New Simply Colorful II Patterns And save on all PDF's

Well with Simply Colorful 1 (RED, ORANGE, YELLOW) hitting stores in just a few short weeks (ahem, and our V and Co. AURIFIL threads too!), I wanted to get you excited for the next 4 patterns that go with the next line of Simply Colorful 2 (GREEN, BLUE, PURPLE)!!

I've been wanting to show off these new patterns for a while now! And here they are! yay! Four new patterns are now available in the V and Co. Shop.  there's also a store wide sale in celebration of our new patterns! 

Simply Colorful 2 will ship to quilt stores this September 2015…but that doesn't mean we can't start making these new patterns in other fabric lines or lovely saved up stashes! 

Okay so enough blabbing, lets get to the patterns:
First up we have Hop Skip Jump:

Finished size featured on the cover: 72" x 84" 
The pattern also includes 2 additional sizes of throw and baby 

It's Fat Quarter friendly, and is a great fun fast pattern to put together.
This pattern comes in booklet form, with easy to follow step by step instructions, color illustrations, diagrams, and layout.

Buy Hop Skip Jump PDF here
This quilt is a great and easy to make quilt.

Next we have Serendipity:

 The finished size on the cover measures: 64" x 80" 
2 Additional quilt sizes included of throw and baby in the pattern.

 This quilt is a GREAT scrap buster! Need to use up a lot of those scraps you've been holding onto? Here you go you're welcome.

Each block consists of different fabrics so you can use as many of those favorite scraps you have been hoarding for the right project :) this is one of my favorite quilts! I can't wait to make another one using different color placements to see the different feel it gives! 

This pattern comes in booklet form, with easy to follow step by step instructions, color illustrations, diagrams, and layout.

Buy Serendipity Quilt PDF here

Next up is Butterfly Kisses:

This is just a lovely airy quilt that looks like you are being surrounded by Butterflies!
The quilt featured on the cover is 75" x 90"

There are 2 more sizes included in the pattern with diagrams and layout instructions
It is Layer cake friendly

This quilt pattern looks like its more complicated than it really is. It's a great way to use up layer cakes precuts or some of your favorite fabrics. :)

This pattern comes in booklet form, with easy to follow step by step instructions, color illustrations, diagrams, and layout.

Purchase Butterfly Kisses Quilt PDF here.

And then we have our Bag pattern: Sewing Weekend Essentials 

So I'm totally excited to introduce my newest bag pattern..But this time we went a little overboard!

Three zipper totes are included in this pattern:

Small wedge zipper tote measures: 6"x3" 

Medium dresden plate and 3D rossette zipper tote measures: 12" x 7"

and Large Zipper Tote with English Paper Pieced Hexagons on the outer pocket measures: 21"x16"x5"

This pattern not only includes how to make the cute small wedge zipper pouch perfect for your Aurifil thread and little embroidery scissors, but we also included how to make the middle sized bag embellished with a dresden plate and a 3D Rosette center with detailed diagrams, illustrations and pictures. This medium bag is perfect for larger scissors, rotary cutters, templates and so forth.

Then we also give you detailed step by step how to do the english paper piecing on the large tote. This tote is big enough to cary your portable rotary mat, rulers, and WIP's. Or use it to carry your feather weight! The handles are sewn on down the length of the bag and secured well that it can handle the heat of carrying your special friend…the sewing machine…not your actual friend! 

This pattern includes 18 pages of detailed instructions for each step on each of the bags and embellishments. This pattern comes in booklet form, with easy to follow step by step instructions, color illustrations, diagrams, and pictures.

I would dare say: this is by far one of our best patterns.

Purchase the Sewing Weekend Essentials Bag pattern PDF here

Sooooo Which one is your favorite?? Judge-y cat likes Butterfly Kisses  here she's giving me the stink eye because I had the audacity to put a new collar on her and she is not amused with my asking for a picture. She's a snot.

Have a fantastic weekend. 

