by Great Joy Studio | Sep 22, 2022 | Quilting & Fabric
Hello once again.
We took some time at the end of summer to do a bit of traveling so, our week five for the fabric journal post was delayed. We also took a couple days for garage and closet cleaning! In addition, the actual execution of this project is somewhat new to me and I am learning what works and what doesn’t. So I’m giving myself plenty of time for my fabric journal style to evolve. There are many techniques to try and experiment with.This is going to be an ongoing, learning process to enjoy.
Now, back to the fun fabric stuff! I have two more fun layouts signatures/pages to share. One I did in the car while riding along on the road trip. We had just received a bundle of Hush Hush II from Riley Blake Designs before we left so I grabbed our Baby Button Dot low volume sample and a bit of inspiration for this one. I stamped some words on linen scraps from Colossians 3 which was my scripture reference for this piece.
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I had purchased some craft board paper doll templates some time ago and decided to cut one from Riley Blake natural linen and one out of ordinary batting. Then a dress from our Doll Closet appliqué template and adjusted to the right size. I simply layered in a pleasing layout and began to hand stitch. A perfect project while taking in the sights.
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The second group of images were inspired by insects from our upcoming “Art Journal” fabric (above)! We are so eager to introduce this collection (February 2023 delivery) from Riley Blake Designs that we could not resist including a few early samples that were sent for color approval in our finished piece (below).
I asked Kate to design and cut out silhouettes in Riley Blake Black and then highlight with Best of She Who Sews measuring tapes and button dots. Once Kate had the black appliqué pieces cut out we auditioned a few of the Best of She Who Sews fabrics to see what to use for the beetle highlights and butterfly wings. Best of SWSs offers so many great options it’s difficult to choose!
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After fabrics were chosen, we prepped our base signature/page fabrics, Again we used RBD Natural Linen layered with Journal Basics Ledger Paper and assembled in place to fuse. I like fusing before sewing down to assure precise placement and this offers more stability to the signature/page. We added a little more stamping and plan to continue with the sew-y theme with vintage buttons and maybe some labels. Plus I have much more sewing details to try/add but see what you think so far! We will have these bug-y appliqué kits in our shop soon.
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I’m saving the Baby Button Dots beetle for a small accent pillow! Stay tuned:
Great Joy Studio/J Wecker Frisch on Instagram and Facebook
by Great Joy Studio | Dec 14, 2021 | Quilting & Fabric
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Hello everyone!
We have a new kit listing called Snowman Parade and are sharing a little bit of the process that we followed to make.
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There are three of the snowmen characters from Janet’s Snow Sweet art/fabric collection translated to 16″ – 18″ raw edge appliqué blocks. These can be used for pillows, a table runner or any quilt projects and are simply fun to display throughout the winter months. In addition to the steps/photos posted here, you can view some tips we used, on our YouTube channel.
Our Snowman Parade kit can be purchased here in the shop and will contain Painters Watercolor Swirl, Snow Sweet, Blue Button Dots and basics from Riley Blake Designs. The kit also includes 12, 8.5″ x 11″ sheets to assemble for your templates and a basic appliqué instructions guide.
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In addition to the kit you will need a fusible web product along with the typical sewing supplies. We like to use Pellon Fusible Featherweight 991FFW1 as our fusible web product from a 20″ wide bolt. We also recommend purchasing a large tablet of tracing paper to make a ‘placement door’.
1.) Trace the appliqué templates on the paper side of your chosen product. Our templates are already in mirror and ready to go. A light box is a great help with this step however, taped to a window works perfectly fine. Rough cut them out and fuse each to the wrong side of fabrics. You will have this blog post, YouTube video and our IG posts as a fabric color guide. Sorry, no full color photo comes with the kit. Next, cut all of your appliqué pieces out with a sharp pair of scissors. You may like to place them under something to keep the pieces from curling up.
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2) Assembling each block can be done with accuracy and best results using what we call, a tracing paper door. Appliqué pieces are sitting on top of one of ours in the photos below. However, you simply sandwich your pieces onto your pressing surface, background fabric, blue dots snowman silhouette with the tracing paper outline (traced using templates ahead of time) on top to achieve near perfect placement. This is best demonstrated here and here.
