Sunday Stash #15

Holly Hill by Laurie Bird for Windham Fabrics.

I found yards of these beauties while organinzing my sewing space.

Now what to do with them?

See I am still seasonally confused.

Tutorial English Paper Pieced Applecore Part 2

Tutorial English Paper Piecing Applecore Part 1 can be found HERE.

Once you have prepared all your pieces, you can lay them out to decide on placement or randomly select the order.

Select 2 applecores and lay them like this.

Flip the core to the right so that the wrong side shows.

Rotate the applecore so that the end points meet as shown.

Grasp the papers keeping the points right sides together.

Begin a whip stitch.

I suggest using a small Straw needle so that you can just take a tiny bite of the fabric and leave the paper underneath untouched.

After stitching about a 1/4" of the pieces....

 

Bend the fabric between your fingers. I have one finger to the outside, one in the middle and one on the outside of the other applecore.

This will give you about another 1/4" of fabric to whip stitch.

It takes practices and is a somewhat slow process, however, with practice it begins to go quicker.

Here is one completed applecore set.

Finish with a small knot.

It will be hidden on the back side of the piece.

Add another applecore to this 'block'.

(This sample is made in Ruby)

Make {5} A blocks

Make {5} B blocks

Here are both 'blocks', you can see how they will next together.

*Note* leave the papers intact at this point.

to be continued in Part 3........

Seasonally Confused.

I am.

Seasonally confused.

Technically it is still summer. It's 85 degrees and beautiful most days.

Why would I be confused?

Well it's getting a bit cooler in the night here in Ohio and that smell of fall is in the air....even for a brief moment early in the day.

My mind keeps wondering to orange, red, yellow and black.

Leaves, pumpkins, and spiced desserts.

Last week when I attended the book signing at J'Ellen's House of Fabrics I was terribly confused.

I wanted Sophie by Chez Moi....

Trick or Treat by Deb Strain....

Summer House by Lily Asbury.....

Farmyard: Sentimental Studios......

and Oops a Daisy.

p.s. for inquiring minds....I didn't break the bank at J'Ellen's. She was having a HUGE sale. $20 for jelly rolls, $5 charm packs....you get the idea.

It was HUGE and I had a gift certificate from a really great friend. I was pleased as punch.

Anyhow do you see the issue?

Summer,

no Fall,

 summer, Fall, summer....ACK! I am mixed up.

Do you know the feeling?

What to start first? what will I make? I have a gazillion patterns and MY own and still I'm not sure.

First on my list is some sort of fallish/Halloween pillow cover.

I have a pillow form that had a 4th of July cover....now it's naked so I really need to start there first.

Oh shucks, I just remembered the Applecore tutorial....guess I will start there and the pillow will be second on the list.

It's 90% done.

My Sewing area/kids tv playroom that is.

The wall unit is Expedit from Ikea.

I ♥ Ikea.

really.

Here is the angle from the tv wall unit.

Another Expedit added there and I am using the other white pieces I had from my first set up.

And the cutting table area.

The wall cabinets and ironing station were clearance at Home Depot a few years ago and so they stayed.

It's about 20' X 16' and is packed with fabric love :)

I am feeling sooo much better that it is a useable space again.

When I have a mess whether I am organizing or not, I just can't focus until it's straightened.

This is 90% done.

There are few baskets here and there that need a home, but some of the Expedit squares are empty so there's room.

Now I need to focus on finishing part 2 of the Applecore tutorial and show you what I bought at J'Ellen's House of Fabric.

More posts soon.

promise.

When life hands you potatoes.....

Make chips.

We are new-ish to gardening and decided that this year we would add potatoes to our repertoire.

So we quartered some from the pantry that had 'eyes' on them and planted.

Well my husband being not too knowledgable about planting...planted a summer squash right next to the potatoes.

The squash went like wild fire and basically smothered the poor potato plants.

We thought there were no potatoes that could have survived.

So last night we went out to dig out the now defunct summer squash....

and my hubby decided to pull the potatoes too.

Well wouldn't you know it.

Potatoes...lots of them.

Well lots for us.

So we made potato chips first and the rest? maybe American fries for dinner?

 I'm not sure but I am super excited that we got potatoes.

It was a treat to see my girls digging for them.

Next year we are planting them again, away from the Squash.

And this monster is from my heirloom tomato plants...

We have tomatoes coming out of our ears this year

guess I will have to try canning this year after all.....

