A traditional way to celebrate the fun and festive holiday of St. Patrick’s Day is to wear something green. Here at Princess YellowBelly we want to take it a step further, and challenge you – and ourselves – to make something green.
We’ve made two mug rugs [aka potholders or hot pads] that are green, Irish-inspired, and just plain fun!
All the details on the Shamrock Mug Rug creation process is in this article. In this article, we’ll be sharing how we made the leprechaun hat pot holder – which is just a teensy bit harder, but can still be finished in just 1 Hour!
Or make up your own green piece of Irish magic! Table toppers, your own mug rug design, crochet, knitting, felting…let’s just have some fun with it!
4. Sew all around template leaving a ¼ inch allowance with the outside line and your stitching line.
5. Remove template – gently! If you can pull it loose from the stitching line without tearing it, you can use it again and again.
Make a Leprechaun Hat Pot Holder Steps 6-12
Now it’s time to do the beautiful details:
6. Cut out shamrock. Leave a ¼ inch seam allowance between where you cut and the stitching line. Snip the points – it’ll pucker if you don’t.
7. Turn shamrock right side out, gently, through the turning slit.
8. Gently push out the seams and points using a corner turner
9. Iron flat, front and back
10. Sew turning closed by hand! Use a hand sewing needle, matching thread, and a whipstitch.
11. Cut apart your paper template; the top oval of hat, the band, and the shamrock
12. Pin shamrock template on gold fabric, band template on black fabric, and cut out.
FINISH Making a Leprechaun Hat Pot Holder! Steps 13-15
13. Place top hat oval on the top of the top hat, and trace the bottom edge in chalk – then quilt this line as you like (straight stitch or satin stitch)
14. Pin black band to the hat, and sew it down using a tight, narrow satin stitch.
15. Place shamrock on the band, quilt all around the edge with a satin stitch using the thread you like best – we usually use matching thread for already pop-out detailing
And You’re Done!
Take a second to celebrate and enjoy your new Irish-inspired mug rug – mug rugs if you’ve also made our lucky shamrock potholder! Let us know about your experience in the comments below, and make sure to subscribe so you can stay current with all our great content.
Learn How to Make Cute & Easy Irish-Inspired Mug Rugs / step-by-step green & Celtic tutorial
A traditional way to celebrate the fun and festive holiday of St. Patrick’s Day is to wear something green. Here at Princess YellowBelly we want to take it a step further, and challenge you – and ourselves – to make something green.
We’ve made two mug rugs [aka potholders or hot pads] that are green, Irish-inspired, and just plain fun!
These mug rugs are super-easy to make, and if you want to follow along, we’ll be posting the steps in the days before St. Patrick’s Day (March 17, 2022), if you want to follow along. Or make up your own green piece of Irish magic! Table toppers, your own mug rug design, crochet, knitting, felting…let’s just have some fun with it!
Shamrock Mug Rug Day 1: Steps 1-4
Of the two mug rugs we designed to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, we chose to start with the Shamrock, because it’s the absolute easiest!
Select 5-8 green fabrics ranging from light-dark
Spray starch and iron green fabrics and your backing fabric
Cut 1 ¼ inch strips from fabrics – you need 8 total strips at this width to create the right size for the shamrock, so if you only chose 5 fabrics (like we did), you need to pick a couple of colors to repeat. We chose to start at dark, go to light, and then build back up to dark for our shamrock strip set.
Sew strip set together and iron seams flat
Shamrock Mug Rug Day 2: Steps 5-10
5. Construct turning slit in backing fabric (mark a 2-inch line down the middle of your backing fabric. Sew a narrow satin stitch all around this line, then cut the line open.)
6. Iron 2 layers of batting (these are mug rugs, so you’ll need the extra insulation)
11. Cut out shamrock. Leave a ¼ inch seam allowance between where you cut and the stitching line. Snip the points – it’ll pucker if you don’t.
12. Turn shamrock right side out, gently, through the turning slit.
13. Gently push out the seams and points using a corner turner
14. Iron flat, front and back
FINISHING the Shamrock Mug Rug Day 4: Steps 15-17
15. Sew turning closed by hand! Use a hand sewing needle, matching thread, and a whipstitch.
16. Following the template lines, draw in leaf lines with chalk.
17. Quilt on lines (you can do this with a straight stitch for a quicker finish, or with a satin stitch in a brighter thread for a more stand-out statement)
How the Princess YellowBelly team accepted our own challenge and transformed a Bargello table-topper into a stunning (if we do say so ourselves) farm-to-table runner.
We’ve heard the most dangerous words in the world are “we’ve always done it this way.”
Here at Princess YellowBelly Designs we take a certain amount of pride in the fact that we don’t allow traditional quilting “rules” to define the limits of possibility. Just because quilters have always done it one way in the past doesn’t mean that we won’t try doing something completely crazy just because it might be:
Easier
Faster
More beautiful
More unique
…Or all of those things at once!
Thinking outside the box is a lifelong challenge, and recently we found ourselves challenged to get out of a box we hadn’t even realized we were in.
When one artist wanted to re-imagine one of our favorite original quilting patterns as a more traditional quilt, it kind of shocked us. Somehow we’d gotten into the habit of believing that we were creatively stretching our limits just because we were making new patterns.
