I was part of a monthly bee, Sew Bee It, through my local quilt guild, St. Louis Modern Quilt Guild.
If you are not familiar with a bee, basically it is a small group, usually up to 12 members.  Each member gets assigned a month and during that month all the other members make a block or blocks of her choosing.  They may provide fabric or part of the fabric and the rest is pulled from your stash.

One of the blocks in our bee this round was an improv bird block.  Improv is not really in my comfort zone and especially having to look like something when it’s done so I procrastinated big time.  Turns out not only was it easy, it was really fun and went together fast.   We only needed to make one but with it being that quick and easy, I made a second.  

And then, of course, living in St. Louis and being a Cardinals fan, I had to make one for myself.   I used some leftover scraps of Baby Jane by the Comstocks for my cardinal and low volume and text prints for the background.

Want to make one for yourself?  This is the tutorial from Pie Lady Quilts. I modified the head to look more like a cardinal.  I also added extra fabric around the perimeter so my finished square would measure 12.5″.

The block I contributed for my beemate, @stlcaverly, became this beauty!

Isn’t it great?!

Have a great day!

A few years ago, I had the opportunity to participate in making some things for the Mediterraneo fabric line by Katarina Roccella for Art Gallery Fabrics. The fabrics were so gorgeous, I couldn’t wait to get started!

Forgive me for the photo quality. I was trying to get everything sent off quickly but I’ll be updating these with better photos soon!

I really needed some pretty new kitchen accessories and I thought the theme of Mediterraneo would be perfect! So first I decided to make some potholders.

For these four potholders, I decided to let the fabric speak for itself and quilted around the designs so they would stand out. I then bound them with a complimentary fabric.

Next, I decided to get a little more creative. I love how these turned out and think I might need to make a couple more!

Want to make your own? Follow these tutorials below! (Printable PDF)

Single Print Potholders

You will need:

(1) 9″ square front fabric

(1) 9.5″ backing fabric

(1) 9.25″ batting fabric

(2) 9.25″ Insul Bright

(1) 2.25″ x 39″ strip for binding

Place backing fabric right side down. Place on top one of the Insul Bright pieces, then batting, then the second Insul Bright piece and finally the front fabric face up. Baste and then quilt as desired. Trim to 9″ square and bind to finish off.

Pinwheel Potholder

You will need:

(4) 2.5″ x 5″ pieces background fabric

(1) 6.75″ piece background fabric

(1) 6.75″ pinwheel fabric

(1) 9.5″ backing fabric

(1) 9.25″ batting fabric

(2) 9.25″ Insul Bright

(1) 2.25″ x 39″ strip for binding

1. Place background and pinwheel 6.75″ squares right sides together. Mark lines diagonally. See Fig. 1.

2. Next, stitch on either side of marked diagonal lines. See Fig. 2.

3. Finally, cut in half as indicated by the red lines. See Fig. 3.

4. Press seams open and then trim half square triangles to 2.5″.

5. Stitch together as shown below.

Place backing fabric right side down. Place on top one of the Insul Bright pieces, then batting, then the second Insul Bright piece and finally the front fabric face up. Baste and then quilt as desired. Trim to 9″ square and bind to finish off.

Diamond Potholders

You will need:

(23) diamonds

(1) 9.5″ backing fabric

(1) 9.25″ batting fabric

(2) 9.25″Insul Bright

(1) 2.25″ x 39″ strip for binding

Using this diamond template, cut out 23 diamonds of assorted fabrics.

Stitch together in rows as shown below being careful to not stretch the bias edges.

Sew rows together and then square up, trimming to 9″.

Place backing fabric right side down. Place on top one of the Insul Bright pieces, then batting, then the second Insul Bright piece and finally the front fabric face up. Baste and then quilt as desired. Trim to 9″ square and bind to finish off.

I also made these beautiful flour sack dishtowels to match!

To make them, I purchased flour sack towels from Amazon. I pressed them using spray starch and cut them to the same size. Then, I bound them using 1.5″ binding.

I hope you like them! If you have any questions or comments, I’d love to hear from you!

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Here is a round up of some Valentine’s Day crafts and treats that caught my eye.

