Poinsettia Mug Rug Tutorial - Raw Edge Applique

Anybody who has read this blog during the last couple of weeks will notice that I am obsessed with poinsettias this Christmas season. During the Christmas demonstration at the Eastern branch of the Irish Patchwork Society I showed some ladies how to make these poinsettia mug rugs and the participants seemed to enjoy them, so I thought I might share the process here as well. It's not a pattern as such, rather an idea for an easy last-minute gift or decorative element.

For the mug rugs in the tutorial photos I used raw edge appliqué to use up some of the scraps from my large poinsettia quilt, you may notice that some fraying develops around the edges, but I don't mind that. In my demonstration and in the Christmas wreath mini quilt I used fabrics prepared with the crafted appliqué technique, which yields a clean edge with no fraying - you can choose what suits you.

You'll need:

• quilt sandwich (backing fabric + batting + background fabric) about 6.5'' squared (or any other size to your liking, but make sure to leave some margin for trimming)
• green and red scraps
• glue stick or pins if you're making it raw edge
• matching thread
• a piece of binding about 32'' long

I prefer to make this kind of appliqué freehand, without templates, and poinsettias are great for that, because they are not particularly symmetrical and their leaves have very simple shapes. When you are eyeballing a leaf shape, you give it unique character and are free to play with size, shape and positioning, however you can download this cheatsheet to use as your guide.

Christmas Wreath - Crafted Appliqué Style

Just wanted to share my entry to this year's Christmas challenge at the Eastern branch of Irish Patchwork Society.

I made it in express mode, in the last couple of days before the meeting, so no process pics. The background is a kind of ombre-effect log cabin, the image itself - free-hand, little-planned appliqué made using the Crafted appliqué method. I also used some beads for holly and mistletoe berries and poinsettia buds. The size is about 20''.

Here are some other beautiful entries from the challenge:

I was thrilled that my piece took the second place and brought me a beautiful fabric prize!

During the afternoon after the meeting there were some Christmas demonstrations, and I showed some ladies how to make poinsettia appliqué, and I think I'll also make a small tutorial for that here on the blog, too.

Linking up to Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River
Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts
Crafted Applique Linky Party at Buzzing Bumble

Witches and Castles - Crafted Appliqué Magic

I'm a member of the Irish Patchwork Society, which is going to have its AGM in early October. The challenge for the meeting has the topic "Witches and Castles" and a size limit of 15''.  So, the way my brain works (do as you're told) I squeezed both witches and a castle into 15 inches and here they are:

UPD: You can check out the other challenge quilts (including the winner!) in this post. I'm also linking this post to the Handmade Halloween linky party hosted by Bernie @Needle and Foot. Make sure you visit it for Halloween inspiration!

I played with several variants of the scene, basically Little Witch + Cat, Big Witch + Cat and Little Witch + Big Witch

My husband chose the two witches variant, but I found a way to sneak a cat into the picture, as he brings a feeling of Drama (or should I say Doom?) with him - because you know what's going to happen next, right?

Another source of inspiration for me was our last year's Halloween window display (for which I found inspiration somewhere on Pinterest):

My idea called for intricate detailing to make the silhouettes look interesting and I knew I had to master the Crafted Appliqué technique for that. I had heard a lot of buzz in the quilting blogland about it and finally got to try it myself. You can see my rehearsal piece here. Fortunately, this idea meant that only one piece of fabric had to be treated, so that wasn't a problem (incidentally, the two fat quarters for this project were bought in Limerick, as well as the backing fabric).

You can see that the method worked - the edges are crisp, although I stitched quite close to the edge.

The busy detailing in the bottom half left the upper right corner rather empty, so I filled it with a ghost...If you didn't see it immediately, it's OK, that's often the thing with ghosts...

It twinkles mysteriously, being quilted with gold metallic thread, and seems also to be up to something mischievous... That left very little background free, so I did some quirky quilting to fill in the gaps.

I'm pleased with the result, as it has a kind of glow and a kind of mischief - season appropriate))) And I also consider my #BraveQuilter challenge and September OMG completed, so the post will be linked to these link-ups at the end of the month. It is also a New to Me in 2016 technique, so I'm linking to Celtic Thistle Stitches.

I couldn't wait till the end of the month to show it, so I'm also linking up to Main Crush Monday at Cooking Up Quilts and Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River )). Lara Buccella, the author of Crafted Appliqué book, also has a linky party on her blog for the projects made with her method, do check it for more inspiration!

Rehearsing Crafted Applique

I've set mastering Crafted Appliqué as my challenge and goal for September. Before starting "the real thing" I decided to try it out on some batik scraps, because I'm going to use a batik for my planned project. And to make it the toughest test possible I chose a mini-mini format))

I'm happy to say it worked well on the tiny pieces (the stems are about 1/8'' wide and the petals 1'' by 1/4'', the whole thing in just a bit larger than 6'' top to bottom). The most difficult thing was to finish the mini-mini, binding and everything, instead of starting the new project)))

I chose dark green and light blue scraps, so the subject came naturally - squill, the first flowers to appear in spring on the forest floor, sometimes amidst the remnants of snow (I decided to add some snow after I finished the flowers))). The flowers are almost life-size. I had to fight the temptation to play with different colors, because that would mean pre-treating lots of different scraps, and just stuck with the chosen ones.

Without further comments: