With Thanksgiving right around the corner, I’m getting out my meager amount of Turkey Day decorations. For some reason, I don’t have nearly as many November goodies in my stash as I have for Halloween and Christmas.
This googly eyed TURKEY is a fun block to add to a pillow or potholder.
If you are looking for a cute and quick project for Christmas, I just finished this ELFY SHOE block pattern.
One of my sweet customers requested a block that would be similar to my WITCHY PILLOW . Remember, I try to keep all of my blocks the same size, so any block pattern fits into any pattern.You always give me the best ideas!
Congratulations to Nancy, the winner of my Cat’s Meow Quilt pattern. Thanks so much for everyone who participated in the Pick A Pumpkin Blog Hop last week. I loved all the comments, and wish I could have replied to all of them. Thanks so much for all the love you shared!
Thanks for joining me today for the first day of the PICK A PUMPKIN BLOG HOP, sponsored by Carla Henton from Creatin in the Sticks. I have been working on one of my favorite subjects, paper pieced black cats and pumpkins. Don’t miss my GIVE-AWAY…you’ll find it at the end of this post.
CAT ON A PUMPKIN is an easy block with nice large pieces. Find a lovely orange fabric with some interesting texture for that luscious, fat pumpkin.
Use the cats alone as wall hangings or pillows, or put them all together to create a charming quilt. I call this the CAT’S MEOW QUILT.
WIN THIS PATTERN…Leave a comment for a chance to win this paper pieced pattern. Make sure your email is included in the comment so I can contact the winner. Also, make my day by SUBSCRIBING to my website.
Find more fun fall paper pieced projects on my ETSY or CRAFTSY shops.
I couldn’t resist sharing 1 more Halloween paper pieced block…SPIDER.This pattern is designed for an intermediate paper piecer, and would make really cute Halloween potholders or pillows. Consider pairing it with my Spooky Spider block from the BOO Collection.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN to everyone!
Watch for the Pick A Pumpkin Blog Hop starting next week! Can’t wait to have some “Pumpkin Fun”. Linking this week with:
Thanks so much for stopping to visit. This is my post for our 2018 Row Along, organized by the fabulous Marian Pena from Seams To Be Sew. We have 54 different quilt bloggers/designers participating this year! And…lots of great FREE STUFF! I am offering a free paper piecing pattern. You will find the incidentals towards the end of this post.
Our theme this year is MY HAPPY PLACE. Here’s my free row…My Sewing Room
MERGED-My-Sewing-Room-BEST.pdf (1477 downloads )
. This paper pieced row consists of 4 blocks, each 7 1/2″x 7 1/2″. This makes the entire row measure 7 1/2″ high x 30″ long (finished).
Since there’s no place I would rather be than in my sewing room, I am going to make this row into a wall hanging to place above my sewing machine. If you are new to paper piecing, I suggest you watch one of my paper piecing tutorials.
I have added a 1 1/2″x 30 1/2″ strip of BLACK fabric to the top and bottom of my row. Then added a 4″x 30 1/2″ strip at the top and a 10″x 30 1/2″ along the bottom. These pieces can be adjusted to make your wall hanging any height you want. I have steam pressed a piece of fusible fleece to the back of the entire unit. Then I added a backing piece and quilted the entire unit.
Next I created a row of 5 pockets by sewing 5 squares 6 1/2″x 6 1/2″ together. This unit was also quilted and basted to the bottom of my wall hanging. I sewed between each pocket in the seam “ditch” to separate the pockets.
Then I added black binding…I love it! I added tabs along the top to hang from my existing wooden quilt hanger, but a hanging pocket would also work.
Are you new to paper piecing? I have 2 paper piecing books with great step by step directions, Cute and Clever Totes and Sew Yourself A Merry Little Christmas. Both books are great for beginners, but also have lots of fun paper pieced patterns for intermediate quilters.
I am so EXCITED to explain this Give-Away because it is from the same company that publishes my books, C&T Publishing. They are giving away a $100 Gift Certificate! That means you can choose from SO MANY great C&T books and sewing tools. I can’t say enough about this wonderful company. They allow me and so many other clever designers a chance to create books and products to share with you! This is an awesome prize for 1 lucky person who …
Since it is so close to Halloween, I am GIVING-AWAY this pattern, BOO COLLECTION. This collection of 6 Halloween paper pieced block patterns is so clever! Included with the blocks are patterns for a table runner and potholders. These 8″x 8″ blocks can be used in so many fun ways. Be creative and construct an entire Halloween quilt! Table runner measures 17″ wide x 33″ long. Potholders measure 8″x 8″. This is an original Made By Marney pattern.
Here are some super sweet treat sacks made by a friend using some of the blocks from my BOO Collection. Click on this Rafflecopter link to sign up for the
Rules and Guidelines For Giveaways
Please take the time to read it.
