FWFS April Mini Quilt Mania #8: You Are Tweet

Well helloooooo! I’m Wendy , the owner and designer behind Sugarlane Designs. I’m a wife and mother to one nearly-21 year old and two fur-children, one moodle named Ralph and one moggy named Charlie. We live in a tropical North Queensland sugar cane district (hence the name) in the northern part of Australia, where temperatures rarely go below 23 degrees Celsius and often hover in the low 30s. I’m a former teacher turned quilter/stitcher/designer and always blogger, who just loves to share so I was over the moon when I was asked to participate in Fort Worth Fabric Studio’s Mini Quilt Mania.
Now, with my love of stitching, I just HAD to incorporate a stitchery into my mini.

I chose four fabrics from the AdornIt range of fabrics….. aren’t they just adorable? Tweet little birdies all over the place…..therefore…”You Are Tweet!” was born.
Finished Mini Quilt size is 18 ½ x 16 ½
The requirements for this mini are:

• ½ yard Rhapsody Bob Birdie Perch Adornit


• ¼ yard Pink Burnish Adornit


• ¼ yard Rhapsody Bop Song Floral Adornit


• ¼ yard Rhapsody Bop Ecstatic Dots Adornit


• 9in x 11in rectangle white linen


• Weaveline to back linen


• DMC stranded embroidery threads as follows: 304, 321, 327, 472, 597, 603, 725, 745, 800, 817, 963, 3326, 3781, 3835,


• Size 9 crewel needle


• 25” x 3/4in wide white/off white ric rac


• 20in square wadding


• 0.1 brown pigma pen


• Lightbox is optional


• Embroidery hoop is optional


• General sewing supplies


• Stitchery Instructions

Follow stitchery instructions as given in the download. Once complete, trim back to approximately 1 inch around the outside of the heart outline (1). Cut a notch ½ inch into the centre top of the heart, so you can turn easily (2). Turn edge under ½ inch and sew a running stitch to hold .
Take your ric rac and needleturn your heart to the ric rac, starting at the centre top of the heart (3). Once attached, remove running stitches.

Cut a 12 ½ x 9 ½ rectangle of the Pink Burnish fabric. Centre your heart onto it and pin in place. (4) Needleturn applique to the pink background. Trim this block back to 10 ½ x 8 ½ in .

Cut two 2 ½ in strips from each of the grey floral and dots fabric. Using a ¼ in seam, sew one strip of each, right sides together along the long side. Press seams to the dark fabric. Repeat with other two strips. Crosscut into eighteen 2 ½ in sets.

Sew two lots of 4 sets, alternating colours and nesting seams, to create both side borders and two lots of 5 sets for top and bottom borders, as shown in the picture.
With right sides together, stitch bottom border strip to bottom edge of centre panel. Press towards the centre. Repeat for top border strip.

Fussy cut four 4 ½ in squares from the Birdie Perch fabric, so that you ‘capture’ the birds in their bird cages.

Take each of your fussy cut blocks and place them in the four corners so that they are visually pleasing to you. Stitch each fussy cut block to both top and bottom of the side borders using a ¼ in seam and pressing to the corner blocks. Pin these right sides together along the side borders, nesting the seams and stitch. Press.

Cut a 20 in square of the Birdie Perch fabric to use as your backing. Layer, pin and quilt your mini as preferred. I chose to cross-hatch the 4 patches and stitch ¼ in inside the seam lines of the corner blocks and central panel and stitch all the way around the heart, using my walking foot.

 
Trim back to 18 ¼ x 16 ¼ in. I added a 4 “ x 17” hanging sleeve to the back using the grey floral, folding the short ends under 1/8 in twice and topstitching, before folding in half, raw edges together with right sides out and placing flush against the top edge of the mini quilt. Add the binding and then whipstitch the folded edge down to create a hanging ‘tube’.

The binding is made with the pink burnish Adornit fabric, using three 2 ½ in strips, mitred together as usual.  Hang and enjoy!

Hope you enjoyed my tutorial….if you have any questions, pop on over to my blog Sugarlane Designs or visit me on Pinterest or Instagram @wendybert to see what else I get up to.
Don’t forget to visit all the other amazing mini quilt designers and see what they’ve prepared for you for FWFS Mini Quilt Mania. You can find their links HERE.
Sugary hugs :o)

The FNSI winner is……..

so who is the winner??? 

Mr RNG says……..  “THE WINNER IS>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

…..the person who created these poppets of gorgeousness! “

Aren’t they just beautiful.  And this person creates LOTS of lovely things on her blog….she’s very creative and if you haven’t had the chance, I’m sure you’d like to visit here HERE for some  inspiration and an instant mojo-shakeup.  She just gets me wanting to create, create, create!

Congratulations from MR RNG and myself to….

CHRIS from UK CITY CRAFTER

Can’t wait to see what special little touches you add to these little princesses-all-in-a-row.  They will be winging their way to you very shortly…

Thanks to all who joined in on Friday night, I had a blast and hope you did too.  Don’t forget to pop on back here to click on the links from everyone’s blog to see what they got up to…..it’s so nice to have some lovely comments and really ‘feel’ like you were in a big room altogether stitching and chatting away!

I’m off for a quick visit with my stitching buddies tomorrow, ‘in the flesh’ so I’ll have to post about that tomorrow night…..I’m sure it will be full of catching up and giggles galore.

xox Sugary hugs :o)

FNSI–what can you win?

Before I tell you that, I need to show you what I got up to on Friday Night!  I know, I’m a tease…..