Diy Art

Painting is not really in my wheelhouse but I think these Love Letters from We Lived Happily Ever After are just gorgeous and would love to give them a try.

I’ve always wanted to do one of these string art projects. This one is over at Green Wedding Shoes is really cute!

How about some Scrabble tile inspired coasters from blue I style?

Hand Sewing

I just LOVE these mini hoop hearts by Laurenmakes. They are super simple but striking. I think they are so adorable and they are on the top of my make list right now!

And how cute is this little felt love note hoop by Amy Chappell from Ameroonie Designs at the Polka Dot Chair.

Machine Sewing

I also found a couple of adorable pillows to add to my Valentine pillow collection. First up is this adorable Love You Pillow by Amanda at JediCraftGirl guest blogging at Amy Smart’s Diary of A Quilter.

And how about this cute heart pillow by Anna from Noodlehead guest blogging on U-CreateCrafts.

I don’t really sew plushies but these Love Koi by Sew Desu Ne? on Blueprint are making me rethink that!

I also saw this felt heart table runner at Pottery Barn Kids. This would be so simple and cheap to make and they want $39.00 bucks for it?

I LOVE this one by Center Street Quilts. I might need to make one of these!

Sweet Treats

How about some delicious treats? I love a quick and simple yummy treat and this bark from Lauren at Delish looks amazing.

And who doesn’t love a yummy Rice Krispy treat? These from Midwest Living look so good!

I’ll wrap up this post with these Cookies ‘n Cream Strawberry Cheesecake Bars from Creme de la Crumb look amazing! I think I may be able to get Sam into making these with me!

You can find my treat bag tutorial here.

My Valentine pillow covers sew up quick! You can find the patterns here. They are on sale all through February.

And if you’re looking for a little bigger project, try out this Flying Home pattern. It is 30% off all month long.

I’ve also been meaning to make a Valentine version of my Christmas Cards quilt using some reds and pinks and calling it Love Notes. Can you see it? You can find the pattern here.

I hope these ideas have you inspired! I know I am, and I think I have a few ideas of my own!

Krista

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You can make a mini quilt to hang on your wall or make a bunch of them and put them together for a bookshelf quilt. You can add selvages for the book titles as I did in this one, hand or machine embroider titles, or leave blank. You can add a shelf underneath like the one above, string a few blocks together and then add your shelf, or leave it off. This is also a great project to use up some of those scraps!

If you want to add selvages as the book titles, you can cut your strips in half, add a piece of the block fabric to the top and bottom of the selvage like shown above so you just have a small piece showing your title. Add it to the center of the two strip halves and then trim the strip. This takes the quick out of this project but it is still easy! This tutorial is going to show you how to quickly make this block on the fly without really measuring anything. So, let’s get started.

First you’ll need some long trimmed strips in various widths and a large piece of background fabric with a straight edge. I cut about a 10″ or so by width of fabric of white Kona. Line the background fabric up on your machine and place a strip short edge down as shown. Stitch and add another.

And another…. and sew on until you’ve added all your strips.

Next, finger press strips open.

Now, turn and line up your ruler and beginning cutting out each strip.

Once you’ve cut out each strip, you can play with the layout making some books taller than others. I’ve kept out 4 strips, 3 to set sideways and 1 to lean.

Once you’ve arranged them to your liking, we need to trim. So line your ruler up along the bottom and trim.

And now the top.

Now, you’ll sew your strips together and press.

Now that we have our upright books done, we can add our sideways books. Focusing on the outside edge of the books, align as desired.

Now, line your ruler up and then add 1/4 inch for your seam allowance.

Carefully move the upright books leaving your ruler in place and trim. Now, sew these books together.

Now, we need to add background here. Place your ruler and add 1/4 inch seam at the bottom where it will meet the sideways books. Note your measurements. Mine were 9.75″ tall x 10.25″ wide.

Cut a piece of background fabric to that measurement.

And sew the background piece to your sideways books and then add this section to the first as shown.

Now, we are going to add our leaning book. Arrange your book as desired being sure the top is even and extends past the top of the others as shown so when you trim, it won’t be too small.

Trim the bottom even with the other books as shown.

