Quilted Case for Knitting Needles – Tutorial

Here is a tutorial to make this rolled-up case for knitting needles:

First, here are a sketch of the needle case. It will help you visualize all pieces and have an idea of placement of the appliqués and quilting lines from the exterior and interior.

And now the list of supplies and instructions.

Fabric

– Fat Quarter of a cotton print for outer panel
(Here: Tossed Flower fabric in Raspberry from Joel Dewberry’s Ginseng collection).

– Fat Quarter of a cotton print for high pocket and flap
(Here: Pine fabric in Stone from Joel Dewberry’s Ginseng collection).

– Fat Eight of a cotton print for low pocket
(Here: Geo fabric in Sand from Joel Dewberry’s Ginseng collection).

– ⅔” yard of a solid color cotton fabric (here in stone) for interior panel and lining of pockets and flap.

– 3 squares of 3” for the hexagon appliqués (2 from the interior cotton prints and one from the solid color fabric).

Other Supplies

– One piece of 17 x 22” cotton batting

– Hand-embroidery floss contrasting with the solid color fabric.

– Coordinating sewing thread.

– Coordinating ready-made binding (or ¼ yard of cotton fabric to make your own)

Cut the Fabric

1. From the FQ for the outer panel, cut a rectangle measuring 17 x 22”.

2. From the FQ for the high pocket and flap, cut respectively a piece of 9½ x 22” and a piece of 5½ x 21½”.

3. Cut a rectangle of 6 x 22” for the low pocket.

4. From the solid color cotton, cut the following pieces:

– Interior panel: 17 x 22”

– Low pocket lining: 6 x 22”

– High pocket lining: 9½ x 22”

– Flap: 5½ x 21½”

Assemble Pockets and Flap

	5. Put the fabrics for the high pocket right side together. Sew at top edges together (Seam allowance ½”). Do the same for the low pocket. For the flap, also sew both sides and clip corners.
	6. For the 3 pieces, turn right side out, press and top-stitch.

Make the Appliqués

	7. Using the hexagon template and the English Paper Piecing technique, prepare 3 hexagons.
	8. Hand-stitch the hexagon together using a whipstitch along the adjacent edges to form a column of 3 hexagons. Put the hexagon in solid color in the middle.
	9. Position the appliqué on the right side of the outer panel (refer to the case template to position the appliqués). Baste in place. 10. Hand-stitch the appliqués using a tack stitch (Tip: use an embroidery hoop to facilitate this task).
	11. Hand-stitch with embroidery floss around the edge of the middle hexagon using a running stitch.

Assemble the Needle Case

	12. Put the exterior panel face down on a flat surface, position the batting on it and then the interior panel face up. Baste or pin all layers together.
	13. Download and print the quilting template. Start quilting the case using your sewing machine. For now, only sew the lines in blue on the template. The lines are 1” apart and they start at 1½” from the left edge with the exterior panel facing up. For the lines around the appliqués, you can transfer them using the template with the help of tracing paper, or freehand.
	14. Position the high and low pockets on top of each other and position on the interior panel with bottom edges aligned. Baste in place.
	15. Complete the quilting. Do the remaining lines (black dotted line on the quilting template). Those seams will also act as dividers for the pockets.

Finish the Needle Case

	16. Straighten the edges.
	17. Position the flap on the interior panel with top edges aligned. Baste in place.
	18. Cut two strips of binding to make the ribbons used to attach the case rolled-up. For each strip, press one end inside. Sew the edges together as well as the pressed ends. With case exterior facing up, center both ribbons on the right with unfinished ends aligned with the edge and ribbon going inward. Pin in place. 19. Attach the binding along the case edges making sure to catch the ribbon.
	20. Flip the ribbons to have them going outward the case and tack in place.

And here is the final result:

If you make one of these, I would love to see it! Please add a photo to the pool of my flickr group. Thanks!

Fat Stash Bee – Block for my Month, June

June is my month in the Fat Stash Bee. As I said in a earlier post, I’ve decided to do a baby quilt. Here is a reminder of my fabrics.

I sent out everyone an fat quarter of one of the colored fabric (pink, green, red or blue) and a little piece of Alexander Henry’s Starling fabric. I’ve decided to ask everyone do a crazy scrappy block like shown by Aneela Hoey in her tutorial. They will be doing it with scraps from their stash in shades of one color only, the color of the FQ I’ve provided them. And they will use Alexander Henry’s Starling fabric as the center piece of the block. For me, I’ve kept a green FQ. Here is my block:

Fat Stash Bee – May Blocks

For the month of May, we were provided a blue gingham fabric and we were asked to let go our imagination, the theme is picnic! I’ve done two blocks. One which was inspired by a block I’ve seen in the Quilting Bee Blocks group on Flickr. It is pretty simple, yet I found it was a really nice way to represent a picnic and it fitted really well the fabric we were provided. So here is my first block:

For the second one, I wanted something of my own and a bit more challenging. What about a kite? Isn’t that fun on a picnic day? It was my first time with triangles. I found it a bit tricky, but I’m happy with the result.

Hope mommymae likes them!

Quilted Case for Knitting Needles

The month of May has been a pretty busy one. I worked on different projects. One of which is a roll-up case for knitting needles. I made this for my sister’s birthday which was this past week-end. I constructed it like a quilt with batting between two layers of cotton fabrics. I’ve quilted it and finished the edges with binding. I’ve used fabrics from Joel Dewberry’s Ginseng collection to make it. I made two rows of pockets for the different needle sizes and lengths and other knitting accessories. I’ve put a flap at the top to hold and protect the needles head. The case is quilted with straight lines from top to bottom except around the appliqués. The straight stitches are also used to delimit the pockets. For this reason, the case is quilted partly before attaching the pockets and completed after.

