June 2014 Giveaway winners

Last night I stayed up till past midnight to draw the winners for my June 2014 giveaway. Yes, I sat in front of the computer and waited till June became July. Well, I kinda had to stay up anyway as I fell asleep around 6 in the evening for an hour and that kind of sleep is really refreshing except it means you can't sleep at night. It was a tiring day as I had gone out with hubs to look for pom poms. It was a long walk.

Without further babbling, the winners are:

First winner drawn by random number generator is...

Congrats Stacy. And Meow to you too. You get the bicycle print bundle.

Second winner drawn by random number generator is...

Congrats Fiona! You get the guitar bundle. I know you wanted the bicycle print but you got picked second. Hope you like the guitar prints anyway.

A big thanks to everyone for taking part. I will be emailing the winners soon to get shipping details, etc.
p.s. some of you took the trouble to write a little bit about yourself in your entries. thank you and it was nice to be able to be able to "picture" who you are.

Free flower applique templates

Guys,

After I had written the "Hand applique using blanket stitch" tutorial, I thought you might like a flower applique to practise the stitches on. The simple 5 and 6 petals flower applique templates are one of my favourites and I used a software to draw up the shapes. I have uploaded them to my google drive and you may save the templates to your computer. To save paper, just print the pages with templates. The template comes in only one size. This size I'm giving you is just perfect for applique - roughly 4" across. If you wish to print the template in a different size, remember to open it via Adobe Reader which allows you to print at a custom % size. This tute shows you how to resize the templates using Adobe Reader version XI.

To retrieve the templates click below:
Five petals flower applique template
Six petals flower applique template

I went through my archives and dug up a few zip pouches I had made using blanket stitches on the flower applique. These were made years ago!

I left the center empty.

These two are similar - the center motifs are fused to the background fabric. Then the flower applique with a hole in the center is placed above it and fused to the background fabric.

I used seed stitches to fill in the center. If you're wondering what are seed stitches, they are really straight stitches which are randomly placed to fill up a space. The main thing to remember for seed stitches is to use varying sizes of stitch length sewn in different directions.

I sewed a circle on top of the center of the flower. Yes, of course I happened to have a circle with a small flower on it.

My flower applique templates can also be used as a pattern for brooches. If you print the templates at 70%, it should give you a good size for a brooch. (just slightly larger than 2.5" across) Below are some felt brooches I had made in the past. When I made these brooches, I rough cut the shape by folding the felt into half and used a pen to draw out the shape on the felt. They turned out a little uneven. Well, you don't need to rough cut anything since you have the templates. I hope these brooches give you some inspiration.

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Bag patterns at my Etsy shop


Applique patterns at my Etsy shop


For more Applique Resources
For more Tutorials

A word from Bear

Ladies,

In case you haven't already entered Jane's June Fabric+pattern Giveaway, you still have time. It ends 30th June 2014 Singapore time. Go here to enter.

Meanwhile I'm keeping the fabric nice and warm for the two winners.

Later.

♥ Bear