ABC Book (part two) -- TUTORIAL

find part one of my tutorial here!

Each of your backgrounds will be a two-page spread, with the exception of "m" and "n."  This means you will end up cutting out 12 rectangles and 2 squares rather than 26 squares, and it will make your construction much easier.

You will cut your background rectangles (and your cover!) 12" x 6" and your squares 6" x 6 1/2".  Layer your two squares right sides together and sew with a 1/4" seam allowance to create a 12" x 6" rectangle.  You will also cut your (LIGHTWEIGHT!!) batting into seven 12" x 6" rectangles.  Or if you are using felt, cut 14 rectangles.

STEP ONE:  You may want to "audition" your background fabrics with your letters to determine which ones work best.  In my example book, I chose three backgrounds that would go well with any of my letter fabrics.  I simply laid out my letter groups on top of my background fabrics and chose the best background for each group as a whole.  I then listed my letters with each background color so I wouldn't get mixed up during my cutting and pressing (see photo).

Here's a quick list that might be helpful:

BACKGROUND ONE:  a z,  w d,  g t,  q j,  m

BACKGROUND TWO:  y b,  e v,  s h,  k p,  n

BACKGROUND THREE:  c x,  u f,  i r,  o l

STEP TWO:  Fold each page wrong sides together and press with your iron to create a crease.  This will help when you are centering and pressing each letter in place.

STEP THREE:  Carefully remove the paper backing from your letters and center them within the squares.  You will want to shift them just slightly towards the center to accomodate for the 1/4" seam allowance that will be taken on the outer edges.  Press them in place with an up-down patting of your iron.  Don't drag your iron side to side or you may risk distorting or shifting your letters.

You will then take your finished pages and layer them together exactly as they will be in your finished book.  This will ensure you get all the pages in the right places in the next step.

STEP FOUR: Take one of your batting/felt rectangles and layer one of your pages letter-side up on top.  Sew around the edges of each letter about 1/8" in from the edge using your clear monofilament thread.  You are quilting and securing your letters at the same time.  (If you are using batting, sew the letters on the opposite side of the page without batting.)

STEP FIVE:  Layer the two sides of your page right sides together.  Double-check to be sure you've got everything in the right place.

STEP SIX:  Starting about two inches from the center bottom of the page, sew all the way around, stopping about two inches from the other side of the center bottom.

STEP SEVEN:  Trim the corners as shown.  This will help give you nice pointy corners when you turn your page right side out.

STEP EIGHT: Turn your page right side out through the opening.  Use a chopstick or other blunt-yet-pointy object to poke the corners out.  Don't stab too hard or you might rip a hole in the corner.

STEP NINE:  Press the edges of your page to give them a nice clean, straight edge.

Remember to also press your opening, turning the raw edges inside as shown.

STEP TEN:  Choose a thread color for all the edges of your pages.  Topstitch around all the edges of your pages about 1/8" from the edge, starting at the center bottom of the page.  (Your stops and starts will hide here nicely once the pages are all sewn together.)  Backstitch at the beginning and end of your stitching.

To turn the corners, simply stop on the corner with your needle down, lift your presser foot and turn the page, then lower the presser foot again and continue sewing.

You now have a nice stack of pages ready to be sewn together!

STEP ELEVEN:  Sew your pages together in two groups -- one group of three and one group of four.  Lengthen your stitch to about 3 1/2 to help your machine get the pages through.  Then you will sew the two groups together to create one book!

You may want to hand crank it at first to see how your machine will react to all that bulk.  Amazingly, on my last book my machine did it just fine!  It helped to do the two groups first so everything was smashed down a little, and to avoid shifting all those layers.  With this particular book my batting was TOO THICK -- and I ended up sewing my two groups together by hand.  Yeowch!  I definitely recommend a very lightweight batting or felt!

If you make a book using my tutorial, I would LOVE to see it.  Please send me a photo or a link!

ABC Book (part one) -- TUTORIAL

Finally -- the tutorial for my ABC book! There are a lot of photos and details, so I will be splitting it into a couple posts over the next couple days.