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Next we will get these sewn down using decorative stitches on the machine and assemble into our project. We’re thinking a table runner!
Follow us on Instagram or Facebook for updates.
Thanks for visiting, as always and Merry Christmas!!!
IG – @jweckerfrisch
FB – Great Joy Studio
by Great Joy Studio | Oct 1, 2021 | Quilting & Fabric
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Celebrating,
the launch of
Riley Blake Designs
first low volume Designer Collection,
Hush Hush!
Excited,
to be the first designer to showcase our
“Follow the Blue Bird”
original project.
Using our favorite fusible applique technique, and the free pattern which can be found on RBD’s website, we created a Birdhouse Bunting!! Our bunting features Riley Blake Designs fabrics from Hush Hush, Painters Watercolor Swirl, and Hungry Animal Alphabet. Basic applique instructions are written below:
General Instructions for Fusible Applique:
- Refer to photos for fabric choices/placement
- Download the template sheets (using the link bottom of this post) to create your bunting flags by tracing onto paper backing of fusible web. Rough cut around each.
- Fuse according to the product instructions on wrong side of selected fabrics.
- Cut out the applique pieces on the drawn line, cool and remove paper backing.
- Fuse applique pieces onto the background blocks according to fusible web directions.
- Once all of your flags are fused you can secure your applique and/or further embellish with decorative stitching.
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First, trace your pieces onto the paper side of your fusible product then fuse to wrong side of fabrics and cut out your blue bird pieces. I found this was helpful to do first to help in choosing my Hush Hush background fabrics.
Next, choose your fabrics.
Print out your two sheets for the bunting flag using the link at bottom of the page. Assemble with tape to form half of the flag and use this template to make the full pattern image on any craft paper of your choosing. Once you have this you will also trace the various pieces on to the paper side of your fusible product and cut out.
You can chose to fuse backing fabric to your bunting flag for a flat result as we did here or layer with batting before attaching backing fabric.
We always make a tracing paper ‘door’ to enable accurate appliqué placement as shown in the photos above. Pinning to the top of your pressing mat makes it easy to flip open and closed to nudge the pieces where they go.
The bunting flag pattern can be used to piece your top and bottom fabrics which form your birdhouse shape or fuse them as we show here. These are first, then fuse scallops, then (tape measure fabric) trim. Next we fused the birdhouse hole (black Swirl fabric) and last assembled our blue bird.
Now, for the fun part, decorative sewing!
You can see our Birdhouse Bunting finish photos on Instagram and/or Facebook later today and throughout the week.
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We also used Hush Hush fabrics as the background for a Maple Leaf nine patch table top quilt, made with Painter’s Watercolor Swirl fabrics. A perfect pairing with our Fall Leaves Place Card project and HERE, that we created with Painters Palette fabrics.
Follow me on Instagram at @jweckerfrisch and Facebook for more.
Birdhouse Bunting
by Great Joy Studio | Jul 20, 2021 | Quilting & Fabric
Welcome
to the last week of our mini
Snowman Sew Along
with All About Christmas quilt &
fabric from Riley Blake Designs.
By this time you have your three snowmen blocks completely fused and are ready to sew. If not, as always continue at your own pace. The only thing we have left to complete these blocks now is to secure the appliqué designs to the background fabrics and add any decorative stitching. There are many stitches and styles you can use to do this and the choice is entirely yours, you’re the maker!
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I am most comfortable using one of my (basic Pfaff) machine’s options that is most like a blanket stitch to outline and secure my appliqué pieces to my background fabrics. I started with the large white pieces first. These are a bit stiff since we used an extra layer of interfacing and your appliqué pieces can pull up with handling so be careful to get them well fused. If this happens however, before you are ready to sew simply press over them again to reactivate the fusible glue. If you use this type of stitch you want to lay your needle right beside your appliqué fabric edge close as you can for the running stitches.
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I also chose the same color thread that best matched my fabrics or close as I had on hand. I used 50 weight cotton Aurifil. Both of these choices (blanket stitch and same color thread) seam to make up for any imperfections due to my beginner sewing skills. Of course you can go with any style such as free motion or any number of decorative stitching that you like.
