Curl Up With ...

 ... a Comfy Pillow, a Snuggly Quilt and a Good Book!

Welcome to the "Getting a Clue With Nancy Drew"  Blog Hop!

  I started with this bright and graphic charm pack.

When I signed up for this hop, I had a plan (or thought I did as there are rulers in this photo) for just what I wanted to make so I ordered this charm pack.   When the hop was delayed due to the slow shipment of this fabric to the shops, this went on the back burner.  When the charm pack arrived in December, it was off the stove completely and cooling on the shelf. 

Three blog hops and numerous other projects later, my machine went into the shop for servicing just when this finally got off the shelf and back into the mix.   

Ah ... problem ... I needed my machine for my original idea. 

Time for Plan B !

Quilt As Yo Go Hexagon Pillow Top!

For the how-to details, read on!

For My Giveaway and a list of all the blog hops stops today,
 scroll to the bottom of my post!

Pillow Tutorial

Plan B involves quite a bit of hand sewing and quilt as you go ... it was what I was planning for "Stitch Me Up" ... hmmmmmmmm ...

need a new plan for that one, too.

For now  ~~~~~~>

Cluing In with Quilt As You Go Hexagons!

Last fall when Superstorm Sandy took out my lights for awhile I also had to hand sew and quilts so I worked up my own method for making this fall table topper ...

QAYG Hexies, 101.1 ...Tutorial ... Fall 2012

 QAYG Hexies, 101.2

So for Plan B, Nancy Drew gets a QAYG Hexagon Lesson ...

Perle Cotton ... stitch through all layers

Katniss Helps

Ladder Stitch Down

Ladder Stitch Up

Butterfly Helps



Seam Complete

Front of Hexes



Press

Just keep sewing ... just keep sewing  ~~~~>

Katniss helps me piece the hexies together.

In this picture the magnifying glass is not a prop.  It is a tool. 

My eyesight is not the best.

Sometimes I need to use it when I am sewing.

I also have arthritis in my hands. I love to hand stitch, though.  This type of project is time consuming and I have to take frequent breaks.  I need plenty of light.  I turn on my music player.  As long as I keep to this system, I actually find hand sewing and quilting relaxing.

piecing the hexagons together

matching the intersections

As these are soft and flexible hand quilted hexagons, there are some slight variations which you do not find in the crisp English Paper Piecing method.  Or it in my piecing.  The hexagons may not all be "perfect" but they fit them together very well.  Because it is fabric, the corners and edges are forgiving and allow for user imperfections. 

The finished project will look fine. 

Or I think sew ;) ...

close up

a few more pieces to the puzzle ...

and pillow top pieced and ready for finishing!

This pillow will finish to the size for a 15" pillow form. 

 choosing fabrics for making the pillow

stay stitch pillow top layers

To make a nice flat but soft top, I cut a square of cotton batting and muslin and layered them and ran a line of stay stitching 1/8th of an inch from the edge.  At this point I did not worry about the hexagon shapes that were sticking out over the squares.  Trimming comes later.

By this time my machine had come back from the spa, all defoliated, oiled, pampered rested and renewed and ready to go ... :)

 sewing pockets on the back

For the back of the pillow I made a foldover so I could insert the pillow form in and remove it for easy washing.  I cut a red square 15.5 inches and folded over about four inches.  Then I layered a piece of the blue print, 15.5 inches by 10.5 inches with a fold under of about two inches at the opening to the left of the red square. I used an extra charm to make a square pocket with a muslin lining and I used two extra hexagons for two little pockets.

When you are layering to add a traditional quilt binding to a pillow, sandwich with the fronts facing out, just as you would for a quilt.

machine sewing on the binding

through all layers of the quilt sandwich

trim binding 3/4 inch away from your binding seam

 hand sewing the binding to back

Katniss helps me sew the binding

back pockets

pillow back

I really like both sides of this pillow.



I Spy a Katniss looking for clues!

Time for ...

 My Giveaway!
[This Giveaway is now Closed]
(Cat Not Included ;)

I have 10 Nancy Drew Charms left!

I put these together in a kit with one of my QAYG Hexagons,
10 hand-cut batting hexagons, my high-tech paper pattern, two John James embroidery needles and a twist of red 12 Perle Cotton for you to make your own mini project!

For this little starter kit to be yours, follow these easy clues ~~~>

For a chance to win, please leave my quilty kitties and I one comment. 
We love comments! 

You do not need to be a follower to win.

I will send my 10 charms anywhere in the world.