What we weren’t asking ourselves was, “are we taking these original patterns to their full potential?”
Taking a Strawberry from Farm-to-Table Runner
One original PYB quilting pattern that we’re very fond of is the “Bargello Strawberry Table Topper.” That one was a lot of work in terms of figuring and technical difficulty – pretty standard for any Bargello design.
It came out beautifully, and we love hanging it on our wall every spring and summer.
After taking a second look at many of our patterns through the lens of “could we do this a different way,” the strawberry stood out to us as one that would be fairly easy to adapt, and possibly mixed with other patterns.
Questions to Help Guide Change
If you’re a fabric artist who likes to adapt and change patterns to serve your own purposes, here’re some of the questions that it’s good to ask yourself before setting out to change a pattern:
What are the elements?
Like a tasty recipe, every pattern is composed of a variety of materials, techniques, and steps. If you want to go about altering a pattern, you need to understand all the different elements in order to understand what needs to be changed, or not. For something as apparently simple as our Bargello Strawberry Table Topper, for example, there’re 4 distinct elements involved:
A Bargello pattern
A shaped outline
Inside-out turn over style
Appliqued (leaves and seed pips)
What – if any – elements are changeable?
Some elements can be altered with barely any thought or effort, and others are extremely precise in terms of measurements and outcome.
A Bargello pattern is one of the hardest to make any individual adaptations to because the size, width, and color layering is extremely precise and creates incredibly distinct optical illusions.
On the other hand a simple shape – strawberry outline – can be shrunk or enlarged, flipped, and adapted in dozens of ways without too much figuring.
How much do I want to change this?
If you’re starting with something like a quilting pattern – a rail-fence or pinwheel for example – it’s not too terribly hard to think of shrinking it. We make all different sizes of pinwheel blocks for backgrounds, borders, and table runners.
On the other hand, changing a small, contained pattern – like a shaped wall-hanging – into a full-size quilt requires quite a bit of creativity.
What do I have that would look good with this?
In our case, we had a printed panel of an original photo that we’d had made up for our shop. The strawberry fruit smoothie in a fine-dining setting makes for an eye-catching piece, and we’ve always wanted to do something more with it.
How well do the new elements match up?
We realized that the sizing of the two elements we had that were easily adaptable – the strawberry outline and the printed photo panel – were very close in size already. So we decided not to get too crazy and make a whole quilt, just a table runner.
How much time do I want to spend?
Making a big quilt takes time. Making a super-complicated wall hanging takes time. Making a table runner / table topper / baby quilt doesn’t take nearly as long – usually. We’ve got a lot of big projects already planned out this year, and we didn’t feel like adding a whole other quilt – and the 1-4 months investment in time.
So, we decided to change the Bargello Strawberry pattern from a single large table topper to a printed photo panel & shaped applique table runner.
What do I not have to figure out on my own?
As quilters and fabric artists we have a tendency to collect patterns. We’re especially fond of those that come in the little baggies at the quilt store, with a unique pattern and a simple style with as few specialty rulers as possible.
Lo-and-behold, we had a table runner pattern that was very generic, diamonds, triangles, 9-patch squares, and half-square triangles, that fit the measurements of our printed photo panel nicely.
Bringing the Strawberries from Farm-to-Table
It took us about a week of mornings, an average of 4 hours a morning for 5 days, to figure out how we wanted to transform the pattern to our own design.
Some of the challenges we faced included:
“Cropping” the strawberry smoothie printed photo panel to the right size (without losing any of the detailing that makes it so special)
Re-sizing the strawberry outline to fit the same size background panel as the strawberry smoothie block
Changing the Bargello pattern on the interior of the shaped strawberries to be reasonably easy and quick without sacrificing the visual effect (the whole point of using the Bargello pattern in the first place was to create the illusion of a “real” strawberry)
Figuring the 9-patch blocks to best fit in with the colors of the strawberry printed fabric we used for the outer triangles
Finding the right color big-block sashing strips to separate the jewel-tone greens and reds of all the different strawberry elements.
Overall, it was a simple and entertaining project. The result was better than we’d originally envisioned, and we discovered a much, much simpler way of creating the optical illusion effect on the shaped strawberries alone!
Once we were done tweaking our strawberry pattern, the table runner pattern, and our original printed photo panel, nothing looked much like it had to start with.
The result was – if we may be allowed a bit of a brag – stunning!
Want to Know How to Make Your Own “Farm-to-Table” Runner?
We took careful pictures and videos of every step of the process of creating this beautiful, strawberry farm-to-table runner, and we’ve turned it into an easy-to-follow video.
A few months ago an enterprising artist had an idea for us on how to change up one of our original patterns. It was such a fascinating idea that we offered her a series of gifts:
A FREE quilting pattern for Freedom Flight (the pattern she was interested in changing)
FREE access to the video tutorial series
Exclusive access to our help (if and as needed)
In exchange, we wanted the rights to publish her story, and follow along as she worked on adapting it. If and when she does need our help, we’ll do it via a Zoom call and then publish those videos for your viewing and learning pleasure.
In short, we saw a fantastic, fantastic opportunity to grow our own creative reach. I’m about to tell you that you have an opportunity to:
Get in on the Action!
Get any original pattern by Princess YellowBelly FREE!