Here's part one:

SUPPLIES:
~ 1/2 yard lightweight paper-backed fusible webbing
~ fabrics for the letters (you can do i-spy prints like in my example here, or other prints like the one I'm making today)
~ fabrics for page backgrounds (at least three)
~ lightweight batting or felt
~ clear monofilament thread
~ permanent marker
~ printer paper

STEP ONE: Create your letter templates. I found a font I liked in Word and increased the size of the font until the tallest letter, usually "f" if you are doing lowercase or any letter if you are doing uppercase, was 4" high. Print them out ("fast draft" version is just fine!) and trace around each letter on the WRONG side of the paper with a permanent marker. (Hold it up against a window if you have trouble seeing the letters.)

STEP TWO: Layer your backwards letters under your fusible webbing and trace around them with a sharp pencil. I like to use mechanical pencils for this.

You may want to draw little arrows to show which way is up on some of the trickier letters -- like "b," "d", and "p" -- to avoid confusion when you are ironing them onto your fabrics. I've ruined many an i-spy letter because I couldn't tell whether I was doing a "d" or a "p!"

STEP THREE: Roughly cut around the letters. Leave a little space around each one.

STEP FOUR: Press your fabrics right side down on your ironing board. You want them to be nice and crisp to start with. Then layer your fusible webbing on top of the face-down fabric, with the paper side up, and press. Up and down with your iron, not side to side -- you don't want to drag the iron back and forth across your fusible webbing.

STEP FIVE: Cut out each letter on the pencil lines. If you need to cut out a small hole, bend the letter gently and clip it as shown...

...then cut on the line.

Yummy Amy Butler letters!!


Next you will make a little mock-up of your book. This will help you determine background colors.

STEP ONE: Fold a sheet of printer paper in half, then in half again, and in half once more, until you have eight sections.

STEP TWO: Cut around all the folded edges. You now have eight pages, but only need seven, so ditch one.

STEP THREE: Fold your stacked papers in half and write in the letters. "A" will start on the inside cover so you see "A" and "B" on the same spread.

find part two of my tutorial here!

Blog Awards!

Oh, my. I cannot believe how LAME I am. I've received a few "blog awards" from some very kind bloggy friends in the last few months, and have not done my part in keeping the awards going! Many, many apologies! So, here goes:


Back in September (gasp! so sorry!), Bethany at A Wednesday Afternoon nominated me for this award:

You must check out Bethany's owl bag tutorial -- it is one that has been on my to-make list for MONTHS!

*****

Next up: JHill at Mad in Crafts nominated me for this award back in November:

JHill's fabulous blog is fairly new, but full of lots of fabulous (and inexpensive!) ideas. By far, my favorite of her projects is a three-in-one she calls A Dollar Barn Christmas. JHill is hilarious, and it is so fun to read her blog!

*****

And last, but not least, Miss Muffin over at Muffins and More nominated me for this award just this morning!

She is skilled in baking, and oh! I tell you! Her beautiful cakes and other culinary creations are amazing to look at -- and I imagine they must taste absolutely AMAZING!

*****

The Nominees

Okay. Each one of my awards requires a different number of nominations, but I am going to go ahead and nominate five fabulous blogs I have come across in bloggyblogland! Ladies, pick whichever award you like, nominate five other blogs for that award, and we'll call it a day!

Noodlehead
I simply adore Anna's projects. She's really got an eye for color and fabric combinations. I love her Lil Cutie Pouches -- this tutorial is on my list!

The Sometimes Crafter
This is a new-to-me blog I just started following this week. Christina's photos are absolutely GORGEOUS throughout her blog. I am dying -- dying to try out her Fabric Scrap Basket tutorial!

Filth Wizardry
Want some ideas of CRAZY-FUN things to do with your kids? This is the place. The things Kitten Muffin does with clay are enough to make anyone's Littles' eyes bug. Just look at this, this, and this. Enough said.

Crafterhours
Another fairly new blog with fantastic tutorials. Susan and Adrianna have fabulous ideas, and are funny to boot! Check out their Side Panel Shirt Refashion. I wanna try it.