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I continued by sewing the next largest pieces first red, then yellow, green and so on until I finished stitching around all of the smaller pieces.
For my green, I only had a lime shade but I think this helped to distinguish the tree branches against the two darker fabrics.
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Remember! These blocks still have to be quilted so, hold off on any 3-D embellishments like buttons or charms, etc. Which explains the blank look on our snowmen faces. Lol! I actually have tiny black buttons for his eyes and mouth and can’t wait to see them finished. 😉
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We will post our finished blocks on Instagram and Facebook so, if you want to see our updates and the rest of our blocks in this quilt, plus anything new, you can follow us here:
IG – J Wecker Frisch
FB – Joy Studio News
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Happy sewing and a sincere thanks for joining our snowman fun!
Below is our block inspiration.
Original watercolor by J Wecker Frisch
by Great Joy Studio | Jul 13, 2021 | Quilting & Fabric
Hello again!
Is everyone ready to move on to the
All About Christmas quilt
SNOWMEN?
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Good. Let’s get started!
You should already have your three background snowflake fabrics cut and set aside to receive the snowman appliqué items per instructions.
So, first thing is to tape your snowmen template sheets together. There are six sheets per snowman included in your pattern. You will want to take a little time with this to match up registration marks and get them squared up to the correct block size.
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Now you’re ready to begin tracing the individual shapes of each item in the snowman image onto your fusible web products. We like using a fine tip Sharpie in any color however, using a different color for each block will make organizing your fusible pieces much easier to access readily. The All About Christmas quilt pattern templates are already in reverse so trace with template sheets, printed side up, on the paper side of you fusible products. Again, just as in the fabric cutting suggestions last week, place and trace your largest glue pieces first to assure you will have enough of the fusible to complete this process.
Next begin laying out all of your smaller appliqué pieces in the remaining areas where they fit best for utilizing all of the fusible materials. We strongly suggest numbering the pieces too as you go. This will come in handy later when you begin to arrange and fuse the difficult to recognize pieces on your background fabric blocks. Once all of your fusible web pieces have been drawn, rough cut them out and organize by block.
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Side Note: You will be tracing your Riley White snowman and snowy ground twice, first on your chosen fusible web product and a second time on a lightweight fusible interfacing product. We use Pellon Fusible 911FFW1 Featherweight. This will help to block the fabric underneath from showing through your white appliqué fabrics. You may want to use this method for the yellow fabrics in your piece also. Layering sequence when you are ready to fuse these, will be wrong side of appliqué fabric to interfacing, that unit to fusible web and then onto background fabric in the indicated order. You will end up with a heavier/thicker appliqué unit.
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Next, making your raw-edge appliqué pieces.
Refer to the pattern cover art to begin fusing the correct, numbered fusible web pieces to their corresponding fabrics, according to the manufacturers directions. After all of the appliqué pieces are fused, you can cut them out accurately with a good sharp pair of scissors. I do not use my ‘for fabric only’ scissors for this but rather a specified favorite. We recommend letting all of your appliqué pieces cool completely before attempting to remove the paper backing. If time allows we prefer waiting overnight but a couple of hours may be enough. Another tip for removing the paper is to score a line with anything sharp but not enough to cut through the fabric, anywhere on the paper side of your fused appliqué. Then begin peeling the backing paper away from the fabric using the scored line as a stating point. This will help to prevent fraying your fabric edges.
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Now, building the snowman blocks!
After all of the paper is removed from your appliqué pieces, you are ready to arrange and place them in your snowman blocks. The numbers on each snowman template indicate which piece is the next to be fused. As stated in last week’s post, placement is best achieved using a placement sheet. Since you cannot view the template sheet through the background fabrics we like tracing the template onto a sheet of ordinary tracing paper to make a placement sheet ‘door’. Explained last week here and shown below.
You can see in the above phoyo that we opted to cut out the small snowman (block 3) both in cotton and batting to offer a little extra pouf . This is your preference.
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Having fun yet?
I like the cutting and fusing best myself, but next week we are
READY to SEW!
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Show us your progress as you follow and tag me on Instagram @jweckerfrisch
and please use #allaboutchristmasfabric to share your photos.
I would enjoy hearing from you!
