Tutorials

Scalloped Edge Binding Tutorial

by Jo
July 13, 2022July 13, 2022
17 Comments

I plan to show you my finished Double Wedding Ring Quilt on Saturday but decided to sneak in here and post the scalloped edge binding tutorial. Here is a sneak peek of my quilt. You can read the tips and tricks for making one HERE.
The quilt has a scalloped edge binding. Many people shy away from it but it’s really not hard at all. The trick to it is to cut your binding strips on the diagonal.

To do that, take your fabric, typically about 3/4 of a yard of fabric for a queen sized quilt and fold it on the diagonal as shown.

Line up the edge of your ruler on the fold and cut.

Now cut your strips as you normally would. For this I cut 2 1/2″ strips. By cutting on the diagonal, or bias, the strips have a give or spring to them allowing them to flex.

After cutting strips, I cut 10 for my quilt, I went to the machine and sewed the strips together like this…Read More »Scalloped Edge Binding Tutorial

Red Diamond Crumb Block Tutorial

by Jo
May 3, 2022May 2, 2022
20 Comments

I had a blog reader contact me and asked if I would do a tutorial on how I make my Red Diamond Crumb Quilt blocks. I’m so happy she asked while I was still in the middle of making blocks because it was easy for me to snap a few pictures as I went along.

To make the blocks I used a 1 1/2″ cut red square for the center. From there, I needed four triangles. These don’t need to be a specific size.

I save the triangles that come from sewing binding strips together.

As I bind quilts I collect the triangles and keep them in a jar like this…Read More »Red Diamond Crumb Block Tutorial

Upcycle from Shirt to Pillow Tutorial

by Jo
April 22, 2022April 20, 2022
15 Comments

Kalissa was showing me some of the pictures of Carver’s preschool class that his teacher had sent.

I looked through the pictures. They were so cute. But, as I was looking I noticed in the nap time pictures, all of the other kids had pillows but Carver didn’t. Hmm. I asked Kalissa about it.

She looked through the pictures and saw that I was right. She didn’t know he was supposed to have a pillow so hadn’t sent one. I decided to get on that and make him one.

You might remember that I made this quilt for Carver for his preschool napping blanket. If you want to know more about the quilt check out THIS blog post.

I wanted something quick and wanted something that would coordinate with his quilt.

We live very rural and getting a pillow form would be the easiest but that was an hour’s drive to get one so I ended up getting this pillow at the thrift store. It’s a half-sized pillow perfect for preschool.

I took it home and washed it with hot water and dried it in a hot dryer.

The pillow was too puffy so I opened it up at the seam and took out about 1/4 of the stuffing.

Then I sewed it back up.

I bought a shirt at the thrift store too. It is blue even though the picture makes it look black. I wanted red but they didn’t have any red plaid shirts so blue was the next best choice to match his quilt.

I took the shirt and I…Read More »Upcycle from Shirt to Pillow Tutorial

Four Patch Mini Quilt with Free Tutorial

by Jo
April 16, 2022April 12, 2022
20 Comments

I’m on a roll finishing up things that have been lying around in my sewing room. This has been a top for some time and I had the intention of finishing it immediately after I had sewn the mini top together but alas, I didn’t. As I have been cleaning the sewing room with the express intention of finishing up projects, I unearthed this and immediately put it on the longarm.

This quilt top originated after a blog reader sent me a pile of four patches. I played around with them and came up with this idea.

The pieces it’s made of are pretty small. Here’s my hand for comparison.

I used this brown for both the backing and the binding. I used a light tan on the front for thread and a brown on the back. A simple stipple was what I used for a motif.