Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Fun with Dying Fabric

Hi Everybody ... I thought I'd share a fun experiment my mom and I did a couple of weekends ago.  After quilting this quilt I realized how patterned fabric doesn't always show the quilting done on the quilt and I was getting antsy to make my own colors.  I am always enamored when I go to knitting stores with the beautiful, vibrant and scrumptious colorways yarn comes in.  This is especially true of Madelinetosh yarn.  Oh, my!  I wish I could find these colors in fabric!

Having absolutely no dying experience in my past and not wanting to jump in with both feet, I decided to go to Hobby Lobby and get an assortment of different dyes, both brands and colors.  I've heard the Procion dyes are the best to use, but I would have needed to order these.  I also picked up some Elm Ash while I was there.

My mom and I put on our breathing masks - we were quite a site to be seen on a Saturday night ;) - then our gloves and got to work.  While the colors are a wee bit bright, it was so fun that a batch we intended to make three swatches out of, we ended up making nine!!!

Cherry Valley Designs Hand Dyed Fabric


Cherry Valley Designs Hand Dyed Fabric

Now that I've wet my feet definitely stay tuned for more experiments to come!!!  This was so much fun and I'm looking forward to trying the Procion dyes and different types of fabric!

Have you ever hand dyed your own fabrics?  What did you all think if you did?

We're happy to be linking up with these linky parties today.  Thanks for hosting them!


Esther’s Blog

Enjoy!

Megan

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Finally Finished!

Hi Everybody!  First, I have to start out by saying our thoughts and prayers go out to those affected by the tornadoes in Oklahoma.  It just looks like total devastation and I can't even imagine what those families are going through.  Stay safe!

Last week my family and I took a somewhat vacation.  For a few days we spent the week back in Gettysburg and had a wonderful time, but I took no pictures :(  Then we came home and just relaxed for a while.  All in all it was a good week and I'm really looking forward to this Memorial Day weekend :)  Always looking forward to the beginning of summer, such a fun time and just wish we were already back in Gettysburg.

Before we left I had a chance to finish up my mom's Mother's Day gift ...
Cherry Valley Designs Essential Bed Quilt

... You may remember this as a work in progress from a few weeks ago.

It was absolutely a blast to do and there are so many longarm techniques that I'd never tried, like these feather wreaths ...

Cherry Valley Designs Essential Bed Quilt
From the Front
Cherry Valley Designs Essential Bed Quilt
And the Back!
the cable feather border surrounded by piano keys and ...
Cherry Valley Designs Essential Bed Quilt
You can best see this from the back
the circles around the nine patch ...

Cherry Valley Designs Essential Bed Quilt

All in all it was an awesome quilt to long arm and ended up taking me a whopping 24 hours to complete - definitely a milestone for me, but well worth it! :)  Happy Mother's Day, mom!  You're the best!

Again, if you're interested in making this quilt yourself you can find the paper pattern here which we will snail mail to you or the PDF pattern here which will be delivered nearly instantly to your e-mail!

Thanks to the blogs whose linky parties we're participating in today:

Fresh Poppy Design

Better Off Thread


Until Next Time!

Megan

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Happy Mother's Day!

To all the mom's out there, Happy Mother's Day!


I made this delicious monkey bread for my mom.  I wish I could take credit for this recipe, but unfortunately I cannot.  It is absolutely AMAZING!!!  If you're interested in making it, you can find the recipe here!

Enjoy!

Megan

Sunday, May 5, 2013

Life's A Charm May: Sew Simple Purse

For the longest time I was terrified of making a purse/bag.  I just couldn't bring myself to take the plunge and when I finally did I thought, "Wow! What's the big deal?!?"  Since then I have even designed my own bag for our book Everything but Baby and today I'm sharing a purse you can put together using, of course, a charm pack!  It comes together so quickly (as in, this morning!!! ... yes, that is why the post is going up a little late).

Cherry Valley Designs Purse Pattern

What You'll Need:

- A regular size (5" squares) charm pack
- 3/4 yard of contrasting fabric
- 18" x 58" Bosal Fusible Foam Interfacing (LOVE this stuff!)
- 2 Sew-in Snaps

Step 1:  Cut 3 charm squares in quarters and 10 charm squares in half.  Then lay your squares out in the order that you want to create the front, back and front pocket of your purse.

You will need two sets that look like this:
Cherry Valley Designs Purse Pattern

AND

One set that looks like this:
Cherry Valley Designs Purse Pattern

For example, this is what my back looked like when I tested my pieces before sewing:
Cherry Valley Designs Purse Pattern

Step 2:  Next, sew your 3 panels together going across to form rows and then sew the rows together.

