Guinea Pig Baby Blankets

New to my Guinea Pig fabric collection is a Cut & Sew Pattern for a two-sided baby blanket.  The design is printed on one yard of fabric.  You need only cut out the shape, fold, and sew--perfect for beginners.  Remember to choose 1 yard of Sateen or Knit.

Available in three schemes:

Boy
Girl
Gender Neutral.

Coordinates with my other Guinea Pig designs--fabric, wall decals, applique cut outs and wallpaper.

See my video tutorial here (It's the same tutorial that I use for my placemats).

Japanese Brush Floral - Quilting scale

Japanese Brush Floral - Quilter's Scale by Ann Tuck

Here's my latest fabric design that I scaled down for use in quilting or garments.  Japanese Brush Floral - Quilting Scale.  This design was next on my list to scale down, but it probably would have taken me a while to get around to.  Someone was nice enough to contact me and request that I offer it, so I made some time to do it.

Thanks!

See also, my original big bold version of this fabric, and my cut-and-sew placemats using this design.

Japanese Anenome Ditsy Prints

My latest designs to be scaled-down for quilters are my Japanese Anenomes.

Shown here with a Quilter's Piece Preview (By Cottage Mills Inc. available at Hobby Lobby).  Here are how both my Japanese Anenome prints look in regular size and my scaled down ditsy petite versions.

This Coordinates with my Nasturtiums Fresh Collection

This coordinates with my Nasturtiums Fresh Collection

Nasturtiums Ditsy Prints

While I'm scaling-down some of my fabric prints to make them more useful to quilters, I thought I'd tackle my most popular Nasturtiums designs today.  Especially since they have appeared on Spoonflower's Favorites page again today.

Here are how both my Nasturtiums Vintage and Nasturtiums Fresh prints look in regular size and my scaled down ditsy petite versions viewed with a Quilter's Piece Preview (By Cottage Mills Inc. available at Hobby Lobby).

I've always meant to make a short-sleeved shirt dress with the vintage version ditsy nasturtiums.  It has a Liberty of London feel that reminds me of an old dress that has been in the family for ages.  One day....

Nasturtiums Ditsy Petite fabric by Ann Tuck

Nasturtiums Fresh Ditsy Petite Fabric by Ann Tuck

Nasturtiums fabric by Ann Tuck

Nasturtiums Fresh fabric by Ann Tuck

Guinea Pigs for Quilters

Guinea Pig Applique - Quilting Scale Purple by Ann Tuck

Sorry quilters!  I've been neglecting you!

I'm a garment and home decor seamstress, so I've enjoyed making big bold fabric patterns.  It took me a while, but I finally realized that my smaller-scaled patterns were the best sellers, and "huh...why do people just buy little pieces of those fabrics?" "What on earth can you make with such little pieces?"

Duh Ann!!  Quilts!!!

So I took my Guinea Pig Applique Fabric and scaled it down to a size that quilters could use.  (I used a handy Quilters Piece Preview made by Cottage Mills Inc. to make sure I did it right.)  I made the pattern so that it can be used in all directions and I'm offering it in five different colors.

Visit my fabric shop here.
See all of my guinea pig designs here.
These fabrics coordinate with my dot fabrics.

Also see my Guinea Pig Cut-Outs for Wall Decals, Crafts, and Applique, and my cut-and-sew guinea pig throw pillows. Soon, I'll make cut-and-sew receiving blankets available too.

I hope you find these new designs handy.   I'd love to see what you do with them.

Fish Face

6"x6" oil painting by Ann Tuck

Here's a little 6"x6" painting that I just finished.  I'm starting to like doing these little ones.  This one will be for sale at an auction at the end of the week to benefit our local lake.

I haven't decided on a name for it yet.  My first thought, from the look on this fish's face, was "Did I close the garage door?"

Any suggestions?

Cicada Magicicada

"Cicada" by Ann Tuck.  12"x24" Oil on Canvas.

I've always wanted to paint a cicada.  I had in mind to do one of the big green ones that we find where I live, but I couldn't resist doing one of these Magicicadas (the kind that you hear about in the news lately).  She's dressed up for the evening in black with orange trim on her wings.

