Using Adobe Illustrator to plan out quilts

I've been using Adobe Illustrator for several years, having first learned how when I was in graduate school. Then, I was building figures for manuscripts and creating meeting posters. Then I bought a Silhouette machine and used it to design stencils. I've been dabbling with quilting for a while so it's only natural that I eventually started playing around with quilt designs in Illustrator. One of the coolest features is being able to create fabric swatches using screenshots of fabric from the internet.

Here's one, using a Tiny Tiles Aqua from Cotton + Steel. One thing that I discovered is that without the fabric in front of you, it can be hard to make sure that patterned fabrics appear the correct size. It took some trial and error, and make sure you take your screenshot from a website that includes a ruler in the image.

This is a 45 x 59 in. quilt, including binding. Certainly a weird size, but would likely work as a kid's throw blanket. I definitely need some more practice, but it's fun to play with color combinations!

I'm a sucker for a good mustard yellow.

You can also play around with just building a single block. I love this one, but it would likely need to be bigger than initially designed since the center square only ends up being 0.5 x 0.5 in and the border of the log cabin piece is even narrower. Might work for foundation paper piecing though. Hmmm....

Paper piecing blocks are super easy to make too. I wish my sewing machine wasn't already packed up or I'd give this a try. Here's the little 4 inch center of the above block. Should be a 4.5 in square with the seam allowances. Let me know what you think!

Download here. Or a slightly larger block (7 1/8 in square)

So pretty in Cotton + Steel Sprinkle Peaches!!

EDIT: I realize that posting a pattern for others to use without trying it yourself is a terrible idea. I didn't expect any issues, but just to be safe, I threw together a quick block using some scraps. I think it'll make a great potholder or trivet.

Fat Quarter Shop castle pillow cover

I saw this adorable pillow cover on Pinterest a week or two ago and I knew I needed to give it a try. I'm still very much a beginner quilter, so I thought it would be a good practice project. I went with the pink/purple colors used in the blog, but there is a good example of using patterned fabrics from She Quilts A Lot.

I pre-washed the fabrics but still had a moment of panic after I washed it, thinking the pink had bled. It may have been my imagination; after a second wash it looks perfect! I will be more careful next time to trim any pink threads that might be visible under the white fabric. This is with a 16 inch pillow form inside- I think it needs something a little bigger so I'll try an 18 inch one once I get to Joann's.

EDIT: 18 in pillow form was a much better choice. It fits perfectly!

You can find the link to download the pattern here and a brief Youtube video tutorial. Love free patterns!!

Other recent projects (please forgive the poor photos!):

Pin cushion caddy

Doll quilt

Painted front door sign

My front door has been bare since I put away the Christmas decorations. I wasn't sure what I wanted to put up afterward because I'm not a big fan of the DIY burlap or fabric wreaths that seem to be in fashion right now. A painted wood sign was calling my name for a number of reasons. First, an excuse to use my Silhouette machine to cut some vinyl (and create a custom design). And second, being a military family, we move quite a bit and it's nice to make things that the movers are unlikely to break due to poor packing. I like some of the beautiful spring wreaths in Michaels and JoAnn's, but they definitely wouldn't survive more than one move.

I was inspired by a whole bunch of Pinterest finds but most of them use chalkboard paint as the background. I wanted to go in a different direction, even if that means no flexibility in changing the text, unless I repaint it of course. I hope you enjoy this project as much as I did!

So off I went to JoAnn's. I grabbed some twine, a round piece of basswood (like this), and some outdoor acrylic paint. Grabbed some foam paint applicators as well for the stenciling. 

I was eager to get started so as soon as I got home I got to it. Cut some twine and tied some quick knots and used a staple gun to attach to the back. I brushed the dust off the wood and immediately got a coat of the cream paint on it. Waited about an hour and put a second one on. It took more paint than I was expecting so I think a lot of the first coat soaked into the wood.

