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Em’s Scrap Bag

Confessions Of A Fabric Addict

Tish’s Adventures in Wonderland

Super Scrappy

What A Hoot Quilts

Posted on August 11, 2018August 15, 2018 by maryhertel — 11 Comments

FREE Halloween Paper Piecing Fun

Halloween is just around the corner. If you want to get a jump on some cute seasonal projects, you might enjoy these ideas.

WITCHY PILLOW consists of an 8″x 8″ paper pieced block made into a 17″x 17″ pillow.

If you happen to live in the Utah area, my friend Eva is offering a PAPER PIECING PILLOW CLASS using this pattern. She used the new Halloween fabric line from Studio Fabric, “Me and My Ghoul Friends”. Isn’t it adorable?

Sign up online: http://www.nuttallbernina.com/module/class.htm?classId=266477
Or call Nuttall’s in Riverton at 801-446-7958.

You will be making this fun paper pieced project! Choose your own fabrics or purchase a kit that will include the fabrics you see in the photo.

Two available sessions:
Thursdays September 20th and 27th. 10am – 1pm
Fridays September 14 and 21st. 6-9pm

Day 1: Paper pieced block.
Day 2: Zipper and pillow assembly.

Here are a few other paper pieced blocks that would be cute in this pillow….and they are FREE!

The GHOSTY BLOCK is FREE. Download is available GHOSTY-BLOCK-.pdf (1294 downloads ) .

The GHOULY BLOCK is also FREE. Download GHOULY-BLOCK.pdf (976 downloads ) .

They also make super cute potholders.

So, I hope this motivates you to get started on some sweet Halloween projects! Please remember that when you print a PDF pattern, always select Custom Scale: 100% on your home printer.

You can find more of my Halloween paper piece patterns on Craftsy and Etsy.

Linking this week with:

Busy Hands Quilts

So Scrappy

Kathy’s Quilts

Love, Laugh, Quilt

Cooking Up Quilts

Silly Mama Quilts

Adventurous Applique and Quilting

Posted on July 24, 2018July 28, 2018 by maryhertel — 61 Comments

Christmas In July Blog Hop, Free Tutorial AND a Give-Away

Welcome to the “Christmas In July” Blog Hop. I am offering a FREE tutorial on paper piecing AND a Give-Away at the end of this post.

Thank you to Carol Swift from Just Let Me Quilt for hosting this blog hop. She has worked countless hours to organize this hop. Thank you, Carol!

I am offering a FREE TUTORIAL on 3 tasks…1) How to paper piece a simple block using my Snowman block from my Sew Yourself A Merry Little Christmas book, 2) How to paper piece a combination block, and 3) How to assemble the Gift Sack pattern in my book.

Paper piecing is simply a “sew by number” technique. You work from a paper pattern, sewing right through the paper and fabric to create the image. It is my FAVORITE way to add an image to a project.

So first, let’s take a look at sewing the simple block. I am including a download of every step in the paper piecing process to complete this Snowman. Click Workshop-Step-by-Step.pptx (968 downloads ) to download the free tutorial.

Also included in the tutorial are 2) How to paper piece a combination block, Polar Bear block.

AND a tutorial on 3) How to assemble the Gift Sack pattern. All of these patterns are found in my Sew Yourself A Merry Little Christmas book. Available on Made By Marney on Etsy. Also available on Amazon.

One lucky visitor will win a FREE Sew Yourself A Merry Little Christmas book. To enter the raffle, leave a comment on this post. Make sure your email is included in the comment. Due to the extremely high cost of postage overseas, I am only able to mail this book to a customer from the US. If someone wins from a foreign country, I will download this Christmas pattern to them, instead of the book: Must Be Santa Table Runner/Pillow pattern. Winner will be announced Saturday, July 28.

