Check out some of my fun flickr craft-related groups!
If you make a Sew Awesome Craft or any pattern, craft or recipe from sewhooked, I’d love to see a photo. Email me or add it to the sewhooked flickr group.
I’m proud to announce the Beedle The Bard Paper Piecing Design Challenge that will be taking place from today, May 20 until June 23, 2009 on my Livejournal Community, hp_paperpiecing.
Go read all about it and see the FANTASTIC prizes!
I hope to see you there!
Deep in the wilds of my backyard lives the ferocious Quiltus Turtleus, called Turkle by his friends.
His markings are wholly unique and set him apart from all other Quiltus Turtleus.
A canny camera person can get quite close to Turkle, just watch out for the super massively strong jaws!
Quiltus Turtleus are known for their pointy and exceptionally cute tails.
When forced to show his belly, Turkle will display a fierce purple leopard print, frighting off predators for fear of a badly dressed…oops, this a “G” rated blog!
Ancestry of the Quiltus Turtleus, decended from the Quiltus Buttericktus Family.
Happy crafting!
One of the most constant requests I’ve had over the years is for a video tutorial showing how I design paper pieced patterns.
Putting together a pattern is a step by step process, but designing is not. It’s artistic and intuitive. Even so, there are some basic techniques that stay the same every time you start a new pattern.
The absolute best advice I can give you is practice, practice, practice!
This is how I do it. In the next two videos, I’ll walk you through, step-by-step, my own process. Both videos are real time.
Part 1 of 2
Part 2 of 2
If you make any pattern, craft or recipe from sewhooked, I’d love to see a photo. Email me or add it to the sewhooked flickr group.
Happy crafting!
Holy geek-out, Batman, the new Star Trek movie comes out this weekend!
Star Trek is my first fandom. Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock have been a part of my life as long as I can remember. I have very clear memories of being a child and seeing the Wrath of Khan at a drive-in theater. I was 9.
How big is my ST love? My first website, built back in 1996, was Star Trek themed. I told you, I’m a BIG geek, and proud of it! Fandom is such a fun thing to be a part of and I’m excited to post this Starfleet Symbol pattern in honor of the new movie. Go, enjoy, geek out!
Find this and loads more free paper pieced patterns archived on sewhooked.
Check out my Star Trek crafts flickr group. (As though you needed more proof of my supreme geekiness!)
If you make any pattern or craft from sewhooked, I’d love to see a photo. Email me or add it to the sewhooked flickr group.
Happy crafting!
Now it’s your turn!
I just heard of the First Annual Blogger’s Quilt Festival yesterday and my first thought was “why didn’t I think of that?!” What a great idea, bringing quilting bloggers together by sharing photos of our quilts.
The idea is to post photos of your favorite quilt that you’ve made and tell it’s story. Excellent idea, huh!
My Magical Lens, designed, pieced and quilted by Jennifer Ofenstein
My all time favorite quilt that I have made, absolutely hands-down, is my Harry Potter quilt. I embarked on this project in early 2006. My family had long been fans (we started reading Harry in 1999) and I’d been quilting for a few years. After discovering what so many HP crafters now know, that licensed fabric is out of print and nigh on impossible to find (and expensive if you do!), I decided to try to design my own.
The very first HP block I designed was Hedwig, though not the one that ended up in the quilt (you can see it in the photo below…bleargh!). It was pretty dreadful, too complicated and just bad, bad, bad. I’d only ever designed simple blocks before, so I changed gears and started with a broom and a lightning bolt. The stack of blocks began to grow. All through the process, I was sharing on the Harry Potter Crafts Yahoo! Group. Members started asking if I’d share my patterns, and before long, my little craft site, then called Jen’s Crochet & Crafts, grew into sewhooked, full of all kinds of crafts, crochet, and now paper pieced patterns.
I went to Lumos in Las Vegas in 2006 and took my HP blocks with me to share with my online craft friends. By this time I was a Moderator at Harry Potter Crafts. Sharing my designs and other projects I’d made with them for myself and friends, on top of the fact that I knew HTML, led to a year and a half as a Crafty Witch at The Leaky Cauldron where I made truly amazing friends. The quilt that wasn’t a quilt yet was already helping me to connect with people.
In the fall of 2006, I decided to attend Phoenix Rising in New Orleans which, like Lumos, was a Harry Potter fandom conference, and was scheduled to take place in May 2007. Even though my quilt wasn’t even close to done, nor was I close to having enough blocks designed for a whole quilt, I entered a mock-up for consideration in the Phoenix Rising art gallery, and was, to my surprise, accepted. With a deadline looming, I started churning out patterns and blocks, finishing up the quilt in March of 2007, just two months before it was to be shown in New Orleans.