This painting is 12"x24" oil on gallery wrapped canvas and is available at UGallery with free shipping.  (They let you try it out at home for 7 days).

And since cicadas are the thing these days, I decided to offer a print of it immediately.  See my prints page.

Runic Flea

Flea by Ann Tuck.  16"x20" Oil on canvas.

 So, the flea sketch mentioned in the last post did turn into a painting after all.

I'm all about just painting what I want to paint these days.  Especially after a break for preparing taxes.

I started out with a nice sketchy sketch

and worked most of the painting
 in only burnt sienna and ultramarine blue.

I always end up to adding a patch of cadmium red light for composition anyway, so that's what the runic things are all about--purely for composition.  Since paintings are for the observer to interpret, you can interpret the runes as you like too. (I haven't decided what they mean anyway).

I don't think I'll post this for sale anywhere.  The subject matter may turn people off my um...dog paintings.  If you're interested though, pop me a note.

Little flea

Okay, after a long pause--taxes are done, studio is almost sorted out.  Well.....not quite almost.

I was sitting at the table with my daughter, sketching from her natural history book and I came upon this nice flea.  I don't know why on earth I found a flea charming.  Maybe it's something like dandelions--we control them with chemicals now, and in their rarity they've become charming.

Yes, but a flea?  Really?  It's true, I haven't seen one in years, but I don't really miss them.  I would miss dandelions though.

I was very happy with this little sketch and I thought it would make a nice painting (that no one would want).

Place Mat Tutorial

As promised, here's the sewing tutorial for my reversible placemats.  These placemats are made with Spoonflower's linen-cotton fabric so the finished product has a nice  heavy, high-quality feel.  Two textile designs are used so they're reversible-- You get ten placemats in one set, but you only have to store five.

They're meant to be machine washed and dried, and I've accounted for shrinkage so go ahead and slop away (I do!).

The tutorial below is also for my receiving blanket cut & sew patterns that are sewn the same way.

You can find all of my Cut and Sew Patterns here:

 

TUTORIALS:

If you are a beginner at sewing, you can watch this video tutorial  that I made and then use the illustrated tutorial below for reference.  If you are more advanced, I suggest going straight to the illustrated tutorial below.


Video Tutorial:

Illustrated Tutorial:

After your receive your cut & sew placemats, cut out each placemat pattern piece.

Each piece has two designs to make a reversible placemat.

Fold the piece in half, matching the numbers on the corners.  Make sure the fold falls along the border between the two designs.

Transfer the dot to the  unprinted side of the pattern with a pencil.  This dot indicates the opening that is used to turn the placemat inside-out.  You can start your seam at this mark.

Start your seam at the dot (double-back to reinforce) and continue around all edges until the  fold.  Double-back to reinforce the end of the seam.

Clip the corner EXCEPT the un-sewn folded corner, about 1/8" from the seams.  Clipping will make the corners sharper and neater when we turn the place mat inside out.

Press the seams open on both faces so the edges will be nice and neat when the placemat is turned inside out.  At the opening, fold the edges 5/8" over (like the rest the side).  This opening will be sewn shut when we topstitch the placemat.

Turn the placemat inside out.  Use a chopstick to make the corners nice and sharp, but be gentle so that you don't poke the chopstick through.

Press the corners and edges to make them neat.

Top stitch 1/4" around the edges.  Your placemat is now complete.  Repeat with the other 4 pattern pieces.

Nicole's Nasturtium Chair

Office chair upholstered in Ann Tuck's nasturtiums fabric.

Here's an office chair that my friend Nicole had professionally upholstered in my nasturtiums and dots fabrics. I really love how this turned out--just stunning.

Nicole used Spoonflower's upholstery twill.  The upholsterer loved working with it so much that she later called and asked Nicole where she had bought it.

Fabrics used here are my "Nasturtiums Fresh" and "Red-orange with light blue dots" part of my "Nasturtiums Fresh" collection.

I also have a "Nasturtiums Vintage" collection with a more aged color scheme.

