teaching sewing confidence, tip by tip

Wednesday 8 November 2017

Ruadhri - The FPP Highland Cow

Ruadhri - The FPP Highland Cow by www.madebyChrissieD.com

Hang around here long enough and you're bound to know that I love sewing up FPP patterns designed by Juliet @The Tartankiwi and I often test new patterns for her.  When I was sent her new book to review (you can read my review here) I HAD to make up one of the 12 patterns and it HAD to be - The Highland Cow.  

Ruadhri, The FPP Highland Cow by www.madebyChrissieD.com

As I mentioned in my Animal Quilts book review, The Highland Cow is my daughter Flicky's fave animal from her four years at The University of St Andrews in Scotland.  

Ruadhri - The FPP Highland Cow by www.madebyChrissieD.comRuadhri - The FPP Highland Cow by www.madebyChrissieD.com

Flicky graduated, earlier this year, with a Masters in Modern History, the pic above is of my three kids adults at her graduation, and she is now living her dream as crew on a luxury yacht.  I snapped the pic below when I was given a tour a couple of weeks ago.

Ruadhri - The FPP Highland Cow by www.madebyChrissieD.com

To get back to the Highland Cow, I absolutely HAD to make up this pattern into a pillow cushion so she can have it with her on her seafaring adventures.

Ruadhri - The FPP Highland Cow

The fabrics I've used are Uncorked, Another Point of View for Windham Fabrics.  They're gorgeous, and here's the info from the Windham website "cotton fabric designed to look like colored cork fabric. Metallic accents. 100% cotton fabric. No special instructions needed for use."  Available in-store and online this month, I lucked out a few weeks ago when Windham sent me an FQ bundle of the full collection to play with.


Uncorked, Another Point of View for Windham Fabrics - photo by www.madebyChrissieD.comUncorked, Another Point of View for Windham Fabrics - photo by www.madebyChrissieD.com

So this is my fabric pull from the collection and I've teamed it with a crazy, heavy purple and white dot called Flurry (Grape) by Dashwood Studios.

 Ruadhri - The FPP Highland Cow by www.madebyChrissieD.com

As always, when I do FPP, I allocated a coloured pencil to each fabric,

Ruadhri - The FPP Highland Cow by www.madebyChrissieD.com

and coloured my paper templates.

Ruadhri - The FPP Highland Cow by www.madebyChrissieD.com

Materials + Tools
Below are links to some of the materials and tools I've used for this project, and love.
Note: I'm an Amazon affiliate and may receive a small commission, at no additional cost to you, on any purchase made by following an Amazon link. Thanks for your support which enables me to carry on blogging.

       

Let's jump forward now and look at the completed sections,

Ruadhri - The FPP Highland Cow by www.madebyChrissieD.com

and then the finished back with papers still attached.  You can see that I remove my seam papers to allow me to press the seams in the best direction to suit the design and the 3D effect I want to achieve.

Ruadhri - The FPP Highland Cow by www.madebyChrissieD.com

My FPP Tips
Tips For Foundation Paper Piecing by www.madebyChrissieD.com FPP Paper Folding Tip by www.madebyChrissieD.com FPP Colouring Tip by www.madebyChrissieD.com FPP Pressing Tip by www.madebyChrissieD.com

And, this is how the finished front looks - measuring 20" square.

Ruadhri - The FPP Highland Cow by www.madebyChrissieD.com
Ruadhri - The FPP Highland Cow by www.madebyChrissieD.com  

Next, I layered the finished top with batting and muslin backing and lightly quilted it.  A simple quilted outline inside the horns and face knocked them back and a quilted line outside the highland cow outline allowed the hair and snout to sit further forward. 

Ruadhri - The FPP Highland Cow by www.madebyChrissieD.com

Here you can see how I've quilted it on the back.

Ruadhri - The FPP Highland Cow by www.madebyChrissieD.com

And a closer look at the quilted front.

Ruadhri - The FPP Highland Cow by www.madebyChrissieD.comRuadhri - The FPP Highland Cow by www.madebyChrissieD.com Ruadhri - The FPP Highland Cow by www.madebyChrissieD.com

So what to do for the back - using my selvedge fabric technique, I made the back panel from the Uncorked selvedges and then used my Hidden Zipper and No More Bunny Ears tutes to finish the cushion.

Ruadhri - The FPP Highland Cow by www.madebyChrissieD.com

My Selvedge Tutes
   What's A Selvedge by www.madebyChrissieD.com How To Make Selvedge Fabric by www.madebyChrissieD.com

My Pillow Cushion Tutes
Hidden Zipper Tute by www.madebyChrissieD.com No More Empty Corners (aka Bunny Ears) by www.madebyChrissieD.com 

The Finished Pillow Cushion
Ruadhri - The FPP Highland Cow by www.madebyChrissieD.com
Ruadhri - The FPP Highland Cow by www.madebyChrissieD.com

And why Ruadhri?
The Scottish word Ruadhri, pronounced 'roo-ir-ee', means redhead - very apt don't you think?!

