Tutorial: Tiny Circles Applique

Hello there!

I knew I'd get back to my blog at some point! 

Back at the start of the Easter holidays I decided I needed a new little hand-sewing project to take away with me on a mini-break to Barcelona. I didn't have room in my hand luggage for a big project and before I knew it my brain had cooked up a little applique project, using a rainbow of tiny circles.

 Needless to say, I didn't actually sew a stitch while we were away but did spend a very happy day at home stitching it on our return. Several lovely people on Instagram asked me how I made the circles so I thought it was high time I did a proper tutorial with lots of photos.

When I started to plan this project I felt that just doing needle turn applique may not get me the perfect circles I was aiming for. So, I took an English Paper Piecing approach to it instead.

Here's how I did it:

First you need some "papers" to help you form your fabric circles, just as you'd do with paper piecing hexagons.

I used a 1 inch circle punch that I've had for ages but if you don't have this you can find something the right size and draw round it instead, then cut out with scissors and a steady hand.

Now, this is an important bit: you will need firm cardstock, an old cereal packet or teabag box would be just fine but it will need to be firm and you will see why as we go through the photos.

 Next step is to use your card circles as a template to cut some fabric circles. Lay your card circle on your fabric and cut out a circle with a generous quarter inch seam allowance - you don't have to be exact so it's fine to do this by eye. This is a great way to use your tiny fabric scraps - you only need just over 1.5 inches for each circle.

 Once you've got your circles cut we're ready for the fun bit.

 Starting on the RS (right side) of the fabric, use a small running stitch to sew a line of stitches around the outside of the circle, just over 1/8th inch in from the edge. You can use your thread double but I found it worked fine with a single strand of thread. I used contrasting thread for the photos but you could use a neutral or matching thread.

Next you need to place a card circle in the centre of your fabric circle, hold the two together firmly in the centre between finger and thumb, then start to pull the thread to gather the fabric circle around the card one.

Keep pulling as firmly as you can to really pull those gathers in - this may be where you decide you'd rather use a double strand of thread!

Once you've gathered all the way around, start to stitch through the gathers, going in the same direction as you first did the running stitch.

Keep stitching through the gathers and pulling the thread as tight as you can until you feel the gathers are firmly held.

Make a couple of small overstitches to secure your gathers and then cut your thread. Your first gathered circle is very nearly done!

If you've pulled your gathers tightly enough the right side of your circle should look like this. This is why you need firm card. Thin card would buckle and distort as you pull the gathers tight and will spoil the look of your circles.

Heat your iron on its hottest steam setting and then press both the front and back of your circles for several seconds. Just hold the iron down onto the circle, don't iron back and forth. Press them really well - you can't press them too much at this stage as this will help your circle hold its shape. I tend to gather a whole load of circles and then lay them out and press them all together to save time.

Hopefully you can see from this photo that the pressed circle is a lot flatter and those gathers are well and truly held.

Now it's time to remove the card circles. Snip through the running stitches with a small pair of scissors. You can remove all of the thread but I found it was fine to leave the thread in - as long as it's not bright red like it is in this photo.

Open the gathers slightly and ease your card circle out. Don't panic that your gathers have opened up - this is why you pressed them so well!

You can now gently push the gathered edge back down into the circle and now you need to go back to the iron and press them again for a few seconds on front and back, with a hot hot iron and plenty of steam. Just pressing down, not moving the iron at all! This will set your circles really well, ready for applique.

Now that you have all your circles ready we can play!

To secure your circles to your background fabric ready for stitching there are several methods you can use. For the mini quilt at the start of this tutorial I used a dab of fabric glue pen and then tacked the circles on with thread.

In hindsight, I would not have used the glue in the centre as it created a dip in the middle where it was stuck to the background fabric and I had to sort this out after stitching - however a couple of small dabs around the gathered edge would work.

For my second tiny circles project I just positioned the circles on the background and then held it in place with a pin while I stitched.

To stitch your circles to the background use a thread that matches or nearly matches your circle. Bring your thread up through the background from beneath and catch the edge of your circle, just slightly underneath the edge if you can, with a tiny stitch. 

