Sew It Seams

Leila Rose by Alex Anderson

Alex Anderson’s newest collection, Leila Rose,  features two main pieces:  a beautiful floral  with sweet little birds, and a terrific patchwork print that works for all kinds of projects.

 

Most of the pieces in the patchwork have their own individual prints. 

Here is the full collection


Alex and her friend Carolyn Hughey came up with two wonderful quilt projects for us.  You can download both of them free right here, just click on the images.

There will also be an adorable baby quilt from this collection that is featured in the June issue of McCall’s Quilting.  You can see a bit of it on this great chair that we covered in the patchwork fabric.



The patchwork is also great for quilt borders, of course, but it has many more uses.  Think about home dec uses, aprons, bed skirts, and clothing, like this cute flounce skirt.  The outfit is by Zozo Bug Baby – The Candy Shoppe Twirl Skirt and Tuxedo Tee. 



 

Pinwheel tutorial

 

 
This project is fast and easy and you can make a pinwheel in any size!
We had several of these in our booth at Market and received a lot of enthusiastic response.  So here’s how to make them!



We chose Nancy Mahoney’s Adeline collection for our pinwheel.  You will need two or three fabrics (three if you want a contrasting fabric button in the center).  To start, pick two fabric s that you like together, and cut a square of each one, the same size.  Choose which one will be your front fabric (it will show more).
Fuse the two together, wrong sides facing in, using a stiff double-sided fusible product like  Craf-Tex Lite.  You can also use Wonder Under or Heat & Bond but you would need to use a double layer for additional strength and stiffness.


On the fabric you consider the back side, draw diagonal lines from corner to corner in both directions.  Measure the length from the center to an outside corner.
Mark each line one-quarter of the way out from the center (ie, if the length is 4”, make a mark 1” out from the center). 


Cut each line from the outside corner up to the mark, but not beyond.
On the front side, pick up every other outside point and bring it to the center.  Tack these points to the center with hot glue or a couple of stitches. 


Cover the center with a favorite button or gem, or make a fabric button in a contrasting color (craft and sewing stores have the hardware packets to make simple covered buttons).  You can sew or glue a stick or stiff wire to the back side, or just attach the pinwheel to a fabric project, wall.  How about little ones attached to drinking straws as decoration?  Easy!


You can make them any size – check out these cute earrings!


 Go ahead, try one – or more!