Also get complimentary access to any supplementary tutorial materials – videos, articles, pictures, etc.
And get the kind of exclusive access to us that Carrie’s enjoying
That’s right! If you choose to take advantage of this offer, you won’t have to pay a cent for any one of our unique, tested, hard-won and original patterns that inspires you. We’ll send you the original pattern of your choice, access to any video tutorials we might have, and give you inside access to our hands-on help and advice, completely free.
How to Take Advantage of this Unprecedented Offer
I’d love to be able to just offer any-and-everyone this kind of insider access. Unfortunately, though, we do have to put some limits on this opportunity.
One thing that we’ve found about Princess YellowBelly is that our creativity grows from the creativity of others. Each unique artist, each Seam Ripper Champion that we’ve had the privilege of meeting and learning from has made us better.
In short, your creativity is both inspirational and vital to us.
Most Important: Have a Creative Idea
What we want – what we’re actively looking for – are your ideas of our designs. How can you think to change, update, and transform the patterns that we’ve spent so much time and love changing and transforming ourselves.
Take a look at any of the original quilting patterns in our Shop; Freedom Flight, My Pad, The Christmas Bells; and think of how you’d like to do it differently.
Would you like to change The Christmas Bells pattern (coming soon) into a runner, rather than a topper?
Could “My Pad” be made into a centerpiece for a (more) traditional quilt like Carrie’s doing with Freedom Flight?
If you’ve got an idea for us, here are the conditions to meet in order to get that FREE pattern, insider access, and supplemental tutorials.
For Newsletter Subscribers
If you’re a newsletter subscriber, congrats! Not only do you have FREE insider access to our newest content, insider access, and first-look privileges, (not to mention a copy of our 52 Fabric Art Success Tips), now you can take advantage of this offer in four easy steps.
All you (loyal subscriber) have to do is:
Open your email
Find any one of our newsletter issues
Hit “Reply”
And tell us about your brilliant idea
We’ll review your idea, offer any answers or suggestions that we can, and set up your first sharing article and receipt of your new PYB original pattern – and support elements.
For Non-Subscribers
If you’re not a subscriber yet…what are you waiting for?!?
Seriously, though, if you’re not a subscriber you’re still more than welcome to participate in this challenge and win yourself a FREE pattern, plus all the supplemental materials.
All you have to do is purchase something from our Store; anything at all:
Once you’ve purchased something from us, all you have to do is Reply to one of the confirmation emails, let us know that you’ve got an idea to change one of our original patterns, and Bob’s your uncle!
Or you could subscribe to our newsletter, and Reply to any of your “Welcome to the Family” confirmation emails.
Your choice.
We really do hope that you take advantage of this unique and brand-new opportunity to participate in our ongoing fabric art adventure! We’re all about building a community that supports real quilting creativity (what we call “quiltivity). We want to both preserve and update the traditions and memories of those who came before us, and impart this artistic passion to a new generation.
Please join us! We can’t wait to see what you come up with.
Do you like to rescue – salvage – materials for use in your arts-and-crafts projects? From quilting to felting, from beading to cross-stitch, it can be difficult to find ways to salvage materials and incorporate them in ways that look like beautiful art, and not thrift-store rejects.
Here at Princess YellowBelly Designs we love to save whatever we can and reuse it where ever it’ll work best:
Buttons off old clothes make the eyes of fabric animals
Salvaged trim off the neckline of an old T-shirt can substitute for a ribbon
Old crocheted doilies from the antique store can help create a beautiful pattern quickly and easily
Plus we keep all of the cutting scraps from our fabric that’s over about two-inches wide and 3 inches long for patching, mosaics, small appliques, and more.
Recently, we were privileged to meet a hobby-artist whose fabric passion is tying fleece. And her unique perspective on accepting a rough hand – badly damaged “brand-new” materials – salvaging what was there, and creating something truly beautiful has touched our hearts. We’re so excited for you to meet:
Fabric Salvage Artist Susan Rusie
You made some gifts for a friend out of fleece – what was the inspiration/motivation behind that?
I remember a couple of years ago, I wanted to make a family friend a tie blanket with her favorite team and alma mater, Purdue.
This is a family friend that I’ve known all my life. Her parents and my parents were both best friends. My dad and her dad met in college. My mom and her mom met in nursing school.
She had just been diagnosed with breast cancer and I wanted to send her something to cheer her up.
What a touching angle! May I ask; what happened with your friend, why the tied fleece blanket, what was the deeper personal connection with her alma mater…?
My friend had discovered a lump in one of her breasts and got herself checked out as soon as she could. The lump ended up being malignant. Fortunately, it was caught early enough and all of the cancer was able to be removed.
Susan Rusie is actually a friend of Suzanna’s from her day-job world of copywriting and marketing.
I’m grateful to her because I know that she’s a part of the vibrant, energized community of passionate writers and creative geniuses that my daughter finds so much support and joy in.
Susan lives is Louisville, KY.
I love making tie blankets and it’s been something I like to make for friends and family to give as gifts. I knew it would be something she would appreciate and get a lot use out of and she does.
She and her brother and older sister all attended and graduated from Purdue, so her whole family always roots for Purdue anytime they play anyone else.
