Free Applique Pattern series: Fluttering, Block II

Fluttering Series continues with Block II.  Just click on the picture to be lead to the PDF file available free. Use these original blocks for applique or embroidery.  

Have fun and enjoy!!

Marjory

Scrappy Mug Rug Swap Christmas 2011

This month the mug rug group tried a new kind of swap.  We knew who our swap partners were and we exchanged one on one.  So my partner was Karen@Laughter in Quilts.  She many does piecing and I mainly do applique.  That makes for a great swap, we each received something we love but rarely do. Here is the mug rug  package I received from Karen:

Wasn't I lucky?  Two mug rugs, a pouch and chocolate.  Boy what a great Christmas swap!!!!!  This snowman was her first try at designing her own paper piecing pattern.  Isn't he great!! Then the snowflake, wow oh wow!!!  Love it all.

Here's the mug rug I designed, made and set to Karen:

Since Santa is one of my favorites and Karen told me she loved him too, I took a pattern I already had designed and modified it to fit a standard mug rug.  She loves it!  Which is all I could ask for.  But this isn't all I sent.  Here's the rest:

Another Santa mug rug using Christmas fabrics, a pincushion made to look like a peppermint candy.  I need to make one of those for myself.  Maybe I'll add it to my Pincushion tutorials.  How about that?

Merry Christmas!!!
Marjory

Green Tamale Day

My great friends, the Rudolfo's, are of Mexican heritage and every year they get together as a family and make red tamales. I am always included in this process. We make them a week or two from Christmas and then they are served on Christmas. This is an all day process but lots of fun. We did these last week and I forgot my camera.

Then they informed me that they were going to do green chili tamales. We did this today and I was smart enough to bring my camera. This was the first time for most of us to make green tamales so we imported more family members that were more knowledgeable. Actually it was much easier then the red tamales. Red tamales include meat, either pork, beef or both which is usually cooked the day before. Both are made using masa but is prepared differently. Red has the red chili sauce added to the masa and the green have creamed corn added. Actually the green are vegetarian and delicious. To keep this post from being over burdened with photos I made a mosaic of 16 of the photos I took that tells the whole story.

This mosaic takes you from preparing the masa to cooking and aftermath of eating tamales.  After making tamales it is traditional to cook a batch and have a feast.  Which was carried out on each of the tamale days.  Now on Christmas we will have both green and red tamales.  

What a great feast!!

Marjory

Little Quilt Swap

Sorry for the delay in posting.  This time it was computer failure.  Ughhh!  I hate this.  My computer just wouldn't turn on.  Everyone said it was the little motor.  But it's a Dell and only they will fix it.  So I had to dig up $300 to buy a new one.  I still have to retrieve data from the old one.  I'm working on that.

Last month I joined in on a new kind of swap.  It's called "Little Quilt, Sew, Vote and Ship".  It's very different.  We send pictures of our quilts to the leader and she posts them.  That way no one knows whose is whose.  After the picture deadline we vote on the one we like the best. Actually we had to rate them 1-20.  The way it works is that the one with the highest score gets their first pick, then the second place gets their first pick unless already picked.  So one down the list.  Then after all the votes are in we are notified who to send our quilts to, but we still don't know how we rated or whose quilt we get.  It was very exciting and I enjoyed it tremendously.  Here is my entry:

It is a pattern I put out about 15 years ago that was designed by myself and my mother, June P. Brennan.  Here is the quilt we designed together as a composite in EQ7:

Mom designed the flower and I designed the quilt.  It is wall hanging size, about 54" square.  I don't have a picture of the final quilt because I never quilted it.  I have to get busy and hand quilt it.

I was almost late with my photo for the swap because of my computer failure so I just posted the quilt without the binding.  Shh, don't tell anyone.  It was fully quilted just not bound.  Then I cropped the picture so you couldn't tell.    When the voting was done I was told to ship to Sewgentle in PA.  We had 7 days to post them.  I still had to do the binding so it took 2 more days to pick a binding and get the work done.

