Showing posts with label Valentine's Day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Valentine's Day. Show all posts

Friday, February 9, 2018

Confetti Heart Valentines Tutorial

If you follow us on Facebook or Instagram, you probably saw our confetti picture. It's February 9th, and we're making red, pink and purple confetti. It's no big surprise that it's for a Valentine's Day project! Today we're sharing two different ways to make a confetti heart. Give them as valentines, use them as mug rugs, or hang them as decorations. They're adorable and easy to make! 
And one word of warning...making (and playing with) fabric confetti is addicting! 


You'll need: 
(for both confetti hearts)

Approximately 3" square scraps of  8-12 red/pink/purple/coral solids
(2) 7" squares and (1) 2" x WOF strip of Smoke solid
(3) 8" squares and (1) 2-1/4" x WOF strip of Black solid
(1) 7" square of batting
(1) 8" square of batting
Fusible web
8" square piece of white tulle
Basting spray

Download the heart template page here and print it out. 

Making the Confetti
We started with the wide range of red/pink/purple/coral Painter's Palette Solids shown below. The more colors, the more interest your confetti has. 

Step 1: For most efficient cutting, trim scraps into 3" squares. Stack two squares, and working right to left (for right-handed people!), start cutting 1/4" wide strips. Leave the strips in place as you cut. Cut the entire square into strips. 

Step 2: Rotate your ruler 90 degrees and cut 1/4" wide strips again. This will create tiny 1/4" squares. 


Step 3: Repeat with your remaining squares to make a big pile of confetti. The (11) 3" squares we used made enough confetti to create the two hearts shown. 


Making the Heart on Gray:
Step 1: Trace the small heart onto the paper side of fusible web. Cut out on the drawn line and fuse to the center of  7" Smoke square. Tip: Fold the square in half in both directions and press lightly. Use these lines to center the valentine.

Step 2: Peel off the paper and sprinkle confetti onto the heart. Some of it will spill off the edges; that's okay, but pay attention to your general heart shape. Some confetti will layer on itself; that's okay too, but try to spread it out as much as possible. 

Step 3: *Using a pressing cloth*, press in place. You may need to press longer than normal. Gently shake off excess confetti. If you see background showing through, place individual confetti pieces and press again. 
Step 4: Layer gray square with batting and backing and machine quilt. You'll want quilting lines relatively close together to help secure the confetti. Ours uses 1/4" spacing. 

Step 5: Square up to 6-1/2" and use the 2" x WOF strip to bind the square. 

Making the Heart on Black:
Step 1: Trace the large heart shape onto the center of a black solid square. Layer the marked square with a piece of batting and spray baste in place. 

Step 2: Spray the heart shape with basting spray. Don't worry if the spray goes past the drawn line like ours did; it will be covered up later. 

Step 3: Layer a square of tulle over the heart and pin in place. 


Step 4: Machine quilt over the heart. The quilting doesn't have to be quite as tight here because the tulle is holding the confetti in place. The quilting lines also don't need to extend more than 1/2" or so beyond the heart shape, as they'll be covered as well. 

Step 5: Cut a 7-1/2" square of fusible web. Center and trace the heart onto the square and fuse to the second 8" square. 

Step 6: Cut out the heart center as shown: (we used a pinking shears)
Back side
Front side

Step 7: Remove the paper and center the cut out heart on top of the confetti heart. Adjust as needed to make sure that confetti fills the cut out heart shape. 

Step 8: Layer with the remaining black square. Machine quilt around the cut out heart, making sure to stitch near the cut edges. We chose to echo quilt out from the heart shape. Tip: If you're really bold, try stitching with a contrasting pink or red thread! Square up to 7-1/2"

Step 9: Use the 2-1/4" x WOF black strip to bind. 

See our other heart-themed tutorial featuring Painter's Palette Solids here
See all 168 Painter's Palette Solids here and ask for them at your local quilt shop.

Tuesday, February 6, 2018

Valentine Mini: Hearts Aplenty

Valentine's Day is around the corner...
are the reds and pinks in your sewing room calling your name? 

Make our Valentine Mini quilt, Hearts Aplenty
We used a variety of red, pink, and purple Painter's Palette Solids for the quilt, along with a warm Honeycomb background. The finished quilt measures 18" square. 

