Window Wallet - with tutorial

So I made a bunch of these little "window wallets".  I was asked if there is a pattern.  No - so I said I'd do a "picture tutorial".  Here it is:

You need (above): 

1. 1 - square or rectangle of fabric (I used 8" x 8" because I had some pre-cuts that size - from IKEA!)  You can make yours bigger.
2. 1 - zipper at least the length of the edge that you want as your opening (for this one, mine was 9")
3. 2 - 2" fabric strips at least 1" longer than the finished depth of your wallet
4. 1 - clear vinyl piece at least 1" wider than the wallet width and at least 3 1/2" deep (I used 3 1/2" - wait until Step 4 to decide how wide to cut it - so wait until then to cut this piece)

Step 1 - Cut a 1 1/2" strip off the top of the big fabric piece (above).

Step 2 - Stitch the zipper to the two pieces as shown above.  Be sure to line the fabric up so the print matches and the sides line up.  Press.

Step 3 - Topstich each side of the zipper (above)

Step 4 - Press up 1/4" on each end.  On the bottom end (biggest side) press up another 1/2" (above).

Here is where you can cut your vinyl.  It should fit between that bottom folded edge and about an inch below were the zipper is laying in that pix above.  If in doubt, cut it the width between the zipper tape and the first fold on the bottom piece - you'll be trimming it later anyway.

Step 5 - Stitch the folded edge of the thin top piece to the vinyl.  The vinyl should be on the wrong side.  (above)

Step 6 - Fold the zipper over as shown above.  It has a "natural fold" along the edge of the zipper tape, which is inside the fold - about 1/4" into the black and white fabric.  Top stitch the crease along the top edge.

Step 7 - Now you will have a better idea of where to trim the vinyl.  The bottom edge should lie just above that second fold.

Step 8 - Fold the bottom over the vinyl.  It should all lay nice and flat at this stage.

Step 9 - Stitch the bottom along the vinyl side of the fold-over.  Trim each side.  If your zipper is longer than the wallet width, be sure the zipper pull is on the wallet - not at a zipper end.  Don't cut it off!  (above)

Step 10 - Press the two strips in half, then press each half to the centre as above.

Step 11 - Trim out a bit of the bulk.  I used fabric that is like a light weight canvas, so getting rid of some bulk was desirable. (above)

Step 12 - Fold the top of the strip over the top corner. (above)

Step 12 (cont'd) - Then wrap the strip over the side. Start stitching down the edge - about 1/8" in from the inside edge - you need to catch the back with the stitching.  Stop a short distance down - needle down.  This first bit of stitching will hold the pieces in place while you cut the strip to a good "fold over length" and cut some bulk out as you did on the top end.  Fold the bottom end up over the bottom corner, wrap and complete the stitching.  Be sure to tuck the raw ends under the folded edge.  (above and below)

Step 13 - Stitch the second strip to the remaining side as you did the first side.

Et Voila!  One finished wallet!

A couple of notes re vinyl:  

• I have a roll of vinyl of a few feet (you can purchase it by the linear foot) that I purchased from someplace like Canadian Tire.  However, if you're just doing a one off you can use one of those vinyl bags that blankets/ duvets, etc. come in.
• If you have trouble sewing vinyl with your machine, try your walking foot or maybe some masking tape along the edge to make it a bit "grabbier" - I didn't have any trouble with my Juki and I've also used my Janome with no problem.

Here are a few more...

Some of the IKEA squares were white so I got out my fabric markers and started playing.  😀  I used the one on the right to carry my foreign currency when we were in New Zealand - it worked out really well.

Butterfly's Garden

This is my own Tula Pink Butterfly quilt.  I'm calling it "Butterfly's Garden".  I quilted one for Gillian awhile back.  Coincidentally, mine was under construction at the time.  I got the kit from Craftsy well over a year ago - I think sometime in 2016  - and started chipping away at it last spring.  I put a push on and finished the top late in the fall but didn't get around to quilting it until after Christmas.  I finally got the binding and a label on it for our long-arm group meeting yesterday so it's on the list of completed UFO's. 😎 

It's mostly Tula Pink fabric, obviously, but I did add a few stash fabrics that worked.  Also, I bought more of the background fabric for the borders.  I liked the fabric in the kit - but not for the border.  I wanted the butterfly to be the main event and felt that anything other than the background would detract from that.  I also added an extra six inches on each side because I may want to actually use this one on a bed!  In the end, it's a huge quilt - not quite king, but certainly a generous queen.