You only need to catch a couple of threads in the fabric, then stitch back down through the background, again slightly just inside the edge of the circle if you can. 

The aim here is tiny tiny nearly invisible stitches like this.

So there you have it! Do have a go! They're really easy and really quick once you get going and you can have lots of fun with fussy cutting your fabric.

 These little circles are perfect for stitching in front of the tv, on the bus, in the car (when you're being chauffered), in between Easter holiday mum's taxi services for teenagers.... Tiny and portable and fun!

I also find they're rather addictive!

Happy stitching!

love

Moogs xxx

p.s. I'd love to see if you have a go and do ask if you have any questions.

Looking forward

Well, here were are in January and I'm finally getting round to blogging again. We had a lovely Christmas, with Mr Moog and the teenagers at home for a full two weeks. We caught up with lots of family and friends and all of a sudden my lot were back at school and work and it's nearly halfway through the month!

The in-laws were thrilled with their Christmas quilts and they came in very handy as both of them were poorly with colds over the holiday. Father-in-law slept under his shirty quilt on their sofa for three nights, bless him :)

I seem to have been on a bit of a go slow getting back into my work but I'm now back in the swing of things and am busy working on some orders. This little lot of free-machine applique filled a very happy afternoon and is soon to be turned into zipped wash-bags, lavender bags, and the little dogs are to be framed pictures.

One of my good customers asked me to make her a penguin embroidery. I ended up doing these five, as I struggled to get one that I liked. My customer loved them and ended up having all five! There were five more that looked even more weird and demented and they've gone over to the States as Kristi at Schnitzel & Boo fell in love with them!

I'm also taking part in the Schnitzel & Boo mini-quilt swap on Instagram and this is my little offering for my swap partner. To be in the mail in the next few days. It's my second attempt at foundation paper piecing and is far from perfect but I loved making it.

I'm beginning to feel like I'm going in the right direction with my little business. Once I'm through this batch of orders I'm going to be working on some samples to take into a local shop whose owner is interested in seeing my work and I have a thousand and one other ideas that I want to develop.

The admin side isn't proving to be my strength (!) but I'm getting there. I've now got a Moogsmum page on Facebook so do pop over and say hi if you do the Facebook thing :)

I've also had a 'business meeting' with my good friend Sarah today. Sarah is a brilliant ceramic artist who I first met at toddler group 15 years ago! She's now working full time on her business and posted a Folksy update on Facebook this week - I just couldn't help myself when I saw this gorgeous little pin cushion.

It feels so good to finally be doing what I love and I'm looking forward to a busy and creative 2015. I can hardly believe the change that I've gone through this last few months and all the tears and anxiety seem like a dim and distant memory. Here's to a great new year!

love Moogs xxx

Doing the right thing

 I didn't anticipate taking three weeks to post an update on my 'Open Studio' day but I'm delighted to say it was a great success.

The night before I could not sleep and so I got up at 3.30am! After several huge mugs of tea I set to and by 6.15am everything was set up and ready - leaving me nearly 5 hours to wait until it all started!

As I said in my previous post I had no idea who would turn up. I'd invited friends and family only as I wasn't feeling brave enough to throw the doors open to the public just yet.

It turned out to be a really lovely day, with visits from lots of my neighbours, the in-laws and several very good friends. By 4pm it looked like this!

I'm still astounded at just how much went and also the number of orders it generated and so so grateful to everyone who came and supported me.

The past few weeks have been so busy with orders that I haven't had chance to add anything new to my Etsy shop as planned. I was getting myself a bit stressed about this until I reminded myself this is my business and it's up to me to decide what I do and when. So I've now let myself off the hook until after Christmas and have been able to crack on with some Christmas sewing.

A shirty quilt for Father-in-law, backed with a cuddly fleece blanket and hand-quilted because my baby machine hates quilting, which leads me neatly to the fact that shortly after my Open Studio I managed to sell my dear little car - now gone to a happy home, helping a young man get to his first job since graduating.

Although sad to see it go, it was totally impractical to keep it as Mr Moog commutes on his motorbike and I'm no longer doing miles and miles of work driving and was only using the family car to ferry dogs and teenagers about.

