One Monthly Goal For March ~ Finished!

One Monthly Goal ~ March Finish Link Up

My March Goal Setting Post

This was the fabric pull for a very fun to design and make pillow.

My March Goal was Finished Here

This pillow cover was designed by my daughter 

and sewn by me an together we created this

 Free-For-Personal-Use-Only-Pattern ... 

Bone Broth for the Little One ~ Free .pdf Pattern Here

from  

I have also posted a series of 

How-To Make This Block and Pillow Tutorials

Thanks to all who have followed along on my Star Wars quilty journey.

Thanks to 

Patty @ Elm Street Quilts

for helping me with my goal setting this year. 

May your quilty place be your refuge

 and may you and yours be well. 

<3 

Bone Broth for the Little One ~ Part 5 ~ The Finish!

Time to bind and complete the pillow!

Bone Broth For the Little One ~ Part 5 ~ 

Binding and Finishing The Pillow Cover

This is the last part of he series on how to make the

Bone Broth For the Little One Block and sew it into a Pillow Cover. 

Here are links to the other parts of this tutorial: 

 Part 1 ~ Gathering Supplies and Getting Started

Part 2 ~ The Fine Details of the Applique ~ Click Here

Part 3 ~ Quilting the Applique Block

Part 4 ~ Making the Snap Envelope Back of the Pillow Cover

At the end of Part 4 the front and back pillow panels were completed.

This panels need to squared and trimmed with your ruler to 18.5" square.

They must be the exact same size to place one on top of the other 

and bound together to be bound.

They need to be sandwiched with fusible fleece facing the inside

and the front and back of the block facing outward.

Here is a good video showing one way to bind a quilted pillow: 

Easy Pillow Binding Video from Riley Blake Designs

Please watch this video if you have never bound a quilt before

as I will refer to it later for specific details of the process. 

My personal method is somewhat different.

As I have said, find what works best for you in your sewing place. 

This method machine stitches the strips to the front of the pillow 

and hand stitches the binding closed on the back.

I auditioned several binding fabrics and decided on this gray metallic print.

Al that was left in my stash were these two pieces.

The larger one, which was less than a fat quarter yielded enough strips

for my pillow binding.

I cut my binding strips 2.5" wide.

I sewed these five strips into one continuous strip

and pressed in half leaving a 1/4" inch single layer on the edge I will sew to my pillow,

leaving about a six inch strip of fabric at the beginning and ending.

Watch the video to de-mystify this process.

In this photo I have drawn a line to show this quarter inch and my stitching line. 

I find this reduces the bulk in the binding a little and makes it easier to fold to the back.

When I reach a corner I stop 1/4" from the edge and backstitch off the top edge.

Then I turn the corner and fold the fabric to form the corner and reposition the needle

and continue on the next side.

The video link above is very helpful in showing this step. 

This is how I close my binding.

I do not sew diagonal seams when binding.

I fold my opening and closing ends back and finger press a 1/2" seam where they meet.

I pin straight across.

Then I stitch the ends closed.

Then I stitch the opening closed and turn my binding to the back of the pillow

and prepare to hand stitch.

I use plastic binding clips  to secure this fold before stitching.

quilty kitties think binding clips are a fun toy.

Here is the front of my pillow clipped.

Here is the back, starting to hand stitch the binding.

My new favorite kind of binding needles are
Tulip Short Sashiko Needles

These are very strong and feel comfortable in my hand. 

I used to sometimes bend regular sewing needles while binding.

These do not bend. 

This is a close up.

This is called a "blind hem stitch." 

Here is a handy chart showing different kinds of hand stitches.

I use a

Clover Point 2 Point Turner

to tuck in my corners to make them neat.

This is another fun quilty kitty toy.
My quilty kitties and I had fun with this project.

I actually love to hand stitch a binding closed.

One of my favorite moments in quilting is taking that last small stitch, knotting off,

and turning my quilted project over to see the front of my ...

 ... new finish!  Sew exciting!

If you would prefer to machine bind your pillow,
there are many tutorials and videos on the quilty net to show you how to do so.

I have a tutorial for adding a two color machine binding ...



Two Fabric Flanged Machine Binding Tutorial
This is my personal favorite machine binding method.

I hope you have enjoyed my tutorial series for making this quilted pillow cover.

Please let me know is you have questions or feedback to
scrapatches @ gmail.com

May you soon have a cute "Bone Broth for the Little One" pillow in your Star Wars corner.

If you make  this project, me and My Girl would love to see it!

Bone Broth for the Little One Tutorials ~ Part 3 ~ Quilting the Applique Block

This is my pillow top panel ready to add to my pillow cover.



The Finished Pillow was posted Here

There are two types of quilting here,
both stitched on my regular sewing machine
with the built in walking foot on my Janome 6600p.
Most sewing machines do not have this built in and it is a separate attachment.

If you have a walking foot it looks something like this.
It is also called and even feet foot.
What it does is work together with the regular feed dogs under the fabric
 to help pull heavy fabrics or a quilt sandwich evenly under the needle.

