There’s something I didn’t tell you…

Last spring, Brigitte Heitland of Zen Chic had mentioned that she had to sew 6 quilts for Spring Quilt Market within 2 weeks. As she only lives 20 Minutes from my home, I offered my help (kind of expecting that she would graciously decline seeing that I told her that I had only started quilting some months ago. And am self-taught/ internet taught.) BUT she accepted. I made a quilt top for her and she quilted it on her longarm maschine. Fun! Fun! Fun!

We met twice during these two weeks and we dreamed of founding a local Modern Quilt Guilt. We met again when all that Quilt Market Stress was over and then again and again and again. We have become good friends and founded Modern Quilt Guilt Bielefeld.

Much of this is already known to those who follow my blog for some months but I think I have never shown you the quilt top I made from her debut fabric line for moda: Juggling Summer.

A picture from the work in process:

And a photo of the finished flimsy:

And this is the cover she made for her pattern: Isn’t it great how her quilting really matches the design?! And the composition of her cover adds such a modern touch to the quilt!

The pattern is super easy – even for beginners like me. Well explained and easy to follow. I had no problems whatsoever understanding her directions.

It was so much fun to help making something that traveled to Quilt Market while I was staying home, that I offered my help for Fall Quilt Market again. Tomorrow I’m going to show you the flimsy I made for Houston.

Happy Quilting!
Christine

Tutorial Fabric Baskets

O.k. I’m a bit slow but I finally finished my tutorial for easy Fabric Baskets. I’m going to add it to the “My Tutorials” site one day sooner or later, but in the meantime you can find it here:



Supply list:
- basic sewing supplies (sewing machine, iron, fabric marker, scissors, rotary cutter, ruler, etc.)
- outer fabric, depending on size of your basket
- inner/ lining fabric, depending on size of your basket
- fusible batting, depending on size of your basket
- a round object to trace or compass



1. Cutting
This fabric basket is made from a circle and a long rectangle.
First, decide on the size of the circle. Then you calculate the length of your rectangle. Remember what you learned in school? The cirumference of your circle is equal to 6,28 x radius of your circle. (Remember: 2 x pi x r) Some things you learned were really learned for life ;o) Oh, and add a generous seam allowance to your rectangle!
Choose height of your rectangle according to your needs.

2. Fuse your batting to the outer fabric. Follow manufacturer’s advice.



3. Draw the circle onto your fabrics, either tracing a round shape or using your compass.



4. Cut out the cirles and the rectangles.



5. Lay out your rectangles right sides together and sew along one long side.



6. Open up and mark the centres of both raw long sides.



7. Take your lining fabric circle and your lining rectangle and lay them out right sides together.



8.  Pin centre of rectangle to any point of your circle.



9. Pin all around the circle…



…until it looks like so:



10. Sew all around the circle, just remember to backstitch at the start and in the end to secure your seams.



Make sure you finish your seam in the exact place where you started it. Like so:



11. Repeat no. 7-10 and attach your outer fabric circle to your outer fabric rectangle. Afterwards it should look like this: a long tube with an open side.



12. Sew from one end to the other, leaving an opening in the lining fabric.



13. Cut back your seam allowance to 1/2”, turn inside out and close the opening (by hand or using your sewing machine). You might want to stitch around the top edge of your fabric basket once but that’s really up to you.

Enjoy the variety of your new fabric basket (o;



Credits: Fabrics used in this tutorial: two prints of Juggling Summer from Zen Chic (Brigitte Heitland) for Moda.

Thanks for reading. If you do have any questions, please let me know in the comments, I’ll try to answer them asap.

Happy Sewing (o:
Christine

Fabric Basket

A quick finish and a great project for beginners: 

I made a fabric basket with a great fabric that is due to hit the shops in August. It's Juggling Summer of Moda Designer Brigitte Heitland (Zen Chic). She happens to live around the corner and she is an incredibly nice person.

I needed a gift for someone with a creamy-white kitchen who uses terracotta for decoration. After some consideration about placemats, coasters and mug rugs, I came back to one of my favourite  go-to gift: a fabric basket. Simple, easy and quick. I took lots of photos so watch this site for another tutorial :o)

Happy Sewing!

Christine