Tutorial: Wedge Pillow - Charmed Madness

Good morning everyone!  It's my day to share for Charmed Madness!

I've put together a tutorial to make this cute wedge pillow from your charm squares.

Materials Needed:

• 24 Charm Squares
• 1/4 Yard Coordinating Solid
• 1/2 Yard or 2 FQs of Backing Fabric
• Dresden Ruler
• 18" Pillow Form
• Usual sewing accoutrements - pins, rotary blade & mat, iron, etc 

 Step 1:  From your background fabric, cut 4 strips that are 2.25" x 18.25".  Set aside.

Step 2: Now you are going to cut your charms into wedges.  You will get two wedges from each charm for a total of 48 wedges.

•  First, trim 1/4 off of each side of the charm - not off of the top and bottom.  Your square will now be 4.5"x5" and have two smooth edges.

• Now you'll need your dresden ruler.  Lay your square  in front of you so that it is running 5" left to right.  Then set the ruler on your square lining the 4.5" marking with the top of the square.  Cut along both the left and right side of the ruler - see green lines on the picture below. (*A rotating cutting mat will make this a bit easier if you have one*) This will give you wedge 1 of 2.

• To cut your second wedge you'll need to flip your ruler so that the 4.5" line is along the bottom of the square and the left side is lined up with your new diagonal edge.  Then cut along the ruler on the right side - see the green line on the picture below. 

• Repeat for each charm (I cut mine in stacks of three) until you have 48 wedges.

Step 3: The next step is to piece all of the wedges into three rows.  There will be 16 wedges per row.  I pulled randomly as I put them together but you can also lay them out in the order you'd like.

• To piece the wedges together you are going to choose two wedges, line up the long sides with the skinny end of one blade towards the wide end of the other.  Leave a small tip of the large wedge showing (see layout below) and then sew along the long matched -up side using a scant 1/4" seam.  Press seams open.

• Continue adding wedges in the same manner (skinny towards wide).  Once pressed, you would lay  the skinny end of wedge #3  towards the wide edge of wedge #2 (Blue tails above) continuing on until you have 16 wedges in your row. Repeat to make 3 rows.

Step 4: Trim each of your rows to 18.25" x 4.25"

Step 5: Piece your pillow top together alternating background strips and wedge strips.

Step 6: Trim the pillow top to 18" square and set aside. 

*I made my pillow with an envelope back and I'm including the directions for you make yours like that as well.  If you'd rather make a different type, feel free!*

Step 7: From your backing fabric/s cut two squares that are 18" x 14".  Along one of the 18" sides of each backing piece press the fabric over 1/2" (towards the back) and then 1/2" again.  You can eyeball this.

Step 8:  Stitch along the pressed edge of each piece.  This stitching will show in your final product so be sure to use a coordinating thread.

 

Step 9: Time to make this into a pillow cover!  Lay your pillow top right side up on your table/mat.   Next lay one of your backing pieces, with the visible fold (i.e. wrong side) facing up towards you, matching the  18" unfolded side to the 18" right hand side of the pillow.  Then lay the other backing piece with the visible fold (i.e. wrong side) facing up towards you matching the unfolded 18" side along the left hand side of the pillow.  The second backing piece will cover the folded portion of the first piece you put down.  The backing pieces will, and you want them to, overlap.  Pin around the edges to secure.

Step 10: Sew all the way around the pillow using a 1/2" seam, backstitching at the end of each side for secure corners.  Once sewn, trim the corner flaps off but be careful not to cut where the stitches meet.

Step 11:  Turn your cover right side out, give it a press and insert your pillow form!  Voila!  A nice cheery pillow!

 If you decide to make a pillow for yourself please share your pictures!  Don't forget to stop by the Sew Lux Charmed Madness page to find links to the other tutorials as well as information about the giveaways and link-ups!

Happenings

Did everyone have a nice weekend?!  I actually finished a quilt this weekend!  It's in the washer now and is going to the dryer for some crinkling when I get home from work today.

