Handmade Gifts ~ Pencil Pouch

I am back again today to share another fun Holiday Gift.

This one is fun and easy to make.

This cute little pencil pouch is a great gift for kids and adults.  

I actually made a few for Teacher gifts last year.  

The crayon is paper pieced and is a perfect first paper piecing project if you'd like to give this technique a try.

Add a fun set of pens and a colorful kneaded eraser and pencil to tuck into the pencil pouch.

You can find the Crayon Pattern [HERE]

and

The Pencil Pouch Pattern [HERE]

Happy Sewing!

xo

Charise

Handmade Gifts ~ "SKETCH" book

With the Holidays right around the corner I thought it would be fun to share some

of my favorite gifts to make. 

Over the next few weeks I will be sharing tutorials and patterns if you want to do a little

holiday gift sewing for your friends and loved ones.

This week I will share gifts for the little and big artists in your life.

This Sketch Book has a paper pieced pencil design on the front.

  

This is the "girly" version but it would be fabulous in Boy colors too.  

Include some Moleskin sketch book refills and some fun pencils for a fun gift.
I tied whimsical twill tape around pretty Orla Kiely Pencils to add a nice little touch.

The back has a pocket for pencils and pens. 

 I designed this because I was always forgetting to include pens or pencils in my purse!  

Now you will always have them handy!

It also has a twill tape book mark to help keep your place.

You can find the tutorial and pattern on the Sew Mama Sew blog [HERE]

I will tag all post with "Hand Made Gifts" if you want to search on the blog.

Enjoy!

xo

Charise

Diamond Patchwork Bag In Stitch Winter 2016

Happy Friday!

Last Spring I made this "Diamond Patchwork Bag" for the Winter 2016 issue of Stitch Magazine.

A perfect mid size bag I thought it would also be lovely as a project bag.  

 I will be keeping my current embroidery project in there : )

The fabric is an adorable line by Brenda Ratliff for RJR Fabrics - Pie Making day.

I also made these cute hot pads with the same fabric and you can find the pattern [HERE]

A Perfect Holiday Present!
(We are less than 2 months away from Christmas!!!!!!)  

The bag has an inside pocket and is beautifully finished with binding trim.

Sadly, this is the last issue of Stitch Magazine.  I have had such fun being a regular contributor.
You can see my other projects for Stitch Magazine [HERE]

Have a lovely weekend!
xo
Charise

Welcome Belle and Betty ~ Farmer's Wife Friday

This week I added two blocks to my Farmer's Wife Quilt ~ Belle and Betty.
This is a quilt along hosted by Kerry Green at Very Kerry Berry.  Find more details [HERE]
I'm enjoying the slow pace (2 blocks a week)  so it is easy to fit in my schedule : )

Both of these blocks were lots of fun to fussy cut.   

These are my favorites so far, but then I feel that way every week.

Belle was a bit of a challenge with four Y seams!  If you've never attempted them before, I have a tutorial on Y Seams you can find [HERE]

*************
Fabrics used:
Cherry print - Darlene Zimmerman for Robert Kaufmann Fabrics "Clothesline Club.  
Floral print - Boho by Urban Chicks for Moda.
Both fussy cut prints are Japanese prints I've had in my stash for some time.
*************

Betty is a more straight forward block with no Y seams and easy construction.

Fabrics used:
 Gingham - Mama said Sew by Sweetwater for Moda.
 Blue Print - 1974 by Urban Chicks for Moda.
Kitchen Print -  Older Japanese print by Kumiko Fujita

A good substitute for the Kitchen Prints,
is the line, "Lighthearted" by Pink Penguin for Kokka Fabrics.

Happy Sewing!
xo
Charise

Amy's Maker Quilt

This week has been all about finishing projects. 

Amy's "Maker" quilt was close to being finished but needed a few finishing touches.  

A little background on the quilt ~ Amy, Melinda and myself decided to do a round robin quilting bee.

Amy sent the Zipper and Sewing Machine block to Melinda who added the needle, stitch and thimble blocks.  She then sent it to me to add my blocks and send it back to Amy.