Cherry Valley Designs Purse Pattern

Cherry Valley Designs Purse Pattern

Step 3: After your 3 panels are sewn together, you will want to cut out your contrasting color and Bosal fusible foam.  You will need 1 piece of contrasting color fabric that is 10" by 19" and 2 pieces that are 12" by 19".  From the Bosal fusible foam, cut 1 piece that is 9 1/2" by 18" and 2 pieces that are 11" by 18".

Cherry Valley Designs Purse Pattern

Cherry Valley Designs Purse Pattern

Step 4: Put your contrasting color fabric that is 10" by 19" right sides together with your pocket charm piece, lining up the top of the two pieces and sew a 1/2" straight line down.  Then, flip your contrasting color fabric over so your pieces are wrong sides together.  Iron the contrasting color down to create a fold over and sew a straight line down in the ditch to secure your "border."

Cherry Valley Designs Purse Pattern

Step 5: Slide your fusible foam in between the outer pieces of your pocket and press down to fuse.  Next, make a sandwich with the front and back of your purse pieces with your pieced charm pack wrong side to the fusible foam and the contrasting color wrong side together to the other side of your fusible foam.  Press down to fuse.

Cherry Valley Designs Purse Pattern

Step 6: Next, fold the top two pieces of your pieced charm pack and contrasting color inwards towards one another.  Use a pin to secure and sew 1/4" seam allowance to create a finished edge around your purse.  Repeat for the back.

Cherry Valley Designs Purse Pattern

Step 7:  Sew down the front pocket to the front of the purse all the way around the edge with the base your pocket lined up with the base of your front.  

Cherry Valley Designs Purse Pattern

Step 8:  Put your front and back right sides together and sew a 1/2" seam allowance down each side, but not the bottom!

Cherry Valley Designs Purse Pattern

Step 9:  Finally, push your sides in about 1 1/2" on each side and sew the bottom (this will be very thick so make sure to go slowly).  Turn right side out and push your puckers out on the bottom.  Finish by adding your handle and voila, you have a new purse!  Enjoy!

Cherry Valley Designs Purse Pattern

And while we worked away, Mr. Brinkley Cooper enjoyed some time in the sun ... Ahhh, the life!


Until next time!

Megan

Monday, April 29, 2013

Thank You + How to Make Your Own Large Pom Pom Fringe

Happy Monday Everyone!  I hope your week is off to a great start!  First, I have to thank all of you who stopped by on Friday and left your kind words.  I also have to apologize to the first 37 people who left comments.  When I leave a comment on someone's blog, it's always nice when I get a personal e-mail from the blogger thanking me ...  hmmm? How do they do that?  Well, midway through Friday morning, I thought, "This is ridiculous, there has to be a way!"  (In the past, I have just directly replied in the comments form.)  Well, for those of you who did not get an e-mail from me this is why and I want to send a special THANK YOU to all of you, sorry for the confusion!

Also, if you would like to have comments forwarded to your e-mail this is how you do it (if you have Blogger).

Step 1: Go to your Blogger home page and click the dropbox to the right of the blog you want to change the settings on.  Select "Settings."



Step 2:  Once on your settings page, click "Mobile and Email" on the left hand side.


Step 3: Here, under the "Comment Notification Email" type in the email you want comments sent to and click save.  Now, you'll receive email notifications when you get new comments on any of your posts and this way you can send messages back to the person who left a comment (as long as they weren't 'anonymous').


I hope this helps anyone who has had this problem and makes it easier to navigate Blogger!

On to the jumbo pom pom fringe.  One of the comments I got several times was about the fringe at the bottom of my wallhanging from Friday.  If you missed Friday's post, click here, I participated in Madame Samm's "Shake Your Pom Poms" blog hop ... needless to say, it was a LOT of fun!

Cherry Valley Designs Wall Hanging

For this blog hop, one of the sponsors was Clover who wanted to promote their pom pom makers.  When I first signed up for the blog hop I went to my local JoAnn's store and picked up both sizes they offer (there are 2 in each package, so I had a total of 4 pom pom makers), plus the yarn.  At this point I still wasn't sure what the size of my finished project would be, so I wanted to make sure I had options!  We always need options, don't we? :)

My first few pom poms didn't go so well, they were scrawny and weak ... nobody wants scrawny and weak pom poms!  What to do?!?  Well, the package directions show very clearly to carefully wrap a string of yarn around tightly to each other.  With nothing to lose, I decided to make the pom pom by wrapping several pieces of yarn around tightly to each other (see first picture below) ... what a difference!!  The pom pom was all of a sudden nice and full (see second picture below).

