Next FAL weekend 6-8 April

Just a little reminder that the next FAL weekend is next weekend, 6-8 April, so start dragging thost FUFO’s out in readiness … I don’t know about you, but I have plenty to choose from! Look forward to seeing you there, and seeing all your lovely finishes.

If you need to be set up as an author so you can post here, please scream out and we’ll get you set up right away

Anne’s Tie-On Pillow

Thank you very much Karen for an excellent tutorial. I didn’t have any trouble following your instructions and your photos were very clear. I had a lot of fun making this little pillow and will be using this technique again. The design is a freebie from Stitchy Kitty.

Posting pictures

A couple of people have had problems posting pictures this weekend, so I thought it would be useful to do a few step-by-step instructions. There are 2 parts to the uploading pictures process; firstly, you need to upload the picture file into WordPress from your computer’s hard drive and then you need to add it to the post. If you don’t do the second step, it won’t show up in your post.

Step-by-Step:

1. Using the Upload tab underneath the main posting window, click the Browse button (circled in red on the picture below for easy identification) to find the image you want to upload on your hard drive:

2. Once you’ve found your image, double click it so that the image details appear in the File slot. At this point, you can add a title and description if you wish, otherwise, just click the Upload button:

At this point, all you’ve done is upload the picture into your WordPress image database. It will not show up in your post until you complete the next stage.

3. Once the picture is uploaded, you should then get a screen that looks like this:

Leave all the options as they are and click the Send to Editor button

4. Your picture should then be uploaded to your post, like this:

You can use the placement icons (under the Visual tab) to move it to the middle of the page if you wish.

Repeat the above process for any picture you want to add to your post. I hope this is helpful to those of you who are unfamiliar with WordPress.

Cindy’s tie-on pillow

Hi ladies. I managed to stitch this project this morning with Karen’s excellent tutorial! I was afraid there would be buttonholes or something complicated.

My sampler is an old Ewe & Eye pattern. The pillow measures about 11 x 6 inches.

It will be fun getting all these unfinished items transformed into projects like this one. Thanks again Karen, I’m glad I found this blog.

Cindy

Margie’s tie-on pillow

This was a great class on tie-on pillows!  I had no trouble at all in making my first of what I’m sure are many.  I used my Flea Market Souvenir from Blackbird Designs to make mine.  I’m making a quilt so I used matching fabric so I can put this on my bed when the quilt is finished. 

Tie-On Pillow Class – Barbara J

I was really looking forward to Karen’s tie-on pillow class this morning. And as promised the instructions were up.

It took more time than expected but hey it’s my first! So much time taken to tie that darn ribbon and yet it doesn’t look half as good as Karen’s. I so like this finishing and this will definitely not be my last attempt!

Many thanks to Karen.

Tie-on pillow class

Welcome to everyone taking the class! This is a relatively easy finishing technique which is quite quick to do and looks very effective.

Below are the step-by-step instructions on how to do the finishing, along with photos – I suggest you read all the instructions through before starting.

If you have any questions whilst you’re doing the class, please leave a comment and I’ll reply as soon as I can.

Once you’ve finished your pillow, please post a picture so that we can all see how you got on (Remember, you’ll need a WP account to do this – once you’ve registered your email address, let me know and I’ll add you as an author to the blog). Have fun!

Materials

• Stitched piece
• Lining fabric for your stitched piece
• 2 pieces of fabric for your pillow
• Ribbon
• Sewing cotton
• Fiberfill
• A sewing machine is also required for this class

1. Decide how much of a margin you want around your stitched piece and add another 1/4″ inch all round for a seam allowance. Trim off the excess fabric.

NB: you probably won’t want to leave too small a margin, otherwise your ribbons will encroach too much on your design – about an inch or so is fine.

2. Cut a piece of lining fabric the same size as your stitched piece

At this stage, you may want to mark your 1/4″ seam allowance on the wrong side of either the stitched piece or the lining fabric – I have omitted this step on mine as I have a 1/4″ sewing foot on my machine.

3. Cut your ribbon into 4 equal pieces.

4. With your stitched piece right side up, take one piece of ribbon and place one edge centrally against the edge of one of the short sides of your piece:

NB: If you’re using a ribbon with a definite right side like mine has (see pic), make sure that the wrong side of the ribbon is uppermost on your stitched piece.

