Project Portfolio Tutorial–Part I

August 19, 2013October 2, 2014 Elizabeth E.5 Comments

A long time ago, in a foreign market, I bought zip portfolios to hold stuff. But they weren’t always quite right–too small, too rigid–for my projects, too wrong-sized. So I decided this summer to make my own.

But that’s just a way to lead you into thinking about your fall, now that schools are beginning to start and you can finally finish a sentence — or a seam — without being interrupted by your offspring or husbands or pets or whatever. And now you are going to be sewing up a storm, and need a way to keep all your projects organized as you head out to sewing circles, sew days, quilt nights, or just stay home and quilt in your jammies. Because it’s almost fall, after all, and you can. (My apologies to my Southern Hemispheric readers–just substitute in the appropriate season.)

Materials:
Two coordinating fabrics. One will show on the outside, and the other will be the lining, but will show through the vinyl window
Clear medium-weight vinyl from the upholstery department. Save the tissue they have with the vinyl–it’s easier to store that way
Fusible medium-weight interfacing
Zipper, approximately 20″ (you’ll be trimming it to size)
Matching thread

(Note: I am using three different fabrics in the following illustrations, so you may see some switching out.)

STEP ONE: Fusing

Lay the fusible interfacing shiny side (resin-coated side) down onto the Wrong Side (WS) of your outer backing piece. If you like to live dangerously, don’t use a press cloth while fusing the interfacing to the back in an ordered fashion: overlapping the iron shape, giving it a shot of steam, counting one-two-three-four in each position of the iron.

Lay the interfacing fusible-side down and fuse to TWO of the four narrower pieces that will border your clear vinyl window on the side.

Then fuse interfacing to only TWO of the wider strips, as these will be used on the upper and lower edges of the “vinyl window.”

The results are above: one large rectangle of interfacing fused to main back fabric, and four pieces of interfacing fused to the four strips of main fabric.

Trim up so the backing is even with the interfacing. Try not to fixate on the fact that now your portfolio will be a hair smaller. It’s really not important what the final dimension is, as you can still pack a ton of stuff in there. Trust me.

Lay the fused backing piece on top on the lining piece, making sure that both right sides of the fabrics are facing outward. Pin. Trim.

So this is what you’ll have: a two-sided rectangle. Unpin the two layers, and set aside for now.

Tomorrow’s post will show STEP TWO: Making the vinyl window front.

All of these folios measure roughly 11 x 17. You are more than welcome to make these for your own use, or sell them in a craft faire, but please please, don’t take any of my tutorial and copy it onto your blog. Link back here, if you would. And please please don’t steal my content to make your own pattern, and call it your own. Practice Friendly Attribution, if you please.

WIP–December Quilting

December 4, 2012December 5, 2012 Elizabeth E.7 Comments

Today I’m guest-hosting over at Lee’s blog: Freshly Pieced, so I encourage you to head over there and see all the beautiful quilts in her Linky party, and leave some holiday comments to cheer all the quilters on.

If you are arriving here from there, welcome!

You may be here looking for the free downloadable quilt pattern for the Log Cabin Christmas Advent Calendar (above). Here it is as a PDF file: Log Cabin Advent Calendar. You might want to download the picture above as a reference for things like buttons, etc.

Here’s two photos of the back, showing the label and the drapery ring, which I use to hang it with:

These two photos show how I tied the ribbon around my “ornament” buttons, then used a dot of hot glue to secure the knot in place.

And I promised those in my readership a look at the finished quilt shams, mentioned in the last post.

I bought that tiny little pillow at the after-Christmas clearance sales, shortly after Dave and I were married. It had been one of those harried, race-and-shop-’till-you-drop sort of Christmases, as we were shopping for all four children and each other and parents and relatives and friends. We’d had more than one of “those” finances, stress, did-we-need-this? sort of conversations, yet I wanted to provide a lovely (but not extravagant) Christmas for our newly joined family (Dave, a long-term bachelor, married me and my four children). Seeing the pillow in the clearance bin reminded me what I really wanted for Christmas, and it has gone on our bed every Christmas since then.

We can’t forget the hurryhurryhurry feeling that always shows up this time of year, but I wrote about that over at Lee’s, so there’s no need to repeat myself here.

