In last week’s post I mentioned that this time of the year all the quilting guilds I belong to give you challenges or tacks! Well this week’s post is no different! For this quilt guild I have to make rosettes for the Royal Show winners, in the quilting section, this is normally held towards the end of May of each year, each of us have to make 4 rosettes. The norm is to make traditional rosettes using the crazy patchwork method. But last year I decided I don’t like the crazy patch idea and started making rosettes inspired by Laura Wasilowski’s book “Fanciful Stitches Colorful Quilts”! The ladies loved these rosettes so much I decided to do the same this year!
I will give you a quick rundown on how I do it! You will need:
5” square piece of background fabric, mark off the 4” square on the inside, this is your finished size.
Various pieces of about 5” square fabric with appliqué paper/fusible web ironed on to the back, follow the instructions on packaging. Laura Wasilowski suggests you use paper backed Wonder Under #805, Bondaweb or Soft Fuse. Use Hand-dyed, silk and batik fabrics, they work best for this as the colour runs to the back/wrong side, printed fabrics normally have a white back/wrong side and this shows up on raw edge appliqué.
20” x 1¼” length of fabric, same colour as the main colour with appliqué paper/fusible) web ironed onto the back. Trim the one long end down with pinking shears, or a rotary pinking blade, now cut into 4 x 4” lengths, this will form the binding for the rosette.
5” square piece of backing fabric in main colour (I used silk).
6” square piece of cotton batting.
4” square piece of light cardboard (I just used a cereal box).
Various ribbons, in width an in colour, I used 5 different colours of which the main colour of the rosette was the widest and the next four varied in colour and in size, about a yard/meter of each and a narrow 2”/5cm in length in the main colour for the hanger.
Various colours of embroidery thread.
Your will also need a sharp little fabric scissors, make sure that when you cut an piece of fabric it cuts from the back right up to the tip!
Rotary cutter with a straight blade and 2 or 3 blades that cut various waves or just a pinking blade, glue stick, steam iron and your basic sewing supplies.
Tip: When you plan your design remember the finished size is 4” including the binding! Most of my designs I didn’t use a template I just free-cut them as the creative juice took me! The only one I did draw onto the fabric before cutting was the bird.
Now you can start playing!
Remember your square/design must be placed on the diagonal/on point!
Now use all the various 5” square fabric (with appliqué paper/fusible web paper ironed on to the back) and scissors/waved/pinking blades plan and cut out different shape house or birds and place onto your 5” square piece of background fabric, within your 4” square. When you are happy with the design and the placement, steam set for 10 seconds.
Place onto your 6” batting and pin into place, using basic embroidery stitch to decorate your design. When you are happy with the final product steam set for 10 seconds on the batting side of the design and square off to a 4” square.
Now iron on the 4” binding to the top and bottom then the left and right side. Remember the pinking cut side overlaps onto the right side just over a ¼”.
Cut, trim and glue the ribbons into the order you would like them to be, glue them onto the back of the rosette, fold the narrow 5” piece of ribbon in half and glue it into place on the top.
Place the 4” cardboard square onto the wrong side of the 5” piece of backing fabric, trim corners. Glue down the overlapping fabric onto the back of the cardboard, glue this into place onto the back of rosette front, wrong sides facing. Top stitch the layers together using sewing machine or using an hand embroidery running stitch, the hand embroidery running stitch is not easy if your card is thick.
These rosettes are pretty easy to make and look amazing!
Till next week!
Love
NikkiM
Buzy Day 
They sure don’t look easy with that detail, but they are so pretty. Good luck on the show.
Thanks LuCinda!
Beutiful
Thank you!
They do look amazing, gorgeously bright colours 🙂
Thank you!
They are lovely…. Especially the little houses of course 😉 I hope the winners feel very lucky to receive them… I would.
Thanks Trish!
These are so adorable. I love bird appliques, so I’m loving the bird flying over the sun. Just makes me happy.
Thanks Wanda!
Reblogged this on TheKitchenPrincess and commented:
I wanted to reboot these to my blog…what a great idea, Nikki.
I am sorry, I meant reblog. I fixed it on my page. Still it is a great idea for a child’s room! Nicely done.
Thanks for reblogging my ‘Rosettes’!
Love
Nikki
I think I’d have a hard time giving these away, they are so cute!
You sound like my husband! Hehe thanks for your lovely comment!
Love
Nikki
Can the rosettes win prizes at the show?
I’ll check! Hehe
Oh wow, you are so clever! These are beautiful! ❤
Thank you!
I love these! Would you mind if I pinned this? I want to be able to come back when I have more time and try it.
Thanks for your lovely comment! It will be my pleasure if you pin them!
I finally had an excuse to make them and they are awesome! I made a bunch for daughter’s soccer team for their end of season celebration. I can’t wait to give them to the girls!
That is amazing! Well done! They are so lucky!
Love
Nikki
You are truly an artist! I agree with one if the previous comments who said she’d have a hard time giving those away. I am sol glad I “met” you. If I can figure out how to do it :), I will re blog this!
You very kind! Thanks for your lovely comment!
Love
Nikki
Reblogged this on Patchwork & Pastry.
Thanks Irene!
They look amazing! I love the color combinations! You make it sound so easy, I am very tempted to give it a go 🙂
Thanks for visiting my blog! Go for it! It’s pretty easy! They very forgiving!
Love
Nikki
What a fabulous challenge! These would be fantastic little gifts for such things as “gratitude gifts” (special little gifts just to remind people that you think they are pretty tops). I like it NikkiM. I bet people will be vying to win one in the show.
That is such a good idea! Thanks for your lovely comment and for visiting my blog!
Love
Nikki
Hi! Thanks for stopping by at my blog, I would not have found yours to check out otherwise. I haven’t done any quilting in my life, and have never seen those rosettes before.. They’re like little windows into other worlds.. Love the concept!
You’ve inspired me to try some one day. I see them being framed with an arabesque archway or something like that..
Your creations are so vibrant and positive! Thank you for being inspiration first thing in the morning and for spreading your happy vibes.
Hi Steph
Thank you for your lovely comment and for visiting my blog!
Love
Nikki
I’d like to come and sew a pile of these with you for a day! Bliss.
That will be so much fun!
If I may Ill be making these to use in my classroom when I graduate as a teacher. I need some more ideas please Nikki… 🙂 Love your work..
Wow! Well done! If you send me your address I will send you one for your graduation!
Love
Nikki
Ahhh … thank you Nikki… I so love reading your blogs and seeing all your creative goodies. Ill email you.
🙂
whoops.. no email on your blog?..
Mine is: 1mum5kids@gmail.com… Send one and Ill reply.. would love to keep in touch..