Add some of the background fabric you cut away earlier to your leaning book on the side that will attach to your upright books. Don’t worry if it looks like this! We will be trimming again soon.

Now, lay your book block on top and adjust it as desired lining up the bottom edges of all the books.

Lay your ruler on top and add 1/4 inch seam allowance. Move your original block and trim the leaning block.

Here it is trimmed. Now you can sew this to the first piece.

Next, we need to add a little more background fabric to the outside edge to finish it off. Sitch a wide piece of background to the slanted book as show. The top edge needs to be wider than the bottom so we can square it off.

Now, trim and square it up. Your block is done!

You can embroider book names on the spines if you desire or leave them as is. I decided to make a mini quilt with this block. So, I made my quilt sandwich with my top, batting, and backing fabric. (If you’re new to this, make sure your backing fabric is right side DOWN. Make sure your batting is a little bigger than your block and your backing is a little bit bigger than your batting.

Baste as desired. I typically use pins.

Quilt as desired. This is a fun spot to practice different free motion quilting designs since you’re working with a little area and it makes the books all look different.

When that’s done, add your binding. I like to stitch to the front and had stitch to the back.

And here it is!

This really is such a fun project! I hope you enjoyed and I’d love to see yours! If you’re on Instagram use #bookshelfblock and tag me @fourrobbins so I can find you!If you have any questions, let me know! I’d be happy to help.

First, you will want to print and click the properties button.

Next, select the Page Setup tab and scroll to the right to find the Tiling/Poster option.

After selecting Tiling/Poster, you will see the Specify button and then change the Image Divisions to 16. If you go much smaller, the east coast states will be difficult.

You will see lines on the edges for you to match up the pages correctly.

Here is mine all taped together.

I used Steam-A-Seam 2 and traced the shapes onto my Steam-A-Seam sheets. Then cut out. I numbered my map and pieces to easily keep track of some of my state shapes but you can label as you like.

Peel off one side of the paper on your fusible web and sick to back of fabric. Then cut out shape.

Put in place and either line pieces up or do a slight overlap of the pieces as shown below. Once your pieces are where you want them, press in place. I pressed in place as I went along.

The Steam-A-Seam 2 is pretty permanent so it’s up to you if you want to stitch around each state or just quilt it at the end. I also added little hearts where we’ve lived as a family and where each of our family members were born. Next, I cut out (46) 3-1/2 ” squares and stitched together for the border. Then quilt as desired and bind to finish. I chose to just meander quilt the states rather than stitch around each one. I outline quilted the white area and then meandered again in the border. The final size is approximately 42″ x 32″.

Hope you like yours as much as I love mine! Use the #fourrobbinsquilts on Social Media so I can see you!

Krista

I wanted to make some more for my house and to put in my shop and thought I’d share as coasters are such a great way to use up scraps – fabric and batting – in a useful way. Plus they are super quick and easy to make.For these, I stitched together long strips of scraps in different widths from 1.25″ to 2.25″ to measure about 5+ inches wide. Then, I subcut them to 2″ x 5″. The top strip is 1.5″ x 5″ and the bottom is 2.5″ x 5″. Stitch together and press.

Cut out a backing and batting the same size. Place the front on top of the batting and then the backing right sides together with the front.

Stitch 1/4 inch seam all the way around, leaving about a 2″ wide gap so you can turn right side out. Trim your corners.

Turn right side out and push out your corners and press.

Fold fabric 1/4″ under at the space you left open. Press.

Stitch 1/8″ around all four sides.

Leave as is or quilt as desired.

Now, you can also use some Pellon Lite EZ Steam II to applique leaves. (See my Applique Tree Mini Quilt Tutorial for more on using EZ Steam).Note: if you are using purchased leaves rather than fabric, never iron them directly or they will melt. When pressing, press from the EZ Steam side or back side always!

If you’re using fabric, trace your shape, whatever shape you want. If you are making multiples, stack your fabric and cut out two or three at a time.

Arrange your leaves as desired. Press into place by pressing from the back side to adhere your EZ Steam.

Assemble your coasters as above.

Again, as above, turn right side out, push out your corners and press. Fold your open edge 1/4″ under and press. Stitch 1/8″ around your coaster and quilt as desired.