I then mailed my quilt of on like a Thursday.  On Friday I received a package from Sewgentle.  This confused me.  Why would the one receiving my quilt send me a package.  Then I realized that I had won her quilt!!!  I still didn't know which one it was so I quickly opened it.  It was one of my top choices:

Isn't it cute!!!!   I love Santa's!!  Actually I have a collection of them that I put of every year.  It turns out she choice mine as her number 1 choice.  How nice is that!!!  She ended up rated 5 and I was 9.  I'm really happy with what I received and she is too!!!!  Both happy swappers here!!!

For the love of swapping!!!
Marjory

Free Applique Pattern series: Fluttering, Block I

The Romance Series of 4 blocks have all been posted and shared.  Now here is the 1st block from the Fluttering Series of 4 blocks.  They can stand alone or be added into the same quilt as the Romance Series. With these blocks I share my love of butterflies to compliment my love of flowers and hearts.  What could be greater but a quilt with all my favorites. I have heard from several people that they will be using my patterns for a embroidery pattern.  That's what is great about applique patterns.  They can be used for embroidery, applique and painting.  Just have fun and enjoy.  
Marjory

STUD (Swap Till You Drop) Sept-Oct Anything Goes Theme

My partner, Quiltnkimmie, loves "The Wizard of OZ" movie.  She has a collection of many different items from Oz.  I decide to do the witch for her.  After all my favorite holiday is Halloween.  I have called this mini quilt "Take that! My pretty!"  This was a gas to make.  Loved every inch of it. Here is the final package sent.

Yes, that's a witches hat pincushion.  Coming up with the right extra was the only problem I had with this swap.  Here's a closeup.

I'll be making one for myself for my collection and I will be putting together a tutorial at that time.  I may wait until next Halloween to share it or I may not.  tee he he he

Here's what I receive fro Quiltnkimmie.

He really is a "STUD".  I adore him!!!!  He's so cute!  I have yet to put him up on my wall of fame, but he will end up there sooner or later.  Wait I'm not done yet!!!  Let's see what else I received in this package.

There was a glass, a wood and 2 silver frogs in my package.  I'm in glory, I'm so thrilled.  The glass frog in on my frog shelf, the wooden frog is a magnet and is on the frig.  The silver frogs are hung out for me to see everyday.  Actually I will see them all everyday.
Quiltnkimmie said she thought it would be fun to include frogs made of different materials.  It is, it is!!!!  The next picture shows the little purse that the silver frogs

were.  It's darling!!!  When I finally have a shelf for all my pincushions this will be included with them.  The peace signs are actually tacks and have been added to my design wall.  I received this the day after the package from Scrapnchick arrived so I've been a very happy camper lately. 


Keep on Swapping!

Marjory

STUD (Swap Till You Drop) Sept-Oct Halloween Theme

My partner, Scrapnchick has received the mini quilt that I made her for this round.  This means I can finally share it here.  This is and the other STUD swap I've done this round is why it's been so quiet here the last week or so.  I can't share here if I want it to be a surprise and I'm big on surprises.    For this round Halloween was the theme.  Not hard for me, I just had to go to my already designed unfinished projects and steal from them.  I did some tweeking to make it fit this venue and it was ready to go.  Oh, oh my partner posted that she likes spiderwebs.  I wasn't planning on that.

That made me rethink the ghosts in the offsetting corners.  I still wanted to do them but I wanted the spiderwebs to be seen too.  "Flash" goes my brain.  What if the Ghosts were made from organza.  I could burn the edges and sew them on.  Better yet what if I sewed them on with Glow in the Dark Thread.  This resulted in 2 technical problems that delayed my finishing the quilt on time.

Most Spiderweb blocks are made using 4 blocks that intersect.  This would make the web way to large for a mini quilt.  After a search of the web, I found this pattern.  So I designed my mini quilt around this block.  The problem was I didn't read the directions.  This block is made by sewing strips together, cutting this into squares.  Then cutting the squares in half on the diagonal.  Easy right, just like half square triagles. Just pieced.  The problem was it's done completely random and the block comes
out the size it comes out.  I decided on what size strips I would cut to do a small enough block.  This quilt is not suppose to be bigger than 15"  Half of 15 is 7 1/2", right.  Well the first block game out to be 8 1/2".  Too large!!!  So I recut strips 1/4" smaller thinking this should get me closer to the right size.  Wrong!!  It came out about 6" finished.  Instead of making another test, I just added a border around the web to make it float.  Whew!!! 

