Trip to Colonial Williamsburg

I have finally returned home from my vacation in Williamsburg, Virginia. Since I love 18th century history Williamsburg is one of the places that we vacation each year. Colonial Williamsburg has such great interactive programs that I could spend the entire week there. My family is not as enamored with Colonial life and they usually have their fill of 18th century history after a couple of days. They prefer to spend their days instead at Busch Gardens.

While I am in Williamsburg I make it a point to stop at Haus Tirol to chat with the owners and purchase some needlework projects. Brittany found some Beatrix Potter Tale of Peter Rabbit patterns and I found some patterns by a mon ami Pierre.

A mon ami Pierre's Antique Lions Et Oiseaux caught my attention. The design was based on an antique French sampler.


The pattern is available from www.amonamipierre.net




I knew that I could not leave Haus Tirol without purchasing the materials to stitch the sampler. The owners were very helpful in selecting fabrics and threads to make my sampler look like an antique. They layed about five different fabrics on the counter in front of me and then pulled the equivalent DMC colors suggested in the pattern. I chose a beautiful 16 count hand dyed Aida (dark taupe with copper shading). The original model was stitched with Anchor floss and an over-dyed green floss that are not available in the US. Since I wanted to work in silk the owners suggested Gloriana Cranberry and The Thread Gatherer Silk 'N Colors Dark Forest over-dyed silks.




I'm interested to see the finished results and will post them here.

Cat Quilt

My daughter Brittany will soon be leaving Germany and returning home. We wanted to give her Host Mom a special gift to remember their time together. Heidi is such a wonderful, caring person and a great Host Mom so I decided to design a quilt for her. I chose a cat theme since Heidi loves cats.



Several years ago I decided to try to design my own quilt. I found the entire process very frustrating because I didn't know where to begin. I'm posting the entire design process in the hope that it will inspire other beginners to design their own quilts. It's so rewarding to see a design that was translated onto paper actually come to life as a quilt.

The first thing that I always do is to develop a quilt plan. The plan includes a sketch of the design, the size, number of blocks per row, block size and colors. I really like the cat from Whistlepig Productions Wild Cat pattern and decided to use it for my cat blocks. I selected the medium cat and changed the colors to black and white. Heidi used red accents in her living room and I wanted the quilt to coordinate with red. I used a color wheel (available at craft and fabric stores) to determine compatible colors. When I went to purchase the fabric I decided to do a monochromatic theme.

Quilt plan, color wheel and sample color swatches







Quilt fabrics


The next step is to pre-wash and iron all of the fabrics. DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP! Quilt fabric is 100 % cotton and must be pre-shrunk, otherwise the quilt will shrink when it's washed for the first time.




Directions for Cat Quilt:

All fabrics used in this quilt are 45 inches wide.
Finished size is 56 x 72.

5 yards red fabric (45 inch wide) for backing, borders and binding
1/2 yard white fabric for cat's muzzle and paws
1/2 yard black fabric for the cat and the ears
1 yard dark pink dotted fabric for the border
1 1/2 yards each of light pink and medium pink fabrics (2 light pink prints, 1 medium pink print) The light pink prints are for the background squares and the medium pink print is for the hearts.
2 yards deep rose fabric for borders and sashing
scraps of light pink print for the cat's nose and inner ears
Heat and Bond for appliques (Do Not use Heat and Bond Ultra. It's very difficult to sew through.)

Threads: Natural color machine quilting, black and medium pink

Green beads for the cat's eyes ( I used Green Jasper)

Twin size low loft batting ( I chose low loft because the finished quilt would pack flat for mailing.)

Whistlepig Creek Productions Wild Cats pattern for the cat (available from www.wpcreek.com)

Cricut George cartridge for the hearts

All seams are 1/4 inch. Press each seam. This will allow the quilt to lay flat making it easier to sew and give more professional looking results.

1. Trace the cat image from the pattern on to the Heat and Bond (paper side facing up). Trace the cat in pieces (face, ears, paws, nose and cat body). Draw 24 cats and carefully cut them out. Lay the fabric wrong side up on the ironing board, lay the Heat and Bond paper side up on top of the fabric and fuse according to manufacturer's directions. Fuse the cat body and ears on the black fabric, the muzzle and paws on the white fabric and the inner ears and nose on the pink fabric.