Ruadhri - The FPP Highland Cow by www.madebyChrissieD.com

If you'd like to make your own FPP Highland Cow the pattern is one of 12 available in the new FPP book Animal Quilts by Juliet van der Heijden.  Again, you can read my review here and you can buy the book from Amazon (affiliate link) and other bookstores too.
Ruadhri - The FPP Highland Cow by www.madebyChrissieD.comRuadhri - The FPP Highland Cow by www.madebyChrissieD.com

Take further inspiration from the other FPP patterns I've tested for Juliet previously.  Click any of the images below to go through to my post about testing that particular pattern:

The Tartankiwi FPP Pattern Testing by www.madebyChrissieD.com The Tartankiwi FPP Pattern Testing by www.madebyChrissieD.com The Tartankiwi FPP Pattern Testing by www.madebyChrissieD.com The Tartankiwi FPP Pattern Testing by www.madebyChrissieD.comThe Tartankiwi FPP Pattern Testing by www.madebyChrissieD.com The Tartankiwi FPP Pattern Testing by www.madebyChrissieD.com The Tartankiwi FPP Pattern Testing by www.madebyChrissieD.comThe Tartankiwi FPP Pattern Testing by www.madebyChrissieD.com The Tartankiwi FPP Pattern Testing by www.madebyChrissieD.com The Tartankiwi FPP Pattern Testing by www.madebyChrissieD.com The Tartankiwi FPP Pattern Testing by www.madebyChrissieD.com

Featured On

Ruadhri - The FPP Highland Cow

Ruadhri - The FPP Highland Cow by www.madebyChrissieD.com

Clicking on an image will take you to a new page of crafty goodness :)


Disclosure: 
This post contains Amazon and Craftsy affiliate links for which I am paid commission on click-through purchases (at no additional cost to you). Otherwise, the post is for informational purposes only and all opinions are my own.

Copyright: 
Uncredited reproduction of all content, text and images on this site is prohibited.
All content, text and images must be credited to Chris Dodsley @made by ChrissieD and include a link back to this site.

Protected by Copyscape




Craftsy Unlimited FREE 7 day trial at Craftsy.com

20 comments:

  1. Ruadhri is fabulous Chris, a wonderful example of yet another great pattern from Juliet.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Highland Cow is wonderful! All of the animal patterns look great. That must be such fun to do.

    ReplyDelete
  3. your highland cow is amazing I have done a few of her patterns and love them I would love to have this book so many wonderful patterns

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wow! Yay! I love your highland cow. My daughter also studied at St. Andrews and married a Scot. They have a new ginger baby, and this post is so full of inspiration. Thank you so sew much. I love your work. How lucky to see your link on Sew Fresh Quilts. I will be following you. Now to buy the book.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love your highland cow and I love that fabric range too, just the kind of thing I go for. I avoid paper piecing like the plague, which is funny really as I have two books of patterns, and one I bought this year. I'm thinking now it could be the paper I have been using, I use Golden Threads and I have to trace on the pattern by hand, I've looked at the packs of special paper for the computer but it is so expensive, I need a think, you have inspired me to give it another go, thank you for that.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I love the colors in Ruadhri. A beautiful cow. You have provided some food for thought. I'll be looking for this book. I actually like the Golden Threads paper better than printing on the FPP commercially available because I can see through the paper. Your tip about coloring the numbered areas so you get the right color is great. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Very cute! I am sure your daughter will love it :).

    ReplyDelete
  8. I love your quilted cow cushion! It's beautifully done and so unusual from the typical highland cow cushions!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Your quilted highland cow looks lushious. I just love all the piles of coloured fabrics.

    ReplyDelete
  10. It's gorgeous pillow! and the uncork fabric is totally fab!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Beautiful work Chrissie and it seems like yesterday when your daughter first went away to college!

    ReplyDelete
  12. I love that cow. Maybe I should try one of those patterns?

    ReplyDelete
  13. Love that cow! The colors are cool.

    ReplyDelete
  14. That is a really amazing Highland Cow! You are so craftsy and imaginative!

    ReplyDelete
  15. I love it, it looks like a rainbow cow but the color combination is truly amazing. Thank you for sharing at The Really Crafty Link Party. Pinned!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Absolutely beautiful work. You have captured the highland cow/Aberdeen Angus perfectly. Love to see them in the Highlands when the wind is blowing they always look so regal.

    ReplyDelete
  17. I love seeing your graduation photo - super proud mum :-)
    This cushion is amazing, I love watching how you do with technique, it makes me think I could maybe one day have a go! Anyway, whether or not that ever happens I think they are fabulous so this will be one of the features at Handmade Monday this coming week.

    ReplyDelete
  18. This is awesome !!! Thank you for sharing !

    ReplyDelete

I love to hear from everyone, thank you for taking the time to read my blog and share your thoughts. Please leave a message to let me know you visited, it's a great way to get to know you all better too :)

Chris Dodsley


Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.