V and Co.: summer happenings

 we are in full swing summer mode over here.
our strawberries are growing and are super sweet, there's something incredibly cool about eating from your own yard. i miss our days in the middle of nowhere when we had an acre and had our raised beds of veggie's but strawberries make up for it as we could never really get strawberries in the middle of nowhere because they don't grow all that well up at 7000+ sea level. but we did try anyways.
so ofcourse seeing our plants do so well is pretty wonderful.

another fun surprise was seeing all my new patterns and my new fabric collection on the back cover of stitch mag super super happy to be on there.

 summer at our house means lots of activities one of them being scout camps of all sorts for the each of the three boys. so far two have gone on their week long adventures, one is left to do his two day hike later on this month.

i got to volunteer at the youngest boy's camp, and learn quite a bit about nature and archery. and other stuff. but i really liked those two. so all i heard of the other ones were "blah de be blah, animal care..blah de be blah blah cooking over a fire :)

 aurifil was in the house at Pineneedles Iowa this last week as well. i was asked to talk about how i use my aurifil thread collection in my projects and of course other aurifil thread as well. cause well, it's the only thread for me :) and i am kind of a snob when it comes to thread now.

i've mentioned my sewing machine has felt a little bit lonely this summer as i knew it would. i did get to sew on it a little bit this last week.
it.
felt.
great.
as i am getting a lot more of my hand sewing done that need some kind of machine work, i'll throw in a little time with the sewing machine when the kids go to bed.

but not too much because that's the only time when i get to see the husband these days.

he's been equally as (oh okay waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more)  busy as the kids and i.
he opened up (on top of working at the local private university) his own private practice. and is working a lot of hours trying to set up everything and making sure all wrinkles are ironed out.  (cause he's that kind of a person)
he's been able to make it home most nights for dinner and family time, but we try to work in a walk at night so we can catch up on the day's happenings and then after that we old farts get tired and get into bed.
he leaves as early as 4:30 in the morning or most mornings around 5:45.

needless to say. he's busy. we're busy.
we like to see each other and talk. so we make the time when we can. :)
pretty proud of him and all he's doing and also keeping his family as one of top priorities.
i'm blessed.

 so during the time in the day when i'm here and there between running around to scout camps, gymnastics, band and orchestra, and of course the pool i've been transporting with me and working on a few projects.

later this week (after the 4th of july fun we'll be having over here) i'll give you a few hints on how to work with tiny little hexagons using the english paper piecing technique.
there are tiny little boogers, but they sure are cute and i'll show you how i used them in a fun little project!

happy fourth of july week. we will continue on our summer mode, of family, pool, and add some grilling to the mix.

have i mentioned i love summers.
because i do.
we'll talk soon.

V and Co.: how to: make flowers out of the lazy daisy hand embroidery stitch

 with our spring break in full swing over here, i kind of have forgotten how much longer "my things" took to get done when you are in the thick of things with the kids home and under your feet at every turn. and it's not like i can send them outside to run around as it's been pretty cold, and it's been raining/snowing off and on for the last week.
but today TODAY WE GOT A FULL DAY OF SUN!
i got a little bit of time while the kids were all doing their own things, and honestly i think we were all in such a good mood over the sun being out and about...we just sort of had one of those everyone harmonizing and loving each others company kind of day. i mean seriously we looked like one of the awesome episodes of the brady bunch.
oh don't worry the stepford family syndrome will diminish as we get used to having nice weather and then we will go back to being your average ordinary family with kids yelling "he's chewing his cereal SO LOUD MAKE IT STOP!!!!" and "DONT MAKE ME TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR MISSING THE TOILET IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT BY CLEANING IT!!" kind of stuff. you know. every day awesome sauce of being a mom. which i love cause really, i'm going to miss it when i don't have moments where i sit down and just stare at all of them in the same room in their own chaos. i've already experienced it this year with all of them being in school. but i digress. what was i here for before i make dinner and then run off to scouts?? oh yeah.

making my own little spring inside while the outside was still wintery.
okay so last time i showed you hand embroidery i showed you how to do the french knot. this time i'm going to show you my other favorite stitch: the lazy daisy.

 what you'll need:
-hoop (i have found my wood ones throughout the years at thrift stores)
-embroidery floss (mine is from sublime stitching)
-embroidery needle
-small piece of batting large enough to be inside your embroidery hoop
-small piece background fabric (mine is linen) same size as your batting piece
-erasable marking pen

- first you are going to place your  batting and fabric together with the batting on the bottom.
-place in the hoop so that it is super nice and tight. secure your hoop by turning the knob
-then you are going to turn your hoop around with the back facing you and you are going to cut off the excess batting and fabric.