CleverGirl
Oh, how I wish I could sew clothing like Antoinette! I always end up looking over her creations with a wistful sigh. I love her Men's Dress Shirt Refashion tutorial, and want to do a similar version with a boys' shirt to make my daughter a dress -- when she's a little older, of course!

I guess that'll do it!

Shopping Cart Seatbelt -- TUTORIAL

Got a kid who refuses to stay sitting down in shopping carts? My sister's little boy lasts about 15 seconds before he's standing -- even WITH the cart's built-in seatbelt on! And then there are the stores whose carts are notorious for missing seatbelts....

Well, I've got the solution, and all you need is one (or two, depending on the size of the child) dollar store canvas D-ring belt!

**PLEASE NOTE: Even with a seatbelt on, you should never, EVER leave your child unattended in a shopping cart. Always stay within arm's reach!!**

STEP ONE: Cut off a section of the belt on the non-buckle end. (To fit my 9-month-old daughter, I cut a 16" section of belt. You may need to adjust this measurement to fit your child.)


STEP TWO: On the FINISHED end of the piece you cut off (not the piece with the buckle), fold a loop wide enough to easily loop the rest of the belt through. Sew. I sewed mine twice for added security.


STEP THREE: Finish the two cut ends of your belt. I happened to have a small scrap of vinyl left over from a previous project, so that's what I used, but you could bind it with any kind of fabric.

This is what you should now have.

STEP FOUR: Attach the loop piece to the longer piece as shown. To fit my daughter, I attached the loop piece 10" in from the end of the buckle, as shown. I overlapped the two belt pieces completely and sewed three lines across for security.

You're done! This photo shows how you will buckle the seatbelt. Simply lay the loop piece from the back of the seat to the front, loop each of the two sides around a few bars of the shopping cart in the back rest of the seat, wrap them around your child's waist, through the loop, and buckle. That crotch piece should keep your child seated! D-ring belts do have a tendency to slip a little so, again, do not leave your child unattended.

**NOTE: Since I do not have a shopping cart in my home, I used a chair ONLY for the purpose of showing how to buckle the seatbelt. I would never leave my baby unattended on a chair like this!**

Mini Travel Car Mat

...Just one more Christmas present, I promise!

It seems like there is always one final project that I think of right before Christmas (like two days before!) that I just MUST do.  This year a good friend came over shortly before Christmas and brought some teeny-tiny cars for my boys to play with.  LOVE!  I love tiny and, honestly, I love toy cars, so it was a match made in heaven!

Since my boys were having a "car Christmas," I decided they needed some of these tiny treasures and some roads to drive them on.  I had stashed away some fabric that was perfect (and super easy!) for the job.  The fabric line is called Traffic Jam by Allison Jane Smith, from Windham fabrics.  (There is a green version of the same print, too!)

I simply added a border and backing, and --

Ta-Da!!  A tiny little car mat for the tiny little cars!

Of course I had to add tiny little "pocket garages" for the cars in colors to match...

...and a little drawstring bag to keep everything in.

Perfect for on-the-go!

A Goal for 2010

I have started my I-spy quilt!  I am putting 3/4" (finished) borders around each of my 2" (finished) "spies," for 3 1/2" finished I-spy blocks.  My goal is to finish borders on at least 25 of these guys each week.  Perhaps it is a lofty goal, but I really do want to finish this quilt -- it's been at least five years in the making!  (Or at least the collecting!!)

I've already done 20 yesterday, and 5 today.  Plus yesterday I went through my blue scrap bin (I have a RIDICULOUS amount of scraps!) and cut borders for about 30 more.  It's a good start!  And I have TONS more colors of scraps to go through!

What will I do after they all have borders?  I dunno.  Guess we'll see!  I have a few thoughts in mind, but will keep thinking it over until I have to make a decision.  So far I have different borders for every block, and I hope to continue that for as long as possible!

I'm going to keep a tally of finished blocks on my sidebar to keep me motivated!