Here is a beginner video of how this works

I actually quilted my first quilts without the benefit of this
attachment even though I had one.
One day, I found it tucked into the foam padding in the bottom of the box
 of my old basic Brother sewing machine.
It is very helpful.
If you have never used or do not have this foot, give it a quilty try.



I added Pellon fusible fleece to the back of my 18" applique block
to stabilize it.  I did not add a back layer of fabric as with a traditional quilt sandwich
as the fleece backed block moves easily with my feed dogs.
You may want to add square of cotton to the back of your fused block.
If you add the back layer of fabric,  a few safety pins would hold it in place, if you want.
I do not add safety pins to my quilt sandwich ... personal preference.
Most things in quilting are personal preferences.
Find what works for you in your happy quilty place.

I started by adding a round of outline quilting about 1/2" way from the
blanket stitch edge of my applique.

I continued added rounds of ripple quilting.

I started my rounds of quilting in a different place along the bottom edge of my applique shape and overlapped the stitches to stop.

I always pull my bobbin thread to the top when I start a quilting line.

Here is a How-to video ~ Pulling Up the Bobbin Thread

This helps avoid thread nests on the back of your quilting.

I actually also do this whenever I start my applique stitching
and any time I start stitching in the middle of my top fabric.

I added ripple quilting out to the edge of my oversized block.

Here is the back fusible fleece showing this quilting.

I could have used this as my pillow top, but we decided make the center a 12" finished block.
We auditioned border fabric and decided on the basketweave for visual interest.

I did not cut my block to 12.5"

I measured a 12" center and added the outer border on top of my quilted block.
This is not the usual way of adding borders to a block or quilt
but in this case it worked for me.

This is my 18" block with the borders added.

The I quilted straight lines about 1/2" apart in the borders from edge to edge.

This created a grid in the corners of my finished quilting.

This is my pillow top ready to be go into my pillow cover.

Bone Broth for the Little One ~ Part 4 ~ Making the Pillow Back
should be posted tomorrow.

Here are the other links in the series: 

 Part 1 ~ Gathering Supplies and Getting Started

Part 2 ~ The Fine Details of the Applique ~ Click Here

More Quilting Ideas

These are similar quilting motifs that are easily done on a regular sewing machine 

with a walking foot ...

Outline quilting on the applique blocks of this

Baby Giraffe Quilt

This is an example of my earliest efforts to quilt my quilts.

  To do this I outline the shape and then echo this stitch line with filler lines within the block which helps to make the applique shape stand out.

Similar to outline and echo quilting is a while quilt method of stitching ... 

Spiral Quilting on my Eye of the Eagle Quilt

I used my walking foot and started by making a circle around the eye of the eagle 

and continued to quilt expanding circles around the center outward.

I hope my readers find this series of posts helpful.

Thank you for following along on my quilty journey! 

Bone Broth for the Little One ~ Tutorial Part 2 ~ Fine Details of the Applique

This post covers the fine applique details

 in my series of tutorials for how I made  my

Bone Broth for the Little One  

pillow for my daughter's Star Wars Reading Corner.

If you have to make one for your home or a gift you may

Download This Free Pattern Here

Click Here for Part 1 in the Series ~ Getting Started

Trying to bring those eyes and face to life was very intimidating for me.

My Girl and I went back and forth on how they should look.

I worried about my applique skills being up to the task.

Here is an alternate audition of white details.

We settled on these small silver slivers.

Usually I just add critter eyes onto my applique by fusing the large iris first 

and then the pupils directly onto the block.

This time I was really worried about messing it up and having to start over.

So I chose an alternate method ...

I made the eyes first keeping the brown irises on the applique paper backing

and adding the black pupils  and silver slivers

and then cutting them out of the paper backing.

I set my machine to use a zig zag stitch to add the black pupils and sliver slivers

as this was easier to turn and secure than my usual blanket stitch. 

Here is a work in progress image of the back of the eyes.

After cutting them out I used my seam ripper to cut and pull away the 

paper backing before I fused them to the face.

Then I blanket stitched the completed eyes to the block.

This worked well for me and I will do this again to add small details

to machine applique blocks.

Then it was time to add the brow lines with a regular straight stitch.

I went back to my practice piece and drew with a Frixon pen

and practiced stitching.

I was still a little worried about messing it up.

Sometimes applique stitches show when you pick them out 

because of the stiffness of the fusible.

Then I took the plunge and did my best.

I forgot to take in process photos,

but I can say I outlined the eyes first,

then added the brows over each eye,

then the forehead line

and finally the hint of a nose.

I am very happy with how this worked up. 

Not perfect ... but this may be my best machine applique ever!

Here is the back of my applique.

Very neat for me.

Then I cut a 19" square of the Pellon Fusible Fleece.

Following the manufacturer's directions, I pressed my block 

with a dry iron to the fleece 

by starting at center and slowly moving outward.

My block is now ready for quilting.

Part 3 ~ Quilting My Block

 on my regular sewing machine 

will be posted tomorrow. 

If you have any questions, you may email me to

scrapatches@gmail.com

and I will do my best to help.

Happy Quilting!