Tell Me a Story! How To

The house focus fabric from my line "Home is Where Your Story Begins,"  by Hoffman Fabrics. Let's see what we can make today!  You will need the Text fabric from this line, and the blue circle fabric and 2 pieces of wool blended felt

Place a sheet of Mistyfuse, a fusible web onto the wrong side of the fabric, from end to end, being careful not to let the Mistyfuse go over the edges.  I am using a bolt of Mistyfuse, but buying the packets, is just fine.  I love Mistyfuse because it doesn't change the hand of the cloth.  The web fuses into the fabric for the perfect fuse.  It doesn't dry out, or flake and there is no paper involved, so I get an even fuse every time.

Cover the Mistyfuse and fabric with a Fat Goddess Sheet, also made by Mistyfuse. Or, you can use Reynolds Parchment Paper, in sections, covering each part, one at a time. This will fuse the Mistyfuse to the fabric.  Using a dry iron on the cotton setting, I run the iron over the surface in a circular motion, making sure that it passes over all of the edges.

Let it cool, before you pull off the Goddess Sheet.  The fused surface should have a sheen to it.  If the Mistyfuse pulls, and strings are visible, it's not done cooking.  So carefully put the Goddess Sheet back over the fabric and press the entire piece again.

With your scissors, cut the unfused edges off the fat quarter, all of the way around. Now fuse all of the coordinating fabrics, so you will be ready to roll

The goal here is to cut around each house, and to get some scenery with it.  Whatever needs to be patched or covered over will be shown here.  Save all of the fabrics that were cut away.  To see more how to's on how to make more art quilts with this "house" fat quarter, click on this link to Hoffman Fabrics

We're going to use the yellow/orange house.  You can scroll down to see the art quilt that we are going to create. It's called "Tell Me a Story."

Here's the house block, and the extra fabric that I told you to save.  The plan here is to cover up all of the green landscape that is visible in the sky.  One thing to note. The sky fabric that you use, needs to go the same direction as the sky fabric.  In other words, this was made with 2" squares of Hoffman Batiks for the sky, just like the way that I make my quilts.  So the patches that you make in the sky, need to be going the same direction.  You can use the blue circle fabrics to add to interest to the sky.

Just like a patchwork, cut and fuse the sky fabrics into place, to keep the integrity of the sky design.

Take your piece and lay it on your cutting mat and using a ruler and cutter, square it up.

Using the text fabric, find the letters you need to spell out "Tell Me a Story."  Also some other elements that are in the text fabric, such as flowers, houses, spool of thread, cup and saucer, or whatever floats your boat.  You will need to lay out the text, and see how it lines up on the top and lower portion, with the letters.  Overlap them onto the block, just a tad, to secure them to the block.

Find the elements that you desire and fuse them into place for the border

Place your design on a piece of black wool blended felt.  It is made by National Nonwovens TOY002 is the number, and is available at Joann's in the felt dept.  It comes in a smaller width than all of the other felt in this dept.  Don't be tempted to use polyester felt, as it gives off fumes when ironed and fused.  Wool blended felt is the perfect foundation, instead of using batting.

a detail close up

Using a rotary cutter and ruler on a cutting mat, trim the black, but make sure that you leave a smidgen of black felt showing out from the sides, all of the way around.

It is backed with a coordinating color of wool blended felt, therefore dispensing with the use for binding.  When you cut out the backing, leave it about 1" wide from the edges.  You can place a straight pin so that it goes through all three layers to hold it into place.  Don't cut the backing, until the free motion machine quilting is finished.  So, just guide your needle on your machine around the objects first, including the flags and bird.  Then in a wavy motion, sew lines horizontally in the sky.  Sew around the letters, and around the entire border, on the outside and the inside.  Press with a hot iron.  Trim the backing, so it also will show from the black edge.  It will all be sewn up and ready to hang on your wall.  You can click on the pictures to see them closer.  Happy Quilting!