whale week

Anchor Pillow Tutorial

April 21, 2016 by Amanda Leave a Comment

It’s feeling like summer here in Southern California with temperatures reaching up to 90 degrees! Let the fun begin! I’m such a summer girl – I hate to be cold! In celebration of the wonderful warm weather we’re having I thought I would share this fun nautical pillow with you. The fabrics are from Blend’s True Blue line which is in reproduction since it was so popular! Which is great news because it’s one of my favorites!!

Let’s get started!

Supplies:

Fat Quarters or quarter yard cuts of a variety of the True Blue Fabrics

fat quarter or 1/2 yard white fabric for center

2/3 yard backing

2 yards ric rac

Heat n Bond Lite EZ Print Sheets

20″ pillow insert

2.5 yards pillow trim

Anchor Pattern, Click HERE

Cut the center white fabric 12.5″ x 12.5″. Print out the anchor on the Heat n Bond Lite EZ print sheets or trace the anchor onto Heat n Bond Lite. Press the Heat n Bond to the wrong side of the anchor fabric. Cut the anchor out and peel off the backing paper. Press the anchor in the center of the white fabric. Top stitch around the anchor.

Position the ric rac as picture:

I used Spray n Bond to hold it in place while I sewed. You can also use pins. Sew the ric rac on with matching thread.

Refer to the above diagram for sewing the patchy boarder. All squares are 2.5″ and all seams are 1/4″.

Once the pillow top is complete, spray baste it to the batting and then to a backing. The backing fabric won’t be seen, it just gives the pillow added stability. Quilt as desired.

I quilted mine with wavy lines and then “pebbles” in the center. After quilting square up each side. The final measurement should be pretty close to 20″. You loose a little with the quilting.

Baste the pillow trim onto the pillow top. Finish the quilt as desired. I always put a zipper in the back of my pillow and you can follow the instructions in this tutorial.

I love how this pillow turned out and it goes great with all my other nautical sewing projects! For more nautical projects, click HERE.

Mufasa was especially impressed with this project 🙂

Filed Under: Blend Fabrics, FEATURED, nautical, pillow, Therm O Web, whale week

Summer Nautical Pillows

August 18, 2014 by Amanda 1 Comment

I know most of the stores have their fall and even Christmas decorations out on the shelves, but we still have one more week of summer vacation left and I am embracing every minute of it! Summer is my favorite! I love being with my children all day and just being FREE!!!!! I had to get in one more summer sewing project. I decorated my family room with a few nautical pops here and there and my couch was begging for some nautical pillows! These sew up in a snap!

Sea Critters Pillow (20″):

Don’t you just love this fabric from Dear Stella? We love sea critters at our house!

Cut the sea critters fabric 13.5″ x 20″

Seersucker Twist Red from Blend fabric 7″ x 20″

cotton batting 21″ or larger

20″ navy blue lace trim

2 yards navy fringe trim

20″ square Denim for the back

20″ or longer Zipper

accent fabric 4.5″ x 20″

20″ pillow form

Spray n Bond for basting

Sew them together using 1/4″ seams. Using Spray n Bond basting spray, baste the pillow top to the batting.

With the two pieces basted you can quilt as desired. Straight lines would be cute, I was impatient and free motion is faster for me 🙂

Trim off the excess batting

Add the navy blue lace trim

Sew the navy blue fringe to the right side of the pillow. I found it easier to use my walking foot. Curve the corners.

Prepare the back of the pillow. I have found this is the fastest way to finish a pillow. For the tutorial on how to do this, click HERE. I cut the back 20″ and then cut 3″ from the top for the zipper placement. The chevron piece is cut 4.5″ and then folded in half.

Now that the back is ready, place the right sided together, with the zipper open, and sew all the way round the pillow using 1/4″ seams. Turn and insert the pillow form.

I Heart Whales Pillow (20″)

This is very similar to my pink I Heart Whales pillow found HERE. Follow those directions for the Heat n Bond Applique.

Cut the solid white 10.5″ x 20″

Cut (2) Seersucker Twist Blue from Blend fabric 5.25″ x 20″

“I Heart” pattern click HERE

Whales from Blend’s True Blue fabric line

Prepare the appliqué pieces (directions HERE). Iron the pieces to the solid white fabric. Sew the blue fabrics to the white fabric using 1/4″ seams.

Using Spray n Bond, baste the pillow top to the cotton batting and quilt. Instead of appliquéing the images on before quilting, I sewed around each image in navy thread during the quilting process to give the pieces a little pop.