I started my needlecase by Annie Downs from Hatched and Patched from my first month’s Tilda Club instalment.  Now that’s a big thing for me…..my long time followers know what I”m like with kits and UFOs…..two and even three-digit numbers are not far from my vocabulary! So seeing as this is a January 2015 one, I think it has to be an all-time K..A.R.T.S. record!  (Kitted And Ready To Start)

Mind you, I probably should be getting on with some of the UFO’s I’ve already started, but this one was just too stinkin’ cute to not start, don’t you think?  And you can never have too many needlecases.  I’m planning on finishing this one during the coming week.  We’ll see how that goes, shall we?

So what did you get up to?  I’ll go visiting blogs on Monday to see, and if you’ve remembered to blog about your Friday night events, you might be the lucky winner of……

 

It’s a Rosalie Quinlan ‘Simply Stuffies’ kit of Matroyshkas, with the printed linen panel and contrasting fabric…just so sweet!   I’ll have to make sure Mr RNG is free on Monday to help me with the draw.  Keep your fingers crossed…..it may just be you!

I’m off to write a speech now…..it’s our official opening of the Artspace tomorrow so I best be ready.

Have a wonderful Sunday…enjoy whatever you do.

xox Sugary hugs :o)

FREE Friends BOF - Block 2: Happiness is live and it’s countdown to FNSI

Yep, it’s time!

Block 2 is ready for you to download.    You can get your free copy from my Craftsy store, where you’ll also find Block 1, and lots of my other patterns.  I just love this one…..

It just about sums it up for me….Friends just complete me….they bring such joy and happiness to my life, filling it to the brim….it always feels like sunshine when my friends are around me…or just knowing they’re in my heart gives me strength, just like the flower, growing stronger each day because the sunlight shines upon it……do you feel the same way too?

Head on over and print off your copy so we can all stitch together in our monthly, worldwide friendship sew-in and have a ‘happiness overload’ night ……. have you signed up yet?  You can do that HERE if you haven’t had the chance yet.  You know you want to, and I’ve even made it easy for you with something ready to stitch! (or you could be like me and choose something from the UFO pile?)

 

See you tonight.

xox Sugary hugs with happiness galore :o)

FNSI deliciousness and some reminders….

I was thinking, “What sort of treat could we make this Friday night?  Something sweet…..savoury?  Something that suits the northern hemisphere’s heading into summery weather, as well as the southern’s beginnings of wintery temps?”   ….and here in the tropics, well our temps are staying in the low 30’s (celsius) by day so really, anything will suit me! (and I’m a great lover of just about ANY food type!)

And then I got to thinking…..why not make an easy-peasy-yummy-liquidy-pick-me-uppy-type drink?  I’d noticed on Kelley’s blog, she had a delicious looking ice-creamy, desserty treat so I asked her if I could share it with you.

Her gorgeous looking creation is the Frozen Chai Tea Latte.   I am a great fan of Chai tea….isn’t everyone?  a hint of cloves, a touch of cinnamon…..yummo…..very exotic, (that makes it healthy, right??)  AND just like being at a posh teahouse.  Adding an ice-creamy touch to it makes it a cross between dessert and ‘l'heure du thé’…this one will give you the energy to stitch for hours….*perfect*.

And it’s so simple to make….. just click on the picture to take you to the recipe. Even if you’re not into chai, Kelley has some other delectable treats…there’s so much to drool over….pop on over and take a look.

While you’re at it, have you signed up for Friday night’s FNSI yet?  The sign ups are back HERE so don’t forget to add your name to the list…we always have a blast.  If you haven’t heard about it, read all about our virtual Friday night get togethers here.

Another reminder, tomorrow is the release of Block 2 of my free B.O.F. B.O.F. aka Best Of Friends Block of the Fortnight.  If you’re new to it, you can read all about it in this previous post and this one too.

xox sugary sweet hugs :o)

FNSI sign ups

Where has this past week gone?
I guess preparing for the opening of the Artspace and generally catching up on life has taken over (that tends to happen a lot, doesn't it?)
Nevertheless,  this Friday is our April Friday Night Sew In.......YES already! Hard to believe it's rocked around again isn't it....but it has and I can't wait!

 Mind you, I've been stitching heaps lately .... I have lots to share.....and a special something I"ll be sharing with you that's coming up in the next couple of weeks that I'll tell you more about later on this week.....but a hint........it involves THIS......

Subtle as a sledgehammer, I am?!

As always, there'll be something spesh I'll choose as our prize for FNSI this month but right now it's time to invite your online friends, remind your online buddies, choose what you're going to be working on, sign up below, jot it down in your diary, log it in your Outlook Calendar, tie a ribbon in a bow around your finger,  do whatever you have to do to remember that ....

FRIDAY NIGHT IS FNSI NIGHT!!!!!!!!!

....and you definitely don't want to miss out!

I'll be releasing the next block in our 'Friends'  BOF on Friday too, so maybe that is something you want to have ready for Friday night?  

Sign ups are open......let's get ready to part-ay!

xox Sugary hugs :o)

Challenging

Not like me to be behind the 8 ball (*guffaw*) but I am getting back on track now that my BOM is finished and out there.  So that means I can start back on APQ’s UFO challenge which I talked about here.

I missed out on March’s Challenge which was number 3 on my list

…my Birdie Stitches quilt which just has to be quilted and bound.  Perhaps I’ll find some time this month or catch up during the year???  That’s the plan anyway.

April’s challenge is to work on number 8, a project I started quite a number of years ago – a Japanese Kaleidoscope quilt.  Not my ‘normal’ style, as I’m not one for Japanese style, however this one caught my eye, but did go by the wayside for whatever reason.   I don’t have any photos of it’s progress as yet, but I’ll show you as I go.

What plans have you got for the rest of this month?

xox Sugary hugs :o)