November Across The Pond Sew Along Project

November's Across The Pond Sew Along Project

One Year  for   Across The Pond Sew Along!!

November... the perfect time to join in and make a project  with us
in this fun and idea-filled sew along!

I can't believe that it was one year ago that we began our Across The Pond Sew Along group!   Amanda,  The Patchsmith,  and Amy, Amy Made That!, and I wanted to make fun projects monthly , and to make new friends along the way.   ( I also wanted some "creativeness" to "rub off onto me" , from being around Amy and Amanda and their friends and followers.)

Your might remember our first project, back in November 2012.  Amy chose the Anita Vacation Tote Bag~

November 2012 ATPSA Project  Anita Vacation Tote

This is my own version of the Anita Vacation tote~

My Anita Vacation Tote Bag   Susie's Sunroom

 
Since then, our group has made a lot of projects!   And our Flickr Group has grown to 59 followers , with 231 pictures!  Pictures of projects have been submitted by 26 different quilters!  I just love seeing the projects that you have put into the group to share!  Thank you so much for sewing along us.  I am inspired by your work and creativity and talent!

Now it is time to see what Amy has selected for this month's theme:   Apples!!

The  Apple theme... can mean make any kind of apple  or use  any apple fabrics...  something to do with apples.

I loved this idea, and really loved it when I started looking through all of my stash for any red and green fabrics.  Because I found some apple fabric that I had used to make a purse.

Fabrics:   Apples  -Timeless Treasures

               Red plaid -  Timeless Treasures

              Green gingham-  Cotton Blossoms  Dill Dot Plaid    Moda

               Green -  Nature's Christmas  by  Sandy Gervais for Moda Fabrics

               Cream blender-     Molly B's Studio  by Marcus Fabrics

My fabrics  ... yummy!

My  Project :   Cookie Plate Crumb Catcher    by Julie C , The Crafty Quilter blog

Super cute pattern  for a Cookie Plate Crumb Catcher    by The Crafty Quilter
photo courtesy of The Crafty Quilter

Julie's  blog featured a pattern for a Cookie Plate Crumb Catcher table topper, in gorgeous Christmas fabrics, in mid-October. I could just see my  apples in the squares in this pattern.   Julie gives  us a tutorial showing exactly  how to make it !  This is awesome because I had no idea how to make it on my own!

I fussy cut my squares, to feature one apple in each square.   I used Fons & Porter Fussy Cutting Templates, that had the center marked on a clear square. It was so easy to see where to cut each 5 1/2 inch square.  (I have had these templates for 2 years and never really used them before.)                ** These are 50% off at Joann.com through Sat.**

Back side  of a square in a square    

 Julie also has an awesome tutorial for making a Perfect Square in Square.  I loved using this method, as it is like paper piecing the corners onto a square.

This method left room for seam allowances at the four corners

I used the 45 degree angle on my 3 x 18 inch Omnigrid Ruler, to trim my HST squares

Laying out the pieces for the topper

Yep.... love that red plaid in the corners!

One of the square in square blocks 

I was happy with my piecing together of the top.  I  see a few places that aren't meeting perfectly. But,  I hope to improve on them when I make my next crumb catcher. This is a fun pattern to make.

Julie 's tutorial also  shows  how to make the angled binding. (Thank you, Julie!)   I machine quilted it on... but to the BACK side first.  Why did I do that???  I don't know why.  ( I marked this on my notes!)

My next crumb catcher,  I will sew the binding on to the front first, and then  most likely hand sew the binding to the back.  

The back of the crumb catcher.  You can see where I stitched in the ditch to feature the pinwheel

The Cookie Plate Crumb Catcher 

I love the green inner pinwheel

For more creative and beautiful apple project ideas, hop on over to Amy's blog,  Amy Made That!,  and Amanda's blog, The Patchsmith .  We will be putting our project pictures in the Across The Pond Sew Along Flickr group.  We'd love for you to put your apple project in there,too!  (Or any Across The Pond project you have made.)

This was such a fun project to make.  I hope to put up some more "apple" ideas on my blog in November , too.   

I'm off to my sewing room!

Linking up at Can I Get a Whoop Whoop! @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict    and
                      TGIFF @  Quilt Matters





PS

If you would like to see some more beautiful variations of The Crafty Quilter's  Cookie Plate Crumb Catcher pattern,  go on over to see Sheri's blog at Sunshine in the Attic.  She has several beautiful crumb catchers in seasonal fabrics.  

Sheri's crumb catchers:

photo by Sheri at  Sunshine in the Attic blog

photo by Sheri at Sunshine in the Attic blog