Quilty Fun Birthday Cake Banner Tutorial

The Quilty Fun Birthday Cake pattern was designed by Lori Holt, of Bee in my Bonnet.

You can find the free pattern at Fat Quarter Shop's Jolly Jabber.

I went a step further, monogrammed the cake and turned it into a banner.

I'm thinking it's great for hanging on the wall and celebrating your birthday for a week or even a month!

I'm almost through making one for each of my grandchildren and some of my daughters :)

I've created a tutorial for the monogramming and banner.

My first step was to choose my fabric, one of my favorite parts!

I cut out all the pieces and labeled them with Alphabitties which I purchased at the Fat Quarter Shop.

I have two sets, and use them all the time!

There are quite a few half square triangles to sew, I like to use my Omnigrid ruler which I bought as a trio.

Well worth the price, I use them all the time!

My Pentel mechanical pencil helps me draw a nice, thin line.

Drawing a line on the square helps with accuracy.

After a bit more sewing, I have 3 sections of the cake completed.

It's like constructing a puzzle, one piece at a time.

My Quilty Fun Birthday Cake is baked, now it's time to monogram.

I'm baking this cake for my granddaughter Reagan who is turning 5 in November.

I know that purple is her favorite color, but a good purple is hard to find.

I don't have very much purple fabric, but I did have these fat quarters and am very pleased with them.

I added a happy pop of yellow for the cake pedestal.

I like to use Heat n Bond Lite.

 I cut a strip of paper 3 l/2" X 12 l/2", not intending to use the full length this time.

Reagan is only 6 letters and won't take up that much space.

My Heat n Bond paper is 3 l/2" wide, and I want my letters to be 3" tall.  

I used my omnigrid l/2" ruler to draw a l/4" line on top and on bottom, leaving me room to draw my 3" letters.

I drew the letters backwards, or reverse.

On close inspection, I noticed that the "G" wasn't backwards!

There we go, I just drew another one!

If you would like some templates of letters to trace, you can look here.

Cut a white piece of fabric 4 l/2" wide X 12 l/2" long, to sew the letters on.

Find the center of the fabric strip by folding in half and making a little crease with your finger.

Press the letters that are drawn in reverse, to the wrong side of the fabric.

Cut the letters out, on the drawn lines.

Whoops, I drew my "N" the wrong way!!!

That was an easy fix...no matter how many years you've been sewing, mistakes still happen!

Peel off the waxy paper backing and lay the letters on the white fabric.

Notice the center crease in the fabric that lets me see where the center is.

Aurifil 50 weight is my favorite thread to sew with.  

I have lots of white, but not many colors.

I think I'll use the lighter pink.

I machine appliqué the letters with a blanket stitch.

The monogrammed piece is ready to sew onto the cake.

I cut the borders of the banner from "sprinkles" fabric, perfect for little girls!

The side border pieces are cut first.

Cut 2 - 2 l/2" X 18 1/2"

Great, the side borders are sewn on :)

The top and bottom borders are next.

Cut 2 - 2 l/2" X 16 l/2"

Yay, the borders are finished!

I'm auditioning 2 fat quarters for the binding.

I don't want yellow or purple, I want the binding to accentuate the purple cake and bow, and yellow pedestal.

I think the plain light pink will work really well!

Here's a closeup.

I think the herringbone is too busy...

Unfortunately, the cute little print on the light pink won't show up.

I like to cut my binding strips 2" wide.

I cut 4 of them out of a fat quarter, 22" long.

This is the backing I'm going to use for my cake banner.

It's whimsical and sunshiny looking :)

When I quilt my cake banner, I stitch in the ditch along the entire cake, pedestal and bow, with my walking foot.

I'd rather not quilt over the cake, and stitching in the ditch makes the cake pop, almost looking textured or three dimensional.

I sandwich my banner with the top, warm and natural batting and the backing, pin it and begin quilting.

