A Quick Appliqued Apron

 Someday I hope to have some chickens, I want to be the crazy Ol lady with the hound dogs and chickens that loves to quilt. Sounds like a great retirement, doesn't it? I think it does. In the meantime, I need to be happy with visiting my sister and sister in laws chickens and live vicariously thru them. I can also make cute chicken projects.... today I wanted to show you a quick apron project. The big cheat is to run to Hobby Lobby and pick up an apron that doesn't have any design on it because you are going to applique your own design using some fabric scraps from your stash. 

I went thru my fabrics and found some perfect colors for my hen and chicks. I traced the pieces onto the paper side of my fusible web for applique. I like to use Flexifuse because it doesn't gum up my needle on my machine.

Here's the apron I found at Hobby Lobby; I'll give it a good press to get the wrinkles out.

 I then cut out the shapes and pair them with the fabrics.

Press the shapes onto the back side of your fabric.

Then cut all the shapes out and lay them onto your project following the placement sheet or pattern photo. I'm centering the design on the front of the apron above the pocket. Press the design in place following the manufacturer's directions.

I traced a third chick and have placed it on the lower corner of the apron as a cute little added detail.

Using my sewing machine, I applique around the edge using a dark brown thread.

The final touch is to embroider eyes onto the Mama Hen and Chicks. I'm using a double strand of pearl cotton.

~ Hen and Chicks Apron ~

This pattern can be found in my Etsy Shop and also on the Website as a PDF download. It's a fun design for all year round. I bet you even have fabric scraps that would work for this sweet design. I was also thinking, you could make these birds bright and colorful too! Let your imagination go and have some fun! I made mine white to look like a Plymouth Rock, but you can switch up the colors to look like your favorite mama chicken. 

Have a wonderful day!

Cindy & Josephine

 

Easter is right around the corner, and I was thinking about all of the Easter egg hunts my sisters and I have done for our kids. Now that they are all grown up, I remember when they were little, and they would be happy just to find one egg and would be happy with that. You know the age; they are about two and don't quite get the concept of looking for more eggs. They are just happy with that one egg they found, and they toddle around happy with what they found. Well, this new design was inspired by that memory. It's a sweet little bunny just so happy that he found that one perfect Easter egg. This little fellow just makes me smile. Let me show you how easy this goes together.

I'm doing a little skipping ahead here... if you've done applique before, you know to trace all the design elements onto the paper side of the fusible web, iron it onto the backside of the fabric and then cut it out. So, we are jumping ahead to the layering the pieces onto your backing fabric following the layout sheet. Then iron these pieces in place. Then layer you backing, batting and applique top together. Pin. We are going to quilt our mug rug as we do the applique stitch around our design.

Then with white thread stitch a buttonhole stitch around the raw edges. Remember to stop with your needle down to pivot around corners.

I am going to use a backstitch on my machine to embroider the bunny's whiskers on. I practiced the stitch on a piece of scrap material before I stitched on my mug rug.

I've got half of the whiskers done... now on to the other side.

Using my walking foot, I do some additional quilting on my mug rug. I have been having fun with quilting wavy lines on my things lately. It's fun to do and looks nice when it's finished. After the quilting is done, bind your mini quilt.

~Egg Hunt~

I have my new little mini quilt, mug rug sitting on my coffee bar next to my new favorite mug. This design would also work on a tea towel, apron, really anything you think up. I hope that you have fun making your very own Egg Hunt mug rug and it brings back sweet springtime memories for you too!

Happy stitching,

Cindy and Josephine

This sweet design can be found in my Etsy Shop and on the Quilt Doodle Designs website.

Whoopsies!

What's cuter then a little baby's butt, well a bunny butt. Whoopsies! Little bunny is stuck in the flowerpot! Who can resist the cuteness of that fluffy cotton ball tail? I just had to draw one up to do heat n bond applique with. The bunnies usually play havoc with my garden so I have a bunny proof fence now. All of my perennials are bunny and deer proof so that I can enjoy the blooms too! But the bunnies have been known to dig up and eat my potted plants that I have on my deck. The little stinkers!

To make the design, first trace out all of the pieces a sheet of Flexifuse or heat n bond fusible interfacing. (Or whatever brand you like to use) Iron it onto your fabric grouping together shapes that use the same fabric.

Cut all of the shapes out. I did two sets of everything since I'm working on a couple of towels.

Arrange you pieces on your towel layering the different shapes as you go referring to the pattern placement sheet. Remember to peel all the paper off! With a hot, dry iron, fuse everything in place. I use white thread to stitch a buttonhole stitch around the bunny pieces and the Easter eggs. I used a dark brown thread to stitch around the flowerpot.

~ Bunny Butt ~

I made my tea towel reversible! I have the bunny butt on one side and a couple of carrots on the other side. Isn't that fun! This design is great for all of springtime thru harvest!

~ Carrots~

The pattern for these cute little bunny butt with carrot can be found on Etsy.   These designs are quick and easy to make in an afternoon and Easter is right around the corner. Paired with a candle or some candy and you have a wonderful springtime gift for the Easter dinner hostess.

Happy quilting,

Cindy and Josephine

Little Chicks

I love little chickens; I think they are so cute! My sister and sister-in-law both have chickens and I love to visit the little chicks. So, in celebration of spring let's make some little chick mug rugs. These are quick and easy and perfect for a beginner appliquer. I thought it would be a good opportunity to show you all how to do fusible applique. It's quick and easy!

Trace your pieces onto the heat n bond. Make sure to draw on the paper side.