*** I have added links to the blocks that are available at the bottom of the post ***

I made three blocks for Amy - the scissors, "SEW" and the iron.  I'm not sure how Amy

is going to assemble the blocks, but I wanted to fill up the last bit of space in the quilt.

After a bit of ruminating on the layout, I decided a trio of notions jars would be perfect.  I used the jars from my Jam Jars and Fruit pattern and enlarged them to fit Amy's Quilt.

The yellow print is one of my favorites -  An out of print Japanese fabric by designer Kumiko Fujita.  It was fun to find the perfect text to include on the jar. 

The Buttons fabric is a Japanese print from Suzuko Koseki.

The labels were made by designing them on the computer and then printing them onto printable cotton fabric sew in fabric.

It was fun to collaborate with the very talented Melinda and Amy.

xo 

Charise

Links to Blocks:

Zipper block and all the block from the Sew Out Loud Quilt Along

Sewing Machine Block

SEW block

Design, Carve, Print ~ Apple Print

A few weeks ago I signed up for an online block printing class.  I have always wanted to design my own fabric so I thought this would be a good place to start.  The class is taught by Jennifer Hewett.  I have admired her hand printed garments which are just beautiful!

You can see more of her work [HERE]

The class is wonderful.  Jen's instructions are clear and concise,  and she teaches at a pace that allows you to accomplish each lesson without feeling too rushed.  

I decided to create a simple print with a favorite design.  If you follow my blog, you know how much I love using an apple motif in foundation paper piecing and other apple projects.  

The technique uses soft carving blocks and screen printing ink.  It didn't require a lot of new supplies, many of which I already had : )

The lining is a fun, quilted polka dot fabric.  The lining pocket is from a test print and seemed like a perfect use for the lone apple. 

Added to my list of "to do's", is enough fabric to make a knee length pleated skirt!

Happy Sewing : )

xo

Charise

Orchard Hot Pads for Quilt Market

Quilt Market was last weekend.  It is a fabric show for fabric companies and pattern companies

to share their latest collections.   RJR fabrics asked me to create my Orchard Hot Pads for Quilt Market.  I used the new fabric line called "In the Kitchen" by Patrick Lose.

The fabrics are perfect for the hot pads.  My favorite print includes all the kitchen supplies and is perfect for fussy cutting the patchwork squares. 

I have added a few paper patterns for the Orchard Hot Pads to my Etsy shop.

The pattern includes a color booklet and full size pattern pages.

Happy Sewing!

xo

Charise 

Farmer's Wife Friday ~ Welcome Bea and Becky

Hello and Happy Sunday.  I hope you are enjoying your weekend. I spent a good amount of mine cleaning & organizing my sewing area and organizing my fabric.  I hope to have a de-stash this week.

I'm a bit late for Farmer's Wife Friday but just had to post it anyway : )

This week both blocks are quite easy to put together.

Welcome Bea the strawberry basket block.

The strawberry fabric is from D's selection - a Japanese import fabric.

The dot is Moda basic dots.

I love the Becky block! A cherry themed block.

I used the same color scheme as Bea with the addition of pink.

Becky definitely has some sass.

Most of the fabrics are by Lori Holt for Riley Blake.  

The small pink ground cherry is a Japanese

fabric.

My favorite pic is the group shot.  It is fun to see all the blocks together!

xo

Charise

Farmer's Wife Friday ~ Ava

Happy Friday and thanks for stopping by.  I thought this post wouldn't happen ~ I've been crazy busy this week but I managed to stitch together the block, Ava,  last night.  

This is a fun and easy block to make.  I changed up the position of the fabrics a bit.

I put the apple print on each corner instead of the floral which makes it a less busy.

The apple fabric is from a vintage circa 1930's apron.  

The multi floral is Windham Fabrics Story Book Playtime.

The Blue Floral is called Dresden Plates - I love the tiny scale floral ~ perfect for small pieces.

And last but not least is the yellow with mini strawberries ~ Minny Muu by Lecien.