Five new sewing project designs available today

For those who didn't see my post yesterday, I published an animated how-to video and an illustrated tutorial for sewing throw pillows.  Check it out Here:  Now I have the job of uploading lots of cut and sew projects (the pattern for the projects are printed directly on the cloth) for you all to use.

Here are some that I just uploaded today!  Click on the photos for more details.  Each of these designs uses 2 yards of scrumptious linen-cotton cloth.

Chair Cushions:

Chair cushions plus lumbar pillow.  These cushions fit nicely on wicker dining chairs and are perfect on wicker accent chair for the living room.  Don't bother re-upholstering your living room chairs. Just use a wicker chair like this one and change out the pillow covers on a whim (and machine wash and dry them any time someone goops them!).

Orange Geometric, "Happy Orange" as my friend Kim says.  

Okay, I didn't have the pillow fabric for the lumbar pillow here, so I used one of my placemats  wrapped over a pillow form, but you get the idea.  I'm in love with this very cool and modern combo.

Placemats:

Set of five reversible machine washable/dryable Linen-cotton placemats.  See my tutorial here.

Japanese Brush flowers and rectangles.  I made the design using rice paper.

Orange Geometric placemats using my Arrow Flowers, and Geometric Loopy designs.

Watercolor Strawberries and Bees placemats - one side pink and the other  neutral linen color.

More to come!

If you have any suggestions please let me know!

Super easy fold and sew pillows.

Easy fold-and-sew method featured on my video.

Do you have a hand-me-down sewing machine in the closet? Would you love to make throw pillows to dress up your room, but don’t know how? Throw pillows are the perfect first project if you are just learning to sew, but it’s hard to get up the nerve to start a project like that if you don’t have someone at home to show you what to do.  I made a how-to-video and a super-easy method for making pillows that will have your whipping them up in no time.  See my illustrated tutorial and animated video below.

Instantly transform a boring room with pillows.

I'm a mechanical engineer who started to sew before kindergarten, and I get a kick out of simplifying methods for making things. I designed this simple fold-in-half pillow pattern that will help eliminate mistakes and will allow us to squeeze in the most pillows per yard of fabric.

We won’t bother with trying to sew a zipper in—that’s too much trouble. Instead, we’ll use a simple and tidy-looking velcro closure. My patterns also offer the option of skipping the velcro closure and just hand-sew the pillow closed if you prefer. I like velcro option though, because it’s faster and you’ll be able to remove the pillow cover and machine wash and dry it as I’ve already accounted for shrinkage.

Pillow patterns are printed directly on fabric with helpful guides and markings.

To make things really super-easy, I’ve made pillow patterns that are printed directly on fabric with plenty of guides and markings to help you know what to do so you can just cut them out and sew them up. ORDER HERE (remember to choose linen-cotton fabric). (I'm in the process of uploading more of my designs so check back.   There will be more soon!) These are great for expert sewers too—they sew together in a snap. Do you have a great piece of fabric that you would like to use instead? I’ve provided .pdf patterns below that you can use. (Coming Soon!)

For each pillow type, I’ve optimized the number of pillows you can squeeze out of a yard of fabric: 

Three 16” in one yard—perfect for a bed arrangement or both sides of a sofa plus one side chair. 

Two 16” and one 12”x16” lumbar pillow in one yard.—Great for a sofa and chair arrangement because the lumbar pillow is particularly nice for chairs. 

Three 12”x16” lumbar pillows in one yard—I just love this size of lumbar pillows. Not only are they great for an extra-pretty back support on most side chairs, they make the perfect headrest while lounging around on the sofa.  They're my first choice for a living room sofa and chair arrangement, but they're also great scattered here and there around the house to brighten things up.

An assortment of 18”, 16”, and 14” pillows in one yard—Nice for a bed arrangement, or order a set for each side of the couch. You can choose two different sets and mix them up together for an extra-colorful effect. 

