d think that would be good camouflage. You might want to decide on your birds before you shop for greens, because you could need anything from emerald to olive.

Orange and dark purple. Again – these don’t come up as often, so maybe shop as needed.

Background Blocks

The fabrics you choose for your background blocks can affect the whole mood of your quilt.

For my quilt I chose realistic colors for all the birds, and I played around with several different background palettes using my fabric bundles. I recommend choosing either solids or batiks for your background blocks – but don’t mix them. Besides thinking about the overall look you like, think about the quilting here. Quilting will really show on solids, and will be almost invisible on batiks.

Here are the background palettes I’ve already experimented with.

Backyard Birds made with the Batik Rainbow fabric bundle

These bright batiks will give you very vivid background blocks with nearly invisible quilting. The background fabrics are as vivid as some of the most colorful backyard birds!

Backyard Birds made with the Warm Neutral Batiks fabric bundle

The neutral batiks will give you a more subtle, forest-floor background. The colorful backyard birds really pop against these neutral fabrics, but when you’re putting a brown bird on a brown block (or a grey bird on a grey block) you’ll need to be sure to get good light/dark contrast.

Backyard Birds made with the Solid Rainbow fabric bundle

The solid background blocks in basic rainbow colors. Bright and cheerful.

Backyard Birds made with the Box of Crayons fabric bundle

These are also solid backgrounds, but in a more grown-up rainbow. The colors are still intense, but a little more muted. The yellow is mustard rather than sunshine. There are also some neutrals (brown and a grey) in the mix.

applique birds made with the Rainbow Sherbet bundle of Kona cotton solids

More solids, but this time in soft baby colors. The birds really pop against those pale pastels.

appliqued birds made with the Muted Rainbow fabric bundle

A different kind of rainbow solids. The colors are still bright, but they have a chalkier look. This collection also includes a brown and a grey.

applique birds on soft grey backgrounds

I also love this batch using shades of solid gray.

Green batiks can give you a very realistic background foliage kind of look.

Blue batiks would also work also really well – suggesting the sky.

Whew! That’s a lot of information! I hope it helps you shop for fabrics for your Backyard Birds quilt. Get the pattern here!

Happy stitching!

The 100 Day Project 2021 – 100 Birds

February 2, 2021
black-capped chickadee applique pattern

For the last few years I’ve participated in the 100 Day Project. Last year was the first year I actually finished it. 🙂

The 100 Day project is awesome. Participants decide on any creative activity they want to pursue for 100 days. It can be ANYTHING! A few that I remember off the top of my head are a jeweler who made 100 pairs of earrings, a potter who came up with 100 different handles, a baker who made 100 different pies, and an artist who designed 100 different alphabet fonts – the sky’s the limit!

Last year I designed a different repeat pattern every day – AND I used that pattern to mock-up a new applique design. Here’s just one example.

illustrated orangutan - cute

I hoped to have a fabric collection come out of it, but I got something else instead. SO MANY QUILT BLOCK IDEAS!

I’ve already designed a quilt pattern using the arctic animals I mocked up.

arctic chill applique quilt pattern cover

I love how it turned out – but it was relatively easy. Just design all the blocks, make a sample, record the video tutorials, and write the pattern!

But one of the ideas that the project sparked last year was a Mix & Match Backyard Birds pattern. As I was drawing some of the birds I see at my feeder, I realized that a lot of the basic parts are pretty much the same. I wondered if I could create some basic templates that could be used to applique just about any of those classic feeder birds. I noodled around with the idea for ten of my hundred days, and it seemed like it would work!

backyard birds applique pattern design process

I’ve taken the months since then to draw up a bunch of templates and now I’m finally ready to test them – just in time for a new 100 Day Project!

The new tests won’t be mock-ups. They’re actually appliqued blocks that I’ll be able to join into a quilt. So exciting!

Here’s Day 1 – a black-capped chickadee, one of my favorite birds.

black-capped chickadee applique pattern

Will I be able to make 100 different recognizable birds using just a few pages of templates? We’re about to find out. 🙂

You can follow along with my progress on Instagram. And the applique pattern will be available at the end of the project – maybe even sooner if the testing goes smoothly and I don’t need to design too many additional templates. 🙂

Update! The project is finished and you can find the pattern here!

Want to join in the 100 Day Project? There’s more info here.

Happy stitching!

Meet Ellen the Elephant!

January 15, 2021
cute green applique elephant

I love the 15th! It’s pattern release day in the Funny Faces Quilt Block of the Month Club!

The new pattern this month is Ellen the Elephant.

I made her in three different colors and this silly green elephant splashing around in pink lemonade was my favorite. 🙂

If you’re in the club already, head over to the clubhouse to download the pattern. This link will take you straight to the elephant’s page.

If you’re not in the club yet – here’s the link to join.

Members get an exclusive new pattern every month!

Here’s a quick peek at my elephant coming together.

I ended up making elephants in three different colors.

Most African elephants are grey, so I made a grey one.

I used the Warm Neutral Batiks bundle for the elephant and Box of Crayons for the background block.

Asian elephants can also be grey, but they’re more often a reddish brown.

I used the Warm Neutrals fabric bundle for the elephant and the Rainbow Sherbet bundle for the background block.

Finally – here’s that silly green elephant.

This one uses the Dots and Gingham Play fabric bundles for the elephant and the Batik Rainbow fabric bundle for the background.

I can’t wait to see the elephants you make!

Happy stitching!