2. Cut the medium pink print fabric and Heat and Bond to fit the Cricut cutting mat (mine is 6 x 12). Lay the fabric with the wrong side facing up on the ironing board and lay the Heat and Bond paper side up on top of the fabric and fuse. Place the fused fabric on the cutting mat (fabric against the mat and paper side up). Press down hard to get the fabric to stick to the mat. Tape the edges down with painter's tape, otherwise the fabric will shift when the blade starts to cut. Using the George cartridge select the heart and set the dial to 5 1/2 inches. Cut out a total of 24 hearts.

3. Cut 24 eight inch square blocks out of each of the light pink print fabrics (total of 48 blocks).

4. Remove the paper backing from the hearts, center on the block and fuse. Center the cat body on the block, fuse and then add each of the pieces and fuse (ears, nose, paws). Check the pattern for placement markings for each piece. Finish the fused pieces using a zig zag stitch. Use black thread around the cats and pink thread around the hearts. Using the zig zag stitch sew the cat's eyebrows and whiskers. Using black thread sew the eyes on by hand using green beads (I used green Jasper beads).

5. Using the dark rose fabric cut about ten 2 inch strips for sashing between blocks.

6. Assemble the rows alternating cats and hearts. Each row contains 6 blocks. Example: Row 1 Cat, Heart, Cat, Heart, Cat, Heart Row 2 Heart, Cat, Heart, Cat, Heart, Cat Sew the sashing to the blocks using 1/4 seams. Do not sew sashing to the end blocks. Each row will use 5 pieces of sashing. Press seams toward the blocks.

7. Sew the sashing between the rows. You should have a total of eight rows. Do Not sew sashing to the top or bottom. Press seams.

8. Using the dark rose fabric cut eight 2 1/2 inch wide strips to make the borders. Sew two strips together. Press. Sew the strips along the sides of the blocks. Press and then sew the strips along the top and bottom rows. Press.

9. Cut eight 1 1/2 inch wide strips out of the red fabric. Sew two strips together and then press. Sew the strips to the side borders and then the top borders. Press seams.

10. Cut ten 2 1/2 inch strips out of the dark pink dotted fabric. Sew two strips together and repeat. Then sew three strips together and repeat. Sew the three strip unit to each side of the quilt and the 2 strip units to the top and bottom of the quilt.

11. Take the 4 yards of the red fabric and fold the fabric crosswise. Double check your measurements by laying the fabric on top of the quilt. Cut the fabric in half (2 yard pieces) and sew together. This will form the backing for the quilt. Press seams. Lay the backing wrong side facing up on a large table or the floor, lay the batting on top of the red fabric and then lay the quilt top on the batting. You want to form a sandwich- backing, batting, quilt top. Baste the layers together using quilters safety pins. The batting and backing fabric should extend three inches past the quilt top on all sides. Trim away any excess.

12. Start quilting the layers. Begin in the middle of the quilt and work towards the ends. Stitch around the edges of each block. Next stitch around each heart. This will cause the hearts to puff up slightly. Trim away the excess fabric and batting before sewing on the binding.

13. Cut twelve 1 1/2 inch strips out of the red fabric. Sew 3 strips together. Repeat. Press seams and fold in half and press. Sew strips along the sides and the top and bottom of the quilt. Press. Pin in place and then stitch by hand.

Quilled Accents for Wedding Invitations

My daughter Michelle's best friend Valerie is getting married. Valerie, the Maid of Honor at Michelle's wedding, is marrying Brandon, the Best Man. Incidentally, Valerie caught the bouquet. We are all so happy for them.

Quilling has become one of my favorite crafts because it doesn't require a lot of expensive materials to achieve beautiful results. Many people have the impression that quilling is hard to do. It's simply twirling a strip of paper around the end of a quilling tool. It's great for beginners because they don't have to master a lot of skills to get good results.