Thanks again to Lee for inviting me to guest blog. And here’s to you–the quilters who make the Christmas quilts and banners and gifts and pajamas (that one’s for you, Lisa). I hope you have a lovely Christmas and holiday season.

200 Quilts

Snapshot!

October 16, 2012 Elizabeth E.12 Comments

I present. . . Snapshot!

This is where I’ve been for a while, trying to work out the kinks of this crazy idea I had for my Polaroid Quilt Blocks. I didn’t use them all, so at the end of this series of how to make this quilt, (it will take a couple of days, sorry–but there are lots of photos), I’ll have a little surprise drawing to get you started on your Polaroid Quilt. Watch for it.

It all started here. I made a few and joined the swap group run by Debbie of A Quilters Table, and soon had over a hundred of these very cute little Polaroid Blocks. So I HAD to do something with them but everyone was showing this:

or this:

. . . which are both very cute, but I wasn’t keen about bordering each block. So late one night when I couldn’t sleep, I decided I would try to figure out how to do TWO blocks at once. So I did. First, if you haven’t made some Polaroid Blocks, start here:

It takes just five easy steps, repeated over and over, to get a batch going. And please press all seams AWAY from the center square. I have some fabric in one of my Polaroid blocks, cut from one of my first sewing projects when I was a child–a Barbie doll dress. I found that dress (really nothing more than a tube with gathering for the waist), took it apart and fussy cut a piece from it. So have fun as you gather your centers.

As for the white, I used KONA white. I do like KONA’s other neutrals, but this quilt just needed that bright white.

Here I’ve lined up the centers, sewn the 1″ by WOF (Width of Fabric–a shorthand way of saying, cut a strip from selvage to selvage) on one side, then the other and now I’m cutting them apart.

The top goes on now, and then I’ll cut a 1 1/2″ by WOF strip and sew that on the bottom. That’s what makes the Polaroid “look.”

And. . . here I’m trimming them down to 3″ across by 3 1/2″ in length. I’m using the center block as my guide, placing the 1″ mark of the ruler on that edge (note that my blocks are upside down), then centering the ruler for the 3″ in width. Press them all again. One quilter’s blocks were starched pretty heavily and hers didn’t ravel as much as the others, so if you like spray starch, now’s a good time.

This quilt measures 52″ wide by 64″ long. It has three borders surrounding the four stacks of double-Polaroid blocks. I tried to use interesting centers for my Polaroid blocks, along with the swap blocks I found most interesting. Here’s the basic ingredients:

For blocks:
about 1 yard blue
about 1 yard green
104 Polaroid blocks (have a few more, as when you are matching them together, you’ll need some options)

NOTE: Sorry to be so inexact; I’ve measured and measured and this is what I’ve come up with (well, actually I’ve come up with that you need 31″) but I don’t want you to run out of fabric, so get that extra.

For the print border:
1 and 1/2 yards–you are buying for the length. If you don’t care to put your border on the straight-of-grain, buy 1/2 yard.
I used a yard of fabric, but ended up piecing it, so if you want it all in one piece, buy at least a yard and one-half.

For the white border:
You MUST cut this on the straight of grain for the center strips of the quilt and the first borders. The joined quilt blocks are all slightly skewed off grain and you need something to stabilize them. So buy about 2 yards white, but MORE if you are going to buy for the Polaroid blocks (and you’re on your own for that one).

But peeeples! You NEED a good white fabric hanging around your sewing room, so do what I do: buy it in five-yard lengths. I should really do what Cindy does: she buys it by the bolt.

Now print out these two PDFs: one is “right-leaning,” and the other is “left-leaning.” rightleaning leftleaning Just keep them hanging around until you need them.

Next post I’ll start on the construction of the blocks, but here’s a couple more pictures of my Snapshot quilt lounging around the backyard. For some reason, our summer just won’t quit. Here in Southern California we have something called the Santa Ana winds, and they are hot blowy hair-dryer-feeling winds that come out of the desert. It makes us all cranky to be doing HOT SUMMER, when everyone else is doing pumpkins and fall leaves and crisp apples. But it does make for nice pictures of quilts, resposing on the rose bushes, which still have blooms.

NEXT UP: Constructing the Double-Polaroid Blocks.