Please visit all of the wonderful designers and quilters participating in this blog hop:

July 23

Creatin’ in the Sticks

MooseStashQuilting

Lily Patch Quilts

Melva Loves Scraps

Sew Many Yarns

Cynthia’s Creating Ark

July 24

Thimblemouse and Spouse

Seams To Be Sew

Clever Chameleon Quilting

July 25

Vicki’s Crafts and Quilting

Quilter in Motion

Made By Marney

July 26

Quarter Inch Crafter

Marjorie’s Busy Corner

Tu-Na Quilts, Travels, and Eats

July 27

Life in the Scrapatch

Linking with:

Confessions Of A Fabric Addict

Posted on July 12, 2018July 12, 2018 by maryhertel — 3 Comments

Fun Things To Come…

Watch for 12 Days of Christmas in July Blog Hop starting this Saturday, July 14. Many thanks to Sarah Craig at Confessions Of A Fabric Addict. She has spent countless hours organizing this fun filled event. Visit Sarah for the entire schedule on Saturday, July 14.

Christmas is my favorite holiday for designing. I have created many different paper pieced Santas, but on Tuesday I will be sharing a tutorial on how to paper piece my favorite Santa pattern. Visit each of these 29 designers between July 14-29.

Each designer is offering something fun and exciting for Christmas… perhaps a free tutorial or a pattern. AND…some of us will also be offering GIVE-AWAYS.

I will be giving away 1 free copy of my latest paper piecing book, Sew Yourself A Merry Little Christmas. This book offers 16 adorable paper pieced blocks AND 8 cute holiday projects to use the blocks.

This Polar Bear table topper and gift sack are both included in the book, along with so much more.

Join the fun! My day to post is Tuesday, July 17. I will be including a full schedule on Tuesday. See you then!

Posted on June 10, 2018June 15, 2018 by maryhertel — 8 Comments

Paper Pieced Woodland Animals

This is definitely “cabin” time of year. I’ve been spending many weekends “roughing” it in northern Wisconsin and it has inspired me to design some paper pieced woodland animals.

This is my “Forest Friends” quilt pattern. It includes 6 different woodland animals. These animals are super easy to construct.

The pattern also includes directions to make a table runner.

Here are close-ups of some of my favorite blocks:

My son is crazy over Hedge Hogs, so he wanted me to include this cute guy.

This wise Owl inspired one of customers to construct this adorable tote.

This tote was created by another sweet customer, Mary E. She likes foxes. Love it!

Thanks for visiting today!

Linking up this week with:

Kathy’s Quilts

Love, Laugh, Quilt

SoScrappy

Quilting is More Fun than Housework

Cooking Up Quilts

Ems Scrap Bag

Posted on May 30, 2018June 3, 2018 by maryhertel — 7 Comments

Northwoods Paper Piecing

Enjoying my mug of chai on the deck. What a lovely view! After spending the weekend at my cabin in northern Wisconsin, I felt excited to share this table runner pattern. I designed it with the northwoods in mind.

This is “At The Cabin” , which measures 16″ wide x 40″ long.

Included in the table runner is a grinning wolf…

a lumbering bear...

a crafty fox…

and a majestic moose…and some trees, of course!

“At The Cabin” is adorning my dining table in my rustic cabin, and always makes me smile.

Visit me at Etsy or Craftsy.

Linking this week with:

Silly Mama Quilts

Kathy’s Quilts

Posted on May 21, 2018May 24, 2018 by maryhertel — 2 Comments

Adorable Tote Pattern

Believe it or not, once in a while I design a pattern that has no paper piecing. This tote is one of those patterns. Besides designing patterns, I also work part-time in a local quilt shop. Every year I design a tote pattern that works well with the Wisconsin Shop Hop fabrics. Lots of states offer a yearly shop hop featuring fabric about their state.

The Wisconsin 2018 fabric includes a panel fabric with 6″x 6″ square floral panels (the fabric pictured in the top left corner). I used the panels for the outer pockets.

The Plenty Of Posies Tote features 6 outer pockets and 2 inner pockets. It measures 14″ high, 16″ wide, and 4″ deep. This is a nice generous tote bag size! It is great for going to the market, using for a project bag (sewing or knitting), a beach tote, or an airplane tote(large enough for a lap top).