I wanted to give the background paint a solid day to dry before putting the vinyl stencil on it, so I tackled the design next. I toyed with some traditional script fonts, but that really isn't my style. I finally settled on something really simple. I sized mine to fit my piece of wood, so resize if you need to. I printed out a copy on regular printer paper to make sure it's the right size.

Download the Silhouette file here

Fast forward to a day later. The cream paint is nice and dry so I made the stencil out of some Silhouette vinyl. Used transfer tape to get it onto the wood after weeding out the letters. I was a little worried about the vinyl sticking well to the wood so I smoothed the thing like crazy before pulling the transfer tape off. And even more smoothing after,

See that little bubble adjacent to the C? That guy's got to go!!

Once I was done smoothing, I added a border of blue painter's tape in case I went too wild with the black paint. Then I got to work with some black outdoor acrylic paint (same brand as the cream I showed you earlier. I ended up using whatever paint brushes I found in my craft drawer. Sponge applicators didn't seem like the right tool for this one.

I did two light-ish coats. I was really impatient so I don't think I waited more than about 15 minutes between layers. But it looked pretty dry. And it was Monday night and I was really tired :)

Once the second layer was sorta dry, I started carefully peeling everything off. I was nervous because I had read about some people losing some of their background paint to the vinyl, but that definitely wasn't a problem for me. I didn't lose even a flake of the cream paint. All that's left to do in the photo below is to weed out the centers of the Os. I used the tip of a pocket knife because the Silhouette tool left a little indentation in the wood when I tried to use it.

There is a tiny amount of bleeding, but I won't be losing any sleep over it. Overall, the lines are really crisp and it turned out exactly like I was hoping it would!

I think the bird is my favorite part! I'm debating about whether to give it a coat of matte sealer or not. My front door is fairly protected, although the Arizona heat and sun are absolutely brutal. I guess I'll just move it inside if it looks like it's fading.

DIY Etched Olive Oil Bottle

Years ago, I bought quite a few pour spouts to add to reused wine bottles in my kitchen. I found it handy to have some olive oil and some vegetable oil next to the stove. I don't remember exactly where I got them, but they look similar to these.

Originally, I had a piece of tape on the bottom of each bottle to remind me which kind of oil was in each bottle. Now that I have a Silhouette machine, I took this as an opportunity to try out some glass etching. I bought all the supplies from Amazon (vinyl, transfer paper, etching cream, etc.) and used a couple different websites for the details (see this one and this one). Follow the link below the screenshot to get the file I used in Silhouette Studio. It's for personal use only- please don't use it for commercial ventures. I measured my wine bottle beforehand to determine the right size.

Download the file for Silhouette Studio

If you're more of a canola/corn oil user, I made one of those too.

Download the file for Silhouette Studio

I rinsed the cream off after about 5 minutes and wasn't sure that it worked. It's sorta hard to tell until you take the vinyl off. To be safe, I repeated a second time. After rinsing the cream and removing the vinyl, I was thrilled! The vinyl produced very clean lines and the bottle looks awesome.

Machine Sewing for Boy Scout Merit Badges

So, my darling husband is an Eagle Scout and has mentioned several times that he'd like to be able to put together a shadow box with all his Scout stuff. Military folks are generally big fans of shadow boxes, and he's no exception. And since he bought me an awesome new sewing machine for Christmas, I agreed to tackle his completely empty sash and giant pile of merit badges. I'm still unclear about why this wasn't done years ago but he tells me his troop wasn't big on uniforms.

I've never tackled patches before so I did some googling to see what the best method was for sewing them on. I was disappointed in the lack of info, but found just enough to give it a whirl.

I picked up some transparent thread (Sulky 232 2001) and some dark green thread (943 1272) to match the sash from JoAnn's. Loaded the green in the bobbin and the transparent in the top of the machine.