Painter's Palette Solids used: (background) Honeycomb; hearts (top row, from l-r)
Clematis, Claret, Bubblegum; (middle row, l-r): Real Red, Lipstick, Fuchsia;
(bottom row): Pale Pink, Raspberry, Claret

Find the tutorial here

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

What's your Valentine's Wish?

What thrills most people on Valentine's Day:


What thrills quilters on Valentine's Day:



Happy Valentine's Day!

Friday, February 10, 2017

Favorite reds, pinks and more!

Valentine's Day is coming! 
Last week we shared two heart tutorials featuring our Painter's Palette Solids collection (Hearts Aplenty and Wholehearted). If solids aren't your thing, we've put together a little gallery of some of our favorite red, pink and purple prints. Enjoy!


 See all of our current batiks here.




 See the entire Cuddle Print Flannels collection here.





 See the entire Doodads collection here.




See the entire Flights of Fancy collection by Ro Gregg here.


 See the entire Farmer John's Garden Party collection here.


See the entire Samsara collection here.

Friday, February 3, 2017

Hearts Aplenty Quilt

So many hearts, so little time! With Valentine's Day around the corner, we wanted to share another heart-themed project with you featuring the rich reds, pinks and purples from our Painter's Palette Solids collection. This quilt measures 18-1/2" square, so you have plenty of time to stitch it up before February 14th! 

Painter's Palette Solids used: (background) Honeycomb; hearts (top row, from l-r) Clematis, Claret, Bubblegum; (middle row, l-r): Real Red, Lipstick, Fuchsia; (bottom row): Pale Pink, Raspberry, Claret

We used this heart block tutorial from Alison of Cluck, Cluck Sew. She offers the block in multiple sizes; we used the 4" finished square size. 

Adding corner squares:

Trimming the squares:

Pressing to make two heart halves:

 A finished heart: 

We made nine hearts--eight in shades of red, pink and purple, and one in reverse: 

Laying out hearts with 1-1/2" x 4-1/2" Honeycomb vertical sashing and 1-1/2" x 14-1/2" horizontal sashing:

Assembling the quilt center: 

Adding 2-1/2" wide borders. We added colored strips on each side just for fun:

Straight line quilting:

Ready for the binding--with a flange-style edge for a pop or color:

Love these hearts!

Simple straight line piecing enhances the design:

A valentine decoration, ready to go in just an afternoon!

Click here to see the entire Painter's Palette Solids collection.
Click here to read about Stephanie's Wholehearted Block tutorial, also featured on our blog this week. 

Thursday, February 12, 2015

What's on the menu?

February 14th is not only an opportunity to get creative in the sewing room; it's also a chance to prepare some fun treats in the kitchen. Here are a few of our favorites from our Valentine's Day pinterest board:

Chocolate Raspberry Mousse Cake
Find the pin here.



Strawberry Brownie Kabobs
Find the pin here.



Mozzarella Cheese Filled Hearts with Red Pepper Pesto

Find the pin here.



Caprese Salad
Find the pin here.



Heart-shaped Fried Eggs
Find the pin here.



Heart-shaped Fruit
Find the pin here.



Peek-A-Boo Pound Cake
Find the pin here.



Conversation Heart Cake
Find the pin here.


See our entire Valentine's Day pinterest board here.
Follow us on Pinterest.

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Red-apalooza!


With Valentine's Day around the corner, we've created a virtual gallery of our favorite reds, pinks, mauves, fuchsia, maroon and even purple prints. We hope it inspired you to do a little valentine sewing! Look for these fabrics at your local quilt shop.


See the Batiks here.



See the Eggcellent Adventures by Heidi Pridemore collection here.




See the Changing Seasons collection by Ro Gregg here
(Available April 2015: Coming soon to a quilt shop near you!)




See the Classique collection here.




See the Graphix 3 collection here.




See the Marblehead Gemstones, Jewels and Quartz collection by Ro Gregg here.
(Available April 2015: Coming soon to a quilt shop near you!)




See the Shadows collection here.




See the Vera Cruz collection here.



See the Marblehead Global Brights and Marblehead Pleasing Pastels collections by Ro Gregg here and here.