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Splendid Snowmen Sew Along Week 5

November 17, 2014

This week we’re going to quilt and bind our Splendid Snowmen advent calendars. (Steps 13 and 14)  If you’ve quilted before, you’ll likely feel right at home.  For those of you who are new to this type of sewing, I’ve tried to round up a good list of tutorials that will step you through the process.  The great part is, by starting on a project of this size, you’ll have just enough space to get your feet wet with quilting.  If you love it, you can go ahead and work on a bigger project.  If you don’t, no worries- this will be done soon and you won’t end up with a half quilted piece folded in your craft closet for the rest of time 🙂

As always, feel free to share your work with #SplendidSnowmen on your favorite social media site, or share your photos on our Sweetbriar Sisters Facebook page.

sandqich

Preparing For Quilting

To get your calendar ready to quilt you’ll need to make up your ‘quilt sandwich’.  If you’ve never done this before, this video tutorial by Wendi Gratz explains the process beautifully.

quilt sandwich

free motion quilting

Quilting Your Advent

Now that your quilt sandwich is all ready, it’s time you quilt your advent!  The most important thing to remember here is that you CAN’T sew your pockets closed!  We all know we spent forever putting those things together, let’s make sure we can use them. 🙂  When I quilt my advents, all of the quilting is done inside the main design rectangle.  After I’ve quilted that space, I run a stitch all along the outside edge of the Sky fabric.  This last step isn’t necessary, since your fabrics will be sewn together when you bind your advent, but I like to have the extra help keeping all 3 layers in place while I trim and sew on the binding.

If you’re familiar with quilting, consider expanding your quilting techniques by adding a new stitch or design- advent calendars are a great opportunity to try out new stuff.  If you’ve never quilted before, check out the next video in Wendi Gratz’s series for a quick start.  I’ll be adding some more quilting tutorials later in the week so you can see a few different techniques.

Also, just a little note on the buttons- I wanted my snowmen to poke out a bit, so I quilted around them but not on them.  That meant that I could sew on their eyes and buttons before quilting.  If you want to quilt inside the snowmen, wait until you’re done quilting to add the buttons or you might just go crazy sewing around them 🙂

trimming

binding

Binding Your Advent

Last of all, we’ll bind our advents.  Again, for those of you who are new to this, I’ll add a video tutorial to step you through the process.  (I’ve also made up a little reminder image to help us all quickly remember each step of binding- you can find it here) For those of you cutting your own quilt binding, I cut mine 2.5″ wide and it worked perfectly to cover those edges of Sky fabric poking out around my pockets.

Extra Credit:  Next week we’ll be finishing our advent calendars!  Get a head start by by completing step 15- adding the hanging sleeve.

Christmas, Patterns, Sewing · 2 Comments

« Splendid Snowmen Sew Along Week 4
Machine Quilting Tutorial Roundup »

Comments

  1. Marilyn S says

    November 18, 2014 at 3:43 am

    love the video links!!

    Reply
    • Jessica says

      November 18, 2014 at 8:01 pm

      thanks!

      Reply

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Instagram post 2327252897543629252_417393240 It is finally getting warm here and I'm so excited for long days in sunny fields.
Instagram post 2321314328934193695_417393240 Did you know that ladies during the Regency Era often wore a shawl because the breezy empire waist gowns they wore were a little chilly? ⁣
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I've been having so much fun adding historical details to this project. I love the idea of history seeping into a child's mind through play.⁣
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I know it's just a tiny detail, but I wanted our dolls to have shawls because I keep reading about the huge cultural shift that came with the style we see in Jane Austen's time period.⁣
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In a period of about 15 years we went from Marie Antoinette style gowns with huge, structured skirts, to these breezy gowns that might (gasp!) show your silhouette if a breeze came in.⁣
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To the younger generation they were progressive. Napoleon's wife was the one who made the style popular and because of her influence it symbolized a new way of thinking. (Marie Antoinette's way of thinking was, after all, proven slightly ineffective.) ⁣
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Sure, the dress was a little chilly. But it was a way to leave dated ideas in the past. So they grabbed a shawl and moved forward!⁣
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I know that a shawl on a doll won't automatically teach a kid all that history. But it might give us the opportunity to tell the story as we play, and I want to add as many of those opportunities as I can.
Instagram post 2320150626645961038_417393240 What's the best glue gun out there?⁣
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I love the ease of hot glue, but have always found my glue gun work rather sloppy.⁣
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A while back I talked to my good friend Erin from @thegreyrose about this. She is the closest thing to a Glue Gun Expert there is: She uses a glue gun full time to create her amazing felt floral arrangements. Her work is delicate and skillful, which are words I'd never use to describe my own glue gun efforts.⁣
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Her secret is this amazing detail tipped glue gun. (The Surebonder Detail Tip Glue Gun...Please note, this is NOT an ad. No one is paying me to review this thing. I just genuinely like it and thought I'd share.)⁣
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I bought the exact model she uses for her work and I will never go back! For the first time I feel like my hot gluing can be clean and precise. It's amazing what a difference having the right tool can make.
Instagram post 2318523881759128711_417393240 amen.
Instagram post 2316180582466133425_417393240 The bonnets are finished and I'm off to work on top hats and cravats. Because we definitely need a Mr. Darcy Rabbit.
Instagram post 2315017019194132946_417393240 The next Jane Austen play set tutorial is up and running on our blog!⁣
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This week we make bonnets and shawls to complete for our Regency bunnies and I can hardly contain my excitement.⁣
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