Cherry Valley Designs Pom Pom Fringe

Cherry Valley Designs Pom Pom Fringe

Then after you've cut the pieces that you just wrapped in half, tie your knot to hold the pom pom together and make sure you leave about a 6" handle on this piece, this is very important!

Cherry Valley Designs Pom Pom Fringe

Next, cut a piece of 1" wide fabric by the length of your pom pom fringe.  Lay your pom poms down as far away from one another as you want with your 6" handles laying over the backside of the fabric.  Pin these in place and sew them down (I used a tight zig zag stitch to secure them down.)

Cherry Valley Designs Pom Pom Fringe

Cherry Valley Designs Pom Pom Fringe

Cherry Valley Designs Pom Pom Fringe


Finally, cut the excess yarn off the top, iron down the fabric in half, and sew down with a straight stitch to create a finished look.  Your pom pom fringe is ready!  Enjoy!

Cherry Valley Designs Pom Pom Fringe

Make sure to check out the projects for Day 4 of the "Shake Your Pom Poms" blog hop.  Here's today's round up:


Have a great day!

Megan

Friday, April 26, 2013

Shake Your Pom Poms Blog Hop

Welcome to everyone visiting the blog today!  If this is your first time visitingwI hope you kick your feet up and enjoy your stay!  If this isn't your first time, I'm glad you're back!  There are some free tutorials on the right hand side of the blog and some other links across the top.  Be sure to stop by our website before you leave ... there are other interesting things there including a place to sign up for our monthly newsletter (Hint: You receive a free pattern when you sign up the first time!!).  To learn more about me and my company click here, my patterns are here and you can find out more about my longarm services here!  Again, thanks for stopping by!  We're glad you're here!

Sometimes you need to do something just so you can jump out of the box you're in, and that's why a month or so ago when I saw this blog hop, I just had to join!  It got me to thinking outside the box ... what in the world could I make using pom poms?!?  Hmmmm????  I love flowers ... what flowers have large heads on them? ... what would be something as cute to make as pom poms themselves?!? DAISIES!  This project was so fun to make and the brighter colors are perfect just in time for summer!

Before my reveal though I just have to thank Madame Samm for organizing these blog hops (year round, I might add!) to give all of us bloggers a chance to "strut our stuff" and the amazing Thearica of Pig Tales and Quilts who cheered us on as we get ready for this blog hop ... you did a GREAT job!  Also, a very special shout out of thanks to the sponsors who helped make this blog hop possible!

Without further ado, the project ...

Shake Your Pom Poms Blog Hop

You may remember my post from yesterday where I was debating the background and my sketches ... well, this is how it turned out!

Shake Your Pom Poms Blog Hop

Some close ups of the fillers behind the appliqued phrase ...

Shake Your Pom Poms Blog Hop

Shake Your Pom Poms Blog Hop

And finally the big picture again ...

Shake Your Pom Poms Blog Hop

Be sure to stop by the other blogs today:




Thanks again for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend!

Megan

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Longarm Quilting Tip: Buy a Sketchbook

A few days before my longarm was delivered I was surfing around Pinterest and stumbled upon this pin ... Amazing, right?!?  I immediately pinned it to my LAQ board and then started to sleuth a bit and found the true owner of the pin was a woman named LuAnn Kessi.  She has an equally amazing blog (which you can find here).  She is very gracious with sharing her work and I love the fact that she gives herself little notes to remind her how she made the design that she did.  The next day I went to Michaels and bought an artist's notebook (they were on sale 40% off!).

The idea of carrying around a notebook is still odd for me, but I'm getting better. Having a sketchbook to not only practice designs you want to try is important ...

Megan Ziegler Longarm Sketchbook

Megan Ziegler Longarm Sketchbook

Megan Ziegler Longarm Sketchbook

... But it's also important to give dry runs to potential designs.  I was working on a wallhanging yesterday and after some input from my mom, I decided not to use the design I had planned on for the past two weeks ... eeks!  Well, with a deadline to get the piece done, I needed to come up with something, so I roughly sketched some ideas to get to the idea that I finally decided upon.  Be sure to come back tomorrow for the "Shake Your Pom Poms" blog hop to see the final reveal!

Megan Ziegler Longarm Sketchbook

While I am by no means as talented as LuAnn I hope seeing a peek into my sketchbook will encourage you that you don't have to be perfect. For some reason, putting pen to paper just helps get your brain wired to do the actual design when you go to the longarm.  You can just work through the kinks before you actually stand at your machine to do the work!

See you bright & early tomorrow morning for the "Shake Your Pom Poms" blog hop!  You can check out today's bloggers here, and yesterday's here!

Enjoy!

Megan
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