Tag: spring

Front Porch Quilts

Tulip Twist Wall Hanging

Sew Happy by Sarah

As I was gathering ideas for Spring decor projects, I remembered this Tulip Twist pattern and fabric kit I had purchased at Front Porch Quilt Shop two years ago. I pulled it out and made it along with my other recent tulip projects. I love the movement this piece creates! Both with the turning flowers and the dancing border.

The border was perhaps the most time-consuming part of this project. It involved making strip sets of each color of fabric sewn to a white strip and then cutting those down into 1.5″ pieces. (Small!) What took up the most time was sewing all those 1.5″ pieces together. The finished product was worth it though!

I took the opportunity to play around with the quilting, trying different designs in each flower. I used some of my rulers and a bit of freehand.

Close ups of the quilting

Ironically my real tulip garden outside looks like it’s not going to bloom this year, but at least I’ll have these cute flowers inside!

Finished Size: 32" x 32"
Pattern: Tulip Twist by Front Porch Quilts
Cluck Cluck Sew

Easter Tulips Wall Hanging

Sew Happy by Sarah

My mom was in need of another wall hanging so she could change out the winter one I made her last year. As I was making the Easter Tulips Pillows and a corresponding table runner that isn’t quite finished yet, I took some extra tulip blocks and quickly made this wall hanging!

I added the white border around the blocks to create the desired width and length, then I threw it on the longarm! Small projects like this are a great way to practice quilting designs. I’m still learning and they say the more you quilt, the better you’ll become. I played around with some rulers and did freehand on the leaves. I’m feeling a little more confident in using the machine now!

Finished Size: 11.5" x 30.5"
Pattern: Easter Tulips from Modern Holiday Table Runners by Cluck Cluck Sew
Cluck Cluck Sew

Easter Tulips Pillows

Sew Happy by Sarah

I’ve been busy sewing all things Spring lately — and in particular tulips! While working on a bright, happy tulip table runner called “Easter Tulips” by Cluck Cluck Sew, I got the idea to make extra tulips for pillow covers for my couch. These were so fast and easy to make that I finished them before the table runner!

The Easter Tulips pattern can be found in the Modern Holiday Table Runners pattern booklet. I followed the pattern for the tulip blocks, added a spacer between them and did the math to figure out the size of the white borders needed to create the 21-inch-square pillow covers. I made an envelope back to slip over my pillow forms. The tulip blocks went together quickly and I can’t wait to make more of the seasonal table runners in the booklet! I might have to convert more of them to matching pillow covers, too!

Walking into my living room is so bright and cheery now! What a fun project to use my fabric scraps.

Cat approved! Guest appearances by Mindy and Milo

Stay tuned for the table runner… 

Finished Size: 21" x 21"
Pattern: Easter Tulips from Modern Holiday Table Runners by Cluck Cluck Sew

Ottobre 2/2015

Ottobre – 2-2015 #17 Faded Stripes Jersey Top

Sew Happy by Sarah

Things I Learned

  • Easy! – Nice, easy sew!
  • Stripes – Carefully line up stripes when cutting out front and back shirt pieces!  After I was finished with the shirt I realized it would have been nice to have the stripes lined up perfectly from front to back.
  • Binding – Use a solid color for binding!  For this shirt I used the same fabric as the shirt and it coincidentally looks like a solid color but it just happened to work out that the binding is the width of one stripe…  After it ended up like this for the neck and I had to make it look the same for the sleeves.
  • Fabric type – After the initial wash of this shirt I was worried I wouldn’t be able to wear it.  The fabric was super static-y and I couldn’t stand it!  Luckily I haven’t had a problem since.  I believe the fabric is more of a polyester blend, where I’m used to 100% cotton.  It also has started to pill after 2 months of washes.  😦

Even with the imperfect stripes I have been wearing this in public and have gotten a lot of use out of it.  🙂  I love the style!  Something a little more interesting than a plain t-shirt, but comfortable too.  I will definitely be making this again.

Ottobre 1/2014

Ottobre – 1-2014 #14 Lime Lemon Jersey Dress

Sew Happy by Sarah

Lime Lemon Jersey Dress as a Princess Leia costume!

Things I Learned

  • Modifications – This was my first time doing any type of pattern design modifications.  Previously I had only lengthened a shirt or shorted sleeves a couple inches.  For this dress, I lengthened the dress quite a bit and changed the shape of the sleeves in order to resemble Princess Leia’s dress.  Surprisingly, my mods worked out great on the first attempt.  🙂
  • Creativity – I loved the creativity with this project.  I found the tutorial for the belt online and was happy it turned out great as well.

I was very impressed with how this turned out!  Especially since it was my first time doing something like this.  🙂