 -with your marking pen make small circles. this will be your guide for the middle section.
-cut a piece of floss and just like we did in the french knot section separate two of the 6 threads in your floss.

 -make your first stitch by coming up from behind the fabric and batting. come through on the line of one of the small circles you drew.

 -go back down into the fabric RIGHT NEXT almost right on top of where you came through the first stitch.
-use your thumb to keep the start of the thread in place.

 -gently pull through most of your thread, leaving a loop on top.

 -bring the needle back up through the loop through the fabric and batting.

 -gently, GENTLY pull so your loop becomes flush with the fabric.

 -push the needle through down on the outside of the loop right next to where your inside the loop stitch was.

 -start all over again right next to the base of your first looped stitch.

 - something to keep in mind is how big do you want your loops to be. thats where you are going to place your inside the loop stitch.
-practice

 - i used the variegated thread for the multiple colored flowers.
-

- and i used my french knot to make a few fun little dots with the variegated blue thread on the bottom embroidery.
the daughter has already taken them to her room. i guess they will be going somewhere up in her room :) okay off to make dinner and then scouts. phew! 

V and Co.: how to: finish a dresden plate

we survived the 4 day weekend.

we even got to leave town briefly to enjoy an indoor water park. 

then i came home and in between dinner and nighttime routines, while editing some pictures i got to yell at the season finale of downton abbey. 

seriously. 

what the heck. 

i knew it was coming but i didn't know how or when, and then i had to explain to the husband between ugly sobs, that everything was just finally working out and then this happened. he looked at me like i had two heads and was speaking "blah blah blah they killed the character blah blah blah..." (for any of you who don't know what i'm talking about please don't mind me and any other woman walking around all upset for the next couple of weeks while muttering "downton abbey stupid  Season 3." and if you haven't watched it all and are planning to watch it. i've kept all the characters names out of it so i don't ruin it for you.)

okay wait, what am i blogging about today? oh thats right dresden plates. not downtown. i knew it was a "D" word. 

okay 2 weeks ago we talked about making the dresden plate. 

now this week we are going to talk about appliquéing the dresden plate on and what in the world do we do about that gaping open middle we have going on there.

okay first things first: 

lets talk about how to appliqué the plate onto your project. weather it be a quilt, a pillow, on a bag or like shown above, on a zipper pouch, we need to make sure that plate gets appliquéd on.

i like hand appliqué but i also like how it looks when i use my sewing machine to sew it on as well. 

i will show you both ways.

how to hand appliqué your dresden plate:

what you will need to appliqué

- fabric to applique your dresden plate onto.

-needle and thread.

*optional batting

-with your needle and thread go through all layers and catch one of the edges of your dresden plate petal
**(if you are doing a quilt block it will just be the dresden plate and the block fabric. if you are making a pillow you may want to add batting. if you are making a zipper bag you can add the fusible webbing now or after you do this step)
-make sure you catch the very edge of your dresden plate fabric so that your stitches don't show.
**i like to start on the point you can start anywhere but that's where i usually start.

-go right back down where you started (i like to go down right next to where the thread came up from when you pulled it through to start)

-move over about 1/8" over and come up through all layers like you did the first time and repeat the first step

-continue to do this all around the outside of your dresden plate. 

don't have the patience to do it by hand....

how to machine appliqué your dresden plate:

*using your 1/4" foot (in bernina world it is your #37 foot)
-use the inside notch of the foot as show in the picture above as your guide to get a great top stitch. this is how i always get the (in my eyes) the perfect top stitch

-carefully sew around your outer edge. 

done. 

sweet!

now lets talk about that raw edge middle

how to dresden middles:

most commonly used for the middles of dresden plates are circles. 

first i am going to show you how to do a finished (not a raw edge) circle for your middle

i really like picking the same fabric as my back ground for my middle so that it looks like the plate is a circle with no middle

-but if you do a color middle you get a really cute flower looking plate. both cute and both very easy to do.

lets get started:

what you will need:
-circle making object. (ruler or something around the house! i have been known to use old CD's (cause who uses those anymore when everything is digital these days!) or glasses, or bowls. here the perfect circle size was attained by using a mason jar.
-pellon 807 (found in most craft stores especially fabric stores)
-erasable ink pen
-one piece of fabric your choice for the middle.