I also learned this weekend that I'm not very accurate with my distance "guesstimates".  The hubs and I needed to run 13 miles on Sunday for our marathon training.  I told him I knew exactly how we should go, it would be so scenic through the National Park, loop back to the car, have some hills, blah, blah, blah.  Then we got lost, we ran out of water, and by the time we made it back on track and finished our 13 mile run we had to walk two and a half more miles to get to the car.  Longest walk EVER! 

I have a tutorial up over at Sew Festive Handmade today as part of the Christmas in July series!  Be sure to stop over and see how to make the Stacking Gifts Wall Hanging.  Bianca from Sweet Diesel Designs has a very cute pillow tutorial up today as well.


Stacked Gifts Wall Hanging

The Let's Get Acquainted Blog Hop is still in full swing!  Here's who will be sharing this week:

July 17

    Katie from Kati's Quilting

    Claire from Sewing over Pins
    Caroline from Quilting in the Cold

July 19

    Jamie from Sweet Baby Jamie

    Janine from Rainbow Hare Quilts


Also, one of the blogs I read regularly, The Moden Balabusta, has hit 100+ posts!  Be sure to stop by and check it out.  Lisa makes some awesome quilts and we were both in the Sew.Happy.Quilt QAL together.  I was even the lucky winner of the 100th post giveaway :)

Lastly, if you don't have enough projects already, there's a new quilt-a-long, Sew Intertwined, that you should consider joining!  Jenna & Melissa just announced it today and I can't wait!!  The quilt is such a great design - be sure to check it out!!

Have a great week everyone!!



Christmas in July!!

Do you look forward to the holiday season every year?  I do!  I love the decorations, the gift-giving, the togetherness and I LOVE getting a live Christmas tree every year.  I always have grand plans of making wonderful homemade gifts  but sometimes (read: always!) I procrastinate big time and end up stressed out about how I will finish making all those great gifts I planned and then I just run to the store and buy something. 

How would you like to avoid the stress and celebrate Christmas in July?  Rebecca from Sew Festive Handmade has put together a Christmas in July event so that we can all get a jump on those homemade gifts and decorations.  Together we can avoid the midnight sewing frenzy the day before you need that special gift!

Here are the details from Rebecca's post:

Starting Monday July 2nd, and each Monday for four weeks during the month you will be able to find some great holiday tutorials and inspiration here at Sew Festive. There will be two tutorials on each of the Mondays; one will feature decor for your own home, and the other tutorial will feature something that can be made as a gift [although you could totally keep it for yourself too and nobody will tell!].

Monday July 30th there will be a linky party here to show off your finished holiday-inspired projects. They can be projects that were made based on the tutorials throughout the month or it can be that Christmas quilt from 5 years ago that you finally.got.the.binding.on. And there will be prizes :)

All types of stitching will be welcome, so if you cross-stitch or embroider or spin your own wool, there will be something for everyone!

The whole point of this event is that we want to cheer each other on and get some holiday sewing out of the way before it's actually the holidays and we don't have any more free time.

Rebecca has some great tutorials and guest posters lined up!

• 7/2 - Rebecca & Jessica from Quilty Habit
• 7/9 - Jessica from Make Me Crafty & Chelsea from Pins and Bobbins
• 7/16  - Me & Rebecca
• 7/23 - Katie from There and Back & Jennifer from Knotted Thread
• 7/30 - Final Link Up Party!!

Be sure to stop over, join in and tackle that gift list!!

I*Spy Quilt Tutorial

Do you love making half-square triangles?  Yes?!  Then you'll love making this quilt.  I used a variety of charms from an I*Spy swap but you can use charms from any swap or charm pack!