I'm always looking around my house for items that I can enhance with quilling. I was so excited to receive Valerie's wedding invitation in the mail because it meant another quilling opportunity. Since Valerie's wedding is being held at a local vineyard I decided to use grapes to decorate her invitation.






Directions:

Supplies:

Slotted quilling tool
1/8 inch wide quilling paper strips in shades of purple and shades of green
glue
mat (I used an 8 x 10 double mat with a 5 x 7 opening)
frame (I used an 8 x 10 frame and removed the glass. Unless your frame is deep enough to accommodate the quilling, you will have to remove the glass).
Martha Stewart maple leaf punch
green card stock for leaves


1. Using purple quilling paper strips roll tight coils out of several different shades of purple. Carefully remove the coils from the quilling tool and glue the end of the paper. After the glue has dried carefully push the end of the roll out with an eraser ( consult Martha Stewart.com).

2. Put the mat in the frame and measure from the frame to the end of the mat. This is the area where you can place your quilling (mine measured 1 1/2 inches). Lightly mark this area with a pencil. Remove the mat from the frame. Glue grapes in bunches around the top and bottom of the mat.

3. Punch several leaves out of different shades of green card stock. Glue the leaves in place behind the grapes.

4. Roll 3 strips of light olive green quilling paper into tight coils and pull the end of the coil as you take it off of the quilling tool so that it produces a curly spiral shape. Repeat the process with a darker olive green paper. Glue the curly spirals around the tops of the grapes.

5. Using the darker olive paper make several scroll shapes and glue them between the bunches of grapes.

6. After the quilling has dried position the invitation in the mat. Carefully place the mat in the frame.

Decoupaged 18th Century Chest

I have always liked decoupage but my projects never turned out the way that I had envisioned them. After reading the decoupage section in Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Crafts I decided to give decoupage one more try.

My daughter Brittany's friend Mitch was the inspiration for this project. Mitch collects Marie Antoinette memorabilia. On their trip to Versailles Mitch was disappointed that the only collectibles were pictures of Marie Antoinette. He told Brittany that he wished he could find something that he could display on a table. Brittany knew that I wanted to do another Marie Antoinette project and was looking for an idea. I had just recently finished reading a book about Versailles and decided to do a small chest that resembled some of the chests in the book. I decided to replace the painted images on the top of the Versailles chests with a decoupaged picture.









I used Jolee's dimensional stickers for the trim.





The frame was cut using Cricut Home Decor and card stock. It was then painted with metallic gold acrylic paint and sealed with Modge Podge.

Directions:

1. Lightly sand a pre-sanded wooden chest to remove any rough spots. Wipe the piece down with a damp cloth to remove dust. Paint the chest with Folk Art Italian Sage acrylic paint. Let the chest dry over night then apply a second coat of paint.

2. Paint the trim with Dazzling Metallics Elegant Finish Venetian Gold acrylic paint. Let the chest dry over night then apply a second coat of paint.

3. Scan a picture of Marie Antoinette and print on glossy photo paper (I used an inkjet printer). The printed picture is approximately a 2 1/2 inch oval. Carefully trim around the edges of the picture. Apply the picture to the top of the chest using a foam sponge and a very thin coat of Modge Podge. Using light pressure roll a brayer over the top of the image to remove any air bubbles. Let the image cure for about a week and then lightly sand it with very fine sand paper. Wipe with a damp cloth to remove any dust and let it dry. Apply a second coat of very thin Modge Podge and brayer the image. Let it cure for about a week. Since I was working under humid conditions I let the piece sit for a week between coats of Modge Podge to be sure that the piece was completely dry.

4. Using a foam sponge and Modge Podge lightly coat the entire chest to seal it. Let it dry completely and then seal it again.

5. Using the Cricut Home Decor cartridge and cream card stock cut an oval frame at 2 1/2 inches. Paint the frame gold and when it dries paint it again. After the frame is dry lightly coat it with Modge Podge to seal it. When the Modge Podge dries glue small pearls around the edges of the frame.

6. Glue the dimensional stickers to the top, sides and front of the chest. Glue the frame around the picture of Marie Antoinette.

Tip: Instead of a traditional palette and disposable palette paper try using a large glazed ceramic tile. They are available from Home Depot for about $1.50 per tile. They clean up with soap and water.

