Little Quilts

Š CICO Books 2014 Sarah Fielke & Amy Lobsiger

Little Quilts

15 step-by-step projects for adorably small quilts

© CICO Books 2014

Contents Introduction 6

What a Star 10

Candy is Dandy 16

Grandma’s House

Polka-dot Baskets Not Quite Hawaiian

22

Pretty Little Half Hex

My Heart

Garden Paths

Fans of May

44

Apple Orchard 48

30

36

Drawn Together 54

Cocktail Shakers 58

40

64

Techniques 96

70

Templates 106

Honeycomb

Glossary 122

78

Resources 124

Paper Dolls 84

Index 126

Cuttings 90

Acknowledgments 128

Grandma’s House

by Sarah

Little Red is off through the woods to Grandma’s house but doesn’t know that the wolf got there first! Try your hand at improvisational piecing to make a fun, one-of-a-kind quilt.

Finished size

• Approx 29 x 23 in. (73.5 x 58.5 cm) backing fabric

Approximately 21½ x 15½ in. (54.5 x 39.5 cm)—exact size will depend on sizes of pieces used

• Approx 29 x 23 in. (73.5 x 58.5 cm) cotton batting (wadding)

Note Seams are stitched with right sides together using a ¼ in. (6 mm) seam allowance unless otherwise stated.

• Cotton thread for piecing

Material requirements

• Aurifil Cotton 12 thread in green, orange, and red for hand quilting

• Scraps of at least four different green fabrics for trees • 25 in. (63.5 cm) dark blue patterned fabric for background • Scraps of brown print fabric for tree trunks and chimney

• Crewel embroidery no. 9 needles for hand quilting

• Rotary cutter, mat, and ruler • Sewing machine • General sewing supplies

• 4 in. (10 cm) white patterned fabric for house • Fabric scraps for windows and door—the quilt pictured includes novelty prints to put a wolf and gnomes in the windows • 8 in. (20.5 cm) square of brown fabric for roof • Scrap of green fabric for bottom left-hand corner—the quilt in the photograph has a unicorn in the forest.

• 6 in. (15 cm) red-and-white polka-dot fabric for cape and word “red” • Scraps of white and brown fabrics for Little Red’s face, dress, hands, and legs • 4 in. (10 cm) light blue fabric for sky above house and strips below and at sides • 15 in. (38 cm) dark brown fabric for binding, cut into 3 in.- (7.5 cm-) strips

22

Grandma’s House

Cutting For the improvisational piecing technique, pieces of fabric are cut as needed, without using a ruler. This allows each quilt to be a one-off. Suggested cutting instructions for fabric pieces are given in the steps, but remember that these are guides only. Use a ruler to trim each unit straight.

© CICO Books 2014

Grandma’s House

23

© CICO Books 2014

Apple Orchard

by Amy

Apple Orchard was inspired by an antique quilt featuring appliqué blocks depicting apple trees. The folk art feel and whimsy of the antique quilt were hard to ignore. The apples line up side by side on my quilt, surrounding the tree trunks across the center. The appliqué on Apple Orchard was done with a hand-look appliqué machine technique but it could easily be stitched by a needle-turn method, if preferred.

Finished size

• Clear monofilament thread for appliqué

26 in. (66.6 cm) square

• Rotary cutter, mat, and ruler

Note Seams are stitched with right sides together using a ¼ in. (6 mm) seam allowance unless otherwise stated.

• 9 x 12 in. (23 x 30.5 cm) sheet of heat-resistant template plastic

Material requirements

• Mechanical pencil for tracing on template plastic (do not use a permanent marker)

• 11 in. (28 cm) square each of four polka-dot fabrics for center background • ¾ yd (70 cm) of assorted striped fabrics for apples, leaves, inner border, and fence post blocks • ½ yd (50 cm) assorted checked print fabrics for apples and fence post blocks

• Scissors for cutting template plastic • Emery board • Chalk pencil • Spray starch or sizing and small plastic bowl • Small, stiff stenciling brush or orange stick

• 1⁄ 8 yd (15 cm) gray print for cornerstones

• Small iron

• ¼ yd (25 cm) striped fabric for binding

• Basting glue or small appliqué pins

• 7½ in. (19 cm) square of contrasting polka-dot fabric for tree base and trunks

• Sewing machine with open-toe embroidery foot or zigzag foot

• 1⁄ 8 yd (15 cm) each of two green print fabrics for leaves

• Size 8/60 Microtex sewing machine needles

• ⁄ 8 yd (80 cm) backing fabric

• General sewing supplies

7

• 30 in. (76 cm) square piece of batting (wadding) • Cotton thread for piecing and machine quilting

Apple Orchard

49

Embroidery 7 Using a window or a light box, trace Template B (bee) onto the right side of the pieced hexagons using a 2B pencil.

(To do this, trace it first onto paper with a black felt-tipped marker, then tape the paper to the window or place it on a light box. Place the fabric on top, right side up, and if using a window, tape this in place too, then trace the outline with the 2B pencil.)

Diagram 7

8 Baste (tack) the hexagons onto the batting (wadding) only—not the backing fabric. You can either use basting spray, which means that there will be no basting stitches to get in the way of the embroidery, or baste (tack) with running stitches.

9 The bee is embroidered through the batting as well as the fabric for a full, textured look, using one strand of Aurifil Mako’ Ne 12 cotton thread and a crewel embroidery needle.

Place in a hoop to ensure that you don’t pucker the embroidery.

10 Using black thread, embroider the legs and eyes with satin stitch (see Diagram 7). Outline the wings, head, feelers, and body with backstitch (see Diagram 8). Fill in the head shape with seed stitch (see Diagram 9), and fill in the body with colonial knots (see Diagram 10).

Diagram 8

11 Using black and yellow threads, fill in the abdomen with straight stitches a little way apart from one another in alternating bands.

12 Press the quilt face down on a towel to avoid flattening the embroidery.

a

Diagram 9

b Diagram 10 c d

82

Honeycomb

Š CICO Books 2014

Backing, quilting, and binding 13 Layer the backing, batting (wadding), and quilt top, following the instructions on page 00, remembering that the batting is already attached to the quilt top.

14 Using variegated light blue perle 8 cotton, hand quilt Âź in. (6 mm) inside all the hexagons, avoiding the embroidered bee.

15 Fold the quilt in half crosswise, and finger press a crease.

To draw the top left-hand quarter of the oval, line up the shorter straight edge of Template N with the crease. Using a pencil, trace the shape on the background. To draw the

bottom left-hand quarter of the oval, flip the template, line it up again with the center crease, and trace the shape on the background. Flip the template again to do the other half of the oval in the same way. Carefully cut around the oval along the drawn line.

16 Bind the quilt with bias binding, following the instructions on page 00.

Honeycomb

83

15 beautiful projects using traditional and contemporary patchwork and quilting techniques CRAFT

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