Please be sure that I have a way to contact you by email to tell you that you have won and to get your mailing address.

For a second chance to win, be a follower and
leave a second comment telling me you are.

Butterfly says, "Get a clue!" 

For a third chance to win,

you will need to do some sleuthing and answer this question: 

What is the name of the quilt that appears in pictures on the chair? 

(Hint ... I made this quilt for a recent blog hop... ;)

This Giveaway will close at Midnight EST March 15th
I will use a random number generator to select one comment and
the winner will be announced her on my blog on March 16th

~~~~~~~~ 
Sew you do not miss a clue,

visit all of today's bloggers:

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Michelle’s Romantic Tangle

Life in the Scrapatch (you are here!)

Debby Kratovil Quilts

Selina Quilts

Meadowbrook

Hilltop House Creative Works

My Sister Made Me Do It

Whims and Fancies

Pieced Brain

Just Let Me Quilt

Today is just the start of this big beautiful blog hop.
To see all the creations follow: 

Full Schedule Here

Thanks to our great cheerleader, Carol at Just Let Me Quilt

and

Thanks to Madame Samm at Sew We Quilt

Looking forward to collecting clues from every post and every day of this fabulous blog hop!

Thank you for visiting My Scrapatch!

:)

Handsewn QAYG Hexes For Fall

My Fall Hexagon Table Topper is Done!

 

This is my version of the cover story on the fall issue of Quilts and More. I love this magazine. It always has a variety of projects and techniques.  I have seen a couple of these cute fall toppers and had been wanting to make one of my own. So when the lights went out during FrankenSandy's assault on the northeast, I decided it was the right project to sew by my candle and lantern light. When the lights came back on and I had to decide between projects, this one won out so I have been slowly doing all the hand work for the last week. Last night I finished the blanket stitching around the backing flannel while I was watching the election returns.

When I started this project I picked a bunch of extra charms from my Autumn Schnibble Quilt and added some 5" squares from a new "Phenomenal Fall" Charm Pack.   The first hex I made was by the method in the magazine.  I cut the 19 cardstock hexagon shapes and basted the carefully cut hexagon shape to the cardstock.  While I did this I was studying and mulling over the rest of the instructions, which called for hand sewing the basted hexes together, carefully removing the basting threads, then the cardstock shapes, then adding batting and backing and quilting.  Hand sewing is slow going for me and tires my eyes, so I decided there had to be an easier way.

I decided to try a hand "quilt as you go" method for these hexes.  I cut 19 of these larger hexagon shapes from Warm and Natural Batting scraps and left the charm whole. 

I folded the 5" square around the batting hex and pinned.  Then I used some orange pearl cotton and some fall colored embroidery thread and got to work. 

I used the orange pearl cotton to hand quilt the fabric to the batting and right through the fabric folded to the back. My stitches might not be the most even or the straightest, but I am happy with the results.

I trimmed the charm on the back after stitiching.

one a hex

I made a few more quilt as you go hexes ...

join with right sides together

 

two a hex

join hexes with a ladder stitch

 

three a hex

 

four!

 

Then I used my King Tut quilting cotton in a variegated fall colors to sew the hexes together.  I used a ladder stitch to sew these together and they laid nice and flat without my stitching showing on the top.

Looked good to me, so I just kept quilting as I went.

 

I did free style embroidery of the pumpkin, leaf and acorn motifs right through the top and batting. Katniss was very interested in this process ... and the yummy cotton threads.   Since these motifs were so basic, I skipped the step to draw the motif onto the cream background fabric.

I sewed the 19 hand quilted hexes together as shown in the magazine. Above is a photo the back of the top before I added the backing.

When it came time to add the backing, I cut a piece of brown flannel a little oversize to the hexagon topper.

To add a little substance to the topper, I used a double sided fusible interfacing between the backing and the top. Then I pinned around the edges. I pressed only the middle of the backing to the top before I did the blanket stitched edging.

 I turned the edging under about a quarter of an inch as I hand stitched the backing to the top using a blanket stitch and carefully making sure my backing stitches did not show through on the front of the topper. Then I pressed the top and backing togther to finish the fusing process.  This has resulted in a nice firm table matt that holds its shape but is not too stiff.

Again, I am not the neatest blanket stitcher, but I am happy with the way this went together. 

I will definitely use this quilt as you go method for future projects with larger hexagons and other shapes ... maybe a tumbler pattern ... and for hand-embroidered quilt blocks.

Have a happy quilty day!

:-)