Quilled Wedding Invitations

My daughter Brittany's friend Nancy is getting married in June. Brittany and Nancy met in an Economics class in college. This was about the same time that I began baking my way through Marcel Desaulnier's Death by Chocolate books. Nancy and Brittany agreed to become my cookie testers, so I would bake a batch of cookies and send them off to be critiqued. I wanted to give Nancy a special gift (after all she was one of my cookie testers) so I decided to do a quilled invitation to commemorate her wedding.




Quilled Invitation Directions:

1. Make 3 roses using 3/8 inch wide red paper. To make the rose insert the end of the paper into a slotted quilling tool and turn it 3 times to form the rose's center. Fold the paper away from you at a right angle. Roll the paper, keeping the bottom edge tight against the quilling tool causing the top edge to flare out to form the petal. Repeat this step until the rose is the size you want. Carefully remove the rose from the quilling tool and let it rest and then glue the end in place.

2. Make 1 small rose using a strip of 1/8 inch ivory paper. Then make 1 rose using 1/2 inch ivory paper. Color the rose made with 1/2 inch paper using pink chalk.

3. Tear 3 pieces of 12 inch (1/8 inch wide) quilling paper in half and roll into coils. Let the coil rest on the work surface and then glue the end in place. Shape the coil into petals by tightly pinching one end with your fingers. Glue 5 petals together to form a flower. Tear 2 pieces of 12 inch quilling paper in half (6 inches) and then tear it in half again (3 inches). Roll the 3 inch strips into coils. Let the coils rest and then glue the ends in place. Glue 5 petals together to form a small flower. Glue a pearl to the center of each flower.

4. Using 6 inch strips of 1/8 inch wide green paper roll 10 coils. Let them rest then glue the ends in place. Pinch the one end between your fingers and form the coil into a leaf.

5. Make the vines by rolling 6 six inch strips of 1/8 inch wide green paper into loose coils. Slowly unroll the coil until the end of the vine has a slight curl.

6. Place the wedding invitation in a mat. Remove the glass from the frame. Then place the matted invitation in the frame and arrange the flowers and the vines along the side and the top of the mat. Cover the invitation with a piece of plastic wrap and carefully glue the flowers, leaves and vines in place. Let the glue dry and then remove the plastic wrap.

Note: I used an ivory double mat and an ivory and gold frame. For further quilling instructions go to Martha Stewart.com

Rock Star

My daughter, Brittany sings Karoake with her friends at a local club in Koln, Germany. When I bought the Once Upon a Princess cartridge this image reminded me of her. I made this card and sent it off to her in Germany. I mailed it two weeks before her birthday and was hoping that it would arrive on time. Fortunately she got the card in time for her birthday.




I used Cricut's Once Upon a Princess cartridge for the images, Cuttlebug's Allegro embossing folder and Martha Stewart's fence punch.

Here are the directions:

1. Emboss a piece of bright pink card stock with Cuttlebug's Allegro embossing folder. Very lightly sand to highlight the notes. Spray lightly with Tattered Angels Pearl Glimmer Mist and let it dry.

2. Using the Cricut Once Upon a Princess cartridge and cream card stock cut Doll 2 at 3 1/2 inches. Press the shift key and cut the top layer for Doll 2. Using the layer key for Doll 2 cut the hair out of brown card stock.

3. Keeping the size dial set at 3 1/2 inches, cut the outfit out of black card stock using the Rocker key. Press the shift key and cut the skirt out of purple card stock. Press the Layer key and cut the skirt pieces out of bright green card stock. Press the shift key and then the Layer key and cut the microphone and necklace out of silver metallic card stock.

4. Press the phrase key and cut the rock star background at 1 1/2 inches out of bright green card stock. Press the shift key and cut rock star out of purple card stock. Glue the purple image over the green one and embellish with purple glitter glue.

5. Punch stars out of the various colors of card stock used in the project. Punch a fence out of black card stock with the Martha Stewart punch.