Second problem came when I tried to attach the first ghost.  I thought and thought about this and decided to use paper piecing paper. I could temporarily sew the ghost to the paper, thereby stablizing the organza.  Then I could cut out the ghost and zigzag it in place on the quilt.  This would work because the back of the ghost was in the seam allowance, so I could pull the paper out through this side.  Wrong, wrong, wrong!!!!!   The paper is stronger then the organza!!!  The organza tore before the paper!!!!  This was a nightmare.  I was going to be late!!!   I still had to do my other swap for the same group.  Ughhh!

I refused to change my design.  I needed to make it work!!!  After several sleeples nights and a consultation with my BFF in Texas. I came up with the idea that maybe I should cut out a fusible web to be about  1/8" around the outside edge of the ghost.  That would stabilize it long enough to zigzag around it.  Hopefully.    As you can see it worked.   Here is the entire package that I sent Scrapnchick.

Here is the quilt that arrived from Scrapnchick. Isn't it great.  I love the black and white

border fabric and the way it cries fall not just halloween.  Below is the whole package.  That large green button is really a little box filled with colorful buttons.  The Jackolatern face is a small mugrug.  It's so cute!  I love it!  Then there is a pad of paper with a magnet on the back.  It's now joined all my frig art.  I've been very lucky this round with my partners.

Swapping is Fun!!!!

Marjory

Potholders Pass Shipped and Received!!

Here are the potholders that I sent to my secret partner.  She should receive it sometime this next week.  I can't say much about her except that she posted on Flickr that she likes them.  I included a little house pincushion as a little extra.  I am thinking of doing a tutorial next month for both the potholders and the house pincushion.  Anyone interested?

Here's what came yesterday but I didn't find until today.  I have what is almost extinct in this country.  Door to door mail service.  I have a slot in my office wall where the mail is deposited.  If the mailman can't insert it they leave it on my bench right outside the door and next to the slot.  I didn't see this until I went out front to water this morning.  What a Sunday surprise. 

Just look at the decorated envelope.  Isn't it just great!!!  Inside was the wrapped package.  My partner took a lot of time and consideration for this swap.  I really love that! Here is the back of the envelope.

Now wait until you see what was inside the wrapped package.  Can you stand the suspense? 

They aren't potholders they are little pieces of art!!!!   Can you see the little pumpkins in front of the house?  Look at that tree and moon.  These are so cute. I won't be able to use them so let's see how I am featuring them in my kitchen.



I already owned this colorful magnetic clips and they offset this little quilts perfectly.  Now I will smile every time I open the frig.  How did she know what colors to do to match my clips?  The mystery of life.  Thank you MyHeart4Him!!! I couldn't be happier.

Creating is the key!! 
Marjory

"Boo!" to you too!

Have you ever come across the iron on rhinestones at your favorite craft store?  Did you really like them but didn't have an idea to use them?  Here's what I did with the prefabbed iron on rhinestones that I bought on sale.  This little greeting card is 4"x6".  I started by following the directions to iron them on the black fabric.  I then cut a piece of batting a little larger than the finished card I wanted.  Cut the "Boo" out randomly and pinned to the batting.  Did a little sew and flip.  Bound it and "Voila" a greeting card anyone could do.  

