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 6-Craizee Corners

March 7-Lilypad Quilting

March 8-Love Affair with my Brother

March 9-Clover & Violet

Week 2

March 12-Mommy for Reals

March 13-A Colorful Life

March 14-It's Sew Kiki

March 15-Lilypad Quilting

March 16-Why Not Sew? Quilts

Week 3

March 19-Love Affair with my Brother

March 20-Echinops & Aster

March 21-Life's Rich Pattern

March 22-Ellison Lane Quilts

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

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!!!