Well here it is the finished Heavenly Stitches mini quilt and it's set of instructions, so if you have a spare afternoon, grab a cup of tea and enjoy the serenity...and the finished creation.
What you'll need:
A hand painted stitch panel (or create your own) on calico, Dark brown embroidery thread, Deep red embroidery thread, Fat 1/8th patterned quilting fabric, Cotton wadding (14 x 14 cm), Quilting thread, Embroidery needle, Embroidery hoop, Sharp scissors, Cutting mat, Roller blade, Plastic quilt ruler, Lead pencil, Fine tip permanent marker, Acrylic craft paints and round tip brush
The painting-
If you don't have a pre painted panel, they are very easy to create, simply lay out your calico centred over the top of your printed pattern. If you have access to a lightbox use this, if not hold the pattern and calico up onto a window in daylight to trace the pattern with a pencil.
After finishing, blend a dab of acrylic paint, in the appropriate colour, with water, till it is a thin watery consistancy. With a medium round tip brush, dap onto the calico - basically colouring in the sections of the pattern that you would like coloured.
After finishing with however many colours you choose, iron (with a dry setting) the panel to fix the paint - then using your fine tip marker trace over your pencil markings to embellish the picture.
The embroidery-
Position calico with wadding beneath in an embroidery hoop to aid tension.
Using two strands of embroidery thread in the appropriate matching colour, backstitch over the top of your marked outlines.
For the bears nose, using your two strands, satin stitch over the area.
Trim the panel/wadding to size (13 x 13 cm) with your rollt cutter and quilters rule.
The borders-
Using your quilters rule and cutting mat, cut off two strips of fabric 1 1/2 inches wide and 36 cm long.
Then cut the strips into two lengths each of 2 x 13 cm and 2 x 18 cm.
With right sides facing pin the top and bottom 13 cm borders to the panel/wadding and sew together using a 1/4 inch seam (backstitch if sewing by hand, straight stitch if sewing by machine). Iron to flatten seam.
Repeat for the entire top to bottom length now with the 18 cm borders.
Using the printed fabric cut out a square 17 cm x 17 cm
With right sides facing, take front and back panels and stitch around the edges with a 1/4 inch seam leaving a 2 inch gap to turn through. Close the opening with a small ladder stitch.
Then iron once again to flatten seams.
To finish off - optional -
If you like, further embellish the quilt with some naive running stitch around the calico seam, adding a button in each corner, using the embroidery thread to tie each button off.
