Fast & Easy Fat Quarter Apron Tutorial

Pat from Old Trinity Schoolhouse Quilt Shop designed the cutest, quickest sewing apron you've ever seen! She's a delightful, energetic red-head whose catch-phrase is "If you are what you quilt, I'm fast & easy". So I'm calling this "Pat's Fast & Easy Fat Quarter Apron".

Here's all you need to make it:

2 coordinating fat quarters

(one print can be directional, but both would make it complicated)

3 yards 1-1/2" wide grosgrain ribbon

thread

REALLY!

Pat, who was wearing her apron, was the only one of us at Quilt Camp (read more about camp here) who could keep track of her cell phone and seam ripper. She was sweet enough to grant me permission to demonstrate it at The Quilting Party meeting Tuesday night. In fact, she told me to teach it to anyone I wanted, so I'm sharing it here with you in case you missed it!

Sandra, Christina, Pam, Me, Laura in our fast & easy aprons!

Here's how you do it:

1. Place 2 coordinating FQ's right-sides-together and press.

2. Square up edges with rotary cutter, making sure to remove the selvedges. The finish dimensions are not important. Mine ended up about 17"x21".

3. Pin together and sew using a 1/4" or 1/2" seam allowance. Leave a space a bit larger than your hand unsewn on one short side for turning (as if you were making a beanbag or pillow cover).

4. Clip corners, turn right-side-out, and press flat.

5. Fold one long edge up about 6" to make one large pocket. Pin and press. Audition both fabrics as the outside pocket along with your ribbon to see how your apron will look best.

6. Edgestitch along each short side to hold pocket in place. It works best to sew both sides  from bottom to top. Some of the brighter quilters in the group used their walking feet, which they say helped. I'm not that smart, so I just used my regular foot.

7. Mark your individual pockets depending on what you wish to put in them. For my first one I just measured 3" from each side and 6" from each side, which gave me four small pockets and one larger middle one. If the pockets are too deep for your phone or other items, you can sew across the bottom of some of the pockets to make them shallower. Any stitch will do for separating the pockets, but I used one of the many neglected decorative stitches on my Bernina.

8. Cut 2-3 yards of grosgrain ribbon, depending on your waist size and the size of bow you want. Tie a bow at your side waist (so it won't get it your way or hurt your back as you sit and sew for hours). Pin or clip the apron on and mark where it lines up.  The ribbon will be shorter on the bow side of the apron.

9. Line up the top edge of the ribbon with the top edge of the apron. Edgestitcth at top and bottom of ribbon, and where the ribbon meets the apron on each side.

10. Model your adorable apron, made in just a few minutes from two fat quarters and a roll of grosgrain ribbon! Yes, those are my jammies...

12. Make more- they're addictive! This apron could be easily adapted as a child's coloring apron (think tiny crayon slots), yard-sale apron (for change, pen, tags), nail/hardware apron (made of canvas), you name it. The possibilities are endless!

Thanks to members of The Quilting Party for their participation, and to Pat for her great idea!

TIP: Instead of pins for this project, I used these Wonder Clips by Clover, actually designed for use as binding clips. They're easier to use than pins in some cases, and you can run them all the way up to your presser foot because the bottom side is flat. Some quilt guild members asked about them last night, so I am including the information here. I got mine at Sew Biz Quilt Camp (about $4 for 10).

Fiber Arts Picnic

Last night, our local guild, "The Quilting Party" (view a nineteenth century painting of the same name here), hosted a big party for fiber artists!

Thirty-five ladies and one young gentleman gathered to represent, promote and support quilting, embroidery, smocking, needlepoint and knitting. And of course, to socialize and eat, eat, eat! Apparently, fiber artists are excellent cooks, too. The two different rhubarb desserts were a highlight of the food tables, and I especially enjoyed the delicious array of beautiful, colorful, delicious summer salads. Quilts hung around the perimeter of the shelter were so much fun to see. The other guilds in attendance displayed some of their amazing work as well. There was much "ooohing and aahing".

There were even quilt tops covering the silent auction tables in the center. And since the evening turned a bit chilly, Judy (far right) wrapped up in one!

Shown at the far left is a quilt Jane made from quilt guild raffle blocks. If you're not familiar with the concept of raffle blocks: a block pattern and color scheme is chosen (this one was a sugar gum leaf in fall colors with cream background). Each participant has one chance to win for each block she turns in. Then one lucky member wins all the blocks. I've seen some amazing sets of blocks won since I joined the guild in 2005, but this is the first finished quilt a member has brought to show us! Look closely at the random setting Jane used, which I think adds great interest to the quilt, and I wish you could see the exquisite machine quilting!

If you belong to a guild, consider hosting an event like this. And if you are a fiber artist and don't belong to a guild (or a few), you are really missing fabulous opportunity to learn from and enjoy the work of others.

Ten Minute Table Runners

We made these fun and fast "Ten Minute Table Runners" at our quilt guild meeting Tuesday night! 

Pictured here (left to right) are Janice, Kay, Judy, Gisela, Karin, Christina, me, Sandy (who taught us the technique) and Kate, with our runners on the table in front of us. Two of the runners pictured weren't quite finished due to a back-up at the ironing boards, but I'm counting it as nine finishes! I think we had more, but they must've slipped out the door before picture time.

Get free instructions here from Sweet Home Quilt Company or here at RGA Design Quilts (this one includes a "Twelve Minute Gift Wrap Bag). 

While it took us a little over an hour to nearly complete these nine runners with six sewing machines, including instruction time, chatting, waiting for irons, chatting, ironing, chatting, posing for pictures, and chatting...oh, and a bit of seam ripping from sewing a seam wrong (OK, maybe that was just me)... I believe that now I could actually make one of these in somewhere close to ten minutes (maybe fifteen)! They would be great for decorating holiday tables at a group banquet or pot-luck dinner. You could even give the centerpieces away as door prizes!

Here's a close-up of mine, completed last night with embellishments from my button jar. Kate cleverly plans to applique on the triangle ends of hers. Tassels could also be sewn onto the points.  

Any project completed within 24 hours counts as a success in my book!