Archery (and a free pattern!)

I settled on a design for my arrow blocks...



It screams "Valentine's Day!" a bit more than my original vision for these arrows, but we can enjoy it for a few more days!



I did some simple outline quilting around the arrows and heart. I thought about adding more straight line quilting to the background, but after trying out a few lines I decided it was too busy. If you look closely you can still see the little holes from the quilting I ripped out. I tried steaming them with the iron and it helped, but the holes are still visible. Any suggestions on how to get rid of them??



The arrows and the heart are all foundation pieced. I drew the arrow in EQ7, and I'm sharing the pattern with you! You can download the pattern here. The finished size of the block is 8" wide x 5" high. Make sure when you print the PDF that you have Page Scaling set to None. If you use the pattern, I'd love to see it!



Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Father's Day Cards & Free Pattern!

Father's Day is coming soon and I've made a couple of paper pieced designs in honor of all the dads out there. And I'm sharing the patterns with you!



I made the shirt & tie version first. I think it's super cute, but none of the dads in my life wear a tie (unless there's a wedding or a funeral involved), so I decided to make a more casual version.



I embroidered a little pocket on the t-shirt because it reminds me of my dad. For the thirty years I've known him (OK, thirty-one years), my dad has worn a solid colored t-shirt with a pocket just about everyday. If it's chilly a flannel shirt is added, but that's pretty much his entire wardrobe. I machine stitched the shirt & tie block to the card, but I thought the t-shirt block would look fun with big hand stitches around it.

My obsession with paper piecing continues. It's a great way to use up little fabric odds and ends from your stash, which is great for me because most of fabric is what others would consider "scraps." I have very little yardage. However, working with small pieces of fabric can sometimes backfire on me. This is all the "shirt" fabric I had left after making the shirt & tie block. I was sweating it there at the end, hoping I'd have enough to finish off the little block!



You can download the patterns for these shirts here. Each block finishes at 3.5" (3" if you trim off the seam allowance around the outside), which works well for a 4"x6" card. This is the first time I've tried using this Google Docs thing, so if it doesn't work let me know!

Teacher Gift - Apple Bookmark

Here's a quick little project I whipped up at work the other day. It's a paper pieced apple bookmark for your favorite teacher (or maybe a cookbook enthusiast?).



Not only is it cute, but there's also a free pattern! Go check it out!