Category: Brimfield Block

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Day 5: Felt Wreath Brimfield Block

12 Days of Brimfield

12 days of Brimfield Felt Wreath Day 5
We love our buddy, Jessica Lopez ( @thegorillaandthepig on Instagram) and her fun felty Brimfield Block wreath that she created! She graciously agreed to share her step-by-step instructions below – thanks Jess!!

As you guys know by now, Brimfield Awakening is my jam. I love them and I love the blocks they have created! There are always different ideas that pop up in my head on how to use their blocks in different ways and this was one I had thought about for the past four months. Life has been busy so I just until now got around to it. I’m excited to introduce the Brimfield Block Wreath!

I made a classic Christmas wreath using classic colors but you can definitely get creative with these and use them for any holiday! My mind was spinning with ideas while working on this. I’ve made a general how-to so you can get started on yours! It’s a quick make and can be done in a day or weekend!

Materials

Brimfield Awakening Felt Holiday Wreath Materials 12 Days of Brimfield Day 5

•Brimfield paper pieces or Acrylics (Acrylics definitely would have been easier with this) You can get them here.

•Felt– I used a sheet  (12″x18″), a half of the lighter green,  a small portion of the dark green, and tiny bits of red. I used polyester felt, but wool would definitely be better if you have it.

•DMC thread– I used the colors 699, 817 and S738. I used two strands to sew them together.

•Sharp scissors/rotary cutter if you prefer

•Polyester stuffing

•Embroidery needles– I used the smaller one in the pack that ranged size 1-5

Steps

  1. Trace the Brimfield shapes onto the felt color of your choice. Trace enough shapes for TWO blocks since you will need a front and back.
  2. Free hand the decorations you want to add to the wreath on the felt. I free handed the holly leaves and berries.
  3. Cut out shapes using a sharp scissor or rotary blade.
  4. Use the stitch of your choice to join the shapes together. I used the whip stitch to join all of the pieces.
Brimfield Felt Wreath 12 Days of Brimfield day 5 Brimfield Awakening

5. Once the “front” of the wreath is made with the block of you choice, attach the leaves and berries. you can glue them down or stitch them down. I decided to quickly sew them on.

6. Once the two blocks are made join them together “right” side out and sew the inside part of the tall houses and leave the rest of the inside un-sewn for now.

7. Sew the outer edge of the blocks together. I used the whip stitch to join them. Remember the stitches will be visible!

8. Start stuffing the blocks! I stuffed the tall houses first. This is where the stick that coming with the stuffing is super helpful. If you lost yours, a pencil will do! Continue stuffing the houses and leave the orange slices not full. Once you’re done with this then join the orange slices and sew them together about 3/4 of the way. then add more stuffing so the orange slice portion gets full and then finish joining them.

9. Once the wreath is fully stuffed add your choice or yard or ribbon to the top so that you can hang it. In my case I just sewed a strip of yard through it to hang.

Brimfield Block Felt Wreath 12 Days of Brimfield Day 5
Brimfield Awakening Felt Wreath by Jessica Lopez
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Day 3: Brimfield Block Ornament

12 Days of Brimfield

Hea is back at it! This week she’s taken our Bitty Brimfield Blocks and turned them into Christmas tree ornaments!

Brimfield Awakening 12 Days of Brimfield Day 3 Christmas Ornaments
Make these adorable Brimfield Block ornaments with our buddy, Hea Garza!

Whenever anyone asks me about English Paper Piecing, I tell them that you have to decide your personal tolerance for things not being perfect.  To me, if you are going to hand sew, then its okay if some stitches can be seen. Sometimes, I will use my trusty seam ripper, Bertha, and mostly, I just let it be.  This is handcrafted after all.

The Bitty Brimfield + Bitty Brimfield Stars are a great way to use up all of your small bits of fabric that were too precious to toss.  Some of the pieces I used were just an inch wide.

I used my Liberty bits and pieces.  I do love how, by using the scrappy Liberty, they are ornaments without screaming Christmas.

Materials:

  • Standard EPP supplies
  • Bitty Brimfield Block or Bitty Brimfield Star paper pieces
  • 6″ square background fabric
  • Ribbon or other material for hanging (5-6″)
  • Background fabric
  • Backing fabric – 6″ square or so
  • Batting Scraps
  • Thin piecing thread (I use Sulky.)