In your case, the materials arrived damaged. Why did you decide to “make the best of it” rather than trying for a refund? Did you enjoy the challenge…or was there a time constraint?
Have you ever had a project you needed or wanted to do, but found out that you weren’t going to be able to do it the way you planned?
This is an area where it pays off to be a creative thinker.
I had to special order four yards of material from Amazon so it would be a full-size fleece tie blanket for an adult.
When the material arrived, I checked it over.
To my dismay, a little over 3/4 of the way down, I noticed a hole right in the center of the material.
My husband asked me if wanted to return the material, but I said “No, I’m going to do something different. It’s going to be a pain to return it.”
I don’t mind a good challenge if I see a creative solution that will still give me get the result I want. Fortunately, I had no time constraint, other than that I wanted to start on it right away so she could get it sooner.
We all know what it’s like to have something go against us. How did you start the salvage process of thinking outside of the box?
So, I cut off the part that had the hole in it and turned that section that was left into a scarf and two throw pillows.
There was enough of the Purdue material to make both the scarf and throw pillows double sided.
I’m curious as to the process behind these thoughts. Did you have a scarf pattern, was that just what the strip that was left looked like? How much fabric did the hole end up costing you?
Watch the Full Interview
I didn’t have a pattern to use for the scarf.
I just folded it over horizontally and guessed on the amount of material I would need to make it, but I had to make sure I used enough material so I would have room to create the fringes I would need to tie them together.
Once I finished with the scarf, I folded the rest of the material horizontally and cut that piece right down the middle vertically so I had two separate folded pieces to create the two throw pillows.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t make the tie blanket double-sided to make it big enough for an adult.
It would have been a half a yard shorter than I would have liked. It might have worked for a shorter adult, but it would have been a better sized tie blanket for a child.
So I went into my local Joann Fabrics and bought black fleece to finish the blanket.
Why did you order the fleece from Amazon to begin with if you had a local Joann’s?
I would have purchased the Purdue fleece fabric if my local Joann’s Fabrics carried it, but it wasn’t available in my area. I had to special order it from Amazon.
I then went over to Joann Fabrics and bought another four yards of black fleece material to use as the backing for the tie blanket itself. I also bought some poly-fill for the throw pillows.
I still had enough fleece material to make a decent-sized tie blanket once I bought the black fleece material for the backing.
The overall project was probably in the $60 to $70 range after it was all said and done. It probably would have been less if the Purdue material had been on sale.
How About Getting Some More Fabric Art Salvage Ideas?
I don’t know about ya’ll, but I feel totally inspired by Susan’s story. Her natural thriftiness, her ease in circling around a problem to find a solution rather than simply sending the damaged stuff back, and her heart for her friend are all such valuable mindsets for any quilter or fabric artist to have.
Just re-reading our article I already had an idea about how to save some stuff that I’ve been thinking of either sending back or giving away.
If you’d like to hear more from Susan (not to mention all the other unique fabric arts we keep meeting), please subscribe to our FREE fortnightly newsletter. Among other upcoming great content, we’re scheduling a call with Susan so that we can brainstorm a little bit more about salvage ideas and the thrifty mindset.
“Can you use a shaped wall hanging pattern as the centerpiece square of a traditional quilt?”
If that question sent shockwaves down your backbone, then you’re not alone! That deceptively simple little question sent ripples out into our curiosity. It’s inspired our interest, our creativity, and it’s suggested a whole new section that we hope will prove to not only be insightful into the arts of quilting and pattern alteration – but also inspirational for your own quiltivity!
Welcome!
Join Us for One Pattern’s Journey from Idea, to Wall Hanging, to Heirloom
As of this moment you’re invited to embark on a new journey with Princess YellowBelly and our newest artistic friend on the ever evolving journey of one of our very favorite original patterns.
Arguably our single most popular item ever is our soaring red, white, and blue shaped American eagle wall hanging.
“Freedom Flight” was created as a celebration of the Fourth of July several years ago.
Since we first put it up, it consistently has the most views, often by the day, and certainly by the month and year. And it easily leads the field in our original pattern shop, as well.
An Intriguing New Design Idea
Just a couple of weeks ago we received an interesting question via our Etsy.com store.
Carrie asked us: “I am thinking of using the pieced eagle as the centerpiece of a quilt. Do you think it would work to piece this onto a base fabric that could be used in a traditional quilt?”
Fascinating.
At Princess YellowBelly we spend an awful lot of time trying to figure out how to turn more traditional quilting patterns into shaped wall-hangings, but we’d never thought of turning one of our original designs back into a traditional quilt!
We sent back an answer that we thought would be useful – and I’ll share that a little later. However, as helpful as we were trying to be, we got to thinking that this question deserved much closer attention, and Carrie’s ingenuity deserved a lot more support from us.
Let’s Figure it Out Together!
There’s a lot of icky, picky details to try to figure out if you go around adapting other people’s existing patterns.
Especially something like Freedom Flight, which is already “abnormal” to an extent, and which we’ve played with and perfected until it’s a pretty much self-contained pattern.
So after we sent off that early response, we reached back out to Carrie and asked her if she’d like a little bit more help on trying this incredibly interesting – and potentially difficult – creative adventure.
She Said Yes!
While Carrie goes about re-creating Freedom Flight as the centerpiece of a very, very special heirloom quilt, she’ll be generously sharing her story with us.
