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

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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Getting Started

The first thing you want to do is to prepare your fabric. For this bag, my fabric measures 5-1/2 inches wide by 14 inches long. I’m using Kona Snow but you could use muslin or novelty fabrics or whatever you like. First, I like to go ahead a press approximately 1/4 inch in on each side to the wrong side of the fabric so I know where my seam is going and I know how much room I have to play around with applique, embroidery or whatever else I want to do.

Next, fold the top down 1/2 inch. Press and then fold down another 1/2 inch. Then fold in half, wrong sides together, and press your bottom seam.

Embellish Your Bag!

For this bag, I decided to do some applique. First, I cut out a 2-inch circle. I like to take just a tiny bit of invisible Elmer’s glue on my finger and apply it to a few spots on the back of the applique piece and then press with a hot iron. That way my shape stays in place while I stitch and I don’t have to mess with pins. Stitch around the edge. Note: Make sure your seam allowance is open and does not get caught in your stitching.

Next, I cut out a little heart and repeated the glue, pressing, and stitching.

I cut out strips to make an X. I did my glue and press with the first strip and then the second and then I stitched into place. Again, be sure your seam allowance is open and doesn’t get caught in your stitching!

Assemble Your Bag

Stitch up each side using 1/4″ seam allowance back stitching at the top and bottom. Stop approximately 1 inch below the bottom pressed seam line so your top tubes don’t get caught in your seam. Backstitch athe pressed top seam. Clip bottom corners.

Press side seams open. Press your top tube down again .

Finally, turn right side out. Stitch along the bottom edge of each top fold to create a tube in front and in back to place your ties.

Finish the Bag

Using a pin to secure the end of the ribbon or cord. Feed one end of your ribbon into the tube and out the other side and then into the second tube and out the other side so that your ends are both coming out of the same side of the bag. You are basically making a U with the ribbon, with both ends coming out on the same side.

Tie ends together. Repeat with cord or ribbon going the opposite direction.

Have Fun and Add Your Own Style

These are so great for party favors and valentines. You could use them in a table setting with personalized names and little gifts inside. You could also use them for Advent gifts and put numbers on the bags. Here is a fun little assortment using different fabrics and different ties (ribbon, cord, and twine).

Finally, I embroidered this bag with some cute hearts. This bag starting fabric measurement was 5 inches wide x 11 inches long. I used a water soluble marker to draw my hearts and 12 weight Sulky thread for the stitched hearts.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial. They really are quick and fun to make! I’m working on a dozen of the stitched heart bags right now!

Have a great day!

Krista

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