I am often asked how I figure out how I am going to quilt a quilt.  The concept for this quilt is "garden"....  keep going for more explanation ....

Because its so big, I don't have a good space in my house to get a decent shot of the whole quilt, draping it over some furniture is the best I can do (below).  Lee D, in our long-arm group, took a pix of it yesterday so I'm stealing her pix (thanks Lee!), which is the pix above.

My idea for this quilt was that it would be a garden, hence the name.  The design along the bottom border is adapted from a book of Art Deco wrought iron designs.  The idea is that it's a wrought iron fence around the garden (below).

Of course there will be other butterflies and some dragonflies in the garden.... and flowers.... and leafy things (feathers).

For this quilt, I started by ditching all the blocks in the butterfly using DecoBob thread (most of the rest of the quilting was with Glide) .  Then I quilted the antennae.  It took a couple of tries to get them more or less symmetrical as I'm not computerized - this is one place where it would be handy.  But in the end I like the organic result of not-quite-perfect.  I pinned the borders down as I went.   Once I got to the bottom of the butterfly wings, I went back and quilted the butterfly blocks. 

When the butterfly was completely quilted (I did change colours to blend with the fabric in most cases), I did the half inch outline all the way around.  Next - I  stitched in the outlines for the "wrought iron fence".   Then I stitched in the butterflies and dragonflies.  Note that I used coloured thread for these motifs.  All the rest of the background/border quilting is with white.  

I gradually worked my way around the background and border, filling it in with what I hope turns out to be fairly balanced.  I don't usually sketch out what I'm going to quilt - it's all in my head so I just hope it works because all I can see at any one time is what is between the roll bars.

A note about the grid quilting.  First - I measure it and draw it on with air erase pen.  Second - it's ruler work.  Third - I often use a grid as a background when an area needs to be quilted but I don't want to put a busy design in that place.  In the pix above, as an example, if I had put feathers where the grid is, the dragonfly would disappear.  The grid is a sort of "neutral" quilting design that goes in "behind" a motif or feature design.

Above - can't see it very well but there's a "lattice" running up along each side.

Above - the "lattice" on the right hand side - the diamond shapes.

And that's my Butterfly's Garden.  

Time Warp and a Small Announcement

Time Warp!

It's been awhile since I've posted - I have been busy with quilting and a few other things.  As I have done from time to time, I am posting this "catch up" so fasten your seat belts.  And I have a small announcement to make - it's at the end so keep reading/scrolling down.

First up: a few customer quilts.

Ronnie wanted this quilt to be quilted in a "manly" way.

This is Donna's Monopoly quilt.  Note the top hat and locomotive quilted into the centre panel.  She asked me to put "Doug" in jail because I guess Doug is getting the quilt and he is, as she explained, "not the person you want to play Monopoly with".

Sandra brought me a really sweet little heart quilt top made by her 97 year old Grandma and asked if I could quilt it.  Unless I am asked otherwise, I quilt and take the quilt off the frame - that's it.  I don't trim or bind.  I know some quilters do trim, but I'm not comfortable doing that as everyone has their own special way of doing things.  So I generally just leave the quilted quilt to the maker to finish as they prefer.  Sandra, as it turns out, is a non-sewer so when I presented her with her quilted but not finished quilt, she was a bit baffled by what the next step would be.  So she left it with me and I finished it off for her.  She is planning to return it to her Grandma, but confessed that she hoped her Grandma would give it back to her!  😊  I love the stories that go with the quilts I quilt!  (Of course I didn't get a good pix, when I called her, she came right away - she lives near me.)

I quilted these appliqued snowmen for Liz.  We were both happy with the way they turned out.  Stars in the corners and through the border sashing - swirls (of snow is my thinking) on the rest of the border.

