Freda's Hive

Upon seeing my red riding hood cape, my sister Chelsey exclaimed, "but I'M red riding hood!" "I want a red riding hood cape!"

When we were little my grandmother (Freda, of course) made a little doll as a visual aid to tell the story of Red Riding hood. When you flip Red Riding Hood's skirt, her grandmother is revealed, and flipping grandmother's cap reveals the big bad wolf. Chelsey used to love to sit on my grandmother's lap and make her tell the story over and over again.

When my grandmother died, and we were going through her

things, she claimed this doll immediately, as a token to remember the time she spent with my
grandmother.

Chelsey requested that her cape be made a very bright red, and that it be somewhat more diminutive in length than mine, and also that the hood be large enough to hide her head in.

I made my own changes to the design of her cape. To make it wearable year round, and machine washable, I used mercerized cotton. Since it was so short, I decided to add visual interest by making a simple lacy button band that extended into the hood.

Now Chelsey gets to play little red riding hood as often as she wants to.-

Shelbie

I couldn't help but admire this this pattern from Elizabeth when I saw it on several blogs but I was too busy before before Christmas to even consider getting it done. So during the holidays I kept thinking about how pretty it was and how great the fabric was that she used. I decided even if Christmas was over it was ok to start a project for next year. And, afterall, the fabric is so NOT Christmasy. So I went ahead and ordered the pattern from Elizabeth and the fabric from the Fat Quarter Shop. I augmented it with a few odds and ends I had in stash and began working on it this week. I should be folding fabric and working on my new sewing room right now, but I really wanted to start on a new project.

Its coming along nicely and I'm enjoying it. Elizabeth uses a fusable method but I love to applique circles and hand applique is relaxing so I'm putting it together a little differently. I was going to use some of the vintage lace Natalie gave me for Christmas but the yellow is just not right so I'll have to rethink that some. I will have to fit folding of fabric into my weekend but I'm looking forward to working on this quilt, too. - nanette

Santa sent me a bulletin board from the container store for my new sewing room. I covered it in a piece from a vintage table cloth (I used duct tape to attach it because I might want to change the fabric on the board sometimes, but it didn't stick very well, so I'm still working on that).

I have some covered button thumb tacks and vintage story book magnets to hold things on the bulletin board. The board is really great. It is both magnetic and perforated for thumb tacks and magnets and things hold well with the fabric around the board.

I love vintage cards so I tacked some vintage valentine images up on the board for a happy decoration. - nanette

Valentine Quilt Banner

Squares:
Red print: 40
Light print: 60
Half light/half red: 20

Supplies:
Assortment of red scraps, or assorted fat eighths
Assortment of light scraps, or assorted fat eighths
¼ yard red print for inner border
1/2 yard valentine print for outer border
Back fabric 1 1/8 yard
Binding ½ yard
Batting

Valentine Cutting:
Gather red and light fabrics and cut into 2 ½” squares and 2 7/8” squares. You may want to cut more than actually needed to produce a good amount of fabric variety in your quilt as your taste and fabric scraps allow. This way you have a nice assortment as you lay out your rows before construction. Cut the 2 7/8” squares diagonally to form triangles. Quantities of squares needed listed by the valentine diagram.

Alternatively you could strip piece parts of this quilt. Refer to strip piecing methods found in instructional quilt books for this.

The border is cut selvage-to-selvage. If you have a one-way design, please cut the top and bottom borders before cutting the side borders. Sizes below are approximate.

Inner border cut 2 ½” wide:
2 @ 30 ½” sides
2 @ 20 ½” bottom/top

Outer border 4” wide:
2 @ 34 ½” sides
2 @ 27 ½” bottom/top

Construction: All seams are ¼”

Join the red and light triangles to create 20 triangle half/half blocks. Press seams to darker side.

Next lay squares out on the floor or design board to get a good mix of prints. Refer to diagram lay out. There are 8 blocks horizontally and 15 blocks vertically.