I finished this pillow the same way as the Sea Critters pillow with the same navy trim.

I love the backs of the pillows!

Filed Under: appliqué, Blend Fabrics, FEATURED, Heat n Bond, pillow, sewing, Therm O Web, tutorial, whale, whale week

Whaley Whale Quilt Tutorial

August 5, 2014 by Amanda Leave a Comment

Did I happen to mention I love whales and I love this True Blue fabric line from Blend? (haha) The fabrics needed to come together in a quilt and I LOVE how it turned out. Here it the pattern if you would like to make one – it is a quick quilt for sure!!

Finished Quilt Size: 40.5″ x 51″

Whale fabric 1 yard

Blue Wave fabric 0 .5 yards

White fabric – 1 yard

Coordinating prints (5) – fat quarters or quarter yard cuts

Spray n Bond Basting Adhesive

Begin with the whale strips….

Cut (3) 10″ x WOF Whale strips

Cut the blue wave fabric into (3) 4″ x WOF strips.

Free hand cut a wavy edge to each blue strip. You can do it!! Just let the scissors cut where they may. Mine are not perfect, but neither are real waves. Mine are all different heights and depths. Using the Spray n Bond, spray the wrong side of the blue waves and align with the bottom edge of the whale strips. Do this to each of the 3 whale and wave strips.

Top stitch close to the top of the waves in matching thread. I love how the whales look like they are swimming in the waves!

Prepare the block strips:

For each strip set……

Cut (7) white rectangles 2″ x 3.5″

Cut (5) patterned rectangles 5.5″ x 3.5″

Using 1/4″ seams, sew a white rectangle to the sides of each of the 5 patterned rectangles:

Press seams toward the dark.

Cut (2) 2″ x WOF strips of white and sew them to the top and bottom of the rectangle strip set. It should look like this:

Make (4) of these.

Measure the finished length of the rectangle strip and cut the whale strips to be the same length.

Lay the rows out like this and sew the rows together:

I quilted mine with random wavy lines similar to the blue wave strip. This was my first time ever using a Long Arm Quilt Machine! My friends over at Quilt EZ let me have a spin on one of their machines! The stitch regulator is a dream 🙂

Did I mention I love whales?

Filed Under: Blend Fabrics, FEATURED, quilt, Therm O Web, whale, whale week

Whaley Zipper Pouch

July 17, 2014 by Amanda Leave a Comment

If you know me at all, you aren’t surprised that a whale zipper pouch would be apart of “Whale Week”! I have gotten so much use out of my 1/2 yard of True Blue Whales fabric by Blend!!! I love the little anchor charm I found to use as the zipper pull. The lining of the bag is super cute with lifesavers and anchors on it!!

This tutorial is more of an overview, if you want extra details and you are new to making zipper pouches, check out My favorite zipper pouch tutorial.

Supplies:

Fat quarters or large scraps for the outer bag and lining

scraps for zipper tabs

Medium or light weight fusible stabilizer

Heat n Bond LIte

zipper

scrap of ric arc

Cut the denim outer bag, bag lining and stabilizer 8″ x 11″ (2) of each. Fuse the stabilizer to the wrong side of the lining fabric.

Iron the heat n bond lite to the wrong side of the desired whale. Fuse and cut the whale out. Position the whale as pictured below. Sew an accent piece of ric rac.

Cut 2 zipper tabs 1.5″ x 4″. Pres the ends under 1/4″ and then press in half.

Here you can see the 2 zipper tabs. (Sorry about the lighting, it was 11:00 pm).

Measure the zipper and the tabs so you have 1″ on each side of tabs (there will be extra). Sew the tabs to the ends of the zipper. Again, click HERE for more details on this process. Cut the folded piece of the tab and cut out the excess zipper. The goal with this is to reduce bulk in the seams.

Flip the zipper over and match with the top edge of the whale piece. Place one of the lining pieces right side down and align all the edges. Don’t worry about the zipper tabs, we will even them up in a minute.

Sew using a zipper foot. Press and do the same thing to the other side of the zipper so it looks like this:

Top stitch 1/8″ along the zipper. Trim the excess tab fabric. Match right sides with right sides and pin all the way around. MAKE SURE ZIPPER IS OPEN Sew using 1/4″ seam leaving a 2.5″ opening on the side of the lining fabric.

After you’ve sewn all the way around cut a 1.5″ notch out of each corner of the bag.

Match bottom seams and sew a 1/4″ seam:

Turn right side out and top stitch side opening. Yea! It’s done!

It’s the perfect little pouch to tuck inside a beach bag with all the little stuff that might get lost.