The very exciting result of selling my car is this:

Oh my word, she's gorgeous! Her name is Bessy and I know we're going to be very very happy together, especially as the very first thing she helped me finish was a quilt for Mother-in-law.

Machine quilted - because I can!!

In other news, I seem to have developed a liking for making fabric notebook covers just lately and yesterday whipped up five more, two of which are for my resident teenagers for Christmas.

There's been lots more sewing going on and there's a whole load more planned. I'm so amazed and happy with how things seem to be taking off and am busy making all sorts of plans for 2015. I have no regrets whatsoever for walking away from a job that was not right for me and I just know I'm doing what I should have done for years!

To round off, here's the only bit of Christmas knitting that is likely to get done around here this year. A pair of Little Alpaca Little Cotton Rabbits from Julie's brilliant pattern - made by special request for my cousin's daughter who fell in love with mine in the summer....she's 14 :)

If I don't manage to blog again before Christmas I'd like to wish you all a very happy and peaceful Christmas and thank you so very much for cheering me on over the past few months.

love

Moogs xxx

Some finishing up

It's been a busy busy few weeks here, making the most of the school holiday with a spot of camping and catching up with lots of friends and family. We've been having a very sociable time and it's been lovely.

I don't think we've had a single day this holiday without something going on and, although our home is looking a little neglected and I never seem to get anything straight, I'm making the very very most of these few weeks off work, especially as this will be my last long school holiday - more about that later!

In between our various holiday doings I've found time for some sewing. I seem to have discovered a new found love of hand sewing. It's been the perfect crafty something for those little moments when I have time to sit and do. There's been a bit of embroidery and some English paper pieced patchwork and plenty of handquilting.

Finished just the other day - my scrappy log cabin quilt.

The log cabin squares were made back in April using some long skinny strips of Amy Butler fabrics that I picked up ages ago from the Cottonpatch in Birmingham.

You can't see it in the photos but the quilting thread is some lovely variegated cotton in pinks and greens that picks up the colours in the blocks. My basting and quilting leave an awful lot to be desired but I love it anyway.

I actually love the back just as much as the front, especially that centre panel print that looks, to me, like patchwork blocks.

I finished it off with a pretty scrappy binding.

After finishing that one, I decided the time had come to quilt my Basic Gray Blush quilt - the top of which had been made for over a year! The little squares in this one are from a design by Basic Gray, a company I first discovered when I fell in love with their scrapbook papers many years ago.

When I found out they were bringing my favourite papers out as a limited edition quilting fabric I just had to have some. I've had these little squares for years and, as I can't get this fabric anymore, had to make up the border with all sorts of bits and pieces.

The cream and white border is from dozens of scrappy strips - again bought as scraps from the Cottonpatch.

I set about machine quilting this one but, after 14 long rows of quilting, I discovered my little sewing machine  had fallen out with the walking foot and it was puckering like a bugger so I swore a lot, unpicked every last bit of it and settled down to handquilt, this time using perle cotton - something new to me but I love it!

Here's the back, with puckers aplenty but it shows off the pattern (or lack of) of the handquilting. I was very strong-minded and dug through the stash for some fabrics to make into a scrappy binding - I teetered on the brink of a trip to the fabric shop but knew that could prove costly!

 I absolutely adore these fabrics. I could quite happily sew with these fabrics and nothing else for ever and ever. Shame they're no longer in print!

 I've had so much fun with these quilts and am about to put another quilt together ready for more handquilting. Then, it'll be onto making a Christmas present quilt for mother-in-law.

This quilting thing seems to have taken a bit of a hold!

As I mentioned at the start of this post, this will be my last long summer holiday off work. The reason why? I've handed in my notice and start a new job in the middle of September!

I'm having a complete change of direction, working two days as week as a Dementia Support Worker for Alzheimer's Society. It's less hours and less money but a permanent contract, so no more worrying every year about whether or not I'll have a job after March. I'm also really looking forward to the challenge of taking on a brand new role, with a really worthwhile organisation and although I'll have to work in the school holidays I will have three days each week to do my own thing and that is going to be soooo good!

More time for sewing, knitting, crochet, spinning, weaving,
housework...