On the exterior, I’ve added some appliqués as embellishments. It’s a column of three hexagons which were done using the English Paper Piecing technique and hand-stitched to the top panel. I also handembroidered a running stitch along the edge of the middle hexagon as an additional detail.

Here is the result with the needles and rolled-up.

I will probably write a tutorial shortly. Stay tune!
… And here it is!

Wall Art Mini-Quilt

About a month ago, I did a screen printing course. One of the three projects was printed on fabric. I had decided to print a blue poppy on cotton fabric. The plan was to integrate this in a mini-quilt to hang it on my bedroom wall. I had bought Kate Spain’s fabrics from Moda in her Verna collection. Here are the fabrics for the quilt blocks with the screen print.

I have decided to put the patchwork on stretcher bars to hang it instead of binding the quilt. I’m unsure yet if I’ll actually quilt it or not. I bought 3 sets of stretcher bars. One to make an 18 in frame for the screen print. And two smaller ones, 12 in, to put on each side.

I just started today to work on the first block. I’m integrating the screen print in a wonky log cabin.

The other two will be Mod Mosaic blocks based on Elizabeth Hartman’s tutorial.

Handbag Sewing Course – Update

Here is a little update on my handbag projects. Lat week, I went to the second and last part of my course. We learned different techniques to join the lining and outer shell and how to fix the straps. Unfortunately, I’m not done yet. I’m missing the hardware to fix the straps. So, this project is on hold until I find some that I like and of the right size. However, here is a little update. I’m pretty happy with the result of blue jeans one.

Zippy pouches

I’ve sewn those cases for my two little ones. It’s based on a project in the Spring 2010 issue of the Stitch magazine. For the first pouch (brown one), I’ve modified the appliques a bit. On one side, I put the mushroom appliques. On the other side, I put the hedgehog with a slightly different shape with a mushroom instead of flowers. For the second case, I felt it didn’t need appliques because of the owls in the fabric print. The most interesting part in doing this project was to see my 3 year old son’s excitement as I was realizing it. The younger one (16 months) didn’t understand much. But still, he was happy to carry on his crayons in his pouch when I gave him today!

Fat Stash Bee – April blocks

Here are my blocks for the month of April in the Fat Stash Bee. For this month, we were asked to do concentric squares with fabrics in red, white, grey and black. It had to be a bit masculine since the quilt will be for jkae1989’s 15 year old son. The fat quarter I received from her is the red one in my blocks. The other ones are coming from my stash. She will split our blocks in 4 and reassemble them all mixed-up to do Modified Bento Box blocks (tutorials here and here).

Fat Stash Bee - April block 1 by thecharmingneedle

Handbag Sewing Course

Last week, I attended a sewing class on handbags. I was just looking for a bag pattern when I saw that course. I think I have the same bag I had5 years ago. I never sewn handbag so, I thought this course would be instructive. Furthermore, the bags shown in the course description seemed interesting. We are using Nancy Zieman’s templates from Clover. I’ve chosen the California collection template (http://www.clover-usa.com/product/268062/9509/_/Trace_%27n_Create_Bag_Templates_%28California_Collection%29). I prefer small bags, I usually don’t carry much with me, so I’ve chosen the Carmel Petite variation. The course is 2 blocks of 3 hours. The second part is next week and we are supposed to complete our bags. So, this week I’m working on my homework. We need to finish assembling the outer shell with some decoration of our own and the lining. Next week, we will be joining both together and adding the hardware for closure and the strap. The teacher provided us some pink jeans for the outer shell. I’ve decided to add some fabric from Laura Gunn’s Poppy collection (Michael Miller) and some plum solid cotton from my stash to add some interest.

Handbag Sewing Course a photo by thecharmingneedle on Flickr.

Since I’m making one, why not make two? So, I started another
one with fabrics from my stash: blue jeans and again cotton prints from
Laura Gunn but this time from the Lantern Bloom collection.

Handbag Sewing Course a photo by thecharmingneedle on Flickr.

I love her fabrics but I never got the chance to use them. I only have a small amount, so those projects are perfect. I’ll let you know what the final result is.

Fat Stash Bee – Fabric for my Month

Fat Stash Bee – Fabric for my Month a photo by thecharmingneedle on Flickr.

Yes, I already have my fabrics for my month in the FSB, which is only in June. I was obsessed by it. Ah! the excitement of the first bee I guess. It wasn’t long before I took my decision for the fabrics and ordered them over the internet. I also wanted to make sure to receive them in time since shipping here can be sometimes long. I was really surprised to get them the week after. I decided to make a baby quilt. I first thought about doing a quilt for my own bed. But, I realized that a queen size bed quilt might be a too ambitious project for my first quilts, particularly the quilting part. So, here are the fabrics. The main one is Alexander Henry Starling Natural fabric. The others are fabrics of 4 different colors, colors that are found in the Starling fabric. For red, I chosed Laurie Wisbrun, Tufted Tweets, Birds on a Wire Sorbet. For pink, Darlene Zimmerman, Three Bears Collection, Cherries on Camellia. For blue, Laurie Wisbrun, Tufted Tweets, Birdies and Chairs Grass. And for green, Carolyn Gavin Wild Thyme Tulip Flowers Green Natural. The fabrics all come from Lucky Kaeru Fabric and Supplies. For each bee member, I will provide a fabric of one of these colors and I would like them to make a block by completing with fabric from their stash in the same color. Depending on the type of block I decided, I might also provide a little piece of the Starling fabric to put in the block center. I’ll see, I still have some time to think about this… It should be fun.

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