Dining and living room chair cushions in two yards. 24” seat cushion, 20” back cushion, and a 12”x16” lumbar cushion. Fits most dining room and living room wicker chairs.  No need to use the specially-shaped seat cushions--These squares work great.  Don’t bother re-upholstering your old living room chair. Replace it with a stylish wicker chair and change (and wash!) the pillow covers as you like.  I like to use Ikea pillow inserts for chairs because they are nice and flat (and very inexpensive).  Ikea's 26" pillow runs small, so it's perfect for the 24" pillow.  (Shown here: Ikea Byholma and Pier 1 Temani chairs)

Complete place setting with 24” and 20” chair cushions plus a reversible placemat and 20” dinner napkin in two yards. Mix and match for variety. 

Five reversible placemats in two yards. Placemats make wonderful gifts and they’re a snap to make. See my sewing instructions here.

Whole table of chair cushions for four chairs—four 24” seat cushions and four 20” back cushions in 6 yards (or two chairs in 3 yards). 

You can order the pillow designs at Spoonflower here:   I chose to use Spoonflower’s linen-cotton fabric. It is really lovely fabric.  The colors print beautifully on it and the natural linen texture only improves with washing.   Again, make sure to order the linen-cotton fabric. Other fabric types aren't as wide, so part of the design will be cut off.  I've also accounted for shrinkage with this particular fabric so you can machine wash and dry your pillow covers. (see the guinea pig pillows photo below to see how they wash up).

Soon, I hope that you’ll be able to find designs by other designers using my patterns there as well. 

You can watch my how-to video below. I’ve included illustrated instructions as well. If you are a beginner, I recommend that you watch the video first and then refer to the illustrated instructions to remind you what to do. If you are a more confident sewer, you can just go straight to the illustrated instructions. 

 See illustrated sewing instructions below.

If this works out well for me, I plan to make other patterns as well--bedspreads, garments, and other fun projects.  You can help me decide what to do next by commenting on this post.  I have a ton of ideas I'd love to work on.

Are you a Spoonflower designer?  You can use my pillow pattern file for free and sell your pillow designs on Spoonflower or Etsy as you like.  Click here for more information and to download my pattern files.

Are you a seamstress who can sew these pillows for others?  I don't have a separate page for you yet, but you can leave your price for sewing and shipping as a comment to this post for now.

Pillow Sewing Instructions - Velcro Closure

Step 1 - Cut out my Spoonflower pattern that is pre-printed on the fabric.  Or use the pattern I provided if you are using your own fabric.

Step 2 - Zig Zag along the short edges of the rectangle to prevent fraying.

Step 3 - Find the velcro guides along the two short sides and cut your velcro to size.

Step 4 - Pin the velcro in place and sew on to the fabric.

Step 5 - Fold in half matching numbers on corners.

Step 6 - Find the seam marks at the ends.

Step 7 - Transfer seam marks to the back side of the fabric.

Step 8 - Make seams at both ends of the velcro to make the velcro opening.  Use the seam marks
as guides and double-back to reinforce the seam at openings.  The seam allowance should be about
1 1/4 inch.

Step 9 - Open the seam.

Step 10 - Press the seam open, being careful not to melt the velcro.

Step 11 - Sew both side seams with 5/8" seam allowance.  Double back at the ends
to reinforce the seams.

Step 12 - Clip each corner, 1/8" from the seam.

Step 13 - Turn inside out using a chopstick to poke out the corners as needed (be
careful not to poke through the corners).  Press and insert pillow form. 

Done!

Pillow Sewing Instructions - Hand Sewn Closure

Step 1 - If you choose not to use velcro, trim off at the ends as shown on the
pattern when you cut it out.

Follow steps 2 to 6 above, skipping steps 3 and 4.

Step 7 - you'll need to mark only the end marks.

Skip steps 8 to 10 above.

Step 11 - make a 5/8" seam around the pillow edges stopping at the end marks.
Double-back to reinforce the seam at the ends, especially at the opening.

Follow steps 12 and 13 above.

Step 14 - Hand sew the opening closed.

Completed pillows (available HERE) - Note the left pillow has a hand sewn closure while the other two  have velcro closures.  You can also compare how the pillows wash up:  The left pillow has not been washed, while the other two have.

I'd like to make a video to show beginners how to use a sewing machine one day, but for now you can try searching YouTube for one. If you’ve found a good one you can recommend, please comment on this post and let me know.