When I'm done with my jigsaw machine quilting, I trim the banner.

All trimmed and ready to bind.

I sewed the binding around the banner.

If you'd like to know how I do this, I have a tutorial.

Here's a closeup of the jigsaw quilting, and I don't quilt over the letters.

I like to use these Clover clips instead of pins, to hold the binding in place.  

I love hand stitching the binding, I find it very relaxing.

I finished my Quilty Fun Birthday Cake banner!

Here's a look at the back.

I hope you enjoyed my tutorial.

If you have any questions, please email me.

I love comments too :)

Handmade Birthday Club 2014

It's Holli's birthday this month, she's in our handmade birthday club.  It's my birthday this month too :)
I'll show you all the gifts I receive later this month.

Holli said that she has never made a needle book for herself.

I made this cute little "Zakka" style book.

Don't you love the teeny weeny little cherries?

I love the Norwegian style little boy that I fussy cut, also.

I used an antique button for the closure.

I made a little patchwork on the back cover and hand quilted it.

The loop is a hair elastic :)

You can find the tutorial for this needle book here on my Pinterest board, "random tutorials".

I used a pale yellow piece of wool felt for the pages.

I really love all the little details.

This needle book is really small but a lot of time and thought went into making it, I sure hope Holli likes it!

Lined Fabric Basket Tutorial

I love scraps of fabric and I love fabric baskets.

I made a pink scrappy fabric basket, and am sharing the tutorial with you.

I used the "quilt as you go" method.

I found the tutorial for that on Pinterest, here is the link.
I'm plannig on making Amy Butler's Weekender Travel Bag using this method of quilting :)

Thank you "Oh, Fransson!"

I cut a piece of muslin (or any other fabric you would like for your backing - it won't show) and a piece of warm and natural batting, 13" X 17".

I added scraps of fabric, following the tutorial above, for "quilting as you go".  

Here's my completed piece of quilting.

I trimmed the above piece and subcut it into 4 rectangles, measuring 6" X 8" each.

I cut another piece of muslin and warm and natural batting, 

8 l/2" X 8 l/2".

I quilted it and trimmed it to an 8" square.

This square will be the base of the basket.

Next, sew all four rectangles together, using a l/4" seam.

You will have a square of pink quilted scraps :)

Sew the base (8" X 8") to the square.

Now cut your lining, an 8" square, and 4 rectangles, 6" X 8".  

I also cut Pellon interfacing in each of these measurements and ironed them to the wrong side of the lining.

I used this Pellon, which adds lots of body to the basket.

I sewed the rectangle lining pieces together and formed a square.

I sewed the 8" X 8" base to the square, making sure to leave a 6" opening to allow for turning.

I left the 6" opening in the middle of the seam.

Keep the lining with the right side in the middle, the wrong side out.

Place the quilted piece inside the lining piece so the right sides are together.

Line up the edges of the basket so they are even, and pin.

Sew around the top of the basket, using a l/4" seam.

Remove the pins and turn right side out through the opening in the lining.

Press the top edge, and top stitch on the outside.

Now you just have to close the opening in the lining.

You can pin it like this and slip stitch the opening closed by hand with a needle and thread.

Another option is to pull the lining away from the quilted basket and sew the opening closed by machine.

I chose this method :)

My completed basket!

I love it!

You can really make it any size you want.

This basket is square, but you could make a rectangle one too.

I added some pink fat quarters to my pink fabric basket.

I took a photo of my basket from every side so you can see the different patchwork.

You don't have to use your basket for fat quarters, you can use it for all of your pink scraps.

I have a lot of pink fabric!!!

 Could it be because I have 7, soon to be 8 grand daughters?

Maybe I just love the color pink :)

This fabric basket was inspired from the quilt book 
"Sunday Morning Quilts".

They suggest making a basket in each of the colors of your scraps.

Wouldn't that be fun?

This book would be a great addition to your library,
you can buy it here.