Moogs xxx

Scrappy do


 Last Sunday, Mr Moog took the Minx out for the day on his motorbike. They went to a ride-in day at Beaulieu Motor Museum with hundreds of other bikers. Although I don't want to be an old worrypants, I must admit I never relax or feel at all able to settle to anything until they're home safe and sound again.

To distract me from myself, I decided to ignore housework and spent the day playing with my box of scrap fabrics. There was no plan and I had no idea when I set out what I was going to make. By the end of the day, I had a floor full of skinny trimmings and 48 little 4.5inch scrappy squares and it totally took my mind off things.

 

 I'm still not sure what they'll become, as I need to make more if I even want to make a lap quilt, but they do make me very happy.

 

There's been plenty more sewing over the past couple of weeks. I managed to finish my  English Paper Pieced apple cores and got them stitched together - through gritted teeth, I might add, thanks to me being a bit too generous with the basting glue. They were somewhat tough to stitch together but have ended up becoming a very sweet little scrappy cushion cover.

Another cushion received a makeover when I dug out some of the scrappy squares I made back in April, and combined them with some scraps of grey linen, from the Scrapstore. I'm so pleased with this one, which now sits on my favourite armchair.

Earlier this week, on my way home from work, I called into a local patchwork shop that I recently discovered, Jolly Stitcher, tucked away on an industrial park in Fareham. It's a lovely shop with a great selection of fabrics and yarn too.

 

I needed some thread and hadn't realised how hard it is to find a decent sized spool of 100% cotton thread on the high street these days. Hobbycraft had nothing bigger than 100m, and the same went for my little local sewing shop but Jolly Stitcher had a great selection. However, it must have had special magic magnetic properties as it attracted all manner of other things into the basket with it.

 

One of those things was a new rotary cutter. My old one was very old and I'd been unable to find a new blade for it and had started to struggle with accurate cutting. Well, the new one - an Olfa rotary cutter - is a complete revelation to me! I had no idea just how good a sharp rotary cutter could be and what a difference it makes to your cutting.

 

I spent Wednesday evening, once again playing with my scrap fabrics, cutting little 2.5" squares and then carefully piecing them together with my new 1/4" sewing foot. I'm surprised and delighted at what a difference these two new toys have made to my piecing.

By the end of Wednesday evening I had nine pretty little nine patch squares. By the end of Thursday evening they'd been joined together with some skinny charcoal grey sashing, with little strawberry print highlight squares and thus became...another new cushion cover!

 

This one is my absolute favourite and I still can't believe I did such neat and tidy piecing!

 

In other exciting patchworky news, I got my copy of Issue 1 of Quilt Now magazine this week - edited, of course, by the very brilliant Katy Monkey . Not only is it a beautiful magazine, with bucket loads of inspiring projects but it's also so exciting to see someone who I've known in blogland for several years, taking on such an incredible venture. It's been great to share her excitement on Instagram, where I've been lurking rather a lot lately.  

 

So, now we're onto today. After a busy day yesterday, hosting a little family bbq, and a bad night's sleep last night thanks to the heat, I opted to stay home and potter today, while Mr Moog took children and dogs to the beach.

 

I waded through a mountain of ironing, whilst listening to sewing podcasts, and once done I rewarded myself with a very quick bit of sewing, attaching flags to some tape to make 10m of bunting for my friend's upcoming 50th birthday bash. Of course, being bunting, it's a pain to photograph but here's a snippet.

To those of you who left lovely comments, and emailed me, after my last post about Minx's 'friend' problems, thank you so much! I'm very pleased to say things did settle down, almost as quickly as they erupted. Her friend, completely uncharacteristically, apologised and suggested they put the whole thing behind them.

 

Although Minx wanted to tell her to shove her stinky 'friendship' I talked her down off that little ledge and she went into school happily enough on the Monday, with a view that she may as well say yes and have a more peaceful last couple of weeks of term!

 

Here's her latest loom band creation - no signs of this little craft obsession abating just yet :)

Only three more days of work and school and then the summer holidays begin - bring it on!!

 

Moogs xx

 

p.s. Recipes!

linky link for my favourite falafel recipe - falafels (I added a pinch of cayenne pepper too).