Optional Materials:

Instructions

A word about the #BittyBrimfieldStar blocks…

Bitty Brimfield Star blocks to become Christmas tree ornaments 12 Days of Brimfield Day 3 by Brimfield Awakening
Did you know that you can alter the shape of the inside (and outside) of the Bitty Brimfield Star blocks? The paper pieces provided yield you a 5-pointed star. But I decided to try to add a 6th orange peel “section” (orange peel with fat house + 2 small houses attached) to my ring and it worked! Look at the ones on the left vs the right. There you have it– a
6 pointed Bitty Brimfield Block Star!
12 Days of Brimfield Day 3 by Brimfield Awakening Bitty Brimfield Block orange peels
It is funny how we can remember where/when/how we procured a piece of fabric?  This was a used as a ribbon to tie a bundle of fabric of liberty that I bought.  I hope I still receive liberty bundles tied with liberty scraps.
Bitty Brimfield Blocks become Christmas ornaments in the 12 Days of Brimfield Day 3
I put a tiny dot of glue on the house piece to hold it to the fabric. Then using a quarter inch seam guide or smaller, cut out the pieces.  I just eyeball it when it comes to the orange peels and after I get a feel for the seam allowance.
Trimming down the seam allowance on the Bitty Brimfield Blocks by Brimfield Awakening for the Day 3 Christmas ornaments 12 Days of Brimfield by Brimfield Awakening
Sometimes I do move my rule over a little and cut off a seam allowance smaller than ¼”  This is something I played with. At first, I followed the rules and cut ¼” seam allowance but as the night got later… I promise, I consumed NO eggnog (at this point).

Use the thinnest thread your eyes like.  You will be happier.

Bitty Brimfield Star 12 Days of Brimfield Day 3 Christmas ornaments
So you remember how I mentioned above that you have to decide your tolerance?  Yes, on the Bitty Brimfield Stars you can see some of my stitches. The person who points it out me doesn’t receive handmade gifts from me.  To me, it adds to the sweetness of the item.

Reward yourself with some egg nog or other holiday treats (or fabric.)  I learned a few years ago that you are supposed to add rum to eggnog. We drank it as kids growing up (non alcoholic). These are a bit fussy to sew. But they are sew worth it. I got over the fussiness and can’t wait to make more.    I can knock out a Bitty Brimfield Block in a night so these are great when I need that instant gratification fix.

Press/Starch.

As previously mentioned, I usually give them a good starching and then remove the papers the next day or so.  I don’t know if you need, but in my experience, the pieces do hold their shapes better this way. 

Bitty Brimfield Star 12 days of Brimfield Day 3 Christmas ornaments by Brimfield Awakening
If your stars are a bit curved, no worries.  Just press them.

I should be the head ninja of the overgluers club.  If you do over glue, then just hit it with a bit of steam and the glue should release.  I do use Sewline’s glue stick and don’t have experience with other brands. Please let me know how this works with non Sewline glue sticks.

Martelli Notions 5" circle template used in the 12 Days of Brimfield by Brimfield Awakening
Cut two circles. I used these nifty Martelli circle template.  They are a breeze. I used the 5″ template and a 6″ square. (You could get by with smaller bits of fabric.  Since I like my fingers and wanted to get it right the first time, I went with 6″. There might be some youtube videos in my future.)  You can eek this out of a 5″ charm square. I prefer to use 6″ when I can. By the way, I purchased this Martelli 3-piece Round-About set at Quilt Market in Houston. It replaced my old spinning mat, which used to come apart too easily.

The way this template works is you take your fabric square and fold it into quarters. Line the right angle of the template up with the “inside” corner (where the center of your circle will be) of the folded fabric square. Cut the fabric with your Martelli Ergo Rotary Cutter. Did you know that the non-slip material on these All Circle Templates by Martelli creates a vacuum seal? According to their website, you can cut through 32 layers of fabric without fear of slipping (!) But most people feel comfortable cutting through 8-10 layers.

The circle I cut (above) will be a backing circle for one of my many ornaments.

Since these items won’t be washed or under go much wear and tear, I recommend using your favorite fabric adhesive glue to glue baste the EPP rings down to the background fabric.  The key would be that the glue does not set hard so you can sew through it. Also, I left my paper templates in most of the ornaments I made.  If you choose to remove the paper templates, then use less glue in the process of your EPP basting. Since I am not planning on washing any of them, it was just easier to leave the papers in.

Martelli notions
 I did remove the papers for one of them.  I used the Martelli Ergo tweezer and my purple thing to remove them.
My background is bigger since I like having that margin of error.  Make it whatever size you want. Take into consideration your seam allowance.  I used a ¼” seam allowance but next time I will use ½”.

If you are going to baste them with invisible thread onto the background fabric instead of glue basting, then I would recommend using the fusible embroidery stabilizer.  Remember to loosen your top tension on machine (I set mine to zero).