A Loving Mother’s Self-Made Trap
Carrie, in her own words, never planned on doing this type of super-creative quilting.
“I’m not really a quilter – I much prefer handwork, crochet, embroidery, stuff I can do in the car or while watching TV!
But I dug myself a hole in 2014, when I made our oldest child a high school graduation quilt (mostly embroidered silhouettes of Paris and hand appliquéd PARIS down the center squares) and thereby set the precedent of having to make the younger children quilts as well for their graduations.
The most recent one was a college graduation for her younger sister last May. I’m now working on brother’s high school graduation – set for May 2022. He wants to go to a Service Academy, so I’m just using a patriotic theme. I’ve hand appliquéd USA onto individual squares and also embroidered words:
Courage
Discipline
Honor
Duty”
Wow! In my opinion, that’s brave, and that’s a real show of love – doing something you don’t particularly enjoy just because you want all of your kids to know that you care for them equally, and you want them to have something to remember forever.
I started quilting for the same reason (my kids were little), but I enjoyed quilting to start with.
Getting this Party Started
Which is why I’m so honored that Carrie chose our pattern to complete her journey with. Especially since Carrie hand-pieces her quilts!
“All the while, I don’t have a pattern that I’m following – just kind of making it up as I go. And trying to do as much by hand as I can, since that’s actually what I really enjoy. When I saw your eagle pattern, it looked like something that I could piece by hand and then appliqué onto a background fabric.”
Piecing together a bunch of different squares around a central theme and without a formal pattern is something we do a lot of ourselves. And while it’s tricky, it also makes for amazing and unique quilts.
At this stage of her project, this is what Carrie is working with:
A digital download pattern of Freedom Flight (which includes step-by-step instructions, graphic illustrations, and a master template)
And access to a step-by-step video tutorial series, as well
She also has the outer-border squares that she’s already appliqued and embroidered
Access to Our Hands-On Help
In exchange for being able to share Carrie’s story, and pictures of how she adapts Freedom Flight in her heirloom quilt, we’re offering her hands-on help and access to our ideas and brainstorming.
Depending on what issues Carrie may or may not have, we’ll keep adding updates:
In articles
Social media posts
Pictures
Possibly videos
That last one, videos, may come about if Carrie wants to talk to us directly, probably via a Zoom call.
In our next article we’ll share the advice that we initially gave Carrie – which was basically our personal experience with putting shaped centerpieces onto background squares. We shared several different ideas, and we’ll see which option she does decide to go with. (The hand-piecing should add an interesting element).
Welcome to a new segment for Princess YellowBelly Designs! We’ve shared amazing artists with you before (and we’re about to again), but we’ve realized that there’s another kind of category.
Really we should have figured it out before, because it’s our own category. And it’s artists’ sharing their creativity so other’s can use their ideas.
It’s a beautiful place to be.
And since we’ve narrowed it down, we’ve realized that a lot of these wonderful artists are in the sphere of Etsy. Again, it shouldn’t have surprised us because we ourselves got our start on Etsy.
Yet we didn’t think of sharing our unique product suppliers – patterns, knickknacks, specialty beads, trims, and ideas in general – until we purchased a very special pattern.
How We Met a Unique Product Supplier
And now we at Princess YellowBelly Designs would like to introduce to our first brave, unique, and wonderful Unique Product Supplier: Laura from Slice of Pi Quilts.
What made you start creating your own patterns?
Joining Instagram! A friend encouraged me to join the social media platform to share my quilts. Once I did, I found a wonderful community of other quilters that I had no idea existed! Other people began asking for patterns for the quilts I was making, and it turns out, that was my dream job!
What inspires you?
I’m *always* hunting for quilt inspiration! I take photos of floor tiles, tissue boxes, walls, shadows…anything and everything that catches my eye. I keep those photos in a folder in my phone, then I scroll through them when I’m in the mood to start a quilt!
Why do you enjoy making your own patterns – and inventing your own techniques?
When I made my first quilt, I had no idea what I was doing. I watched YouTube videos and called my mom and grandmothers dozens of times to ask questions. I loved the thrill of figuring it out! I promised myself right then that I wanted to try something new with every quilt that I made!
Biography
I’m Laura! I’m a quilter, pattern designer, deal hunter, and homeschooling mom of three boys! I’m also an ex-math teacher – and with a last name like Piland – there’s a strong love of pi in our house!
I started quilting in 2010, then started Slice of Pi Quilts in 2016. I have made over 400 quilts in that time! I love inspiring others to quilt and am always trying something new!
I live outside of Kansas City, MO.
*We’ve used your Hydra scales pattern ourselves (and it’s awesome!)In fact, hang around till the end, and we’ll give you a glimpse of just what we did with Laura’s pattern…
How did you come up with that one? How many different places/ways have you used it?
That’s such a fun quilt! I had just finished making a quilt with prairie points, and wondered if I could make other shapes instead of triangles.
Turns out, you can!
Teresa Coates of Shannon Fabrics made the quilt using their Cuddle! I think that’s a brilliant use of the pattern! Wouldn’t it be so fun to make each scale with a different textured fabric! What a great baby quilt that would be!
What materials do you use?
