Monday, December 31, 2012

Happy Ever After - Princess Pack-N-Play

Sandra Workman of Pine Mountain Designs has created the most adorable fabric called Happy Ever After, from Riley Blake Designs. The coordinating solids and prints have a matching panel (in pink or blue colorways) with a flat princess doll and her clothes, plus instructions for making an adorable pocket pillow.

What really caught my eye was Sandra's pattern for the Princess Pack-N-Play. It's more complicated than the pillow and requires more fabric, but it's just so darn cute. (I don't even have children or go near kids, so you know it must be really cute!) I'm hoping this will make a nice gift for a friend's daughter.


I normally don't go anywhere near ruffles or ric-rac, but for this, I'd try anything.


It took awhile to round up some Peltex, Craft Fuse, fusible fleece, flannel, and matching fabric, but once I did it was game on. She gets tucked away in her royal bed and comes with her armoire full of goodies.


I rarely work with so much white and brights, so the biggest problem for me was removing all the dark lint in my sewing area! Jumbo lint roller to the rescue!

Friday, December 28, 2012

Fabric Fortune Cookie Recipe by Anna Chan of Fabric Fun

Fabric fortune cookies are great to trim trees or packages, stuff stockings, or hand out as party favors.


In 1997, I bought the Fabric Fortune Cookie Recipe by Anna Chan of Fabric Fun of San Francisco. There are many patterns and tutorials online, but I think hers is the best. I found out that her pattern is still available, and now it comes with an acrylic template and a sample fortune cookie.


I have made hundreds over the years, and they are a big hit. I'm not sure what is more fun - using up all my small fabric scraps or discovering interesting quotes to put inside them.


They do not seem to violate anyone's dietary guidelines (and many glues are vegan now). Of course, men seem to enjoy getting them, too.


There are other tutorials online. OLFA recommends using a rotary circle cutter, but you can also make a circle pattern and use a regular rotary cutter or scissors. I found that drawing a freezer paper pattern and ironing it on top of the fabric made cutting it more accurate, especially if you want to fussy cut some prints. You can reuse the same freezer paper many times.


For a special touch, you can purchase Chinese Food Take Out boxes to put them in, or make one out of fabric.


Here are more tutorials with some variations:


Have you made these?

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Art Quilts - Raw Edge Applique and Thread Painting with Anita Goodesign

Anita Goodesign released its first Premium Edition Collection called Art Quilts. They combine raw edge applique and thread painting for a beautiful finish.




They are all digitized by hand and come in 3 different sizes: 6" X 9", 7" X 11", and 8" X 12".

I made the largest size and opted not to fold them in half.


They can be made into framed wall hangings with a single fabric backing, like this:



They can also be folded as greeting cards or picture frames.


The instructions are excellent.