- i used a mason jar to trace my circle with my erasable pen.

-draw a circle on either side of your fabric (i've done both. my favorite is to draw the line on the right side of the fabric because i place the pellon on top. but i'll show you this time doing it on the wrong side. really its just preference decide for yourself what you like best.)

-after you have drawn your circle on the wrong side of your fabic , place the pellon on the right side of your fabric. 

-with your drawn line facing up, sew ON THE DRAWN line of the circle.

-cut out your circle, with a 1/8" to 1/4" seam around it.

-pinch your pellon webbing and cut a slit big enough to pull inside out your sewn circle. 

**be gentle when you pull it through because the webbing is more on the delicate side than the sturdy side! 

-place in the middle of your dresden plate

-iron down, and appliqué just like i showed you in the hand appliqué section on the dresden plate section, or machine sew it. 

how about a hexagon middle:

and of course i love the hexagon middle. how i created this hexagon is the same way i made the hexagons in the hexagon applique bag. 

-follow the same steps we did for the circle center for the hexagon center for the middle, make sure you make the hexagon big enough to cover all the raw edges of the middle though!

-and of course to finish the middle you can do either hand appliqué like i showed you in the beginning of this tutorial, or you can machine it just like i did in this one pictured, following the same steps for machine appliquéing your dresden plate on.

last but not least how about having some texture??: 

how to make a hand twisted flower middle for your dresden plate:

what you will need:

-1 to 2 strips of 2" X WOF (width of fabric) 

-needle and thread matching in color of your cut strips. 

 -grab your strip of fabric on one end.
-fold in half that end.
-fold in half again the same end.
this is your starting bottom center.

 -keeping your folded end folded... fold over the rest of your tail over once.
(Thats a whole heck of of a lot of folds. fold fold fold fold. :))
- place one stitch in through all these layers
(i don't cause i dont need it to keep in place anymore. i guess thats the beauty of doing something over and over and over and over again!)

 -twist your long tail (loosely) a couple of times.

-bring it back to the started folded edge point.

-this is the back side view. 

-place another stitch with your needle and thread. 

**hint: i like to always try to hide my stitches by first off using thread close in color, but second, but placing my stitches under a twisted edge, sometimes only making the stitch go through a few of the layers and not all the way to the top. 

this may take a little bit of practice. :)

 -twist again a couple of times (loosely still!!!) and now place the twisted fabric behind the center you have created. continue to place a few stitches every time you place your new twisted fabric onto the center (that is now growing!)

 -here's a close up of my stitch where the needle only goes in through the bottom part of the twisted fabric.

-continue to twist and place stitches to keep the flower together.

-if you don't have enough with one strip, tuck under the tail and put a few stitches to keep it in place. then continue a new strip (just like you did the first one) only this time just continue to go on the outer part of the flower. 

-make it as big as you need it

-when you have a big enough flower, cut the excess strip, tuck under the flower and stitch in place.

 -pin onto the middle of your appliquéd dresden plate.
- just like you hand appliquéd your circle, do this to the twisted flower. do so around your outer part of the flower.

**ideally this center would be for things that are not going to go through the washer due to the raw edges and fraying. 

ahem, but look how insanely cute it looks on this little zipper pouch. 

:)

hey heres a bonus! 

dont want to have a middle??

melissa created a double dresden delight where she had both ends the finished points!

pretty cool me thinks! i may give this a try.

alright there you have it.

 i think i'll make a little doll quilt with the ones i have left over that i made and surprise the daughter. or another zippered pouch, a girl can never have enough zippered pouches.

just sayin.

where will you put your dresden plate??