 

Easy peasy tasty houmous:

1 400g can chick peas

3 tbsp tahini paste

3 tbsp lemon juice

1 crushed garlic clove

salt

 

chuck it all in the food processor and whizz until smooth - add more lemon juice if you want to. Yum!

 



Random Saturday

It's been a glorious sunny and warm week and I've been dying to get out in the garden and potter but our garden is still a weed-ridden tip, leftover from last year's building work, so I've been consoling myself with little views, like this one of my Narnia lamppost against a blue blue sky under which is my bird table, full of sparrows and baby starlings.

We have big garden revamp plans but Mr Moog has been having such busy, stressy weeks at work lately that he's done in by the weekend, and I've been extra good about not 'nagging' as the garden will still be there when we're ready.

I've been getting my flowery fix by pouring over gardening magazines and playing with flowery fabric. This week, I had a day off on Thursday and once I'd got the children off to school and walked the dogs, I had a very sudden and unexpected urge to stitch up a quilt top.

I've had this fabric for years - it's Chocolate Lollipop, Anna Maria Horner's first fabric range and I'm not even sure if it's still being made. I'd been saving all those fat quarters and quarter yard pieces for something and now its time had come.

It's my first attempt at half square triangles and I've since found out I should have trimmed them before piecing the whole thing but hey ho, it scratched the itch and I had a lovely day putting it all together. I'm now shopping for a very dark chocolate brown as it needs a border to make it a more useable size.

The leftovers are being put to good use with some English paper-piecing.

In fact, I do seem to have developed a bit of a thing for EPP patchwork just lately. I got an urge to do some apple core patchwork and spent far too much time on Pinterest looking for just the right template but nothing was quite right. Minx and I went shopping last Saturday at a local patchwork shop in the vain hope they might have a template, which they didn't.

So, I came home and had a play with a compass and a protactor but nope, still didn't quite get it. Then I Googled a bit more and all of a sudden I found the PERFECT tutorial on how to make your own template and actually laughed out loud when I followed the link - to my dear friend Thimbleanna's brilliant tute on making your own apple core template in any size you like!

I dug out a whole load of scraps of leftover fabric in reds, pinks and blues and so far, so good. They might be easier to piece had I been a little less generous with the basting glue but I'm getting there and these are destined for either a cushion front or a mini-quilt. That itch is nearly scratched.

This itch is ongoing and likely to be for some time.

 I seem to have decided to only do white hexies from now on, with the odd coloured hexie thrown in as and when the feeling takes me. This could be years in the making.

I seem to be amassing a nice little pile of summer holiday projects here....two and a half weeks left before we break up...not that I'm counting or anything...

In other news, the meat-free meals thing is going surprisingly well. Last Saturday we had aubergine lasagne and I was genuinely shocked that everyone loved it! My lot love a proper minced beef lasagne and this was a risk but it was obviously one worth taking. This was the least burnt looking photo of the dish in question - it wasn't photogenic but it was very very tasty.

Tonight's dinner was even more surprising. My lot don't share my love of blue cheese at all, not even a little bit but apparently gorgonzola risotto is the best dinner ever and a repeat performance has been requested!

I do plan on sharing some of these recipes but as most of them are from books or are slightly tweeked versions of online recipes I'm going to try to put them in PDFs to make it easier to print them off. That will take a little time as Mr Moog has upgraded various things on our PC and I seem to have lost my PDF making gizmo....amongst other things, like all my six years' worth of work folders and dozens of knitting/crochet/sewing files, ahem.

To round off a pretty random post, here's what my girl is up to right now - loom bands.

They're everywhere. I hoovered up several (dozen) today. She loves them and has made at least thirty bracelets so far. They're also helping her get through a pretty crappity and emotional weekend, all caused by one rather noxious little b**ch who claims to be her friend but has been anything but for the past couple of days, especially when cloaked behind the forcefield of Facebook personal messaging.

This child lives her life like it's an episode of Jeremy Kyle. Nuff said. She obviously doesn't realise that our girl can and does talk to her parents about things that worry her so we're onto her.

Teenage girls are horrible. I know because I once was one and I wasn't even keen on them then!

Moogs xxx