5. Pin the edge of the ribbon in place with 3 pins, making sure that the edges of the ribbon and fabric are both straight. Repeat with another piece of ribbon for the other side, so that you have something like this:

6. Arrange the free ends of the ribbon so that they lie at the middle of the bottom edge of your stitched piece (as shown in the above picture) This prevents them getting caught up when you sew the stitched piece and the lining together and the 3 pins (in the previous step) ensure that the ribbon stays straight against the edge of the fabric.

7. Take your lining fabric and place it right side down on the stitched piece, matching up one of the short sides. Start to pin the lining to the stitched piece and when you reach the pinned ribbons, carefully remove the pins one at a time and repin to include the lining fabric, making sure that the ribbon stays in the middle and is still straight.

Pin around the ribbon at the bottom edge, leaving a gap; you should end up with something like this when it’s all pinned together:

8. Starting at one side of the ribbon on the bottom edge, sew around both pieces of fabric 1/4″ from the edge, finishing just before the ribbon at the other end.

You should have a gap of about 1.5″ inches at the bottom for turning. If you want to leave a bigger gap, that’s fine, but don’t leave a smaller gap or you won’t be able to turn your piece inside out!

9. Remove all pins and clip the corners of your fabric just beyond your stitching, to eliminate bulk:

10. Turn piece inside out and carefully push out the corners with a chopstick or similar. Press the stitched piece and ladder/blind stitch the gap closed:

11. Cut 2 pieces of your pillow fabric to the size of your stitched piece PLUS margins PLUS 1/4″ seam allowance. E.g My stitched piece, when finished, measured 3.5″ x 5.5″and I decided on a 1″ margin of pillow showing all around it so I cut my pillow fabric 6″x8″ (including the 1/4″ seam allowance) The size of your pillow margin is entirely up to you, but I would suggest at least 1″.

Again, this is the point at which you may want to mark your 1/4″ seam allowance on the wrong side of one of your pillow pieces.

12. Using the pillow fabric, repeat steps 4-10 as for the stitched piece but before you stitch the gap closed, stuff your pillow with fiberfill, using the chopstick to push the fiberfill into the corners.

13. All that’s left to do now is centre your stitched piece on your pillow and tie the ribbons together at each side. Cut the ends of the ribbon in an inverted V for a nice finish and to prevent fraying.

Congratulations, you’re done! Now all you have to do is display your pillow and enjoy it Oh, and post a picture here, of course

Feedback and constructive criticism is always welcome so if there’s anything that you think could have been done better or differently, please post a comment below and I can amend the instructions accordingly. This will also help others when they’re preparing their own classes

Thank you for participating and I hope you enjoyed the class!

 

Final reminder for the tie-on pillow class

Just a quick final reminder that the tie-on pillow class is this weekend, 24 and 25th March!

The class instructions are all ready to go; in order to give ladies “down under” a chance to join in properly, I shall be posting them late in the evening (around 10.30pm UK time) on Friday. However, I won’t be available to answer questions (if needed) until at least 8am on Saturday morning (our time) Hopefully the instructions will be so clear that you won’t need to ask any questions but I thought I’d mention it, just in case.

I hope that many of you will join in with the class and share your photos and comments afterwards Remember you need a WP account to post to the blog, so if you don’t have one, don’t forget to set it up now and email me so that I can add you as an author.

Reminder – tie-on pillow finishing class

Just a little reminder that the tie-on pillow finishing class is in 2 weeks time, 24th and 25th of March.  I used the finishing method on one of my stitched pieces today so that I could write the tutorial and take photos and it’s all done and ready to go!

I know a few people are interested in this, so if you haven’t decided yet, maybe this will help make up your mind:

Heart in Hand – Little House in the Woods

Details of materials required for the class can be found here.  Cindy asked recently if the design had to be rectangular; I’ve never tried this type of finishing with a square design, but I think it would be fine.  You might want to use 2 lengths of narrower ribbon each side to make your bows, one near the top and one near the bottom, rather than having one central bow, but I think it would look good as a square version of my rectangular pillow.

So, dig through your finished pieces or, if you haven’t anything suitable, dig through your charts and stitch something up ready to join in!  It doesn’t have to be a large design – the one above is only 3.5″x5.5″ including the fabric margin

New tutorial links

The following links have all been added to the Tutorials page in the last couple of weeks:

11/3/07 – Barbara’s flat-fold photo frame

04/03/07 – Heidi’s pinkeep instructions (with plenty of example pictures)

28/2/07 – Nicki’s ruched ribbon tutorial (under Cording, Tassels and Misc)

23/2/07 – Mitred corner instructions (under Cording, Tassels and Misc)

23/2/07 – Jean Farish’s 3-sided ornament