I ironed and starched the sash since it had some pretty deep creases. There is apparently no right or wrong way to lay them out, so I put the required ones (silver binding) down the middle and the others on either side. After laying them all out, I stapled them in place instead of fighting with pins. Some of the patches are thicker than others and I don't think straight pins would work very well. The staples come out pretty easily and don't leave any marks behind on the patch. My recommendation is to put two staple in each patch to really keep them in place. See the first aid patch in the first photo. I only used one staple in the first couple and they shifted a little while I was sewing. I couldn't find a staple remover in the house, so I used a Leatherman- my Eagle Scout isn't the only handy one in this family!

I used a simple straight stitch (using my machine's default settings) to slowly stitch in a circle, just inside the binding of the patch (see photo below). I can't stress enough to take it slowly. They're small, but it is possible to sew a pretty good circle. I was really thankful my machine has some time-saving features like a knee lift and an automatic thread cutter. I sewed each patch individually, but it probably would look fine if you did a whole row without lifting your needle. Or wait to cut the extra thread between patches until the very end. I'm sure there are some time-savers that you could incorporate.

That's it! It was really time-consuming, but the sash looks awesome and you really can't see the stitching at all. Next project- the uniform shirt.

My favorite sewing project tutorials

I've been crazy about my sewing machine since moving to a home where I have the space to set up a whole sewing corner in a spare bedroom. Not much to do in this sleepy town either, so I have had lots of time on my hands each weekend. One downside, though, is only one fabric store in town; I'm afraid I'll go wild and completely overbuy when I go out of town for the holidays.

I think I enjoy sewing so much because it often requires significant problem-solving but is also a real creative outlet. And if I'm going to spend half a weekend doing something, it sure is nice to have a "product" at the end of it all! Even if it's something as simple as a grocery bag dispenser.

I'll show you the end-results of my projects over the next few weeks, but here are some project tutorials that I've found incredibly helpful recently. I need a sunny day with good light to photograph all my final products!


Inspiring Sewing Tutorials

I love the use of a different texture- felt- on an otherwise plain pillow. I ran into a small problem after ironing metal pins over the felt, leaving a permanent mark on the felt. Still not sure how I'm going to fix it...

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I made a fabric memory game for my niece and nephew for this upcoming Christmas. Finding great patterned fabric was a blast, and this project was great practice for my rotary cutting tool and mat. So many perfect squares!

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After setting up my new sewing space, I needed a bin or something like it to collect some odds and ends that didn't get hung on the peg board. A fabric bin was just what the doctor ordered.

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This sock monkey project was just too much fun. It took some searching to find the right socks, but I ended up with two adorable sock monkeys- one big one and one smaller one. I have a feeling I'll have a hard time not picking up striped socks every time I go shopping now.

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This one was super easy and fast. In it's new space, my sewing machine needed a nice dust cover, and something that would coordinate with the other pieces in the spare room and bring it all together. I'm not much of a girly-girl, so I chose a different color scheme and skipped the flower.

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I really love felt and before I had my sweet sewing machine set-up, I did a lot of hand sewing using felt, making mostly Christmas tree ornaments. When I saw this, I couldn't help but pick up a couple small canvas tote bags at the local craft shop and some felt sheets. My nephew was happy to receive a bag inspired by this tutorial for his birthday this fall.

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Here's a great one for beginners- a plastic grocery bag dispenser. I made two with some cool dish towels with a great pattern and it was so simple! It's so nice to not have an overflowing pile of them under my kitchen sink anymore.Check out this tutorial from Martha Stewart.

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Maybe a semi-quilted makeup roll wasn't the best project to start off with, considering the bias tape border, but mine turned out surprisingly well. Easy to personalize with fabric colors or patterns and it would make a great gift. Or make one that's a crochet hook holder, or pen/pencil holder.

Here are a few photos of the one that I made!

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My proudest sewing accomplishment thus far has definitely been a zippered bench cushion for my spare room. I bought a wooden bench mostly for staging purposes two homes ago, and it has been crying out for a cushion. Mostly so that the cats don't scratch the surface of the bench. I used a couple different tutorials since I committed to installing a zipper (my very first zipper!!) and using pre-made piping. It was a taxing project, but I'm thrilled with the end-result. This is the method I've used for all my zippers thus far, especially good for throw pillows.

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