Funky Pumpkin Pincushion Free Tutorial and Pattern

Here it is folks!!!  The promised Funky Pumpkin Pincushion tutorial.  It is lengthy so I again made a PDF file for you to download.  Actually there is 2 PDF files one for the directions and one for the pattern.   I think this would be fun in green, then it would be a green pepper.   So for you pepper lovers out there it is perfect.    I stuffed mine with crushed walnut shells but it could be done with stuffing also.  I like the weight of the shells.  The pincushion will not tip over that way.  Don't you hate it when that keeps happening when you are reaching for your pins.  You can get the crushed walnut shells where ever they sell pet products.  It is used as a litter for some small critters.  It is fairly inexpensive.  If I could afford it I would be using emery.  I just make too many to make that feasible.  I hope you all enjoy this pincushion.  I had a lot of fun designing and making it for my swap partners.  Don't worry there are 3 here and 1 is for me.  tee hee hee.   Check out the link pages I will be posting this item on them. 

Funky Pumpkin Pincushion Directions
Funky Pumpkin Pincushion Pattern

I love pincushions!!!
Marjory

linked to:   http://www.momnivores-dilemma.com/2011/09/halloween-link-party-my-first-halloween.html

Have you ever saved anyone?

Wow! You won't believe what happened to me yesterday afternoon. I was loading my car to go to a friend's house. When I do this I am usually slamming doors. The first door I slammed was my house. Then I heard someone calling "Dale, Dale". At least that's what I heard. Then as I was loading the car, no calling. I then slammed the car door. Again I heard "Dale, Dale". I thought it was a neighbor calling their kids. I had forgotten to lock the house, so slam goes that door again. This time I thought I heard "helff, helff". So I opened and closed my car door without getting in to make sure.

Sure enough it was "Help! Help!". I live in a neighborhood with a lot of elderly living alone. Across the street I went. My neighbor directly across from me lives alone. He was prone on the floor right by the front door. Luckily the door was open and I could see him through the screen. He had fallen and broken his knee or broken his knee and fallen. While we were waiting for 911 he told me he had been there for 5 hours waiting for someone to hear him.

This really shook me up!!  Luckily when I arrived at my friend's house I noticed a bowl on the dining table.  It had frogs on it.  Johnny said "Come on in and sit down".  I responded, "I'm ogling this bowl with the frogs".  "Oh, dear!"  he responds, "We were supposed to hide that before you came."  They were saving it for my birthday.  But I needed a pick me up right then so they gave it too me.

It looks to me like it's from before 1945.  It's not marked on the bottom and it has some crazing in the glaze.  They bought it for a $1.00.

Well keep on keeping on
Marjory

Halloween Scappy MugRug Completed

I really had fun with this months theme in my mugrug swap.  Halloween is my holiday!!!  I mean that!  My birthday is a week before Halloween and all my life I felt it was my personal celebration.  Sorry if I'm offending all you other Halloween babies out there, but it is my celebration!  I have designed so many applique designs for this holiday that all I had to do was raid them and pick what elements I wanted to us.  Of course it had to have a frog/toad involved.  You will be seeing some of these elements in my Spookytime quilt that is in progress. I stole some of them from that design and just resized them.   I sure hope my partner like this.  If not she can just send it back!  What you can't see is the quilting.  It's done in a spider web that glows in the dark.  What fun is that!!!   

Here is the whole package my partner will receive.  I designed and made a funky pumpkin pincushion.  Also included are some Halloween beads from my stash, a fat quarter of Halloween fabric and a small toy mummy.

Here is a close up of my pumpkin pincushion.  I will be posting a tutorial and pattern for it later in the month.  Don't forget to check out the other swappers.  There are some really fun mugrugs posted this month.  I can't wait to see which one is mine!!!! 

 Join a swap today!!  
                Marjory

Franky with his Furry Friends

I want to thank Anita and Kelly for hosting this great Howl-oween Tricks & Treats Craftathon.  What a joy to have been invited to share my craft with you.  Here is Franky with all his critters.  He just loves small furry animals just like us.  He is created with some unique techniques.  Like sewing before cutting.  Check out the set of 4 PDF's that will help you to create Franky and all his friends, Lightening the cat; Flash the mouse and Thunder the dog.  Don't forget to check out my other crafts; patterns and tutorials.

Enjoy,    Marjory Peck at

http://peckspieces.blogspot.com/

This is the post that I sent for the Howl-oween Tricks & Treats Craftathon over at http://rhinestonebeagle.blogspot.com/   They are hosting a month long craft fest.  Click on their link and enjoy the tutorials for all the great crafts.  New stuff will be posted everyday so be sure to go back for more. 