I’m always trying new tools and techniques, but I do sometimes use non-traditional fabric too! I have made quilts with selvages, minky, fleece, lace, and even rayon fabric!
How long does it take to design something new?
Sometimes, inspiration strikes and I can’t scribble the design on the back of a napkin fast enough! Other times, it takes months for an idea to simmer long enough to be ready for cutting up fabric.
How many have you made in all (or a rough estimate)?
I have finished 403 quilts since 2010. Yes, I have a spreadsheet! That does not include other projects like pillowcases, zipper pouches, or other non-quilty projects, which I usually have a dozen or so of those each year too.
What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever made?
It’s not sewing, but I recently made a giant white flower fascinator with cardstock and hot glue for a local Kentucky Derby themed party! I even won first prize for it!
Do you do any selling or displaying at fairs?
I teach quilting to kids in our local 4-H club, and they display their quilts at our county fair! I do not sell any quilts, but I will occasionally take quilts to the local quilt show.
How do your boys and homeschooling affect your quilting passion?
Our days are definitely a blend of school and work! While the boys are doing school, I’m often multi-tasking and filling pattern orders or writing a blog post. The boys are also quick to point out barn quilt blocks, quilt shops, or quilts in books and movies!
Coming soon…
What’s new or coming next for you?
I have three new quilt patterns coming out next month! I’m working behind the scenes now on making the samples and finalizing the patterns!
What’s the best place for our readers to find and/or contact you?
If you’re on Facebook or Instagram, I’m Slice of Pi Quilts there.
And whatever else you do, I highly recommend that you sign up for my newsletter on my website!
Princess YellowBelly Highly Recommends Slice of Pi
Laura is, in our humble opinion, a brilliant artist. We can also tell you that we’ve made her Hydra scales pattern for ourselves. Her pattern style is clear, cohesive, easy to follow, and really a lot of fun.
From all those hundreds of little hydra scales, we managed to adapt and change her idea to suit our needs.
*Incidentally, that’s a great metric for whether or not a pattern is good: it should be easy to adapt.
Now that we have the Hydra Scales pattern, I know that we’ll be using it many, many times in the future. Probably – sorry Laura – in ways that our wonderful Unique Product Supplier wouldn’t even recognize.
If you want to, you can watch the whole interview with Laura, FREE, on our official YouTube channel. If you want to be notified (and reminded) when we next go live with a unique artist like Laura, subscribe to our newsletter! It’s fast, it’s free, and you get a great gift as well.
Here at Princess YellowBelly Designs we’re all about quilts and every type of related quilting project, but driving all of our passion and interest in these types of fabric art is a deep love for a quilting life.
Like everything else in life, and in fact, life itself, quilting is a journey.
And that journey takes us through so many techniques and pursuits of joy and creativity, passion and struggle, hard work and results that it really becomes a totally consuming lifestyle. Or at least, that’s how it’s been for me. What started as a part-time hobby has become a whole business, and as I look at the art on every wall and every bed in my house, I can honestly say I’m on the path of living a quilting life.
The Imperfections of a Quilting Life
There is no way you can simply sit down at your sewing machine one day and sew a beautifully crafted quilt. It takes a lot of learning and practicing to get it right.
And by ‘right’, I don’t mean perfect.
Not Perfect – But it’s not bad…
You know how in recipe books the pictures of the dishes of food are always so beautiful and perfect? I have been cooking for decades and my finished dishes rarely look like those perfect pictures!! But they do taste great!
This is because the dishes in those pictures had to be made inedible in order to look that great. Suzanna took a college photography course once where she learned all about how to completely yuckify normal good food in order to perfect it:
How to replace ice cream with Styrofoam
How to glue hamburgers together
And how to paint dewdrops on with more glue and a glitter gun
Just like those food pictures, the photos on the quilting patterns are taken to create the illusion of perfection – which is unachievable for the vast majority of us.
Note: Not that I’m blaming anyone. I’ve watched Suzanna create “perfection” out of my admittedly beautiful, but definitely imperfect, quilts using the right camera angles, carefully staged rooms, and an almost freakish attention to detail.
My Top Tips to Living a More Productive & Fulfilling Quilting Life
But, I have discovered that the more time you take to do things right, the more amazing a project will look and the happier you will be with the finished result. And let’s face it fellow quilters, we walk this way on a quilting life path because it fills a need we have to create and the way we accomplish this is through quilting.
So, just like life, let’s strive to quilt the best we can – not perfectly – but as close as humanly possible.
We do this by doing each step as right as we can and the end product will be great!
Give Yourself Time to Do Each Step Right
Make a promise to yourself that you will take the time to perform each step and task in the quilting process to the very best of your ability.
Set your mind to it and remind yourself of it firmly whenever you are tempted to fudge, skip or ignore something. It always helps me to remind myself that whatever I’m making will likely –hopefully – outlive me, and I really don’t want the posthumous humiliation of my descendants being so underwhelmed or even embarrassed by my quilts that they sell them in garage sales!
Learn New Techniques Continually
Many things that look hard or impossible in many patterns aren’t really. I’ve found that one of the redeeming graces of most quilters is that they love to share their knowledge. You can find the know-how you need in quilting friends, quilting books and patterns and quilting videos. Isn’t YouTube a beautiful thing?! I have found that there is a YouTube video for almost any technique I want to learn and watching someone else explain it helps a WHOLE LOT!