A Word About the Dog Ears

You’ll notice the extra fabric tails (dog ears) hanging out from behind your house tips. When you make a Brimfield Awakening quilt, it is recommended not to trim them and, rather, tuck them under your rings before you applique the rings to the background fabric. In this case, since these ornaments will not be washed, I opted to trim them off and use Fray Check as needed.

Prepping the Backing Fabric

12 Days of Brimfield Day 3 Holiday Ornaments by Brimfield Awakening
I use a Decor Bond on the back of my ornaments (the ones I stuff).  I cut my interfacing a bit shy. 
Brimfield Awakening interfacing the back of the ornaments. 12 Days of Brimfield Day 3 Christmas ornaments.
I use a ¼” seam allowance on these although I prefer to use a ½” seam allowance for items I turn and press.  I iron along this in so turns easier.
12 Days of Brimfield Day 3 Christmas Ornaments quilting Brimfield Awakening
Quilt as desired.  I use my go-to organic straight lines.  Next time, I would use fusible fleece as it turns more easily (for those that I stuff) because it is ironed on.  I like the stiffness of using batting. If making a circle, I would run an edge stitch around the top only. This way, it will make turning it easier, if you do so.

Remember to turn your top tension back to normal if you turned it down.

I didn’t use a backing fabric for the quilting since I was going to stuff these.  You could just quit them using the standard quilt sandwich of the top layer, batting, and backing and skip turning them.  They can be finished off with binding.
Cut down to size (if needed).  Here it measures around 5″.

Brimfield Awakening Christmas Ornament hang tag 12 Days of Brimfield Day 3
Sew your ribbon into the seam allowance on the right side of the fabric and make sure this out of the way (pointed down).  My ribbon is either 5 or 6 inches. I am using ¼” seam allowance. I do press my seam allowance. This makes it easier when I am handing sewing at the very end.  I would use fabric ribbon vs. the red craft ribbon in the example above. (My machine started to perforate it too much.)

Finishing Options

I stuffed some of them so I placed a 5 inch square of fabric right sides together and sew around leaving around 1 to 2 inches for an opening.  Turn them right side out. Use a chopstick and push out the corners or rounds of the circle. I did clip my seams and my corners. Do not leave the opening near the ribbon.

Stuffing the Brimfield Block Christmas ornament. Snip into your seam allowance. 12 Days of Brimfield Day 3 Brimfield Awakening
Stuff them if you please.  I put a tad more stuffing in then what I think.  This way, once I sew them closed using a running stitch, I can move around the stuffing.
Brimfield Awakening Bitty Brimfield Christmas Ornaments 12 Days of Brimfield Day 3 tutorial
One of them I didn’t stuff, I just edged stitch.  
If you don’t add the ribbon, you can make a mini quilt (mug rug) and or add something like crushed walnut shells and make a pin cushion.

Bitty Brimfield Christmas Ornament Tutorial by Brimfield Awakening 12 Days of Brimfield Day 3
I wanted some dimension so I stuffed with polypuff material. If you want to be green, go ahead and reuse some of your scraps.  You can do without the stuffing altogether and cut them square and bind them

Other Variations

  • The center is your blank canvas – what would you put in there?
  • Embroider (or use heat set vinyl) initials there. This might be very “southern” of me (even though many will say Texas isn’t the true South…)
  • House Warming Gift – Embroider a house address if the recipient just bought a house.
  • Use them as hang tags or decorations around the house!

I am going to make each one of us in my family a Bitty Brimfield Block and use them as a hang tag for our Christmas stockings.  There are only three of us. The dogs share a stocking (don’t tell them.)

We are working on few giveaways.  Tag us! #12daysofbrimfield #brimfieldawkening #getstitchywithit

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Day 1: A Wreath for All Seasons

12 Days of Brimfield

Make this practical holiday wreath and change out the decorations to make it specific to the holiday you’re celebrating!

Hea has a fantastic holiday project that will have you reusing your Brimfield Block or Brimfield Block star paper pieces. Easy to make + easy to store – we can rally behind this holiday DIY. Take it away Hea!

Holiday Fractal Block Wreath

•I was inspired by Patty Sloniger’s Fractual Wreath Block to make a mini-quilt wreath.   I love this concept. There is no awkward storage of a giant wreath from year to year. There is no poking of the artificial pine needles.  Sometimes wreaths can be quite heavy. It would work well in an office and price is just right. Just a festive wreath with holiday cheer!

•I had a math professor who declared that mathematicians are lazy.  

•For her wedding, one of my friend’s received a set of holiday minis.  It is the same pattern and just different fabrics and color for each holiday!

