A Handmade Christmas Part 1: LeMoyne Star Tree Ornaments

 

Growing up we had an artificial tree most years. I remember one Christmas we had a live one and it shed horribly. I was given leg warmers that year (it was the 80s) and I still remember putting them on after leaving them on the floor and being pricked by what seemed like hundreds of tiny needles. It took forever to get the pine needles out. 

My mum dressed the tree every year and the process was always the same. Lights were first and had to be tested. Ours were coloured with spikey lanterns covering the bulbs. Invariably there would be a loose bulb which caused the whole string to not work, thus began the tedious task of twisting every bulb to find the offending one. After that was tinsel. Tinsel first then the lights, so the lights didn't cover the gaudy sparkly garlands. This seemed to take a while because my mum was a real stickler for making sure there were no gaps. Then came the fun bit, adding the ornaments, but there was a system to this as well. Larger ornaments at the bottom, smaller at the top.

I decided to rebel at little when dressing my tree and put the ornaments on before the lights. I could almost see my mum sighing and shaking her head as I awkwardly pulled the string of lights around the tree, knocking off my carefully placed baubles. There was obvious method in her madness!

In years past our tree was inspired by peacock colours which meant deep teal, magenta and I even added peacock feathers. But this year we decided on a mainly red and white colour scheme. I have to say I prefer it. Concerned I wouldn't have enough ornaments in the right colours, I decided to make some and chose the lovely traditional LeMoyne star patchwork design. I made this using my favourite paper piecing method since they are quite small and they really don't take long at all to make this way. 

You will need

LeMoyne star template (to be added!)

Fabric in two patterns

Stiff cotton canvas or heavyweight stabilizer

Matching ribbon cut to 4 inches

Card stock

Scrap paper

Glue stick

Pins

Multi-purpose thread in a contrasting color to the patterned fabric

Sewing thread in a color to match the patterned fabric

Needle

Pinking shears or regular scissors

1. Cut out the template and glue onto card stock to make a re-usable template
2. Draw 8 shapes onto scrap paper and cut out
3. Pin 4 of these slanting to the LEFT to the wrong side of ONE of the patterned fabrics allowing about 1/2 inch between each shape and the edge of the fabric
4. Cut around the shapes with a 1/4 inch seam allowance
5. Repeat steps 3 & 4 with the remaining 4 shapes point to the RIGHT with the other patterned fabric
6. Fold seam allowance over the paper shape and tack stitch the seam all the way round with the contrasting thread
7. Do this for all eight
8. Take one each of the shapes in different patterns
9. Put the front sides together (so if you flip them either way you can see the seam allowance and paper underneath) and sew a long edge with matching thread using whip stitch
10. When done, take another shape and sew it to one of the of the short edges of the two shapes, ensuring the pattern is alternating (see the photos above)
11. Do this for FOUR shapes so that you have half a star with a straight edge
12. Repeat steps 8 - 11
13. Sew the long edges of the two halves together with the right sides facing each other, using the matching thread and whip stitch
14. Remove the tacking stitches ad papers (save them for your next star!)
15. Pin the wrong side to the canvas or stabilizer, with the seam folded under and sandwiched betweed the canvas and star
16. Fold your ribbon into a loop
17. Pin between the star and canvas (see photos)
18. Sew with running stitch in matching thread, I intentionally made the stitches long to give the stars a primitive look
19. Trim the excess canvas or stabilizer with pinking shears or normal scissors
20. Hang on your tree or wreath!

TV Project 1: Kimono Coasters

Kimono silk is just something I can't resist, it's sexy makes me think of geisha.  It's also awkward to work with, since it is so sheer and thin.  I like to always have a project on the go that I can do while watching TV. So this is my TV project du jour.   

NOTE: The instructions for the rosettes can also be used to make the ones you saw on the boudoir pillow.  Imagine a pillow with kimono silks! Ooh la la, get your Valentine's horny on!

Level: Beginner
Time: 2 hours per coaster
Cost: $2 (approximately
Materials and Tools:
Hexagon template, size: 1 inch per side
Kimono silk scraps (or scraps of cotton quilt weight fabric) in three different patterns in similar colors.
1/2 yard of grey felt
Thread in contrasting color and matching color
Pins
Scrap paper
Needle
Iron
Scissors for fabric
Scissors for paper

- First cut seven hexagons out of scrap paper
- You are going to need one hexagon from one patterned fabric then three each from two additional patterns
- Place your paper hexagon onto the wrong side of your chosen fabric and pin in place
- Cut around the hexagon with a quarter inch seam allowance
- Fold the fabric seam over the paper and tack all the way round with the contrasting thread
- Remove pin
- Do this with all seven hexagons
- The one hexagon cut from a different fabric to the other six is the center of the rosette
- Take this hexagon and a hexagon of another pattern place them with right sides facing each other and sew the seams together with whip stitch
- Continue doing this until you have all six hexagons of alternating pattern sewn to the center one
- Iron your rosette so the seams are nice and sharp
- Remove the paper from the center hexagon and pin to the felt
- Cut out the felt so that the rosette is pinned to smaller piece of felt with some excess fabric around it.
- Remover one paper from an outer hexagon and pin to the fabric with the seam folded under
- Sew the edge with a running stitch
- Do this hexagon by hexagon until all edges are sewn to the felt
- Trim off the excess felt
- Press with iron
- DONE

Spring Update

Our living room, photo taken from the balcony above.