Filed Under: appliqué, Blend Fabrics, FEATURED, Heat n Bond, sewing, Therm O Web, tutorial, whale, whale week, zipper pouch

Whale Composition Book Cover

July 16, 2014 by Amanda Leave a Comment

I love composition books and I have written several tutorials for them. I use these cute covered books for everything: journals, notes, reminders, etc. Do you use a sewing journal? I am always writing patterns or changing existing patterns and I take notes as I go. This has totally saved me as I have all the notes in one place. Here is my current sewing journal – with only a few pages left in it:

This is an example of how fabulous my notes and sketches are 🙂 After I have all my notes and the project is finished, I type it up as a tutorial or pattern online. It’s time for a new composition and I’m feeling “whale-y!

This is the composition book I am using – make sure you measurements are 9 3/4″ x 7 1/2″

Supplies:

composition book

scraps of fabric

1/3 yard fabric for lining and flaps

batting

spray n bond basting spray

hair elastic

button

You can create any design as long as it measures 16/5″ x 11″ when you are finished

Anchor fabric 3″ x 16.5″

pink accent fabric (2) 1.25″ x 16.5″

whale fabric 4.5″ x 16.5″

flower fabric 3″ x 16.5″

Piece them together in this order using 1/4″ seams:

Press the seams in one direction. Using basting spray or pins, baste the top to the batting. Quilt as desired. I quilted 1/4″ lines on both sides of the seams. Square up the batting after quilting.

Take the hair elastic and baste it 1/8″ in the center on the left side of the book cover. Like this:

For the lining, cut a piece 16.5″ x 11″

For the flaps cut (2) 11″ x 10″ and press in half

Lay them out like this:

Lay right sides together and pin all the way around. Sew using 1/2″ seam allowance leaving a 3″ opening at the bottom to turn.

Turn right side out and press. Top-stitch the opening closed.

Insert the composition book and mark where you want the button. Remove the book and sew the button on with a needle and thread – inside the flap. It’s hard to see my button because it is blue.

And you’re done!! Perfect gift for just about anyone!!

Save

Filed Under: Blend Fabrics, FEATURED, gift, sewing, Therm O Web, tutorial, whale, whale week

True Blue Whale Skirt & Top

July 15, 2014 by Amanda Leave a Comment

I can’t get enough of these whales from Blend Fabrics!! We are all sporting whale shirts! I think we will be wearing these to Sea World when we go 🙂

The fabric is cute enough that all you need to do is add some Heat n Bond to the back side of the whale, cut it out and then iron it to what ever you want!

After I ironed the whale to the T-shirt, I top-stitched around the whale twice. Sally needed a complete whale outfit (I am pretty sure if I had enough fabric I would have sewn myself a whale skirt!!)

I used skirt “A” from the pattern book Little Sassy Skirts.

I have made these skirts over and over. The patterns are easy to follow and everything is done with rotary cutter measurements (a quilters dream!). This skirt is fun because you don’t have to have a lot of yardage, I only had half yards of the True Blue prints and I love the 4 prints all pieced together!

We had such a fun day at the beach! It was beautiful! I love summer and I love whales 🙂

Filed Under: appliqué, Blend Fabrics, FEATURED, Heat n Bond, sewing, t-shirt, Therm O Web, tutorial, whale, whale week

I Heart Whales Throw Pillow

July 14, 2014 by Amanda Leave a Comment

Isn’t this the cutest fabric? It’s from the True Blue fabric line by Blend. Everyeday this week I will be featuring a project using fabrics from this fabric line – all with a whale theme!!

I totally LOVE whales and I have loved them since I was like 4 years old 🙂 I thought this pillow was super fun and I love the colors! My tutorial is over at the Therm O Web blog – so hop over there if you want the instructions to make your own!!

Filed Under: Blend Fabrics, FEATURED, Heat n Bond, pillow, sewing, Therm O Web, tutorial, Uncategorized, whale, whale week

Whale Week

July 13, 2014 by Amanda Leave a Comment

whale week

I’m so excited to kick of Whale Week tomorrow! Everyday I will feature a new whale project: pillow, book cover, skirt, shirt, quilt, and more! I can’t get enough of summer and I can’t get enough of whales!!

Filed Under: whale week

Anchor Pillow Tutorial

Summer Nautical Pillows

Whaley Whale Quilt Tutorial

Whaley Zipper Pouch

Whale Composition Book Cover

True Blue Whale Skirt & Top

I Heart Whales Throw Pillow

Whale Week

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