So, I combined all three sources of inspiration and thought how wonderful it would be have a wreath mini quilt to celebrate each holiday/season with the change of a bow.  So if you are short on space, short on time, or short on heavy-wall-hanging patience, then this Wreath for All Seasons is for you!

Here are some supplies you'll need for Brimfield Awakening's 12 Days of Christmas A Wreath for All Seasons

Materials

  • EPP essentials
  • Heavyweight interfacing if wanted- I used fusible fleece
  • Heavy duty needle for quilting
  • Fat Quarter for background fabric (Robert Kaufman Essex linen is used here – I loved the sparkle.)
  • Fat Quarter for binding
  • Fat Quarter for backing
  • Optional – invisible thread, seasonal decorations, pin backs, starch, iron-on embroidery stabilizer
Fabric used in the wreath base for A Wreath for All Seasons. 12 Days of Brimfield by Brimfield Awakening. Day 1
I used a variety of green prints. I wanted the wreath base to scream green.

Tip: Starch your fabrics before you baste.

Make either the Brimfield block or the Brimfield Star block.  I wanted the star in my pattern.

I played with the layout of my scrappy fabric pieces.
12 Days of Brimfield Day 1 A Wreath for All Seasons. Brimfield Awakening.
Time Saving Tip – Use less with a less scrappy layout and cut multiple pieces as desired.  I rotary cut as many straight edges as I can. I do cut the curved bottoms with scissors.
A Wreath for all seasons. 12 Days of Brimfield Day 1. Brimfield Awakening
I am going to refer to this piece as the wreath.
12 Days of Brimfield Day 1. A Wreath for All Seasons by Brimfield Awakening

Starch your wreath heavily.  Remove papers and iron. I starch a few times throughout this process.  I use the $.99 grocery starch when I initially starch my fabric. Then, I use Flatter by Soak (you don’t get that white gunk) or I use the grocery store starch with a pressing cloth.  Here is when I starch:

  • After I baste
  • After I attach my three houses to an orange peel
  • Before I baste my ring
  • After I baste my ring

Then I let it sit at least for a night before removing the papers.  I don’t know if you need to do this. This results in a nice starched piece when you remove your papers. Speaking of, I use a “purple thing” for removing papers, but please use what you have.

Baste your wreath to the background fabric. (I use basting glue and heat set it with my iron.)

I basted this one with invisible thread.  On my machine, I used a long stitch length and set my top tension to 1 (which is loose).  I used aurafil 50 weight in the bobbin. I also used iron-0n embroidery stabilizer on the back.  I don’t think you need this, but it makes it easier for me to baste when I use invisible thread. I used my walking food with a straight stitch.  Remove your stabilizer (it tears away) after you basted your wreath.

12 Days of Brimfield Day 1 A Wreath for All Seasons Free Tutorial by Brimfield Awakening.

Cut out the back of your fabric.  Remember not to clip the thread. This is important if your wreath fabric is lighter in color than your background fabric and it helps it quilt better.  My husband normally does this part. See, sewing can bring the whole family together.

Quilt as desired – make sure to turn your tension back to normal if you lowered this when basting.  I used organic lines in a cross hatch – 2 inches apart.

Cut your piece to your desired length and width.  I was confined by how big my quilt stand is (I got it off of amazon).

12 Days of Brimfield Day 1. A Wreath for all Seasons binding. Free tutorial by Brimfield Awakening
Make binding. I made 6 feet (72″). Bind as desired.

Need a pack of Brimfield Block or Brimfield Block Star papers? Grab them here and here!

Show us your Wreath for All Seasons! We can’t wait to see it. Please use the hashtags #12DaysofBrimfield + #BrimfieldAwakening on Instagram and Facebook so we can see what you make. Also, have you joined our PRIVATE facebook group called The Brimfield Bee yet? Please do and join other holiday crafters posting their progress pics to a group of like-minded sewists 🙂 Thanks for stitching with us and stay tuned for Day 2 coming soon!

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A Very Brimfield Christmas Quilt Part 3

If you’ve been following along our A Very Brimfield Christmas quilt tutorial, then – congratulations! This is the final installment and we would like to thank our buddy, Sue Shattuck (@grabacupandsew) who took the time to bring Nisha’s idea to life 🙂

Part III – Finishing the Quilt

Hasn’t this been fun?! This quilt was a quick, fun make.  Now, all that’s left is finishing!