Giveaways offered by sponsors are assigned to the various bloggers for their featured day.
There are no prior announcements on who is doing which sponsor except to the sponsor themselves.
You’ll have to visit the blog or the featured blog to enter the giveaways.
Not all giveaways can be entered at Seams To Be Sew.
I will start announcing winners on September 11, 2018, and finish announcing winners on October 10, 2018.
In most cases, the blog where you won at also will announce their
winners.
You must give a valid email address when you enter the giveaways, any email returned to me, loses the ability to win automatically.
With the exception of Show and Tell Day, all giveaways run for approximately one week.
You are given 3 days to answer the email, if you do not answer within 3 days a new winner will be drawn. Check those spam/junk mail folders, you may miss that winning email if you don’t do so because there are no exceptions to this rule.
If you are notified that you are a winner, in most cases, you will need to provide your name, address, city, state, zip code, country, telephone number, and email address.
In some cases, you will be asked to comment on the blog to enter the giveaway… do the right thing and thank them for the time it took to create the pattern, thank them for the pattern and…
Thank the sponsor by buying their products for the giveaways. This helps them continue to offer great prizes for these types of events. You can also comment on their social media pages. Even if you don’t win, letting them know you love their products is a huge incentive and they really do love hearing from you.
No purchase whatsoever is necessary.
You must be 18+ in order to win a gift.
You are responsible for claiming and paying any tax owed on the value of any gift that you win. Prizes valued at $500.00 should be claimed.
All winners are chosen at random.
All winners will be announced on the blogs via the Rafflecopter entry form and/or post by the blogger at the site where they won and here at Seams To Be Sew. All winners must allow for their first name and first initial of their last name to be announced on this blog.
Odds of Winning a prize are based on a total number of rafflecopter entries during each week and in total for all giveaways.
This giveaway is void where prohibited by law.
Participating bloggers may enter any of the giveaways.
The word giveaways in the rules and guidelines are also known as sweepstakes.
Most of the giveaways are international shipping this year
in some cases, you will be asked to pay for shipping your giveaways.
I am not rich and I do not ask sponsors for money, they provide prizes only.
If they shipped the prize to me, you will be asked to pay for shipping.
All giveaways will be shipped that are in my home within 48 hours of my having heard from you.
An invoice will be sent to you via Paypal, and shipping will take place via Paypal, so your Paypal email will be needed to send the invoice. You will receive a tracking number except for overseas shipments. All shipping will either be first class which averages out at 2.77 to 4.00 up to 13 ounces. Paypal fees are added to that amount to cover that fee. All fabric bundles from Michael Miller, Hoffman, and Moda will be shipped via Priority Mail to protect the fabric itself.
Please note, every effort is made to protect the prizes. They go into a plastic bin when I receive them, and it is covered by an air tight cover. I have a dog in my home and I have a smoker in my home, so I do everything possible to protect the prizes.
Most companies are very good about getting prizes off to customers quickly also, but some companies are overseas, so please allow all sponsors a 2-week time period before you report to me that you still haven’t received your prize. When the company is overseas, it can take 6 weeks to 90 days for an item to also arrive.
Whether or not you read the above, the rules for giveaways are in place to protect everyone. I do not want to hear you didn’t read them, they will be posted on my blog daily during each featured day. There is no excuse for not reading them.
I’m so excited to share my Halloween Candy Sack pattern.
This sweet paper pieced Candy Cane block is the foundation for the super simple sack. You can find the pattern in this month’s issue of McCall’s Quilting magazine. See…my sack is right there in the bottom left corner.
Adorable! How fun it would be to make a Trick or Treat sack for all of your kids. Here are some of my other Halloween Blocks that would work great in this sack…
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 (697 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:
I love designing paper piece patterns for the holidays. I am sharing a tutorial on paper piecing today using one of my new Christmas patterns. “Must Be Santa” can be made into a table runner or pillow if you follow the directions in the pattern. However, you can use the four 7 1/2″x 7 1/2″ blocks in this pattern for any number of projects.
This table runner is made using the four blocks in the pattern, Elf, Mrs. Claus, Santa Claus, and Rudolph. The pillow below is also included in the pattern.
For my tutorial, I will be using this Santa block, but any block in the pattern may be substituted.
I have designed many Santa blocks. This 1 is my favorite. I pride myself in offering very EASY patterns with just a few pieces. This particular block is NOT one of my easy blocks. It has a number of different sections that must be paper pieced separately, then sewn together to complete the block. Don’t let this deter you from trying paper piecing if you are a beginner. Each segment is fairly simple. So…let’s take this 1 step at a time…
Start by setting your stitch length to 1.5; that’s about 20 stitches per inch. Shortening the stitch length perforates the paper so as to make it easier to rip away the paper pattern when you are finished with the block.
