Boonie Blooms final tutorial

The pattern for the Boonie Blooms quilt can be downloaded or printed from here

Boonie Blooms Free Pattern.  I'm only doing  tutorials for the bloom block.  The rest of the pattern is in the free printable pattern.  You can find the other tutorials about this pattern here and here.

Today we'll be making the top unit of the Boonie Bloom Block.  It's your basic snowball block with a touch of applique.  I'll be making mine using fusible raw edge, but there's plenty of fabric in these charms to make them turned edge applique.

You will need 

(25) blue, pink and purple charms from the Moda Chloe's Closet 30's Playtime charm pack or 25 of your own assorted 5" prints. 

(8) of the yellow prints from the charm pack.  

(100) 1.5" background squares(yellow)

And fusible webbing(Heat n Bond lite)

And the templates found in the printable pattern. 

On each of the (100) 1.5" background(yellow) squares draw a diagonal line used for stitching. 

I chose to center a piece of tape with my needle on my sewing machine table as a guide instead of drawing a line.  Either way is fine and the results are the same.

Just stitch corner to corner.

Stitch on the line, clip 1/4" away from line and press seams open.  You girls know the dance!  It's the stitch, clip and flip!  This goes super fast, you won't believe how quickly this block comes together.

If your making the Boonie Blooms quilt you'll need to do this to all of (25) assorted prints.

Grab those yellow prints for the center of your Blooms.  You'll need to trace the circle template to your fusible webbing 25 times.  I've windowed my circles before fusing to the fabric by cutting out the centers of the circles.  This  makes the applique softer, but you can skip this step if you don't mind a little stiffer applique.  When cutting the outside of the circle make sure you cut about 1/8" to 1/4" away from your drawn line.  Then fuse to your fabric per the instructions for your fusible webbing.

Now just cut out your circles on the line.  For those of you that save every little piece of fabric there's going to be some leftovers! 

Here's the proper way to place your circles into the center of the block.  Remove  the paper backing from your circles and finger press as shown below.

Press your block in half both ways, now  line up the pressing marks and press per the instructions on your fusible.  Okay let me tell you, I'm not one to live by the rules so... I didn't do this or all 25, only this one for instruction sake.  I eyeballed mine without any pressing marks.  The choice is yours, are feeling wild and free!

TIP of the day!  After pressing from the front to fuse the applique, turn over the block and press from the back also, it helps adhere the fusible to the fabric and you are less likely to get fraying when stitching and washing.

My thread of choice for invisible machine applique is Mono Poly from Superior Threads.  I can't say enough about this thread.  It does exactly what it says it does and more.  It won't melt in the dryer and I've done a test with my hot vintage iron on cotton setting for 10-15 seconds and it didn't melt.  Of course all irons are different, you might want to test with your iron before going hog wild.  

 Using a very tiny blanket stitch around the center.

Okay grab those stem units(tutorial here) and finger press both units in half as shown below. 

Line up the pressing marks, pin it, stitch it

Press open that final seam...awe so cute!  

This entire quilt could be made in a day.  It's so simple.

So there you have it!  If you have a question or find and error in my instructions or pattern feel free to leave a comment or email me.  And as always if you make one of my patterns I love pictures!

~ Lea Anne ~

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Boonie Blooms Part 2- Making the stems unit

 Let's just jump right in and get started.  This tutorial will focus on the stem portion of the Boonie Blooms quilt block.

   The complete quilt top instructions can be found in the free printable pattern here.

To complete this unit you will need the following.  For this quilt I used a Moda 30's Playtime By Chloe's Closet Charm Pack. 

(9) green 5" charms

(50) 2.5" x 5" yellow background

(3) 5" fusible webbing(heat n bond lite)

(1) 2.5" x 5" fusible webbing(heat n bond lite)

The charm pack has 9 green charms.  5 charms of like print will be used for the stems and the remaining 4 are used for the leaves.  From the 5 like charms cut each into (5) 1" x  5" 

Stitch a 2.5" x 5" yellow background to both sides of all the green stem pieces.

Press seams open

The template sheet shown here is not the same as the one you'll print.  I modified it after the pictures.  To make the leaves you'll need the remaining 4 green charms and the fusible webbing.

Trace the leaves templates to the non shiny side of your fusible webbing.  You'll need (3) of the 5" and (1) of the 2.5" x 5".

This step is personal preference.  I window my fusible applique by cutting out the centers of the templates.  You can skip this step if you don't mind a little extra stiffness to your quilt.  

Place the fusible webbing on the wrong side(back) of the 5" charm.

Press using the heat settings suggested in the instructions of the fusible webbing. 

Cut out the leaves and remove the paper backing.  You will need to let these cool off before removing the paper.

 I'm going to show you 2 different ways to position your appliqued leaves.

 The first is to use the template provided.  Place your stems unit on top of the template.  You may need a light box or window to see through your fabric.  

If you look closely you can see I the leaf outline through my fabric.

Position your leaves to match the markings on the template.

Press to adhere the templates to the fabric.  

The second method for leaf placement on the stems unit.  Is to simply fold the unit in half, press,  and line up the points on the leaves to the pressed line.

Now all that's left is to stitch down your applique with the stitch and thread of your choice.  

I used Superior Threads Mono Poly and a tiny blanket stitch.

The tutorial for the flower unit(top) will be in a few days.

~ Lea Anne ~

Linking up with Judy over at Patchworktimes for Design Wall Monday.