And it’s free – which quilting books and patterns are not, and YouTube doesn’t take up any space on your shelves!
And, if you like our unique and original patterns and designs – you’re more than welcome to browse our shop of original printed photo panels and quilting patterns.
Don’t Be Afraid To Strike Out and Create Your Own Path to a Quilting Life
A lot of the patterns I’ve created have started with a common enough technique and then, as I think about what I want to achieve, my brain supplies alternate routes for getting there. If it doesn’t work, no one will ever know, and if it does, people will declare you a genius – or at least your family will.
Before using a new technique on a large project such as a quilt, try it out on something smaller instead so that you can practice and tear out and practice and tear out repeatedly if you have to without struggling with a large quilt or ruining it.
Time Is Your Friend!
Nothing has to be completed today, or even this week. The carefuller you are – I just made that word up – the more time it will take, so don’t rush. Enjoy the process instead. Remember, it’s all about the journey.
And speaking about time being on your side – it’s on my side to.
I have a whole other article about practical tips that will help you grow in a quilting life and lifestyle, and I’ll publish it, in good time. If you want to be sure not to miss that article – and all the other great exclusive content and reminders that you’ll get in our newsletter, please subscribe today, 100% FREE.
When you put in your name and email address you’ll also receive instant access to our 52 Fabric Art Success Tips report, a $22.95 value!
Subscribe today. It’s risk free, SPAM free, money free – and value packed.
It’s December – again! How’d that happen? We’ve got to start baking, stringing bright lights, and decorating. Of course, that brings up a good question; “how to decorate for Christmas?” We’ve all be decorating for Christmas for years, and sometimes it can feel a little like we’re doing the same things over and over again.
We want to be able to keep Christmas bright and fresh for our families, so we can keep creating those warm connections with everyone – but how many yards of tinsel can you string?
Well, allow me to suggest a new way to decorate for Christmas with quilts!
Why Christmas Decorations Mean So Much
At first glance Christmas decorations don’t seem like such a much. After all, the real meaning of Christmas isn’t about trees and tinsel.
On a deeper level decorations are very important, however, because they help keep the spirit and magic of Christmas alive.
Warmth, Memory, Tradition
Bright lights
Sparkly tinsel
Big trees
And wrapped presents
Are all a part of the glorious golden dream that we keep in hearts year-to-year. The two things that makes Christmas so special to so many are the emotions and the memories.
This is why we have traditions – for the memories that they produce. Good feelings in the moment make for good memories lead to lasting good emotions. We all use traditions to produce this one/two punch because in the end:
‘Good memories are all that matters!’
Think about the memories you have of Christmases growing up and which ones brought you joy. They are invariably the ones that make you feel at home; where you are cozy, safe and happy.
This eternal home is the place we want to create for our friends and loved ones.
The Norman Rockwell Argument to Decorate for Christmas with Quilts
NOTHING says love, home and warmth like a quilted something. A full bed quilt, a wall hanging, a pot holder, really anything that’s been quilted carries with it a feeling of being homemade, of having been crafted with love.
It instantly throws people here in North America straight back into a Norman Rockwell painting.
Norman Rockwell was so popular because he painted the magic and longing for love and home into his works of art (never mind that the reality was quite different) and you can achieve the same effect with your quilted creations.
Young children especially long for the magic, mystery and warmth that Christmas should bring and the good news is that you don’t have to spend a great deal of time or money to achieve this.
While presents are exciting in the moment, children will quickly forget what they got for Christmas. What seeps into their hearts and bones is the emotions and love that come with it. If you have ever watched that greatest of Christmas movies ‘A Christmas Story’ you will know what I mean.
When Less Is More
However, most of us don’t have the time and resources to do wall-to-wall decorating like you see in those Hallmark Christmas movies.
And really, in some ways that kind of decorating – while visually pleasing – is kind of cold. It’s so perfect it’s unbelievable, and it doesn’t spark the same feelings of warmth that you get from Grandma’s hand-crocheted tea cozies.
So, less can and often is more. You can do a lot with a single tree and a few well-chosen and beautiful smaller pieces that are a part of your family tradition, or tie into your tradition in some way.
With homemade Christmas panels and decorations this is very easy to achieve.
6 Easy Ways to Use Quilted Items to Decorate for Christmas
I always like to do things as quickly and simply as possible. So I have for you here my top six tips for using quilted items to help bring the magic of Christmas right into your home.
#1 – Start with a wall that is a focal point in your house.
At my place, it’s one of my dining room walls. Here I hang my favorite large piece of Christmassy fabric art that I have. Sometimes it’s a panel, sometimes a lap quilt, sometimes a large quilt.
It draws all eyes and the fact that the piece is Christmas themed instantly kicks the Norman Rockwell response into effect.
#2 – Use as many Christmas pieces as possible in the main areas.
If you have more than one Christmas themed item, find similar places around the living areas of your house to display them.
I ignore all private areas such as bedrooms and offices, because who ever looks in there anyway.
#3 – Don’t overlook the small stuff.
Remember that your Christmas fabric art pieces can range from the very small – such as potholders – to the largest of quilts, and that a little goes a long way.
