Field Trips in Fiber - Adventures in quilting, hand dyed fabric and fiber art.

Easy and elegant table runner - a tutorial

You may remember last September when I stamped a piece of the Kettering gradient. I used my favorite nature stamps from Fred B. Mullett. I always intended to make a table runner with the fabric but it languished because I could not figure out how I would quilt it. Then while redoing the guest room and putting away my grandmother's dresser scarves I realized that I didn't need to quilt it!

I decided to use mine as dresser scarves for the guest house bedroom. Here's how I made them.

I had stamped a half yard of fabric and decided to cut it in half lengthwise for 2 table runners. Square up the panels of fabric and measure the length of the panel. Note that measurement to use later.

I think that the wide border is what makes this look so elegant. I cut 2.5" strips and added a mitered border. You could do straight borders but I like the look of the miter. Here's a great Youtube video on making mitered borders.

This could be finished in several ways including a narrow hem or narrow binding. I decided that I wanted mine faced to give a little more heft to the edge of the table runner and it to cover all of the seams. I cut more 2.5" strips and finished one long edge with the serger. A zig-zag stitch would work. I used this method because I didn't want to turn under a hem.

I made a frame the size of the border on the table runner. Instead of making miters I seamed these pieces with straight seams so that there would not be double bulk under the mitered seams. To do this I first cut the long edges the same length as the cut length of the center (the measurement from above). I cut the end pieces the width of the table runner with the borders. I I stitched them together so that the finished edges are on the INSIDE of the facing.

In this photo the facing is pinned to the table runner right sides together. You can see the serged edges toward the inside. Sew through both layers all around the edge at 1/4".

Before turning the facing clip off the corners to remove bulk from the turned corners. One secret that I learned in garment making is that it's easier to turn a facing if you first press the seam open. I press my seams open over a point presser but you can do most of it flat and you can finger press the corners.

Here's the facing turned to the back and pinned in place. You can see that the facing covers all of the seams.

Stitch in the ditch next to the border to secure the facing in place and you are all done! It really only took about an hour to make this.

 

I made 2, one for the dresser at the top of the post and one for the chest. These pieces of furniture are pretty beat up so these cover a lot of blemishes. 

 

 

Placemats from Little Bits - a little tutorial

During the past few weeks I didn't have the time or energy for any "big" sewing or quilting. One evening I pulled out a bag of little bits of fabric and just started sewing them together.

These bits are from 2 sources. The greens and blues are from by Back to Square One quilt and the other fabrics are from my shibori Grandmother's Choice blocks. I think that sewing like this is very relaxing and when I started I had no plans for a project. Once the project was done I started looking around for an idea and other fabrics to combine with them.

I had a lot of these blue strips from some of the BTSO blocks. I used the wrong blue and had to remake them. The light green was the largest chunk of leftover fabric from that same quilt. There wasn't enough of either for a quilt so I started thinking placemats.

I cut 6 backs and batting (old flannel sheet) for placemats. My placemats are cut 13" x 17".  I've talked about using flannel sheets in my placemats before but I'll go over it again now. I like flannel sheets because they are already pre-shrunk, they are not as thick as batting and I have LOTS of them so the "batting" is free for me. I will also use flannel sheets for quilt batting for light summer quilts.

Next I had to figure out what I was going to do. I decided that each placemat will be different based on whatever little block or blocks I'm working with and that each little block will be bordered with the blue strips.

Here's an example. I started with this big chunk and decided that this one would hang off the left edge  of the placemat. 

I started by trimming it so that the edges are straight lines and then added the blue trim on 3 sides. I have the pieced chunk on top of the batting and backing and stitched through all layers.  I also made a mistake with this one. That left edge should hang over the batting by at least a half inch to turn to the back to finish the edges. Not to worry, I fixed it with a wide blue strip.

Here's the first placemat with the correcting blue strip and the green background added. The fabric hangs over the edge of the placemant at least 1/2" all the way around. To add the green I cut large chunks and add them in a flip and sew method.

I turned the raw edges to the back and steam pressed them in place.