Step 1.  Make a quilt sandwich

Put your backing right side down, then your batting, followed by the quilt top right side facing up. Baste using your preferred method – I used spray baste and many pins.  Once this is done, quilt as desired. First, I topstitched on my machine using REDthread at ¼-inch around the outside and inside of each Brimfield Block as seen here:

A Very Brimfield Christmas Tutorial Part 3
First – quilt around the Brimfield Blocks.

Step 2 – Quilting & Binding

Once that was completed, I free-motion quilted using my machine. When you are finished quilting, go ahead and attach the binding.  I thought about burying the tabs into the binding, but I was afraid there would be too much bulk, and was concerned that the tabs would be too high on the quilt to show off the bows properly.  There is no right or wrong, just do what looks best to you.  

Step 3 – Adding the Tabs & Bows

I decided to add the tabs about 1/4- inch down from the edge of the binding.  Open up your tab to form a circle, and with tab seam pressed open, pin to quilt with open seam facing down as shown. Sew over the seam, being careful not to catch the remaining tab.

A Very Brimfield Christmas Quilt Tutorial Part 3
Adding the bows…

I wanted to make sure the tab was very strongly secured, so I sewed over this twice.  Now, take out your bows and affix each bow to the tab. This is a bit fiddly, but just keep with it and adjust until it looks balanced.  YOU ARE DONE!  Happy Holidays to all!

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A Very Brimfield Christmas Part 2

Sue Shattuck – Michigander, dog lover, and Brimfield Block creator extraordinaire has put together part 2 of her *adorable* A Very Brimfield Christmas quilt for you. Take it away, Sue!

Make this cheerful holiday quilt in plenty of time for Christmas!

I hope part I went well for you and I’ve enjoyed seeing your projects on Instagram.  Make sure to use the hashtags #BrimfieldBlockBOM and #AVeryBrimfieldChristmas so we can see your creations!

Part II: Making bows, tabs and binding

Step 1: Make the tabs

Cut four pieces of your tab fabric (mine is the red & black buffalo check) into 3”x7” pieces. Right sides together, sew a ¼ inch seam. Press seam open and center down back of tab as shown.  Turn right side out, press (I recommend starch) and fold in half to make loop. Sew a ¼ inch seam at the raw edge and cut with pinking shears or use your serger to finish the ends.  Make three more tabs for a total of 4, and set aside. 

Step 2: Make the Bows

I used the same buffalo check for the bows. With rotary cutter, cut out four strips of fabric, each 12 ¼ inch X 6 ¼ inches.  Optional: depending on the weight of your fabric, you may wish to use a lightweight fusible interfacing on your bows.  I opted to use it, so these are the instructions for  – cut four pieces of lightweight, fusible interfacing 12 inches by 3 inches (I used Pellon Shape-Flex 101). Fuse into each bow on one side as shown, using your iron and following directions from the interfacing:

Now, we will make the tails. Decide how long you want your tails to be.  I opted for 36 ½ inches by 5 inches. Cut four pieces of fabric to desired length, and add ¼ inch seam allowance.  Then cut four pieces of interfacing 36 inches by 2 inches to fit ½ of the tails (the same way you did for the bows).  Once you have your (optional) interfacing in place, with right sides together, cut a 45- degree angle on each end.  Sew your tails on all 3 sides, leaving a 2-3 inch opening in the center to turn right side out.  Trim seam and clip corners, turn right side out and press.  Close opening for turning as desired.  

Fold the fabric in half right sides together lengthwise.  Stitch a ¼ inch seam from the raw edges, and leave a 1- inch opening to turn the bow near the center.  Trim seams, clip corners and turn right side out and press.  Sew the opening together using your preferred method.  You now have your bow.  Fold bow in half short end to short end, finger press to mark the spot.  Using thread, carefully pinch your bow together in the center until you achieve the desired effect (this can be a little fiddly, be patient).  Wrap the center of the bow tightly with thread and knot ends.  Repeat for all four bows and set aside. 

Take your tails and carefully tie around the bow to cover thread, then tie.  Carefully make the bow, pulling the tails through and adjusting the front to achieve the desired look.  You will make four of these (or more or less, depending on your preference). Set all bows aside with tabs. 

Step 3: Make Binding

Cut your binding into strips as desired. I use 2 ½ inch binding, which took 6 strips of a ½ yard of fabric.  Prepare your binding and set aside. 

You are now finished with Part II.  If you wish to complete the quilt now and feel confident doing so, feel free to move ahead.  Otherwise, I will post Part III (and final) of A Very Brimfield Christmas Quilt tutorial in around three weeks.  Don’t forget your hashtags!!! #AVeryBrimfieldChristmas #BrimfieldBlock BOM #BrimfieldBlock #BrimfieldAwakening