Connect squares working left to right sewing each
square together making a chain of squares. Press seams in all one direction. Repeat for all rows and join as you go pressing all seams opposite direction of the row before it and sandwich together when you join rows and match seams. Press.

Next pin and sew the inner border, sides first and then top and bottom strips. Repeat for outer border. Make a finish press.

This is a small and easy project to try machine quilting. You could stitch in the ditch with a walking foot for hearts and stipple (with darning foot and feed dogs down) the light area and borders. Trim, add fabric sleeve and bind.

© Nanette Merrill nbmerrill@gmail.com

Alternatively you could make (by modifying directions) a 4 heart banner.

It is probably written in some book of fashion advice somewhere to never allow a Halloween costume work its way into your regular wardrobe. This cape, however, deserves to be worn more than once a year.

I decided to make this cape for 2 reasons, to help fill the need of a Halloween costume, and because after seeing how Whitney's cape turned out, I wanted a warm, snuggly cape of my own. I found amazing Llama yarn at a local yarn store (The Unraveled Sheep, which is the best yarn store in the Salt Lake area)-

I used patterns from the book Wrap Style, to help me make make the shape of the basic cape. Using basic measurements from a hoodie in my closet, I picked up stitches on the top of the cape to form the hood. I finished it off with a seed stitch around the edges to add a decorative touch.

It turned out soft and snuggly, perfect for warm winter wear! I dare anyone to make fun of me for wearing part of my Halloween costume (which it really was) well into the spring.-

Shelbie

Its very exciting to be creating my new sewing room. I am really enjoying the process of putting it together and deciding where things go and on what shelf. Its kind of moving slow but this way I can go through each piece of stash fabric and enjoy the texture and print as I fold and create stacks. My friend Laura suggested using the top shelf for many of my quilted flags, baby quilts and smaller quilts and gave me the idea to cut a piece of cardboard in the desired size and then fold all the quilts around the cardboard to make them uniform. It worked out great. I used that same idea as I am folding fabric. I have several pieces of cardboard in different sizes that I fold my fabric around so they will all be even and straight (as much as possible). Shelbie organized all my quilting magazines by type and date into the Ikea magazine organizers. The white outside of the organizers is so pretty I almost hate to label them. Maybe I won't. Then Shelbie took all my sewing/quilting books and organized them by color from white to black. I saw that on done someone's blog I think but I don't remember where. For Christmas Natalie made me fabric boxes from a tutorial at the Sew Mama Sew blog. They turned out so cute I want to make some myself. I love those tutorials. The quilting angel on the shelf is a gift from my sister Polly. Its darling.

I love covered buttons. Its a great way to showcase tiny details in fabric and use up interesting scraps (though not a cheap way). I have a jar of buttons I have made and extras parts ready to make more. You can never have enough buttons on hand! This is where I buy buttons to cover. http://coverbuttons.com/

Carpet is still a week or so away, I think, but I'm still not halfway through organizing all my fabric yet. I can't fit all of it on the shelves but I have plastic organizers for some of it. It may take me forever but having things organized is worth it. - nanette

Happy New Year! It has snowed nearly every day since Christmas Eve. Down with Christmas stuff and up with snowmen and valentines. I love the icicles hanging behind the snowman. This flag belongs to a collection of flag/banners that I designed and made using 2 1/2" squares from my scraps. Its a great way to use up scraps and have a fun little quilt to greet friends and family on my front porch.

This quilt is made from a red work line of fabric by Mary Englebreit I made several years ago as as sample quilt for a local store, Pipers Quilts and Comforts, in the Salt Lake area. I used Barbara Brandeburg's pattern from her Tried and True book and I think the pattern is called Red and Butter if I remember correctly. I made one for the store and one for me. Its a kind of valentine quilt and I usually hang it up in my entry way at the first of the year. I really like using Barbara and (her sister) Teri's patterns. They always work out. - nanette

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