Kind of a Tutorial - Fancy Folded Star Ornament

Like I said ages ago - I was going to show you how to make other things with my Moda Bakeshop Fancy Folded Star Tutorial, however work has been keeping both my hands bound lately but I managed to whip up a little ornament at least. If you haven't read or tried my Fancy Folded Star Tutorial before, I strongly suggest you read it all before you start with your ornament as I'll be referring to that tutorial a lot.

Fancy Folded Star Ornament

Simply follow the tutorial on how to make a Fancy Folded Star above, but instead of using 4 FQs  for the star we use 3, and instead if cutting (16) 3" x 4" rectangles from each FQ, we only cut (8) from each. And we replace the 10" x 10" square base from scrap fabric, with a 5" x 5", so you'll end up with this when you've drawn the lines and ironed down the fold on each of the (24) rectangles.

Then decide your layout and lay out the pieces, I placed them slightly closer together then I did for the pot holder version, but you can do as you wish there, your ornament will be smaller the tighter you place them. I wanted a fairly big one so I didn't place them too close. Pin them down, draw a link with disappearing marker and sew them down, continue all the way around for all 8 sections.

Fold them just like you do on the pot holder, stitch down the top two like we did on the pot holder, but don't stitch the last two in place, just pin it.

When all is pinned, replace your pins like this to allow you to draw a circle (I used a suitable small glass bowl with a 5" diameter to trace around) and stitch around it. Before I did this through I added a small button dressed in the sold fabric to the middle of the star and added batting and backing to get a little body in my ornament. Instead of backing fabric you could always add another Fancy Folded star to the back to make your ornament two sided and thereby suitable for the Christmas tree or a window.

After you've stitched all layers in place, cut out your circle with a scant 1/4" seam allowance to the seam, make bias binding and bind your little circle ornament. I added a small hanger fastened in the binding seam on the backside out of white rubber band.

Tada! You're done, your very own Fancy Folded Star Ornament!

If you make your own Fancy Folded Star ornament or any pattern of mine - I'd love if you add it to my flickr group and thereby share it with me and the world so we all can enjoy it and be inspired by it: Not Only Quilts - Share Your Creations <3

On my "design wall" - Test block for Flurry

Last night I made a test block with my cut up Flurry pieces and decided that this was a quilt I had to do and  have done before December, seriously - look how cute the block is! 

So I ordered some backing (and some bleach white Bella solid as I was nearly completely out of white, something that always make me feel a little stressed out) from a place I haven't tried before: 

JB Quilting Fabrics

They where super quick and got back to me at 23 at night on a Sunday as they had a little less of the fabric then I'd ordered so they wanted to know what I wanted to do. Seems like an excellent store and the service so far is amazing, I keep my fingers crossed everything will go as smoothly and that I'll have a new place in the EU to shop for Moda fabrics, yay! =)

Anyhow, I decided to go with Snowfall in Snowdrift for the backing: 

Home sewing is easy!

Yesterday I got an adorable packet from my mother, it contained about half a yard of this amazing fabric "Home sewing is easy" by Alexander Henry. Thanks a lot mum! <3

I really hope I will feel the same way as this lady does about making dresses when it's time for me and Tova, my "sewing student" to make clothes for her class later this month. =)

I'm thinking it will become a bag, but I'm not sure, I really want to let the cool print speak for itself... Any ideas are much appreciated =)

Other then that I've been cutting up some Flurry because I really hope I'll have time to make a Flurry Christmas Quilt before December has come and gone, namely this one:

 

Finally! A finish!

I've finally had some quality time with my beloved Horizon! Who by the way this month will be getting some much needed TLC from a guy from Janome Sweden who comes to Malta for vacation and is kind enough to take a look at my love when he's here on holiday <3 Which is very lucky as no one services Janome (or any slightly computerized machine) here and he's in much need of some help.

Anyhow, I've finally finished my "Thinking of You" pillow! The pattern for it is from Kellie over at Don't Look Now and I was lucky enough to win it earlier this year. I'm the first one to admit that it was not a good idea to attempt a for me very complicated and never before tried FMQ pattern after not having sewn anything at all for months... Despite this I'm quite happy with the result, the pattern was a lot of fun but it took a lot of time to make when you're not used to this kind of work and you only get like 20 minutes of sewing time at the time with weeks in between...

However, the satisfaction when  you're done make it worth every minute and I'll absolutely make more of the pillows in the pattern when I've gathered enough scraps. =)

The eye of the bird is my very first ever french knot BTW, this was really "a pillow of firsts" for me ^^

And while I was at it with the craziness I figured I might as well face all my fears and put in my very first invisible zipper at the back. It was super easy after reading this tutorial over at Sew4Home. Despite me only having a normal zipper foot, I'm very happy with my first try and will absolutely continue to make pillow backs this way! So quick, simple and stylish!

And when I tried to take a picture of it in its place on the couch, of course Diana had to jump in between, start rolling around to get attention and be in the photo too ^^

It feels GREAT to be back to sewing! Now however I'll be entertaining guests for 10 days, Andreas sister,  husband and 3 kids are staying with us so I'm guessing there won't be much sewing done, but you never know. =)