You can do the same thing with your hexies to make flower coasters. Cut batting and backing into the same shape. Remove your papers and assemble as above.

Stitch 1/4″ around leaving a gap. I would suggest leaving the gap on a petal instead of where I did. This was a little bit of a pain to get my corners right and everything pressed under.

Turn right side, press out your corners. Turn your open edge 1/4″ under and press. Stitch 1/8″ around your coaster and quilt as desired. Sorry my quilting is a little wonky here but I did this coaster and the leaves real quick this morning so I could add them to this blog post!

These are fun to make and great to gift and a good way to use up some of those scraps! If you make some or have some other fun coaster ideas, I’d love to see them! Tag me on social media @fourrobbins

Have a great day!

Last year was rough all around. There was so much fear and pain and frustration and anger and loss with us and all over the world. And so many things changed. We also had a few good things. Tom had both his hips replaced, one in February and one in August. It’s hard to believe watching him now when we walk our dogs that this time a year ago he had difficulty walking to the other room and was living with chronic pain. He worked so hard through his physical therapy and is moving around better than ever. Andi was accepted into and begins the nursing program this semester. Sam started college and is doing really well with school. We got a new puppy, Gracie, who is super energetic and has really gotten us moving!

For me, I went back to school to work toward a career change. It has been exciting and has kept me really busy. I wasn’t able to spend as much time creating as I would have liked last year, but I did manage to make some fun things!

I have a quite a few pillow patterns but these Valentine Pillows are my favorites of the bunch and live on my couch most of the time. You can find the patterns for these pillows here to make some for yourself!

And of course, like all of you, made some masks.

I did some bee blocks for my Sew Bee It quilting bee friends. I sure miss being able to meet with them all in person! I also have a handful I need to catch up on this month!

I joined in with some Sashiko sewalong fun with @surrur_sunday and @amandalovestocreate on Instagram. These coasters are still on my WIP list.

But I did finish a couple cute bags as well!

I made some fun drawstring bags for goodies. They are super quick and so cute. You can find a tutorial and make your own here!

I also made a valentines day version of my Flying Home quilt pattern. I love this pattern and making 8 half-square triangles at a time makes this quilt a very quick make! You can find the pattern 40% off now through Valentines day!

I made a Sew Kind of Wonderful Metro Hoops quilt. The fabrics are Kona white and red cottons and April Rosenthal‘s All Weather Friend. I love how it turned out and I really enjoyed making it. Sew Kind of Wonderful’s pattern instructions were very clear. This quilt was gifted to someone special.

With the left over All Weather Friend fabrics, I made a free pattern by by Happy Zombie called Lawnchair Quilt. I used Essex Linen for the backing fabric. I love how it turned out. It’s one of my favorites. The linen background really makes it.

I also put out a new quilt pattern, Pinwheel Star. My friend and neighbor was nice enough to hold my quilt for some photos. This was also a quick quilt to make. I used white Kona and Mister Domestic‘s Loved to Pieces fabric line. The link above will take you to a digital copy. If you’d like a paper pattern, let me know. This quilt was also gifted to someone special.

I also started working on a large version of Sew Kind of Wonderful’s Metro Rings Quilt for our daughter, Angela. I’m suing a light gray and darker gray Kona cottons and two neutral jelly rolls including a Blueberry Park Neutrals by Karen Lewis.

I did a little home sewing by making some cushions for our patio table. I just kind of winged it with these making upper and lower cushions and adding ties. I used an outdoor fabric to make it last longer.

I also participated/am still participating in a Traveling Quilt Bee. This has been fun. Each person makes a starter block and sets their theme, color, style parameters. Then each person in the been takes a turn and adds to your quilt. This was the first I worked on for my friend Gayle. I added the top, bottom, and sides. Gayle’s quilt parameters had to do with color and styles.

Next was Annie’s quilt. I added the left column and the bottom with the bear paw prints. Annie’s parameters were our interpretations of her travels she had taken.

Finally, I added the top and bottom rows to Marie’s quilt. Marie’s parameters were more classic style blocks and using her Cotton and Steel fabric collection.

I have two more quilts to work on and will share them when I finish!