Mini Quilt Hanging Sleeve

I've been really busy completed my Halloween Doll and tutorial to premier on Howl-oween Craftathon at rhinestonebeagle.blogspot.com .   It will be posted on the 5th of October and that is when I will post it here with a link to their post. 

In the meantime I thought I would show how I hung a few of the mini quilts that I have recently received in all my swaps.

Here is the start of my hall of fame.  The top left is: By the Pond created by AlwaysSewLove.  Top right: Waiting for my Lady a cross stitched beaded lovely by my sister, Bonnie.  Bottom left:  Frogs Legs by CASharp.  Bottom right:  Dahlia by Handmaderetro.  Aren't they all great and there is room for a lot more.  Now my beaded frog has friends.  He's been so lonely stuck in my office all alone.  Now he has a girl friend to share life with.

I made hanging sleeves for all the mini quilts and sewed them to the back.  Here is a small tutorial to share with you on how I did this.  

1. Purchase a wood slat at your favorite lumber store.  The slat should be about 1" wide and 1/4" deep.  I found them in the finishing wood. They come is different lengths.  I usually buy big so that I can have extra on hand.

2.  Measure width of mini quilt to be hung.  Cut slat to exact width of quilt. 

3.  Cut muslin for sleeve.  The length of the muslin should be the exact measurement of the width of the quilt.  The width of the muslin should be the width of the slat time 2 + 1".  So if you quilt is say 16" wide and you slat is 1" your muslin would be cut as 16"x 3".

4.  Turn under 1/4" on each short edge, press.  Turn under another 1/4" on each edge, press.  Top stitch these edges down.  This will make the sleeve 1" shorter than the quilt.  This leaves room to create a hole in order to hang the quilt.

5.  Fold muslin in half lengthwise with wrong sides together.  Sew raw edges together using a 1/4" seam allowance creating a tube.  Press seam allowance open.

6.  Flatten muslin tube with the seam allowance centered in the middle.  Lightly press.

7.   Place and pin muslin to back of quilt top, right under binding. Be sure to center muslin tube in center of the quilt back.  Sew top of sleeve down being careful to not let stitches show on the front of the quilt.   

8.  Before sewing down the bottom of the sleeve, make a 1/4" pleat and pin down.  This will take up the depth of the wooden slate so that it doesn't distort the quilt from the front.  Now sew down bottom of sleeve to quilt.  Remove pins.  Insert slate into sleeve and mark slate for drilling. 

9.  Hang



Romance Series Final Block #4

This is the final block in the free applique patterns for the Romance Series. Just click on the picture to go to the free PDF file.  Next month come back for the first block in the next series called Flutter Series.  If you love butterflies and hearts you love this series too.  In fact it can interact with the Romance series to complete a 8 block small quilt.

Other things to look forward to next month is a sharing of doll patterns for Halloween.  I will share a tutorial for my Mumford the mummy (click name for a sneak peek) here and I will also be sharing my pattern/tutorial of Franky Stein as a featured artist on the blog: rhinestonebeagle.blogspot.com
They are holding a month long marathon of Halloween crafts.  It's being called Rhinestone Beagle's Tricks & Treats Craftathon and should be great fun.  So go on over and enjoy the crafts. 

Chef in Training Give A Way

I just found a great blog that shares recipes.  She now has a great give-a-way for  THREE months FREE subscription to E-Mealz!  It is a meal planing, shopping organizing and recipe program.  It sounds great!  Hop on over to this blog and check it out.  Just click the above button.   She has also just started a new link party for all crafts and lots of recipes.  If you are looking for something to cook or bake it's there. 

July/August STUD (Swap Till You DroP) Completed!

I have shown you the SPUD mini quilts I received, now it's time to show you the one's I sent.  I had to wait until they were received because one was a big surprise for my partner, CASharp.  Remember in this swap we know who are partners are and we cross swap,  therefore we are each others partner.  Remember I showed you Frogs Legs that I received from CASharp.  Isn't it cute and such extras. 

