Happy Little Things BOM is Here!

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Hello Everyone! It’s the first month of the Happy Little Things BOM by Jacquelynne Steves. The quilts are so cute, but I’m not making one this year, at least not all of it. I thought I would give you ideas for displaying and using your embroidery pieces in other ways. As always with Jacquelynne’s BOMs, there are some terrific giveaways. This month’s sponsor is OLFA, so make sure to read to the bottom to find out how you can enter 8 times!

This year, I will be using the embroidery designs from Happy Little Things free BOM and those exclusive to The Art of Home Club members. I will also be using Jacquelynne’s Bitty Blooms embroidery designs that you can now find in her shop. Remember, if you are a member of the club, you already have access to these designs.

Happy Little Things Pin Cushion

Bitty Blooms, Summer

Let’s start with the Happy Little Things Pin Cushion!

For all the Happy Little Things projects, I will be using Corey Yoder’s Sunnyside Up fabric line and her DMC floss package. This floss package would also go very well with the Desert colorway fabric from Jacquelynne. Do you see those cute buttons and charms? I’m embellishing my projects with these and you can also find them in Jacquelynne’s shop, along with the Happy Little Things Pin-Minis.

I am stitching the embroidery on Essex Linen by Robert Kaufman. I prepped the fabric by fusing Pellon SF 101, a woven interfacing, onto the back. I do this for all my embroidery pieces.

I’m using three strands of the floss, except for the applique flower. The flower is stitched with a button hole stitch, using two strands of floss. The stem is a series of cross-stitches, which I did first, then added the backstitch to outline it. The small leaves are satin stitched and I used embroidery floss to stitch on the buttons and charm. The quilting running stitch is also three strands of floss.

I’ve used a two pieced back to close the pinny after I stuffed it with fiberfill. If you are interested, I’ve written a Happy Little Things Pin Cushion Tutorial on making the pin cushion. You can find it on my Tutorials page on the top menu.

I’ve made lots of pin cushions, and some of them I use. The Happy Little Things pinny looks good displayed with the rest of my mini pinnies for now, though.

Now, let’s take a look at the Bitty Blooms finish.

My regular blog followers know that I’ve recently gotten back into cross-stitching. There are so many cute finishes for cross-stitch and I thought, “why can’t those same finishes be used for embroidery?” So that’s what I did with the Bitty Blooms design. I took four out of the 13 designs and am turning them into seasonal designs. They will all be mounted as a flat finish.

These techniques are not my own and there are several by good cross-stitch finishers. The one I’m using is by Vonna Pfieffer of The Twisted Stitcher. If you would like to finish an embroidery project similar to mine, I would suggest viewing the following tutorials by Vonna:

Written: The Mounted Flat Ornament

Video: Mounted Flat Fold

I have also written a tutorial specific to the Bitty Blooms finish that you can use and can be found on my Tutorials page, but I would encourage you to view Vonna’s first.

During the week of July 4th, I displayed my Summer Bitty Blooms with my mini pinny flag.

For the stitched piece, I used the white linen napkins that I picked up at an Antique shop.

The embroidery and applique are stitched with Aurifloss thread by Aurifil, three strands for the embroidery and two for the applique buttonhole stitch. The blue flower center is a chain stitch and I made French knots in the center. I added the running stitch inside the flowers and pot, and along the outside edge in a 3 3/4″ square around the center embroidery. Summer Bitty Blooms is mounted using two layers of fabric covered mat board with large rick rack and covered buttons as embellishments. My tutorial has all the details. Because the Happy Little Things embroidery designs finish at the same size as the Bitty Blooms, you could mount those, too.

Now for the good part, the Giveaway!

This month, our sponsor is Olfa. Don’t you just love the new navy color?

I love my Olfa Splash rotary cutter and have the pink and purple. I’m thinking about adding the Navy to my collection. I also need a new cutting mat. Now’s the time to get that Navy one.

To enter the Giveaway, please leave a comment (instructions below) and tell me what your favorite method of finishing an embroidered or applique piece is. If you don’t embroider or applique, that’s okay, just let me know that you don’t.

Giveaway rules:

• Giveaway is open to US and Canada residents. International winners will receive an alternate prize.
• One prize per person per giveaway.
• The Giveaway will end by the end of day on Sunday, August 11.

Please be sure that I can contact you immediately through your blog account, or be sure to include your email in your comment. If I choose your name but cannot contact you immediately, I will choose another winner. 

If I do not receive a response from you on Wednesday, August 14 by 8:00 AM Eastern Time, I will need to choose another winner.

Use #HappyLittleThingsBOM and #HappyLittleThingsQuilt for social media. We would love to see your progress.

You can also post photos in the Sew Quilty Friends FB group  https://www.facebook.com/groups/SewQuiltyFriends.JacquelynneSteves/.

Be sure to visit all the bloggers to see their version of Happy Little Things and to increase your chance of winning.

• A Quilting Life  https://www.aquiltinglife.com/
• Podunk Pretties http://podunkpretties.blogspot.com/
• The Crafty Quilter   https://thecraftyquilter.com/
• Flamingo Toes   https://flamingotoes.com/
• Allie-Oops Sweet Happy Life   http://allie-oopssweethappylife.blogspot.com/
• Happy Quilting Melissa http://www.happyquiltingmelissa.com/
• The Quilting Nook (Me)  https://thequiltingnook.wordpress.com/
• Kathy’s Quilts  https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/

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