Here’s a closeup of one of the outer pockets. Each floral panel is a different Wisconsin state flower. This panel fabric could easily be substituted with any floral fabric, but if you want this exact fabric, you can call the shop where I work to order, beginning June 8: Quilt Essentials at (920)230-3680.

The pattern is designed for an easy/intermediate sewing level. It is a great pattern to learn how to sew a tote with a boxed bottom.

This pattern is available on Etsy and Craftsy.

Linking this week with:

Posted on May 1, 2018May 5, 2018 by maryhertel — 11 Comments

Spring Birds

Finally it appears that spring is here. The birds are up early singing and busy building their nests. I have some lovely paper pieced bird patterns to add to your collection.

The Hummingbird is one of my favorite patterns. They are so fascinating to watch.

This Yellow Finch is stunning with it’s gold and black coloring. Finding a fun striped fabric for the wings adds some punch.

The Blue Jay is a bird that I don’t see very often around my hometown of Oshkosh.

The Cardinal is always a lovely addition to any bird collection.

The Parakeet is sweetly looking over its shoulder.

And this colorful Robin completes my collection of paper pieced bird patterns thus far. All of the bird blocks measure 6″x 6″ finished, are super easy, and can be found on my Etsy shop.

This wall hanging was a simple way to incorporate some of the birds into a project.

Would you like to see any other additions to this collection? Just leave a comment!

Linking this week with:

Tish’s Adventures In Wonderland

Confessions Of A Fabric Addict

Posted on April 1, 2018April 4, 2018 by maryhertel — 22 Comments

More Dog Paper Piecing Patterns

One of my favorite projects is highlighting a paper pieced dog block in a toss pillow. It’s such a great way to add a bit of color to a couch, chair, or bed. It’s also a great conversation piece.

This PUG pillow is the first dog pillow I created. I just love it so much! Not sure if it is the huge eyes, the little tongue, or just all the neutral gray colors, but everytime I walk past this little guy, I smile.

This sweet COLLIE pillow was made by Julie. I absolutely adore the bandana fabric she used for the background. It’s the perfect compliment to the Collie’s black fur.

Here is Kelsey’s awesome creation! She made a great rendition of an “Andy Warhol” pillow, using my CORGI pattern. I LOVE this pillow.

Here are a few more of my newest dog designs. BICHON FRISE

CAIRN TERRIER

BLUE HEELER

WEIMARANER

And, last but not least, the RED MIN. Needless to say, some of these breeds I had never heard of until a customer requested a design. So please, keep those requests coming. It is such a fun challenge, and I am learning a new appreciation for the subtle differences between different dog breeds.

Linking this week with:

Super Scrappy

Needle and Thread Network

Posted on March 6, 2018March 11, 2018 by maryhertel — 8 Comments

Dinosaur Paper Piecing Patterns

Dinosaurs are such a great theme for your kid’s room. My paper pieced Dinosaur Quilt was so much fun to design.

As I chose the fabrics for my sample, I made a concerted effort to use some complementary colored fabric somewhere in my quilt…

The complements blue and orange worked perfectly in my Spinosaurus. You can see from the photos above how each dinosaur is comprised of 4 paper pieced blocks. In an effort to make this pattern as easy as possible for my customers, I am using a tiny black and white striped fabric for his teeth…because who wants to paper piece all those tiny teeth!

Here is Spinosaurus all connected.

Notice how the Pterodactyl’s teeth are made from a chevron fabric. So easy!

The dinosaur words were added as part of the quilting. I used a satin stitch. This could have also been achieved by machine embroidery.

My good friend Shelley framed the dinosaurs she paper pieced. They are hanging in her brand new grandson’s nursery. And guess what his name is??? REX! Love it 🙂

Visit me at Etsy and Craftsy to see more cute patterns.

Linking this week with:

Needle and Thread Network

Crazy Mom Quilts