I also did a little crocheting and finished this Earl Gray Wrap by Two of Wands. Alexandra has some gorgeous knit and crochet patterns.

Finally, I made a quick tree skirt and extra large stockings with some fleece I had on hand. I didn’t really use any patterns. For the skirt, I cut a large circle. I folded it into qurters and cut out a center circle and then cut along the radius I bound all the edges with left over binding from Tom’s quilt from a few years ago.

For the stockings, I taped together some printer paper and then traced a stocking. I cut out the stocking way bigger then the outline and just stitched up wrong side. I folded the top over twice and top stitched and added a wired ribbon for the loop to hang them up.

I also got into a little cake baking and decorating. I have so much to learn but it has been fun. Here are a few of my yummy creations.

Anyway, that’s about it for my creative round up. Now, to finish planning out my projects for this year!

Have a great day!

Krista

In getting organized, I discovered just how many scraps I really have so (yikes) so you can expect to see a lot of scrap buster tutorials in the future!

Since I’ve been on the fall pillow kick, I thought I would make a couple of quick applique pillows to add to my #fourrobbinspillowofthemonth collection. And I love leaves!

• Birch leaves PDF
• Maple Leaf PDF
• Sharp Scissors
• Scrap Fabric
• Backing Fabric
• Lite EZ Steam II

Cut out your leaves to use as templates then follow the instructions from my mum tutorial substituting your leaves for the mum petals. It will show you step by step how to use the EZ Steam for your pieces. I cut out the large birch leaf and then just two (2) of the other smaller ones to cut out the six smaller leaves. For the maple leaves, my pillow has about 21 leaves. I quilted these with a layer of batting behind but no backing. I used Aurifil 50 wt. #2340, which is a golden tan color. The birch leaves idea came from this beautiful free photo by @chrislawton

I tried to follow a similar look with my quilting.

Next, for the maple leaves, I laid them out in a heart shape. To quilt, I free motioned hearts over and over in multiple sizes and then free motioned fall over and over as well.

To finish the pillow backs, you can use my hidden zipper pillow back tutorial or turn them into minis to hang up.

I think they turned out so cute!

If you make one, I’d love to see! Post using #fourrobbinsscrapbuster on social media!

This mum is such a fun block to make so I thought you might like to make it, too! And it’s a good way to make a dent in your scraps.

You’ll need some EZ Steam II or equivalent, a sharpie, some small sharp scissors, a backing fabric, scraps, and this template
. Don’t print it yet! Keep reading below.

You will want to decide what size you want your finished mum before printing. This one I printed at 70%.and it measures 9.5 inches .

This one at 85% measures 11.5 inches.

And honestly, I’m not sure what percentage I used for this but you can play around and go as large or small as you want.

Once you decide what size, print out your template. If you can, print on cardstock so they have a little more weight and are easier to trace around. If you plan to do multiple blocks, say for a quilt, I would suggest getting stencil mylar or template plastic to make tracing much easier.

I like to letter my pieces on this full mum printout and then I cut out one of each piece and label it. As well as write how many I need of each piece.

The next step is to trace your pieces on your fusible. Be sure to use the grid side to trace. I forgot and it was a little bit of a pain. However, if you mess up like I did, put the traced side down and use something firm press all over to kind of make the fusible stick to the traced side and be careful when peeling.

They don’t need to be perfectly smooth as the scissors will help with that when you’re cutting them out. I like to fit them as closely as I can so I don’t waste any.

Cut pieces out, peel the unmarked side, and press on to the wrong side of the desired fabric scraps.

You can make each piece the same color or use random scraps. The top left and bottom right keep the pieces the same colors. The top right and bottom left, I used random scraps but in the top right, I followed kind of a color wheel. And the center is random except sticking to one color.

Now, take your time and carefully cut out your pieces.

Before peeling and sticking, arrange all your pieces on your background and make sure you like the placement and spacing.

And then peel and stick.

When they are all adhered in place, press carefully with a hot iron, placing the iron on top and then picking it up and moving it. Do not iron back and forth or you may mess up your edges.

Now, finish as desired! You can stitch around each piece or you can free motion quilt and make sure you catch most of your piece. Think about how often it will be washed. The more washing, the more chance of fraying so you’d want to be sure your edges are all stitched.