Iron onto the wrong side of the fabric.

Cut out your pieces and then lay onto your fabric. Peel the paper off. Make sure you
have the pieces placed just right before you iron it. Remember your picture will be
'mirror' image of what you traced.

Layer the front, batting and backing and pin well.

I like to use my blanket stitch on my machine to sew around

the pieces. You can also handstitch these if you would like.

Aren't the little chickies cute!!!

The pattern for these cute little chickens can be found on Etsy.  The colors can be switched up to look like a little baby bluebird or robin. They are quick and easy to make in an afternoon and Easter is right around the corner. Paired with a candle or some candy and you have a wonderful springtime gift. 

Happy quilting,
Cindy and Josephine

Love Bugs

My neighborhood is covered in a sheet of ice this morning. It's a perfect day to work on something bright and cheery like 'Love Bug Mug Rugs'. This was a quick and easy project. I dug thru my stash and found a couple of fat quarters, one pink and one blue. (Just for fun!) I was able to make two mug rugs, along with the binding out of these two fat quarters. I found some scrap fabric for the design that matched my fabrics. This goofy bug reminds me of those fun classroom valentines that I received from my classmates. I wish I would have saved some of those cheesy cards from my childhood. I know that if I dig in my closets, I will find Valentine's from when my two boys were in school!

Most of my projects use heat n bond lite or Flexifuse. It works

best with my sewing machine. Here you can see I have

been cutting out my pieces and laying them out onto my mug rugs.

I use a dark brown thread to do my blanket stitch around my ironed on

pieces. I use a stitch setting of 2.5 for both length and width.

Feel free to play around with you stitch settings to get a stitch

that you like best.

I'm all ready to make the binding. I cut 2" strips from my fat quarters

to make the binding. Of course I will have to sew a few strips together to have enough

length to go around each mug rug.

I'm all ready to do some hand stitching in front of the TV.

Love Bug Mug Rug is a fun little project to give to your family and friends. I'm sure if you dig thru your fabric stash you will find some fun colors to work with. Mug rugs are also a great way to use up batting scraps from those larger projects. So, I hope you have some fun this afternoon and find the time to make up some Valentine mug rugs for the sweeties in your life.

Have a wonderful day!

Happy quilting,

Cindy and Josephine

Gnome with Sled

 

 It's the time of year that I start to pull out all of my gnomes and put them all on display. I just love gnomes because they remind me of my dad and my Norwegian family heritage from my dad's side. My grandparents were Norwegian. Dad would joke 'I'm an American made with Norwegian parts', lol!   I'd love to show you a festive gnome for the holidays. It's so cute! It's a sweet little gnome in Santa's sleigh, or it could be Santa... wink, wink.... Instead of putting this applique on a tea towel, I made my own using some green shirting fabric which I thought would make a great background. For the applique I am using scraps from my fabric line, Season Sampler by Marcus Fabrics.  

Trace the applique shapes onto the paper side of your fusible web following manufacturers directions.

Rough cut the shapes out and pair with your fabric colors. Then press onto the wrong side of your fabric.

Cut all of the shapes out and following the pattern placement sheet, arrange the pieces onto your towel, remembering to peel the paper off. Notice how some of the pieces overlap. Following the manufacturer's directions, iron in place.

Using a buttonhole stitch, I stitch around the gnome's nose, beard, mustache and sled rail with white thread. I use a brown thread to go around everything else.

~ Gnome and Sled ~

This cute new design can be found HERE and HERE.

This towel would be adorable put on display hanging out of a gift basket, wrapped around a bottle of wine or draped on a cabinet or oven door. This design would also be cute stitched onto a 10 minute table runner or turned into a quick candle mat or mug rug. There are just so many possibilities! Have fun with it!

Happy Quilting,

Cindy and Josephine

St. Patty's Day Fun!

This is a festive St. Patty's Day design that I made last year. It's a fun fusible applique design and I really enjoyed making it. I bet if you dig thru your fabric, you can find some green.... leprechaun green fabric. I made my leprechaun with a white beard, but a red/orange beard would be very cute too! I used fabrics from my Marcus Fabrics stash. (Scrap Heap and Shadings, both by Laura Berringer) 

Following the pattern directions, I traced out the design onto the paper side of my fusible web and then ironed it onto the back side of my fabric that I choose for the applique design. After I had it press on, I then cut the pieces out. Following the placement page in the pattern I then peeled off the paper and positioned the design onto my rectangle piece of background fabric. I then pressed everything into place. I traced two sets of the gnome/leprechaun. 

The second set I ironed onto a fun green towel from Dunroven House.

I worked on both projects at the same time to reduce the number of times I would be changing thread color for the applique. When I make an applique mug rug, I like to layer the top, batting and batting all together before I do the stitching around the design. I like that when I'm doing the buttonhole stitch around my design, I'm also quilting my mug rug at the same time. You can do additional quilting if you'd like besides outlining the design. I just find it to be a great time saver. Like I said before, I'm really pleased with how my St. Patty's Day gnomes turned out. They will add a festive touch to my kitchen for the month of March.

I hope that you have a fun St. Patrick's Day, even if you're not Irish. Shhhhhh.... I'm not one bit, but I was once told that everyone's a little bit of Irish on St. Patty's Day. I'm not sure if I'll drink any green beer but I might go all out and drop some green food color in a glass of white wine.....

Happy St. Patty's Day,

Cindy

Lucky Gnome pdf pattern can be found on my website and also in my Etsy Shop.