Scrap Apple Bag Tutorial

Head over to the Moda Bakeshop and check out my newest tutorial.

It's totally scrappy!

Come Join Me

At JEllen's House of Fabric in Lyndhurst, Ohio!

5259 Mayfield Road .... to be exact.

When?

this Saturday August 13th between 10:30am-12:30pm for a book signing of Fresh Fabric Treats.

This is Joyce and Sarah.

They are very special people and I feel very fortunate that they decided to open their fabric shop here in Northeast Ohio.

This week is their anniversary week and Joyce has some 'sweet' sales to coordinate with the Fresh Fabric Treats book.

Can you guess what she might have on sale?

If you thought precuts....

then you're correct.

Jelly Rolls and Layer cakes $20!

Charm packs $5

Patterns 50% off....

HOLY MOLY.

I'm going to faint.

(fanning self here)

I hope to see you there :)

a small project.

As you know, I knit.

And I started a new project last night...

a batty dishcloth

from Holiday Knit Dishcloths.

I used my cotton yarn stash :)

p.s. my organizing is still not done.

We decide to move a couple of bedrooms around too...

Weekend of Success and Failure

In Baking that is.

I made successful Sticky Buns from Barefoot Contessa's recipe on the Food network.

It's really decadent.

Buttery, sweet, crunchy...delicious.

Then...I got REAL brave and tried to make Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes....

Like these that I saw on Pinterest.

{picture from LoveandOliveOil blog}

Hmm....don't even get me started about Pinterest. It's addicting.

I digress...

the cupcakes....well the cakes themselves were divine.

I whipped up the batter in no time and had them baking.

It's a delicious recipe that would make again.

Then I tried to make Strawberry Buttercream.

I have never made buttercream.

I could go on and on about this but basically I don't know what went wrong.

 It was perfect until I added the Strawberries.

After spending 30 minutes trying to selvage the buttercream, I gave up and used canned frosting.

Horrible I know.

I may never try buttercream again.

Then I read the blog post attached to the recipe and realized the recipe creator had the same problem with the icing.

Drat!

I could have avoided using that buttercream recipe had I read the blog post BEFORE baking.

Live and Learn.

Tutorial English Paper Piecing Applecore shape Part 1

This project is the inspiration for this tutorial. I love the applecore shape and I started this some time ago not realizing how complex it could be to sew curves.

Here is what you need to start your own English Paper Pieced Applecore tablerunner.

This will measure about 10 1/2" X 32 1/2".

Sewline Glue Stick

1 Charm pack of Ruby or other fabric line

batting 12" X 36"

backing fabric 12" X 36"

Basic neutral thread

thimble

sewing needle

{30 papers} 1-2 packs of 4" Applecore paper pieces from Paper Pieces

(they are sold in 25 or 150 pieces per pack)

or make your own with this template --->

You can download the applecore pdf template HERE.

I am going to make this small project right along with you and I chose Ruby by Moda for my feature fabric.

 I might add some Bliss too, I am not sure on that :)

A charm pack of Ruby or charm pack of any fabric would be adequate for this project.

You will need at least  4" X 5" rectangles.
*note that my applecore has 'holes' in it. I originally sewed through the papers BEFORE I started using the glue stick technique.

Place your paper piece onto the rectangle and mark with a pencil a 3/8" seam allowance.
I have found that a 1/4" is too small for my comfort level with this project so I used 3/8".
After I made 2 or 3 I just eye balled the seam allowance.
It is up to you if you would like to mark them all.

Pin your paper to the wrong side of the fabric and cut out along the seam allowance.

Next you need to make small 1/4" cuts in the seam allowance to help you form the fabric to the paper piece.
BE CAREFUL not to cut too deeply into the seam allowance.

Take your Sewline glue stick and place about 1/2 swipe of glue onto the paper piece edge.
Fold the seam allowance over as shown.

Continue to do this for both 'inner' curves.

Then clip the 'outer' curves and glue and fold.

When you get to the corners you must manipulate the fabric and glue by gluing fabric to fabric.

I wasn't worried about the neatness of the back of the paper....just the 'tightness' of the point of the applecore.

Remove the pin.

Here is the first finished applecore.

It goes pretty quickly since you do not have to sew through the papers.

Repeat 29 more times.

Part 2: How to sew english paper pieced applecores together.

will be posted next week to give you some preparation time.

Leave me a comment if you might participate...

I'd like to know what fabric line you will use or if just scrappy.

I look forward to your combinations.