Tuesday, December 27, 2011

My brother's quilt

The one Christmas gift that I got a head start on was my brother's quilt. I decided in October that I would make him one, and then informed my sisters that I had chosen him for our annual gift drawing. I used this pattern and made the twin size version, which uses 10X10 inch squares instead of charm squares.


I used a walking foot on my sewing machine to do straight line quilting. I was still working on the binding the day before I gave it to him. Yay for procrastination!

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Scalloped Flannel Blanket Tutorial



For this blanket you will need:
2 yards of flannel (1 yard for each side of the blanket)
1 yard of batting
Matching thread
a bowl or cup to trace around
1 yard piece of butcher or wrapping paper
Fabric marker (one that will wash out in the laundry)


Step 1-

Make a pattern by cutting your butcher paper into a 34x34 inch square. Use your bowl or cup to make an even scalloped pattern around your square. The size of the bowl depends on your own taste. Mine was 6 inches in diameter. (I have seen similar tutorials where they just trace around the bowl directly on the fabric, but I like making a pattern first so that I know that all of the scallops are even.)

Step 2-


Sandwich your fabric and batting as in the picture above. The fabric should be right sides together and the batting should be on the wrong side of one of the pieces of flannel. Place the sandwich batting sided down.

Step 3-



Place your scalloped pattern on top of the fabric, pin, and trace with the fabric marker.

Step 4-



Remove the pattern, smooth out any wrinkles and pin all three layers together.

Step 5-




Sew along the marker line. Make sure to leave a gap to turn your blanket right side out.

Step 6-


Trim around the scallops. Clip the inside corners.

Step 7-



Turn right side out. Be careful not to rip your stitches near the opening.

Step 8-



Iron the edges of the blanket flat. Pin the opening closed.

Step 9-


Top stitch all the way around the blanket.

Step 10-


Hand stitch the edge of the opening.