I am happy with the way they look together .....

Very Happy : )

xo

Charise

Work in Progress Wednesday ~ Cocorico Traveling Bee

I have been so fortunate to have met some wonderful ladies when I joined the Cocorico Bee on Flickr.  

We are just wrapping up the second round and it has been a wonderful journey!

Having seen so many wonderful traveling, round robin quilts on the internet, I really wanted to start one.  After a bit of coordinating, three members from the original Cocorico Bee created a Traveling Bee.

Amy's theme is "Maker" and she started with the sewing machine and zipper blocks.

I received Amy's blocks as well as Melinda's additions a few weeks ago.  The blocks have been up on the design wall and I have finally added my designs. 

 The first block I made was the iron.  The pattern is part of a quilt I designed for Quiltmaker Magazine a few years ago.

The SEW letters are from Kumiko Fujita's book, "Patchwork Patterns 318".

I added my signature style by fussy cutting the word fabrics, isolating my favorite parts of the text.

My last addition was the scissors block - a pattern I drafted this week. 

It has been nice to have all the blocks up on my design wall.  

It is really quite amazing how seeing the quilt ~ all day, every day ~  

helps to inspire the design process.

I am not done yet : )  That upper left section that is blank will be filled with a trio of blocks that will balance out the quilt.

Be sure to head on over Freshly Pieced to see some inspiring WIP Wednesday projects!

Happy 

Sewing!

xo

Charise 

Farmer's Wife Friday ~ Augusta and Aunt

Happy Friday!   I'm back to share the last two blocks I made for the Farmer's Wife Quilt Along.  If you are new to this Quilt Along you can find details over at VeryKerryBerry.

The first block is called Augusta.

  The fabrics I used are:

Flower Baskets from Junko Matsuda for Daiwabo from Sew Me A Song on Etsy.

Dot ~  Essential dots from Moda.

Blue ground print is an out of print fabric from Moda - 1974 by Urban Chicks. 

Augusta is a fairly complicated block.  I'm going to share a few tips to make it go together a bit faster and easier!

I like to color code the pattern before cutting it apart.  First, I color the small block on the paper piecing pattern page.  Then I color the sections of the blocks.

 I also drew arrows showing which way the pattern on the fabric should be facing.  This is important is you are fussy cutting or want your print to be facing in a particular direction

I also changed the pattern a bit.  Unit A includes two Y seams.  I cut apart the pattern to eliminate the Y seams as noted in the pic above.

This is a perfect pattern to do a bit of prep in cutting and preparing each section.

I cut the pieces as a group. The pattern was glued to the fabric using a fabric glue stitch.

 This makes the sewing much faster!

The second block is called Aunt.

It was a fun and easy block to make after tackling Augusta : )

Fabrics used are:

Floral ~ "Penny's Dollhouse" by Darlene Zimmerman for Robert Kaufman

Dot ~  Essential Dots from Moda

The Kerchief girl is an out of print Japanese Fabric.

Have a great weekend!

xo

Charise

Farmer's Wife Friday ~ Anne and April

Happy Friday!   Hope your week was a good one : )

It is time to share blocks from the Farmer's Wife 1930's Quilt Along.

I decided to sew along since I love making these blocks so much!

This week Kerry shared her Anne and April blocks.  You can find her post [HERE]

Here are my versions:  

April is a straightforward block - very easy to sew.

To make it a bit easier to get the colored pieces in the right place, I color coded the pattern with colored pencils.  There are lots of little pieces and this made things much easier.

I think this is my favorite so far - the fabrics work so well together.

I used Pink Penguins Lighthearted fabric for the center apple and blue/green sections.  

The background dot is Moda Basics.  I love the gingham but can't remember where it is from.

Anne is another straight forward block to sew. 

I used an older Connecting Threads print for the floral from the "Hope Chest" line, the yellow/white print is Glamping from Moda.  The dot background is another perfect dot in pink from Moda Basics.

I think this one would be such a fun quilt as a single block repeated for the entire quilt.

Happy Sewing!

xo

Charise