~~ GIVEAWAY CLOSED ~~
I am very excited to be posting this Tumbler Toddler Pillow tutorial and the Accuquilt GO! Baby giveaway. You can see my Thank-You Mail-man post that has all the details on what I received from Accuquilt {minus Ms. Diva… she really didn’t come in the box, she just decided it was the best ‘toy’ ever, LOL}.
This tutorial is in two parts. The first part is on how to create a piece of fabric out of quilt pieces to use in a project. This can be used to substitute a piece of fabric in any project. Whether it is a pillow like here, or to add interest to a piece of clothing, or any other project you can imaging. {I think this would make a wonderful book cover myself}
What you will need:
Accuquilt GO! Baby Fabric Cutter
Variety of Fat Quarters {I used six different Citrus Moda Marbles to create this pillow}
Sewing Machine ~ a 1/4″ Guide foot makes this a breeze if you have one.
Coordinating Thread
Iron and Pressing Board
————————————————————————————————-
To cut out your Tumbler pieces… fold your fabric in half and place on the die. I placed my fabric over two of the three tumbler shapes on the die. This resulted in four pieces in each color. For the orange and darker lime green I just placed scraps I had over the two tumbler shapes, and created two tumbler pieces of each of these colors. Depending on your color scheme pick the way easiest for you to create the number of pieces you need to create your finished size. For the Toddler Pillow front you will need a piece of fabric approximately 12″ by 16″. I will be adding a border to the pieced piece in the next part of this tutorial. So, I used 18 tumbler pieces to create a piece of fabric approximately 11.5″ by 13″.
Here is a photo of my first layout. I felt that some purple was needed. So, I went and ran the purple fabric through the GO! Baby fabric cutter, and added those pieces into the layout.
Once you have a layout you like, pair up your pieces and start chain piecing them together. This is a good time to turn on your iron and let it warm up.
Matching up these pieces cut with the Tumbler die is incredibly easy since the die does the hard work and knocks of all the corners. You don’t have to think twice about matching up these pieces. Just line up the corners and sew.
This photo shows the matching bobbin and top thread, the ‘thread saver’ I am using, and the 1/4″ guide foot I am using to insure that all my seams are a 1/4″.
Sew each pair by chaining them together. Chaining pieces makes this project take less time than it looks.
Once you have sewn each of your pairs together, cut them apart and press open. I did press all the seams towards the darker fabric for this project. Lay out all the pairs, making sure that you still have the right layout {or at least a layout you like}.
Here are rows of four tumbler pieces pieced together. I can’t believe how straight these rows turned out! I didn’t do anything ‘special’ and out of the 9 pairs only one came out wonky, and that is that yellow piece you can see here. I wasn’t paying enough attention {not that I ever pay enough attention} and did not have the yellow fabric placed completely over the die shape. This photo shows why I am hooked on using the Accuquilt GO! Baby Fabric cutter. No pins were used and I rushed through cutting the pieces {as I normally do} and the rows still turned out straight. Incredible.
Here is another shot showing the dogged corners that make matching up these pieces idiot proof. Think of how much time it would take to cut out the tumbler pieces using a ruler and rotary cutter, and then going back through all your pieces to cut the corners off so you could match up the pieces like this… Cutting pieces with the Accuquilt GO! Fabric cutter and tumbler die is definitely a time saver for this project.
Here are all the rows assembled, sewn together, and pressed open. I love these bright colors!
Lay your pieced piece out on your mat and line up your ruler along the fabric. Make sure your ruler is lined up using the top {or bottom} edge of the fabric. This will help you end up with a square piece of fabric. Then trim.
Not bad for your first time, LOL! Give yourself a pat on the back, and check out how to enter the giveaway below. The second part of this tutorial {making the pieced piece into a pillow} is posted.
——————————————————————————————————
~~ GIVEAWAY CLOSED ~~
How to enter to win an Accuquilt GO! Baby Fabric Cutter and your choice of three dies {entries close June 7th}:
MANDATORY ENTRY
{must be completed for any entries to count}:
Visit Accuquilt’s site, and tell me which three dies you would choose if you win. Make sure to check the site as they have just released a whole passel of new dies.
OPTIONAL ENTRIES
{Make sure to leave a separate comment for each entry}
1) Follow The Spunky Diva via GFC {Google Friend Connect}
2) Follow Accuquilt on Twitter @Accuquilt
3) Follow The Spunky Diva on Twitter @TheSpunkyDiva
4) Tweet, can be done daily. Leave the tweet address in your comment.
#win a @Accuquilt Baby and three dies @TheSpunkyDiva http://www.TheSpunkyDiva.net #giveaway closes 6/7
5) Blog about this giveaway, add a link to this givaway on your blog.
6) Post the giveaway button on your blog.
Remember; the mandatory entry must be done in order for ANY entries you make count. For additional giveaway rules, please read through the Official Giveaway Rules. Make sure I can find your e-mail address easily if you don’t include it with each comment!
Good Luck!
A huge thank you to Accuquilt for providing the GO! Baby fabric cutter with three dies for my use in this review, and for providing a GO! Baby and three dies to the reader that wins this giveaway. Another thank you goes out to The Fat Quarter shop for providing the Moda Citrus Marbles fat quarter bundle used in this tutorial.