To finish the edges I did 2 rows of stitching (from the front) around the edge and then trimmed the extra fabric close to the inside stitching. I could have used a twin needled, done a zig zag stitch or a standard binding. I tend to take the easy and quick way out on placemats.

Quilting was the last step. I did ditch stitching around the blue frame and then did parallel stitching around all of the shapes. I used a light thread for the background and a darker thread for the patchwork shapes.

I made 6 placemats because that's how much fabric I had! It was a great exercise to work with each placemat separately and work out 6 different layouts and I think it was a good use of fabric that was probably headed for the trash bin. 

 

Snow Dyeing - A Tutorial

I know there are LOTS of tutorials on the web about snow dyeing but when I decided to do some snow dyeing last week I thought I'd also share my process and talk about alternative methods.

Of course I start with fabric! It is soda soaked for 10 - 15 minutes. I squeese out the excess liquid and arrange the fabric in a bin. I never start with dry soda-soaked fabric because around here we just don't have that much planning time with snow.

Many people put their fabric on a screen of some sort over a sink or bin so that the melted snow drips through instead of having the fabric sit in the water. Either way works. My way is the lazy way.

Next pile on the snow. I generally pile snow to the top of the container and then pour dye over the snow. In my experience snow dyeing requires more dye than regular dyeing because the batching temperature is so low. I don't actually do a lot of snow dyeing because I think it's a bit wasteful but it's a great use for some of my old dye mixes and that's what I used here.

Some people use dye powder on top of the snow and that works great too. I take the warnings about dye powder seriously so I avoid using them except to mix dye concentrates. If you are going to use dye powder directly on the snow be sure to use a respirator.

Here's how the fabric looks as the snow starts to melt. 

Here's how they looked after a few hours. I left the bins in my basement (which is about 60 degrees) for 24 hours and then washed them out using my normal process.

Here are the fabrics and I'm really happy with all of them. The black fabric in front is my favorite. 

We only get snow here about once year so I'll just hope for another snow storm for another dye session next year.

Trash to Treasure Dancing Stars postcards - a tutorial

You know I had that little pile of dog ears from trimming my Dancing Stars quilt pieces. Well, I love making postcards with my quilting trash so that's what I did with these. 

I like making this style of card enough that I wanted to share a tutorial with you on how I do them.

I start with a base of stiff interfacing. I use Stiffy from LongCreek Mills  because it's so inexpensive but Timtex also works great. I cut the base about 20" x 18" and that will give me about 15 cards. I fuse a layer of Mistyfuse over the interfacing. I like Mistyfuse because it's so light and it doesn't gunk up my needed when I sew through it. 4

For my base fabric I am using the scraps from cutting my background fabric for the quilt. 

I pulled medium to dark value blue scraps with some star point reject fabrics and spread enough to fully cover the interfacing. Now, fuse it all in place. Next I added a layer of black Mistyfuse on top of the blue fabrics. Another benefit of Mistyfuse is that's it's quite sheer and you don't really see it on the fabric.

Mistyfuse is not paperbacked so fuse it with a teflon sheet on top.

Here's what it looks like after the black Mistyfuse is added. 

Now for the fun part! I sprinkled the dog ears all around but wanted to add some sparkle. I have a good stash of Glitter Hologram thread. I could just unwind a bunch of it and spread it around the surface but I think the effect is better if the thread is in smaller bits. I unwind lots of it on my cutting mat and chop it up with my rotary cutter and then sprinkle the bits all over the surface.

To hold it all together fuse on a layer of tulle. I chose a bright blue. At this point I could have quilted the entire piece with some metallic thread to hold it all together more secure but I wanted these to be fast cards. The fusible web will hold it all together long enough for me to finish the cards.

So it was time to cut them up into 4" x 6" postcard sized pieces and to decide what else to do with them.

Since the quilt is called Dancing Stars and the cards look like a night sky, I just had to add a big star. I found some hand dyed scraps and free-form cut some stars. I made some in gold and some in purple.

I didn't even fuse these. I just placed them on the card and zig-zag stitched around the star with metallic thread. I tried a straight stitch but it did not look nice and the metallic thread made a huge difference too.