Barb has brought me a number of quilts for quilting but she tells me this T-shirt quilt is the first one she will keep for herself.  I can tell that it holds some really wonderful memories for her.  She's added in a few printed-on-fabric photos of her family, which makes it even more special.

Teaching:

In addition to a few "how to quilt" classes that I've taught lately, I recently taught a class on making a little spiral table topper.  I made the purple/black with the wizard in the centre as the sample for the store to display, then my class demo was the teal/cream.  (I did all the quilting on my domestic machine - used some "fancy" satin stitches.  I did this because most people taking these classes won't have a long-arm in their basements like I do!)  Here they both are.

The Lemoyne Star was made using the Lemoyne Star Studio 180 tool.  Makes it super simple and fast!

A lady in the class said she loved the wizard.  I'm not sure if she was expecting to learn how to make the wizard, too - it took the full class time just to get the first row of the spiral done.  I explained that the wizard was just a bit of jazz I added but that we should ask Janet, the store owner (Addies in Cochrane) if she would be interested in me doing a paper piecing class.  She is, so I will be teaching paper piecing on Jan 10 at Addies.  As the wizard is in a book I own, has copyright restrictions and is out of print now, to avoid any copyright issues I developed a pattern to use for the class.  It contains three separate blocks combined to make this little mini quilt.  The blocks range from really easy, to slightly more difficult. I think if a person can make all three, they should be able to tackle just about any paper piecing project.

I didn't have enough of the blue colours left to make a standard binding so thought this was my opportunity to try the facing style of binding.  I found a good tutorial here.   It worked well.  I'm very happy with it.  I probably wouldn't do it on a really big quilt - but never say never!  There are a couple of tricks to note if you decide to try it: 

1) "Press the facing strips outwards, then stitch through the facing and seam allowance about 1/8” from the seam."  this is an old garment making trick - it really helps to keep the binding flat once it's folded over.

2) make sure the corners are really secured so that the raw edge doesn't poke out at the ends.

Update: A FB friend also suggested this tutorial for the faced binding.  I haven't tried it yet, but the thing I like about it is the way she does her corners.  When I do my next one, I'll do the corners from the Silly BooDilly tutorial and the 1/8" stitching from the Terry Aske tutorial.  

'Tis the Season.... for E-Shopping!!!!

Craftsy had a sale, I couldn't resist 17 yd of solids for 1/2 price (with shipping it worked out to under CD$5.00/yd). Irresistible - so I ordered and the package arrived about an hour ago!

Also, I've been using my Brother Scan'n'Cut quite a bit lately - because I can!!!!  I ran out of fusible backing so ordered a bolt - it also arrived today!  This is the Vikings quilt top.  All the Vikings were cut with my Scan'n'cut - fabric first fused to the fusible backing.  It's one of many of my own quilt tops waiting to be quilted.

"Small Announcement"

I really love quilting and I love my customers and I love that they trust me to quilt their quilts and I love that for the most part they all seem really happy with my work.  But I had an avalanche of quilts come in this year and I was working way more on quilting customer quilts than I ever intended.  About a month or so ago I realized I'd hit the wall with customer quilts.  I want it to stay fresh and fun - not a job, which is what it was beginning to feel like.

So I decided to finish off the customer quilts that I have committed to quilt and then take a "hiatus" from quilting customer quilts.  I'm not sure for how long, but at least until spring.  If you are one of my customers - I thank you very much for placing your trust in me.  If  you (or anyone) need something quilted between now and the time I return to quilting customer quilts, I will be happy to refer you to another quilter.  We are lucky to have many talented quilters in the Calgary area.

What will I be doing?  I have a Tupperware bin full of quilt tops I have made that are waiting to be quilted.  I have a head full of quilt ideas that I want to play with and I also hope to develop a few patterns.  No end of things to do!  I just need time to do them!

Once again - thank you to all my customers.  Please stay in touch.  I will post when I'm ready to return to quilting for others.  And of course, my blog and FB page will continue as ever!  One of the reasons I do this blog is to share with other quilters - I learn so much from the things that other people are generous enough to share - it's my way of contributing to that body of knowledge and experience (good and bad!).