It seems as if the only time I post on my much-neglected blog is to explain why I have been away for so long! Yes, my life has been through various transitions over the last 3 years, multiple moves, jobs and plans.
Now I am finally, finally settled. No more renting, or living out of boxes. No more work spaces in closets and struggles to start a craft business.

My husband and I firmly ensconced in the house of our dreams, truly, and in the process of making it our own. Given the travels from UK, to Zambia (Africa), to here: Asheville, NC, US, settling and getting the house exactly as we want it is going to take some time. But isn't that part of the fun?

The house we have bought is spectacular (there, I have said it) open plan, LEED certified and beautifully modern. More pictures to come. The slightly industrial and minimalist style matches our taste and we have been happily buying vintage pieces to give it that mid-century modern flair.

It is this new house and our homemaking that spurred me to give this blog a bit of a make over. So 'For the Love Of' has been retired, to be replaced with the somewhat flamboyant name of 'The Modernist Craft Movement'. Why? Well as much as I love crafts, it is hard when quilting, embroidering and whatnot to create pieces that are contemporary and not-quaint. So I am on a mission, to embark on craft projects that I love as well as create things that I would have happily in my own house or on my own body!

Think of this blog as a work in progress (aren't all blogs?), an electronic notebook that I am sharing with whoever drops by. Please leave comments if you are inclined, it's nice to know that one is not typing into cold cyberspace, only to be lost in the millions of other craft sites out there!

Cushion Cover

New cover, the rosettes are paper pieced and hand appliqued, the top will be machine sewn as soon as the voltage converter comes for my UK machine!

kimono Silk Patchwork

I love kimono silks and my love of paper piecing works great with them because they are so thin and floppy to work with. The paper templates are a great way of stabilizing the material.

As you can see I am using them for a fan block, the completed one is a Dresden plate block which I made years ago. These are good blocks for kimono silk pieces which I buy and are not always all that big.

My Pennant Quilt Progress

I am still squirreling away on my paper pieced quilt and about half done with the top. Superbowl weekend I laid my first lot of strips out and found one doesn’t quite match in size which is a little irritating and also mystifying, but I am sure I will come up with a way make it work. I have made a new template to add straight edges to each end of the pennant style triangles so that I have a straight rectangular quilt to work with when the strips are sewn together.

Paper Piecing How To

I know a few months ago I gave a few pointers on paper piecing but I don’t think there is any harm in going over them again.
I generally use paper piecing for basic repetitive patterns but they can also be used for patchwork blocks. In particular if you have a block you want to copy but you don’t have the measurements, method etc. Paper piecing makes this easy because you don’t need to work out seam allowances.

You will need:
Cardboard for your template/s (for example old cereal boxes)
Scrap paper (magazines or newspapers work well)
Scissors
Tape
A thick pen
Needle and thread
pins
Scraps of fabric

First make your template:
The triangle I am using I made by using a rectangle of cardboard, placing it lengthways, find the middle then drawing to lines from the bottom two corners on the shortest sides to the opposite side dead centre.

If you are making a number of templates for a block, number them and then number the block you have to make it easier to work out how to place them.

Tape the edges of your template so that when you draw around it, you don’t soften the edges. Alternatively you could use template plastic, which is available at quilt stores – or use plastic from packaging. I am trying to use as much recycled materials as I can, plus I don’t have a quilting store here!

Next, use your scrap paper to make the paper pieces by drawing around your template with the thick pen and cut out. Make a stack so you don’t have to keep going back to make more.

Pin the paper pieces to the wrong side of your fabric, leaving about ¼ inch space. Cut out the piece a ¼ inch away from the edge of the piece – very important, do not cut flush with the piece!

Fold the excess fabric over your paper and sew with a large tacking stitch to the paper.

When you have enough for all the stages or patterns you want, you can start assembling.

Place the fabric covered pieces right side to right side with the edges lines up and sew together with a small slip stitch. Check carefully that you have your pieces lined up correctly.

Keep going until you have your quilt. Easy!

New Adventures in Paper Piecing

I was feeling kind of down recently. It’s hot here at the moment and after Christmas I felt quite homesick, seeing all that snow and knowing my family is so far away. Nothing improves my mood than working on a craft project, especially sewing, I find it very therapeutic. So I decided to start a new quilt and luckily I have tons of new fabrics to work with (some of you regulars will have read about my love of chitenge material). As I sorted through my fabric stash and bathed in all the colours and shapes, I immediately started to feel better. I chose paper piecing again because I wanted to hand stitch my quilt and I find the slip stitch used in paper piecing super-strong. I also love the whole process of paper piecing and love the feeling of keeping alive this old method.

Considering how important precision is in quilting it’s a bit ironic that I am not a very thorough person, for example I never washed my fabrics when quilting back in the UK. Modern methods of dying mean you don’t really need to pre-wash fabrics, but the chitenge material here often runs, so I did wash them this time. Look how lovely they are with the sun shining through them on the line and the wind blowing them.