Now they are almost done! For the backs I add fusible web to a large piece of light value fabric and cut it into 4" x 6" pieces. Fuse a back on each card.

I finished the edges with my serger using Razzle Dazzle thread in the upper looper but a serger is not required. You can zig zag the edges or even straight stitch the edges to finish off a postcard.

If you've never tried making postcards I hope you will give them a try sometime. They are a fun way to experiment with techniques and products and people love getting them in the mail. Some people buy clear envelopes to mail them but I send mine through the mail nekked with a first class stamp and they usually arrive just fine. Occasionally I also leave one for my mail lady so that she's really happy to take them and mail them for me!

 

 

Button Tree Christmas Postcards (with tutorial)

This is the 6th year that I have made Christmas postcards to send to my friends and family. I am told that they are very popular so I keep making them. I make between 60 and 80 each year and usually in 3 different designs. My favorite is still the Silver Christmas Tree (also with a tutorial) that I made with leftover dress silk from my friend, Kim.

I am kind of hooked on the tree theme. I always do at least 1 tree design. This year there will be 2.

I like this button tree a lot so wanted to share with you how to make it.

The design is sun printed on the fabric and you can easily sun print with a lamp. You can get complete sun printing instructions here. Since these will not be washed, you can use any thin acrylic paint and you do not have to heat set the fabric after it's dry. Cut a piece of fabric a bit larger than 4" x 6", grab some paint and buttons and go to it. Following the instructions in the sun printing tutorial, paint the fabric, arrange the buttons and dry it with a lamp set up.

Play around with background colors, mixing paint colors (this would look great on a bright multi-colored background) and button arrangements. You will get the best print using darker paint colors. Yellow, for example, and pale colors do not show the contrast as well.

After the fabric is dry and you have removed the buttons, trim the fabric to 4" x 6" (with the tree centered) and fuse the fabric to a 4" x 6" piece of stiff interfacing like Timtex, Peltex, Fast2Fuse or Stiffy. 

Add some garland to the tree by stitching around all of the buttons with a metallic thread. I used Glitter from Superior Threads. It's a very sparkly thread and with a size 14 topstitch needle I didn't have even 1 thread break in all 21 cards. I traveled a path around every button so that I would not have to backtrack or tie off. The tree is done in one continuous "seam". This is a good time to use up some partial bobbins. As long as the bobbin thread is light in color and will not show through the fabric you place on the back, you can use anything.

Now it's time to decorate the tree. I am showing you two different things I tried here. I did the card on the left first by basically stitching in each "buttonhole". I used a red and gold metallic thread. While I think it looks OK, I felt that it sort of hid the buttons. I made the rest of the cards like the one on the right. I like it much better. I found a satin-stitched circle motif in my machine's programmed stitches and set it to do a single motif. I placed an "ornament" in the spaces between the buttons using a red metallic thread. 

Other options for decorating the tree would be to fuse crystals, hand stitch french knots or machine or hand stitched cross-stitches.

The front of the card is done! Fuse a backing fabric on the card and finish the edge. For the backing I usually apply Mistyfuse to a large piece of light colored fabric and then cut it into 4" x 6" pieces. For the edging I used some shiny red thread in my serger but you can do a sating stitch around the edge. If you don't want to do that you could even just stitch a few times around the edge with a straight stitch.

For some added sparkle I stitched an inner border of silver around the card. I used a zig zag stitch set at a length of .05 and width of 2.5. The stitching overlaps the very inner edge of my serged edge.

I put my cards int he mail "naked" which is why I do not over-embellish them. I like that the arrive with the postmark right on the card and it doesn't bother me that they occasionally arrive with a little dirt. I think that makes them more authentic. But I do take one additional step to make my cards as sturdy as possible. I put a drop of Fray Check on each corner front and back before I trim up any loose threads. You can see that the corners look dark here but Fray Check dries clear and you can tell in the photo of the finished card that it doesn't show. It really helps to keep any threads from coming undone in the mail.

Here are my first batch of 21 cards ready for addressing and mailing.

I think you could do a lot of cool ideas with sun printing buttons. A wreath or star motif would work really well too. Now on to my next batch of cards.