This quilt is more just a million bits of fabric stitched together. It represents all the years I’ve loved Harry Potter and some of my favorite things about the series. It has brought me friends, and fans, and brought more quilters that I can count into the wonderful world of paper piecing. In the fall of 2007, I started hp_paperpiecing on Livejournal as way to share more with other Harry Potter quilters than just patterns. I’ve posted over 100 unique HP themed blocks there and have in the process met a lot of awesome quilters and designers, many brand new to paper piecing.
The mock-up submitted for submission into the Phoenix Rising art gallery (complete with horrible Hedwig).
I don’t design as many HP blocks as I used to, though I’m still very involved with hp_paperpiecing.
Harry Potter patterns at sewhooked, free for personal and non-profit use.
See loads more photos of the making of My Magical Lens over at flickr.
If you make any pattern or craft from sewhooked, I’d love to see a photo. Email me or add it to the Friends of sewhooked flickr group.
Happy crafting
I have a little story to tell.
Over on Livejournal, I run a group called hp_paperpiecing, short for Harry Potter Paper Piecing. I’m sure most of you know by now that I’m a huge HP fan and spent several years designing HP quilt blocks that I’ve shared with the fandom. That’s been the purpose of hp_paperpiecing, and until recently, HP blocks and block-related challenges were what we shared.
A few months ago, I read about the Bushfire Quilt Project, started by Tia of Camp Follower Bags & Quilts, for making quilts to give to those affected by the Australian bushfires in Victoria earlier this year.
My first thoughts were that I myself would make a block or two and share the project with various quilting friends. I posted about it on hp_paperpiecing, asking our members to consider sending in a block.
The members did me one better and within a day, my suggestion of sharing blocks morphed into the group itself making all the blocks for a quilt, including the free services of a professional quilter who is also part of our group!
Within a few weeks, we had a full quilt worth of blocks, pieced, quilted and shipped off to Australia.
Photo by Tia from Camp Follower Bags & Quilts, quilted by Shannon Shaw
The quilt label, made by me from the Pigwidgeon pattern.
We had to have one HP block on the quilt!
I count myself to be incredibly fortunate to not only know so amazing online crafters, quilters and other fans, but to be part of their generosity. I volunteer and donate locally on a regular basis, something I find easy to incorporate into my life. Volunteering to make something that will then go in the mail and travel thousands of miles before it ends at it’s final destination for no financial gain is a true gift.
My virtual hat is off to every single Harry Potter Quilt that participated in the Bushfire Quilt Project. You are ALL amazing!
You can see more great photos from the hp_paperpiecing group quilt here and many amazing quilt photos in the Bushfire Quilt Project Flickr Group.
Much love,
Combine the joy of spring with the joy of quilting and you have one of my all time favorite combinations!
How about Three Eggs (pictured above) made in happy spring colors or prints? Three Eggs was created for my friend Cat, who loves chickens and is putting together a wonderful chicken/barnyard themed quilt!
Once you’ve scrambled your eggs, why stop there? There are loads of great paper pieced patterns that would translate to a happy spring quilt or wall hanging!
Spring & Easter Themed Patterns:
lamb, snail and lily patterns from sewhooked
There are so many great free patterns out there and a slew of wonderful quilting books, too. Whatever inspires you, grab it with both hands and enjoy!
If you make any pattern or craft from sewhooked, I’d love to see a photo. Email me or add it to the Friends of sewhooked flickr group.
Happy crafting
I did not make this quilt. In fact, I had very little to do with it at all.
Back in January, I started cleaning out my sewing/craft room and one of the things I unearthed (a term I do not use lightly) was a quilt top my mom had given to my sister ages ago.
The top was made by a friend of my grandmother’s back in the 1960s, completely hand-pieced out of old clothes that belonged to our mom and aunt.
My sister doesn’t quilt (yet!) and I had told her I’d help her finish it up.
It sat in my sewing room for a long time before I found it again and I’m pretty sure my sister had stopped thinking about it by that point. When I found it, it occurred to me what a great surprise it would be to finish it for her and then give it to her as a birthday gift.
I bought batting and a fun backing fabric. After spending ages ironing down all the lumpy bumpy seams created by hand sewing all kinds of fabrics together, I passed the quilt top on to my lovely and talented friend Linda, who quilted it on her long arm machine.
She finished the quilting in record time and then I squared up the wonky sides and adding a dark green binding and a label. Unfortunately, I don’t yet have a photo of the that. It has the names of everyone involved in making it as well as my sister’s.
I dubbed the quilt “Around the Psychedelic Rainbow” because of it’s fun 60s colors and it’s Around The World quilt pattern. It was handed over to my lovely sister last weekend and I feel especially happy with the project knowing I’ve shared in the history of this quilt.
The whole shebang on my bed.
The back.
Fancy “gift wrap”
As always, if you make any pattern or craft from sewhooked, I’d love to see a photo. Email me or add it to the Friends of sewhooked flickr group.
Happy crafting
x-posted from my personal blog
Sewhooked 