Make 4 copies of the original pattern and cut around each segment (outlined in red lines) adding a 1/4″ seam allowance around each segment. Cut segments A/F from copy 1, segments B/E/I from copy 2, segments C/D/G from copy 3, and segment H from copy 4. Above you can see segments A, B, and C with the 1/4″ seam allowance around each piece. Now you are ready to start piecing!
Let’s start with segment A. Pin piece #1 to the appropriate fabric (background color), wrong sides together. There should be at least 1/2″ of excess fabric all the way around piece #1. You can check this by holding your pattern up to a light source.
Trim the excess fabric. Double check: The WRONG SIDE of the fabric should be facing the back of the pattern. This scrap is a 1/2″ larger than piece #1.
Find the stitching line between piece #1 and piece #2.
Use a bookmark or any piece of card stock to fold back piece #2 along this stitching line. It’s a bit hard to see because the bookmark and the back of the pattern are both white, but look closely to see how the pattern is folded.
The Add-A-Quarter ruler is very handy for trimming seam allowances.
Use an “Add-A-Quarter” ruler to trim away the excess fabric, trimming 1/4″ away from the stitching line (fold).
Piece #2 is skin color, so I am using a tea dye fabric. This scrap is a good 1/2″ larger all the way around than piece #2.
Place the pattern on top of the skin colored fabric scrap so the trimmed edges (seam allowances) line up.
Flip the pattern piece back down and pin in place. Sew on the seam line between pieces #1 and #2, starting and stopping your stitching 1/4″ before and after the seam line. There is no need to back tack, as each seam line will eventually be covered by another seam line.
Flip the fabric behind piece #2 and press in place. I also like to pin it flat so there is no movement as you add the next piece.
Looking at the pattern from the front, trim away any excess fabric from piece #2, but be GENEROUS with your seam allowance. I always allow for 1/2″ seam allowance; later to be trimmed to 1/4″. Piece #1 and #2 are now in place. Everything to complete segment A is now repeating these same steps.
Using the bookmark, fold the pattern back on the seam line between piece #2 and piece #3. Do you see that small 1/4″ seam projecting into piece #3…just to the right of my finger?
That little seam needs to be ripped open so the pattern will lay flat when folded back onto the bookmark.
Use the 1/4″ ruler to trim the seam allowance. Use a scrap of white for piece #3.
You can see I am using a sparkly white fabric. Piece #3 is part of Santa’s mustache. Line up the outer edge of the seam allowances, right sides together.
Flip the pattern open and pin in place.
Sew on the line between piece #2 and #3, again start and end 1/4″ before and after the seam line.
Flip the fabric behind piece #3, press, and pin in place.
Trim away the excess scrap of white, leaving a generous 1/2″ around the edges of piece #3.
By using larger scraps and trimming AFTER sewing, you will not have to guess what size to cut your scraps to fit each piece.
Continue in this manner until segment A and B are completed.
Trim the seam allowances that are between segment A and B to 1/4″.
These are the 2 edges that are now trimmed and ready to be pinned together and sewn.
Use a straight pin to poke into and line up the edge of the red seam line on segment A and the corresponding spot on segment B.
Pin the 2 segments together.
Sew on 1/4″ before and after the seam line. Rip away the paper in the seam allowance area on both segments. Open the segments flat and press, pressing both seams to one side or the other, depending on which way they want to lay.
And now for the Give-Away! I will be giving away a free copy of my “Sew Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” book. This book is filled with adorable holiday paper pieced block patterns and 8 different patterns that use the blocks.
These are just a few of the 16 paper pieced blocks in this book.
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.
For a chance to win the free book (or pattern if you live overseas), leave a COMMENT on this post. Please make sure your email is included. The winner will be announced on Thursday, July 26.
Please visit other participating designers and quilters:
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!
Often, my customers like to substitute different animal blocks in my patterns to get a more unique quilt. Here are 2 new paper pieced blocks that would work well in my Forest Friends quilt pattern.
This friendly Brown Bear is an 8″x 8″ unfinished block. Most of my paper pieced blocks are this size and can be mixed and matched into any of my patterns.
This Fawn would make a cute addition as well. I designed the fawn after finding a newborn fawn curled under a tree in my yard at the cabin. It was resting there for the day, and was later reunited with it’s mother.
So adorable! It laid in this position all day, never moving. Mother deer came in the night to gather her offspring and move on.
It’s always fun to be creative and make your own composition using the animals of your choice. Are there any other woodland animals that you would like to see in this quilt?
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!
This googly eyed TURKEY is a fun block to add to a pillow or potholder.
One of my sweet customers requested a block that would be similar to my WITCHY PILLOW . Remember, I try to keep all of my blocks the same size, so any block pattern fits into any pattern.
You always give me the best ideas!