Some years I put out a lot of stuff, some years I only put out the staples, but I always try to make sure that there’s at least one bright spot of Christmas color in every main area of the house. No one’s ever complained!
#4 – Light it up!
I love Christmas lights!!! (It’s entirely possible that I love the lights more than the quilts, but we’ll leave it as a rumor).
Rather than have it look as though Christmas vomited in your house, maximize the homey and cozy effect of your fabric art pieces by adding lights around them. They instantly bring warmth and magic to your home. Use them judiciously – you don’t want to overwhelm and blind people with them, but do use them.
#5 – Always remember that the personal connection is vastly more important that technical perfection when it comes to making good memories.
Make great memories by having your children help you make Christmas decorations that will last, such as placemats, candle holders, fabric wreaths, etc.
You can purchase the wire wreaths at any craft store such as Michael’s, Hobby Lobby, or Joann’s. Then all you have to do is cut strips of Christmassy fabric 6”long by 1½” wide and double-knot each strip around the wire rims. It’s easy, quick, and looks fabulous and will live in your family’s hearts much longer than a store-bought wreath.
For years I bought Christmas ornament kits from Herrschners and the kids and I would spend hours constructing them. All these years later, they are still the favorite ornaments on our tree.
You can also make some of the easier kits and patterns in our store in a Christmas style with kids, or make the more advanced level ones as gifts – so be sure to check it out!
#6 – Think outside the normal “usage” box
Put placemats, potholders and table runners in places and on surfaces where they don’t usually go. This makes people look twice, gives you a lot more scope for the imagination, and gives you much more land for showcasing your talent; and let’s be frank here, which one of us doesn’t enjoy being admired for our talent and creativity!
Enjoy!
Using your own works of fabric art to decorate for the holidays will not only make your home unique and memorable, but it will bring those elusive positive emotions of joy, warmth, safety, and magic with it.
All the best to you and yours this holiday season!
Karyl (aka Princess YellowBelly)
P.S.
If you’d like to share pictures of how you decorate for Christmas with us you can do so privately by emailing me directly – or share publicly on our Facebook page.
And don’t forget to subscribe – FREE – to our fortnightly newsletter so you can stay up-to-date with all the latest news, tips, pictures, and products.
Well folks, the results are in! We had some amazing submissions, and some fun responses. There were a few unexpected finalists – and a truly unexpected winner!
The Finalists
There was a three-way tie for second place, if you can believe it! Apparently everyone else was having nearly as much trouble as we were on picking out the perfect moniker for our handsome jungle tiger.
Those finalists – with 3 votes each – are:
Welcome to the Jungle
Bob
Raja
And our surprise winner – with a solid lead of one vote – is:
Shere Khan
Which is remarkably fitting, actually. “The Jungle Book” was a favorite with my kids, and the dangerous antagonist, Shere Khan, is one of the most iconic villains of the page or silver screen, ever.
In fact, according to Wikipedia – here’s what “Shere Khan” means:
“According to The Kipling Society, the word shere (or shir) translates as ‘tiger’, and khan is a title of distinction, used together “to show that he is the chief among tigers.“
The Kipling Society & Wikipedia
Below you can read the exciting saga of how you – our wonderful readers – helped us to finally pick out the perfect name. And soon, we’ll share the finished product with you!
The Election
It’s time to vote on a name for the tiger quilt! We’ve had some amazing submissions, fun, funky, impressive and lordly. It’s hard to decide which one fits him best, so we’re opening up the floor to our readers.
Please let us know which name best suits our majestic jungle tiger (he thinks he’s soooo special, doesn’t he?)
Update!
We’ve had some submissions for the names, and a bit of voting going on. As of now, we have a clear leader, and several challengers tied neck-and-neck. Voting ends on Saturday, November 14th, so make sure to vote now:
Shere Khan – 4
Welcome to the Jungle – 3
Bob – 3
Raja – 2
Cast Your Vote Now! (or sign up to vote next time)
Your Choices Are:
Welcome to the Jungle – Princess YellowBelly Designs
Fridge – subset of “Welcome to the Jungle” by Anna Oulette (reference to the character from the highly fun “Jumangi” movies)
Shere Khan – Suzanna Fitzgerald (co-designer of the quilt)
Bob – Unique Artist Jolene Noyes
Captain Furry – Karyl Fitzgerald (in memory of my beloved miniature Tiger)
The Boss – Leiajoy Fitzgerald
Raja – Unique Artist Nancy Lattier Hinsey
Pretty good, right? So far “Shere Khan” is in the lead, but that could change with your vote. You can vote by leaving us a comment in the comment section below, or by sending your vote in by express mail:
If you want to see all the details of the tiger quilt, and hear about the construction process, and what our handsome Raja will look like when it’s all completed (“Almost there…”), you can still check out our original challenge article.
For those of you who’re already newsletter subscribers, thank you! You’ve already gotten the inside peak at our Cattastic story and know a few secrets. For those of you who aren’t yet subscribers, we’ve got a special Halloween treat.
For this issue we’re giving you the direct link to the newsletter archive. You can get an inside look at our basic newsletter, the newsletter-only information our subscribers are privy to, and the beautiful pictures and products we like to share.
Or, if you’d rather be part of a dynamic group who might discuss this, you can head on over to our Facebook page and check out comments, more pictures, and updated content all the time.