On this quilt, I free motion quilted a meandering pattern over all the petals making sure to catch all my edges in the quilting. It has been washed a lot and the pieces have held up really well.

I did the same with this mini quilt.

I started to stitch around each petal on this mini but honestly, I hate it. I got bored of it and ended up free motioning all over. I also added mini log cabins as a border. I think I may do a medallion quilt like this.

I’m thinking of making another mini with log cabins for this one.

And maybe pillow covers with these two with some sort of border. I love the color wheel mum!

If you make one, I’d love to see it! Use #fourrobbinsscrapbuster

Enjoy!

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You will need:

• Assorted scraps
• some background fabric
• Pellon Lite-EZ Steam II or other two-sided lightweight fusible web
• sharp scissors
• batting
• backing
• binding

Now, you can absolutely make a template and draw a perfect tree and leaves if that is what works for you but I didn’t do that. This project really is a great opportunity to practice a little improv and exercise that right brain.

Make sure your background and tree fabrics are pressed to start but don’t worry about your scraps.

First, roughly draw out your tree on the paper side of the EZ-Steam. Don’t worry too much about how perfect your drawing lines are. When you cut, the scissors will naturally work out a smooth line and you can trim what isn’t. And even though it looks not so great on the paper, it’s exactly the tree I cut out in the photo above and it turned out pretty cool.

Cut out your tree roughly. You’re going to adhere this to fabric and cut it out again and you’ll get more precise during this step.

Gently and carefully peel off one side of the paper and adhere your tree to the wrong side of your tree fabric. No ironing – we’ll do that at the end when our design is done.

And now cut it out.

Here it is with the back peeled off – a nice fabric sticker tree.

Now, position your tree on your backing fabric wherever you want it. Press down to adhere when you’re sure it’s good!

Now, cut little leaves out of your EZ-Steam. Again, you’ll be cutting again once you adhere them to the fabric so don’t worry about cutting them out of the EZ-Steam too neatly.

Add to fabric just like you did for the tree.

Cut out and clean up the rough edges. Place them around your tree but don’t peel the backing until you like your arrangement.

Once you like how it looks, peel your labels and stick away.

And then press to really adhere them for good. Ignore my iron. It is ugly and my good one died. I really need a new one but not sure yet what to get. Suggestions?

Once everything is nicely adhered, it’s time to make your quilt sandwich and baste.

Remember, cut your batting a little bigger than your top and your backing a little bigger than that. Doesn’t have to be perfect because you will be trimming it down once you finishing quilting.

Remember that fabric that you loved when you bought it but now not so much and you’re not sure what to do with it? That will make a good mini quilt back. At least, that’s what I do!

You can use spray or pins or whatever works for you. I like pins. Don’t pin your applique pieces. This is small enough that you don’t need to go crazy and we’re going to be focusing on appliqueing all the pieces down first.

Time to quilt. And here’s where again, you can take your time and go around each leaf like I did for this smaller tree.

Or, you can free motion and get creative. I love how this turned out. I went quickly and went up and around the leaves three times: once for the center and twice more going around the edges. If this will get washed a lot, play close attention to get close to all your leaf and tree edges to prevent fraying but the EZ-Steam really helps with that, too.

I love how the lines between the leaves almost look like branches.

And then I just did some random up and down on the tree.

Finally, I did the background in a kind of horizontal stipple. Once you’re done quilting, trim and square up (make sure you’ve cut your sides, top, and bottom in an even square or rectangle).

My binding strips are 2.5 inches. I sewed my binding to the back instead of the front so I could do machine binding. I also trimmed close because I want the binding on the front a little wider than on the back, kind of like a frame.

I folded it to the front and lightly glue basted it in place. Just add a tiny bit of glue and press.

I’m not super good at machine binding yet and here I do get frustrated when my lines are not straight and perfect. So rather than freak out and pull stitches when my binding wasn’t perfect, I decided to make it “folksy” like my leaves. I went around the binding three times.

And here it is! I think it turned out really cute!

If you make one, I’d love to see it! Post it using #fourrobbinsscrapbuster so I can find you!

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