Here's what you'll need:

•  96 Charm Squares - 5"x5" Square
• 1 and 3/4 Yards Neutral Fabric
• 1/2 Yd Border Fabric if using 1 fabric
• If you want to use 4 colors like I did you'll need 2 - 3" strips of each
• Backing - Approx 3 and 1/2 - 4 Yds
• Binding - Approx 1/2 Yd

Finished Size - Approximately 54" x 70"

First things first, let's turn that neutral yardage into 5" squares.  Cut your neutral into 12 strips 5" x Width of Fabric (WOF).  Then sub cut each strip (save time by stacking a few together) into 8 - 5" squares.  Then with a pencil or marking pen mark the back/wrong side of each square with 3 lines.  The first should go diagonally across from corner to corner, this is your cut line.  The 2nd and 3rd go diagonally across and are drawn 1/4 inch from each side of the cut line, these are your sewing lines*.

Like so:

Draw Lines

*If you are confident with your 1/4 inch sewing abilities you can skip the extra two lines and just sew 1/4 inch on each side in the next step.  I choose to add the extra markings just so everything is accurate.

Once you've marked all of your squares take one neutral and pair it with one charm, right sides together with your markings face up and pin together.  Then sew on your marked lines (or just 1/4 inch on each side of center line).  Chain piecing will save you tons of time here!!

 

Sew Lines

Once you've sewn them all together you'll need to cut.  I give each block a quick press before I cut just to keep everything crisp - this is totally optional!  Grab your rotary cutter and cut down the center line of each block (blue line in the picture below).  This will leave you will two triangles with a 1/4" seam on each.  Press seams open.  You now have 192 blocks.
Now comes the worst part of the whole project; trimming all 192 half square triangles.  There are a few things that can help make this a little less painful:

1. A rotating cutting mat
2. A 4.5" ruler block (with grips stuck on the back!!!)
3. A fresh rotary blade

Have everything together?  Now trim all of the blocks down to a nice 4.5" square.  If you use a ruler block be sure to line the diagonal line of the ruler up with the diagonal seam line on your block.

Whew!  Now we need to start turning these into pinwheels.  Since I used I*Spy fabrics I wasn't worried about what got pieced with what as long as it wasn't two of the same.  If you're using charm packs and you want certain fabrics to be in pinwheels together you'll want to lay out all your blocks now and then piece them together.  Here's what the end block will look like:

Pinwheel Block

Pair up your blocks and pin right sides together.  I laid them next to each other like in the diagram below and then flipped Block B onto Block A (Right sides together), just to make sure that it would turn out the right direction once sewn together.  Complete for all the blocks leaving you with 96 "units".

 

Unit 1

Now that you have all of your 2 block units we're going to piece them into blocks.  Take the units and stack them into two piles.  The first should be laid in the direction as above (Unit 1), then second stack should be laid as seen below (Unit 2), like the pinwheel block above.  Flip Unit 2 up onto Unit 1, right sides together, match your center seam, pin together and sew. 

Unit 2

Press your seams open and you have 48 pinwheel blocks!

Next, lay out your blocks in an arrangement you like, in rows 6 blocks across and 8 blocks down.  I just tried to make sure that two of the same print weren't right next to each other.  Piece across the rows, left to right, being sure to match the center seam and pressing all seams open.  Then piece each row together, from top to bottom, again pressing your seams open.

The last part needed to finish the top are the borders!  From your border fabric cut 6 strips 3" x WOF.  If you choose to use a different color/print on each border like I did you will need 8 strips total, 2 of each print.  Sew them onto your quilt top putting the sides first and top/bottom second or vice versa. 

You will need to piece some of your strips together and trim for them to fit.  I tend to sew two strips together and attach them to the sides lining them up at one end and letting the excess length hang at the other end.  After attaching I trim that excess and attach it to the remaining strips and use those for the top and bottom.  Like so:

Now take that awesome quilt top and baste, quilt and bind as desired!

I had a lot of trouble taking pictures that accurately showed what I was explaining so I hope these diagrams help!  If pictures would really help some of you out I'd be happy to make another block and try again at taking some pictures of the process.  Seeing as how this is my first tutorial I'd love some feedback, too wordy/detailed or not enough etc, and to know if anyone gives this a try.