Recently in Victoria- Customer Service Category

This weekend I felt the first crisp, cool breeze of Autumn. Autumn has arrived ushering in visions of falling leaves, apples and pumpkins, sweaters, football games, walking through drifts of gold and rust colored leaves. Not to mention great food! Halloween is coming, then Thanksgiving. This is my most favorite time of the year.  I know there are people out there who have already completed their Christmas shopping. I do not intend to rush this season to get Christmas done.  I am doing some planning for Christmas, but I will fully enjoy the moment. To help you, I have provided some easy projects to help you celebrate this season. 

My first project is a no sew project, involve the children also.  I call this my "Potato Chip Project" because you cannot do just one.  This is a wacky leaf project.  This is also suitable for charm packs ( I used Acorn Hollow which has 39 fabrics in the pack) To add some spice I used some fabric from the Harvest Spice collection.

You will only need 2 different fabrics, freezer paper, Misty Fuse, scissors and an iron.  For very young children- you can use comstruction paper.  Draw a free form leaf patterm onto the non-glossy side of freezer paper.  You can free hand as I did,  use cookie cutter shapes, an actual leaf, a stencil,  or a  color book.  You might also find some shapes online or in a magazine.  Prepare a fabric sandwich.  ( 1 top fabric with the right side facing out, misty fuse and the bottom fabric with right side facing out)  Using your iron, apply heat to the sandwich.  Allow the sandwich to cool. Your fabric will be bonded together. This the first time I have used Misty Fuse and I was impressed with the weight.  It is not a paper backed fusing agent, so it is a one step operation. Iron your freezer paper onto the fabric (shiny side down).  You can reuse your freezer paper several times.

You can use these leaf shapes any where.  You can sprinkle them like confetti across a table. Paste them to a lampshade or a mirror.  Tuck them into a wreath.  Create a place card by pasting a small piece of cardstock onto the leaf and writing  your guests name on it.  I am hanging mine with fall colored ribbon and hang from a chandelier.

My next project is a simple tablerunner ( I have made it in the Butternut Farms collection and Harvest Spice) ,  This can be done in 1 1/2 hours from start to finish. No patterns required.  Determine how wide and how long you would like to make it. For example ,14 inches wide x  54 inches inches long.  Cut 2 strips of fabric 14.5 inches wide by 54.5 inches long and a piece of batting such as Warm and Natural. This is also cut to the same dimenions.  This is also great to use left over battng  Create a fabric sandwich by layering the 2 fabrics right sides together and placing the batting on the top. Pin in place.  Stitch around all edges 1/4  inch to 1/2 inch. Leave an opening wide enough to turn - about 3 inches.  Turn inside out and using a pencil - gently push the corners to make a square end.  The cotton batting should be in the middle. Slip stitch the closing shut. The same basic table runner will look different depending on the fabric you.  The Butternut Farms fabric collection is a rich, traditional fabric with accents of gold.  This is a classic fabric.  It is so beautiful, you hate to cut it.  Very good in a formal setting. If you are not afraid of color- Harvest Spice is for you.  These sun-drenched colors are so rich that you can almost feel that if you wring it out, the colors will drip like droplets of colored rain.  I call this "Whimsical Tuscany". You cannot be sad around these colors.

 
Additional projects:

Reversible napkins (I used the Harvest Spice-- sew easy project, just cut 2 squares of contrasting fabrics the size you would like your napkins to be. Layer the fabrics right sides together- sew around the edges leaving an opening wide enough to turn. Turn, using your pencil to poke the corners out.  Press.  Slipstitch the open edges together:

 

I also created a hot pad for my casserole using the Harvest Spice Stripe.  Cut 2 pieces of fabric the dimensions you would like your finished hot pad to be plus a 1/2 inch for seams.  Cut 2 pieces of batting and Insul-Bright.  Create a fabric sandwich by placing the top and bottom fabrics right sides together.  Create a layer of batting, insul bright and batting. Place the Insul-Bright sandwich on top of the fabric and pin.  Stitch around all sides 1/4 to 1/2 inch leaving an opening for turning. Turn inside out . Use a pencil to square up the corners.  Slipstitch the closing.

I hope these easy ideas will enhance your joy in the new season.
Vickie 

Next month: Get your Moda runnin, Christmas is comin

Hello, I am Victoria Bryant.  I am fortunate to work in Fabric.com's Customer Service Department.  I work with customers everyday to achieve their fabric visions.

This is my philosophy- All people create.  At one time or another, we want to create something with our hands. Your  medium could be cooking, gardening, painting, yarn craft ( knitting,crocheting), wood working or sewing.  Women, of course, do several of these. If sewing is your creative tool, it is not dirty,not fattening, and the results are long lasting.

My love is quilting. Cotton is the fabric of my life. I credit my grandmother with sowing the quilting seeds. As a child, I remember her creating templates from Kleenex boxes, and carefully cutting her fabrics from cast off clothing.  She would create her quilt tops during the summer. I knew it was Fall, not only by the weather, but by Grandmother setting up her huge wood quilting frame.  She would handquilt several tops in a season. I cannot see a Kansas City Star quilt pattern without thinking of my Grandmother. Even now I have one of her quilts lying at the foot of my bed.  The colors are still bright even though the fabrics are slightly worn.  It comforts me in times of crisis, to pick out the scraps of  my sisters's dresses. It is time for me to start sowing some seeds of my own.  In honor of my grandmother and the Halloween season,  I have created a very simple "Trick or Treat" bag. I used the Scaredy Cat charm pack from Moda. Any fall themed fabric would work such as Acorn Hollow. These also could be used for potpourri .  We have some great fall selections available at his time. This is a great use for charm packs.  Many customers ask what to do with charm packs.  That will be a future topic. I hope that this very simple project will get someone started quilting.  The treat bags are very simple. No cutting involved.  Select 2 charms. Place wrong sides together and sew 3 sides creating a bag to fill with candy or your choice of items for those special trick or treaters.