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Boonie Blooms Part 1

 Who doesn't love a quick and easy quilt pattern that uses precut fabrics.  Sometimes we all want or need that quick quilt project to recharge the quilty mojo.  Boonie Blooms was designed just for that reason.  I needed something quick and easy to work on while life was throwing curve balls.  Well little did life know I've a pretty good swing for an old gal!

Today will be the first of about 2 or 3 tutorials to help you make your own Boonie Blooms.  However this series will not be a complete quilt tutorial.  You will need to print the free pattern and templates to complete the quilt.  I'll give you the links to them later in this post.

Boonie Blooms was designed specifically for a charm pack of Moda's 30's Playtime by Chloe's Closet.  That doesn't mean you need this charm pack in  to make the quilt.  It could quite easily be made from scraps of 5" squares.  You can see below that I've separated the charms by color.  

8 yellow, 9 green and 25 assorted pinks, blues and purples.

Fabric Requirements

(1) Moda 30's Playtime by Chloe's Closet

4.5 yards of pale yellow background fabric

3/4 of a yard of white for the inner border

1/2 of a yard of fusible webbing(heat n bond lite)

The fabric requirements for the backing and binding are below.  There will be no instructions for either.

4 yds for the backing 

3/4 of a yard for binding

 As you can see in the picture above I've used the raw edge method of applique.  It's quick, easy and if you follow the instructions on the fusible webbing it works great.  I used Heat and Bond Lite fusible webbing.  It can be purchased at Joann's, Walmart, and Amazon.  I prefer Joann's because I can use my 50% coupons.

To stitch down my applique I used Superior Threads Mono Poly-Clear.

This is the best invisible thread I've found.  It holds up to an iron and the dryer.  I purchased mine at my local quilt shop but can be purchased at many online quilt shops.

As mentioned earlier this is a free printable pattern.  No need to wait for the online tutorial, you can get started on your quilt today!   Download and print it here

FREE BOONIE BLOOMS PRINTABLE PATTERN

The applique template sheet is separate from the pattern.  Download and print it here

FREE BOONIE BLOOMS APPLIQUE TEMPLATE SHEET 

A quick word about the template sheet.  Print it, cut 4 pieces of fusible webbing 5" x 5".  You'll need to trace the square of petals on the left onto 3 squares of fusible webbing.  And the one on the right trace onto 1 square.  

The bottom square is your applique placement template. 

As always if you have any questions or find a mistake please feel free to contact me by leaving a comment.

~  Lea Anne ~

Edited post...The issues with the printable patterns have been fixed.  

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Friday Flimsy~ Boonie Blooms

This little quilt top was finished Wednesday night.  I thought for sure I'd have some decent lighting for pictures by today.  Well there was plenty of good lighting I just wasn't home to take advantage of it.  So we'll just make the best of the situation.  The first two groups of photos will be before and afters.  The pictures will show that I'm a better quilter than photographer .

This is a quick and easy quilt.  I've no doubt that the top could be made in a day.  It has minimal applique that's super fast to do.  A great quilt for a first time appliquer.  Doing raw edge applique made it easy but it could also be made with traditional applique methods.

The Moda Charm pack, 30's Playtime by Chloe's Closet had just the right mix of colors.

The Butter yardage by Robert Kaufman added background color without being to bold, and the Kona White inner border was perfect for not taking away from the blooms, it reminds me of a white picket fence.  Of course you don't need a charm pack to make a charm pack pattern.  Scraps work great too.  Or it could be made more traditionally with all the blocks in the same prints.

There's a real challenge when making a quilt from precuts.  A lot more planning  to make sure you'll have enough fabric.  So when this one ended up having just a smidgen of scrap a little happy dance took place!  

The free pattern will be posted in a couple of days,  if you want one.  So who's up for another freebie? 

Hopefully while finishing up the pattern, there will be a quilting design epiphany.   Maybe I'll use the Bailey Home Quilter this time.  She's been sitting idle for about 6 months.  Everything has been quilted using the Domestic machine since January, just to keep things simple.  There's an urge to be a little more creative with my quilting again.

~ Lea Anne ~

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They've bloomed!

It didn't take long to stitch up these simple blocks.  One charm pack and a little yardage and a whole lot of cuteness.   The simple things in life just make this ole country girl happy.  I've been picking wild berries on the property, cooking a weeks worth of meals for when I'm gone later in the week and still had plenty of time to stitch all of my Boonie Blooms.  How?  They are so easy!

25 blocks complete

Not much waste or leftovers.  It's nice to have a little extra just in case there's an UH-OH when making the applique pieces.   I'll be using my homemade 1.5" template to save what I can of the centers.

I also wanted to take time today to talk about the applique on this quilt.  

Over the years I've tried many different invisible threads for quilting and invisible applique.   Most of them didn't meet up to my low standards.  Yes I said low.  All I ask of an invisible thread is.... to be able to handle a little heat from my iron.  It can be shiny or matte, thick or thin JUST DON'T MELT!  Superior Threads Mono Poly has never let me down.  I did a little test today to see if it could handle 5 seconds on a cotton heat setting....Yes she can!  The instructions suggest a lower temperature but it's nice to know that I don't need to worry about things getting to hot.

The pictures below shows the tiny stitch I used on this applique.  The arrows are pointing to the very hard to find thread.  It's super fine and very strong. 

Of course with any product there's downsides, but the positive out weighs the negative, so it's no big deal that ...

1.  it will not work with my auto needle threader

2. It also hates my auto cutter.  Oh it cuts but the thread pops out of the needle and the bobbin thingy that catches and holds the thread can't catch and hold this fine thread.

I sewed for over 20 years without auto threaders and cutters so it's no big deal.  

~ Lea Anne ~

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