collage of things I made with my first fabric set

collage of things I made with my first fabric set
Originally uploaded by studiocherie

These are made from my set of fabrics at Spoonflower. The smaller hearts and stripes are fun coordinates to have for the sweethearts fabric. The pillow case just happens to coordinate with Melissa Averinos fabrics which is perfect since Gabrielles room was already done in those. I sent the hug card along with one of the orders I filled for sweethearts banners. The hug might be a nice sentiment to send along for sympathy or get well cards. I am not going to say anything about my next fabric except that it will be something completely different.

color check

color check
Originally uploaded by studiocherie

My first Spoonflower fabric is ready! I have got the printed Spoonflower color guide to make sure my colors are exactly what I want. This is as close to perfect they can do on the sweethearts colors. The one I could change is the orange, I could lighten it up, but I think I like it this way. I did scoot the hearts around from the original a little, so a person could cut the fabric in strips and use it as a border or incorporate it into a quilt easily. It also looks great as a whole piece of fabric to make a quick quilt. The white space between the hearts allow room for a quilter to show off her sweet freemotion skillz. Watch for 2 coordinating fabrics. If you want to make banners, this one is ready to order now. I was amazed at how quickly Spoonflower shipped it to me - I had it in hand in less than 7 days. A fat quarter will have 30 usable hearts, which translates into 4 yards of banner. The whole yard has 125 hearts.
Here is the link to the fabric itself at Spoonflower. You can see the other 2 fabrics there as well. They will be ready to order by this time next week.

Sweetheart Valentine Banner Tutorial

There is a very exciting announcement and preview at the end of this post, so scroll to skip to that if you don't want to read the step by step. I think this Sweetheart Valentine Banner is simple enough for you to duplicate without illustrations on the step by step tutorial that follows. I just ask that you link to this post if you want to share the instructions. Also, if you want to make them for sale, go ahead and give me credit for the idea. If you have never purchased one of my patterns, just know that the instructions here are representative of how I explain things, but my patterns for purchase include pattern pieces and loads of illustrations and extra notes on tools and materials. Here is the how to:
Materials list (makes 112 flags for 16 yards of banner)
2 yards Décor bond interfacing—A heavy weight, fusible interfacing
1/4 yard each Pastel cotton fabrics—I used pink, yellow, green and purple
1&1/8 yard Pink cotton duck fabric
16 yards 1/2” heavy cotton twill tape plus 1/3 yard for every separate banner. If you are making 16 one yard banners, you need 5 & 1/3 more yards of the twill tape for tails. If you are making 2 eight yard banners, you need another 2/3 yard.
3 or 4 sheets of iron-on light T-shirt transfer for ink jet printers
Instructions:
Step 1:
Print backwards words onto the transfer paper. If you want to make your own sheet of words, either make the sheet backwards, and print normally as I have done, or make the sheet forward and tell your printer to print a mirror image. The font I used is Arial Rounded MT Bold. The font size varies between 30 and 36. These need to dry for at least 1/2 hour before you use them. Make the words red.
Step 2:
While the transfer paper is drying, make your paper heart pattern pieces. To make your own heart pattern, mark a 3” square in the corner of a sheet of paper. Fold the paper in half, then in thirds, keeping the 3” square visible. Fold the 3” square in half and cut 1/2 of a heart on the fold through all layers. Take up as much of the 3” square as you can with the heart. When you open this up, you will have 6 identical 3” heart pattern pieces.
Step 3:
Following manufacturers instructions, adhere décor bond interfacing to the pastel fabrics to make them stiff. This makes cutting the heart shapes much easier.
Step 4:
Pin heart pattern onto pastel fabrics and cut out heart shapes. I layer the fabrics and cut through 2 fabrics at a time.
Step 5:
Following manufacturers instructions, iron the words onto the hearts. If you ever wanted an excuse to buy one of those mini irons, here it is.
Step 6:
Cut the light pink duck fabric into rectangular background flags. The size of the flag is 4.12” wide by 4.5” long.
Step 7:
Stitch each heart onto a background flag. Use thread that matches the background fabric or the hearts. Use either a small zig-zag stitch or a blanket stitch.
Step 8:
Stitch flags onto the twill tape. Leave a 6” tail on either end and leave 1.25” between each flag. This will produce banners that have 7 flags per yard. These flags are fun to make and customize for different people and occasions.

Here is the exciting announcement part: As I was making these Sweetheart Valentine Banners, I was wishing I had a pre-printed fabric with the hearts and words. I could do away with the need for a pattern piece. I could do away with the tedium of cutting out and transferring words onto the hearts. Hummm. So, after telling several people including my husband that I was not really interested in designing fabric...I designed my first fabric. I ordered a yard of it last night. As soon as I see it in person and verify that it is just what I wanted, I will make it available for order. This is a preview of what you would see on a fat quarter of fabric. The full yard has 125 hearts with 25 different phrases and the 5 basic colors you see here. It will be $18 per yard at Spoonflower, which is pretty cool since a yard of fabric will make 17+ yards of banner.