I stalked searched her Flickr photo stream for several weeks to find just the right subject.  Every time I came back to the same picture.  One of her son's dog, Sophie.  She is a Smooth Fox Terrier and her face just called my name.  I had read on another thread that her favorite pet was her cat but Sophie kept saying "Do Me! Do Me!"  So I gave up and quilted her.  First I will show you the sneak peek I showed her. She said it was worthless but fun.

What do you think?  Can you tell the subject.  he he he  Now that she has received it you can see the whole thing.  Go to my Linky Parties Page and see where I have posted this quilt along with all the other wonderful quilts.

Didn't she come out great?!  This was a lot of fun to make and even more fun to hear her joy after receiving it. I can't show a picture of the dog here but just click her name above to go to the actual picture I used to create this quilt.  Click Sophie's quilt to go to CASharp's photo stream and see her response.

What I didn't know was that Sophie passed away almost a year ago.  But she feels that this quilt is a great tribute to her son's dog.  She has already hung the quilt in the hall right next to her son's room.  Right now he is away at school.

Last but not least, the quilt I sent to Caryquilter.  I have posted some ideas earlier, but I had to choose which color way to do.  I ended up doing both the dark grey and the white one.  Then I picked the white one to sent to Caryquilter.  I am thinking of doing a tutorial about this quilt in September so I won't go on and on now.  Here it is "Which way is Up?"

Remember this swap had a theme of "One Shape in Rainbow Colors".  They were all thrilled to see a unique shape.  I've been wanting to do arrows forever and this was a great way to complete that desire.

August Mug Rug Received!!

Yesterday I received a package from my secret mug rug partner.  It was like having Christmas and my birthday at the same time.  Before I show you what I received let me tell you about a conversation I had with my BFF in Texas.  I was complaining to her that I kept telling my secret partners that I loved frogs but yet had to receive a frog quilt.  She suggested that I was being to subtle.  Part of each swap is to create a mosaic of favorite mug rugs we have seen on Flickr.  Here is the mosaic I created to post on this group.  Do you think this makes my point?  LOL  I had also posted several pictures of my frog collection the week before.  Check it out here.

Click the picture and it will take you to my Flickr photo stream and you will be able to click on the sites for each quilt.

Here is what I received from my partner, AlwaysSewLove.

Isn't it cute.  A rectangle log cabin with a frog in the center.  Not what I  was really looking for but it is a frog and she did a great job.  But wait this is the back, lets turn it over!

Isn't this the best Mug Rug you've ever seen!  The grasses in the back is a melted crayon technique that she found on this blog: http://www.suzyssitcom.com/2011/04/feature-friday-making-batik-fabric-with.html She also told me that this blog is going to feature this mug rug some time soon.

Click on the picture and you can see the details.  Look at those eyelashes.  Then there is a small water lily peeking out from under a lily pad.  Not to mention the dragonfly.  Is that lunch?  She has such attitude.  Now I need to tell you that AlwaysSewLove states that she has only been quilting for a year and is a beginner.  I told her she may be new to quilting but is not a beginner.  This is very creative and well done!  I love it. Wait there is more!

Look what else she gave me.  Earrings she felt looked like frogs.  Werther's Original one of my favorite candies.  See that flower quilt, it's not a quilt but a book and book cover to start my own Haiku Journal.  I had already started one and was really glad that she made this cover to fit a composition notebook, which is what I used.  I just slipped out her book and inserted mine.  I will use her book after mine is full.  Do you think that will happen?  Haiku's are addicting.  But what an addiction!  Oh, I almost forgot her Haiku.  I was so excited over what I received that I over looked it at first.  She had to tell me where to look for it.  LOL  She made a special card for me.  Here it is:

Oh well, maybe the dragon fly is for dessert.  Here's the Haiku I wrote after receiving this lovely package. 
                                          Mug rug swap received
                                          From partner AlwaysSewLove
                                          Frogs, surprises and gifts


Sewing, Sharing, Swapping the three "S's".    Marjory