6. Layer the pink embossed card stock over a piece of black card stock leaving a 1/4 inch border.
Assemble the doll and attach to the embossed card stock using raised glue dots. Add facial features to the doll using markers and chalk. Highlight the microphone, belt buckle and necklace with silver glitter glue. Layer the fence at the lower edge of the card and the rock star at the upper right hand corner. Tie a piece of green ribbon and glue it just below the fence. Glue the stars randomly around the card. Embellish the stars with glitter glue.

Alice In Wonderland

Since Alice In Wonderland is one of my favorite books, I decided to do a project devoted to Alice. The inspiration for this card came from the chapter where Alice encounters a caterpillar sitting on mushroom smoking a hookah. The caterpillar tells Alice that one side of the mushroom will make her taller and the other side will make her shorter. Since I never really liked the hookah smoking caterpillar I decided not to include him in the card. Instead I chose to surround Alice with the mushrooms representing the many choices that she faces.






Here are the directions for the card:

1. Cut a piece of patterned paper approximately 7 1/2 inches by 5 inches. Cut a piece of purple card stock approximately 6 inches by 3 1/2 inches. Fold a piece of 8 1/2 by 11 inch card stock in half and glue the patterned paper on top. Next center the purple card stock on top of the patterned paper and glue into place.

2. Using the largest die in the Spellbinders Nestabilities scalloped rectangles set cut a large rectangle out of lavender card stock.

3. Emboss the rectangle with the Cuttlebug Paisley embossing folder. Highlight the paisley images with purple chalk. Cut a piece of pink sheer ribbon and attach it to the bottom edge of the rectangle. Center the rectangle on top of the purple card stock and glue in place.

4. Using the Cricut Once Upon a Princess cartridge set the size dial to 4 inches and cut Princess 2 out of cream card stock (this is the doll base). Then press the shift key and cut Princess 2 again (this is the doll top). Press the layer key and cut the hair out of yellow card stock.

5. Press the Dress 1 key and cut a dress out of blue card stock. Press the shift key and Dress 1 to cut the apron out of white card stock. Press Dress 1 again and cut the dress out of white card stock. Select the Layer key and then Dress 1 to cut the headband out of black card stock.

6. Assemble the doll by gluing the doll top over the doll base. Glue the hair to the doll and then glue the bangs over the hair. Glue the headband to the hair. Using markers color in the eyes and the mouth. Cut off the blue stockings from the lower edge of the dress and replace them with the white stockings from the white dress. Glue the white apron on top of the blue dress. Using a black marker color in the shoes. Attach the doll to the embossed rectangle just above the ribbon. Make a bow with the pink ribbon and glue to the upper left corner of the embossed rectangle.

7. Using the Cricut Paisley cartridge set the size dial to 2 inches and cut Mushroom 1 out of bright blue card stock. Press Layer 1 and Mushroom 1 to cut the mushroom top out of bright pink card stock. Press the shift key and Layer 2 to cut the mushroom stem out of green card stock. Glue the mushroom pieces together. Attach a small paper flower with a brad to the center of the mushroom top.

8. Cut Mushroom 4 at 2 1/2 inches out of bright pink card stock. Press the shift key and Layer 1 to cut the mushroom top out of orange card stock. Press Layer 1 to cut the mushroom stem out of bright green card stock. Press Layer 2 to cut the flower out of bright blue card stock. Assemble the mushroom and glue the pieces in place.

9. Set the size dial to 2 inches and cut Mushroom 4 out of purple card stock. Cut the mushroom top out of bright green card stock, the flower out of bright blue card stock and the stem out of orange card stock ( glue only the circles to the stem of the mushroom). Assemble the mushroom and glue the pieces in place. Set the size dial to 1 1/2 inches and cut the stem out of bright green card stock, the top out of bright blue card stock and the flower out of bright pink card stock. Assemble the mushroom and glue the pieces in place.

10. Attach the mushrooms to the bottom of the card using raised glue dots. Glue a paper flower to the upper right hand corner of the card. Glue a butterfly button to the center of the flower. Using bright green card stock and the Martha Stewart leaf punch, punch three leaves. Highlight the edges of the leaves with green ink. Glue the leaves just under the flower petals. Using chalk highlight Alice's face and dress.