The design I am using is very simple, an acute triangle repeated alternately in cream fabric and the various patterns. I think this design will look really elegant and the cream fabric sets off the patterns well. This is a very good method if you want to use up scraps. Watch out for my method of paper piecing for you to follow coming up in the next few days.

Clutch Bag Tutorial Part 2

Sorry for the wait! What with getting married, working and trying to get my Etsy shop up and running, I barely have time to actually do any crafts these days! But things will calm down in August, I hope.

Anyway, here's the second part of the clutch bag tutorial. This will take you up to sewing the layers together. Part 3 will deal with fitting the zip.

After sewing your two halves together, your bag should look a bit like this.

Next, you need to add the centre piece of fabric. Put the open hole over the wrong side of the fabric you want to use and draw a circle. Cut this out with a 1/4 inch seam and pin to your bag.

Turn over and slip stitch tiny stitches all the way round.

When this is done, remove the papers from the fan (these can be used again if you are careful!),make your quilting sandwich using the batting and lining fabric. Allow excess for batting and lining, it comes out smaller after quilting.

You can now pin the layers together for quilting. Either quilt straight lines throught the fronds of the fan or 'in the ditch', following the seam.

Next, fold the lining and and outside patchwork edges inwards a few millimeters and sew the layers together using whipstitch. Or you could add bias binding and machine stitch.

You now have a disc ready to fold in half to add the zip!

New Ways with Patchwork: Clutch Bag Tutorial Part 1

I originally found this design in a book my friend has on patchwork bags, I LOVE fan patchwork and it's the perfect project for my pending nuptials. Months back when we first got engaged, I went mad buying kimono silk with the idea of maybe using them for the wedding. Well here's my chance. The bag is just the right size for lipstick and the like.

I amended the pattern to my own method using paper piecing which I love. It is such a small project that it won't take long and you can use very small amounts of fabric.

You will need:

• Scraps of fabric (size depends on how big the purse will be)
  Scrap paper for the paper templates
  Batting 2oz for a 24cm long bag


• Inner fabric as above


• Thread (sewing and quilting thread)


• A zip

Here's part 1

First draw a circle as big as you want to clutch to be. Mine was drawn with a compass set to 12 cm.

Cut the circle out. To make the fronds you need to divide the circle into 16 equal segments. Do this by folding the circle eight times, mark the folds with a ruler and pen. Set a compass at 4 cm and draw this smaller circle in the centre of larger circle. Cut the large circle in half. Then cut out the semi-circles and then cut the 16 segments out - picture below.

The semi-circles you don't need but the fronds are for your paper piecing. Pin them to the wrong side of your fabric and cut them out with a 1/4 seam approx (sometimes use more). You will see I used pinking shears, this was to stop the fabric fraying - very common with some silks.

When you have cut out the fabric pieces, use a contrasting thread to tack the sides over the paper in biggish stitches. After, you can remove the pins.

Use the pieces to decide on your combination then take the two first put them right side to rights side, with the paper and fold seaming showing outward and whipstitch together. Continue until you have two semi-circles.

Part 2 will come when I do it myself - either tomorrow or day after!

Honeycomb Garden Throw

Seems a while since I added anything about quilting recently. Here is my completed honeycomb throw. It's not really a quilt as it is backed with fleece rather than with 3 layers, this was to speed up the processs and make it more versatile.

Now up for sale on Etsy! Ok, yes a bit of promotion there - sorry.

In Praise of Paper Piecing

I decided I needed a change of pace from the quilting, hence the new hexagon project. It's great to be working with such fresh fabrics and I have always loved paper piecing.

Here are some brief instructions on having a go:

• First, go here to find out how to draw an accurate hexagon

• 
• Make a template from cardboard or plastic
• draw lots of hexagons onto old envelopes, magazine pages or whatever and cut them out.

• 
• Next, pin a paper hexagon to the wrong side of your desired fabric
• Cut around the hexagon, allowing a 1/4 inch of fabric extra all the way around or at least to fold over the shape
• Fold the edge of fabric over the paper and tack stitch all the way around
• When you have a number of these, choose two put them against eachother flat and whip stitch along the edge with tiny stitches

Many quilters don't like paper piecing because it is a little time consuming, but I find it very relaxing. Each to their own.

Honeycomb/Hexagon Plans

One of the hardest things for me is getting beautiful fabrics and then contemplating cutting them up. I have noticed a rise in simple quilts that are made up of basic square designs with the intention to show off fabrics. I love the simplicity of them. Since my visit to Cotton Patch where I succumbed temptation and bought some bright and kitsch fat quarters, I have been deliberating on the best way to use them. They are so pretty that I don't want them to get lost in a complicated block, but would also like a fun shape.

Enter the honeycomb, the first ever piecing I tried. The retro feel of the hexagon shape I think will fit the fabrics well, and I get another opportunity to use paper piecing. The pictures on the right are designs to help envisage how I want my design to look. They come from:
CindyBlackberg, bean-sprouts.blogspot.com, moonstitches.wordpress.com, craftjuice.com