Friday, March 16, 2012

Farmer's Wife in Your Life - Letter Holder









I'd like to thank Sunni for asking me to participate in this really fun blog hop. I love all of the different projects everyone has made so far. I am very happy to be apart of it! 
I had a few different ideas for what I wanted to make for this series. I decided to make something that was practical and easy. And I have needed one of these for ages. 


I made a mail / bill / letter holder. It is really easy to make and I hope you enjoy it! So let's get organized!

You will need:
3 ~ 6.5 inch quilt blocks
3 ~ 6.5 x 8.5 inch pieces of fabric that coordinate with your quilt blocks
3 ~ 6.5 inch pieces of batting 
1 ~ 6.5 x 25 inch piece of batting
3 ~ 6.5 inch squares of fabric for quilt block backing
1 ~ 6.5 x 25 inch piece of fabric for organizer backing
3 ~ 2 1/4 inch X WOF (width of fabric) strips for binding
Baker's twine, ribbon or binding for a hanger (not pictured)

Make or use any orphan quilt blocks that measure 6.5 inches.

First you will layer the quilt block, 6.5 inch batting and 6.5 inch backing.

Quilt as desired. 

Now sew your binding and use some of it to bind the top of each block. I sew the binding to the back of the block and fold it over to the front. 

Then top stitch it down.

Now we are going to sew the quilt blocks onto their coordinating 6.5 x 8.5 inch fabric pieces.

Top stitch 1/8 of an inch away from the edge on both sides. Do this for all of the quilt blocks and their coordinating fabrics. Trim any extra binding and threads away from blocks.

Next arrange your blocks vertically the way you like them. Now sew the bottom block to the middle block. The seam will sort of naturally go toward the background fabric (away for the middle block). Press the seam down toward the bottom block.

Now sew the top block to the middle block. Press the seam down toward the middle block.
Next layer the 6.5 by 25 inch batting and backing with the quilted pockets and top stitch about 1/8 of an inch away from the seams that you pressed down...

here...

and here.

Also sew about 1/8 of an inch from the top and bottom of the organizer to hold things in place. Then trim away any excess batting and backing.

Now, starting at the top of the organizer, bind the organizer. Making sure to insert your hanger at the top before finishing off the binding. Place the hanger downward on the backside of the organizer between the binding and backing fabric. Be sure to keep it out of the way as you finish off your binding. I used a quadruple folded piece of Baker's twine. 

And that's it! Your finished and now have a one super cute mail / bill / letter holder organizer thing :) As you can see I did not put mine in it's permanent place yet.

maybe here... 

If you have any questions let me know. I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial. Don't forget to check out the other tutorials that have been and are still to come. And there is a Linky Party contest at the end of the Blog Hop. The info is below....









It starts with a preview post on Jolly Jabber on March 4th! 

Here's the schedule.








Inspiration and Tutorials from Designers






Blog Hop




Week 1




March 4-Sunni is guest-posting on Jolly Jabber




March 5-Love Affair with my Brother








March 8-Love Affair with my Brother






Week 2




March 12-Mommy for Reals




March 13-A Colorful Life




March 14-It's Sew Kiki








Week 3




March 19-Love Affair with my Brother










March 23-Love Affair with my Brother











Linky Party




Linky Party will be open from March 24-31 with 2 winners announced the next week. You can link up any project that is inspired by The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt and uses between 1-9  6" finished quilt blocks. The blocks do not have to come from the book. 

Please link up a blog post or Flickr photo for your entry.






Judges


I just nearly died when both of these amazing ladies agreed to act as judges!




Laurie Aaron Hird, author of The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt
 




Michele Foster, Quilting Gallery




Sunni Bolger









Prizes




Cosmos - Fat Quarter Bundle Complete Collection by Dan Bennett  Fabric Quilt Cotton


The Intrepid Thread is sponsoring a FQ bundle of the amazing Cosmos by Dan Bennett for Rowan.











Fat Quarter Shop is sponsoring a FQ Bundle of gorgeous Poetica by Pat Bravo for Art Gallery Fabrics.



Looking forward to seeing what everyone makes!!!

10 comments:

Katy Cameron said...

So what you're saying is that opening your letters/bills and chucking them in a big heap on the bench isn't a good solution? You may be right ;o) And this looks nice and simple to run up too... hmmm...

Deborah said...

I love this. Great tutorial. It's on my "to make" list!

Jennie {Clover and Violet} said...

Oh cute! I may need one of these, as my methods have been similar to Katy's, except I pile mine on the table... :)

Anonymous said...

Lovely. You did such a fantastic job. I need to make one as I am SO disorganized!

Missy Shay said...

I love this! My bills always end up in a pile on top of my desk! I'm going to pin this!

Danny Heyen said...

Yeah, mine pile up on the kitchen table so we eat on the couch instead!

Karen said...

What a great project! Thanks for sharing! Would you mind please also telling me where you got that gorgeous birdie notelet from???

Live a Colorful Life said...

This is SOO cute, Erin! Making it out of Christmas fabrics would be great for Christmas cards.

trish said...

Oh I just love this Erin and I spied a pretty little table topper in the back ground that is so sweet. :o)

JOY @ http://joysjotsshots.blogspot.com/ said...

Thanks for posting this inspiration a couple of years back. I was wondering around for some wall pockets to make for a teacher to hold her share time books and papers. I think this can be expanded and she will enJOY.

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