Treasure Chest Tutorial Part 4: Piecing and Foundation

If you missed the first parts of this tutorial, 

links have been provided at the end of this post.

After Part 3 of this tutorial, your fabric was colored and heat set. If you have not already, remove the freezer paper from the back of your fabric.

Now to prepare the fabric for embellishment. Before adding embroidery, beads, or other embellishments, you need a foundation fabric. 

Click any photo for a larger image.

1. Cut a piece of muslin out that is at least 5" x 7" in size and is large enough to fit your embroidery hoop or frame.

2. Iron the muslin.

3. Using your fabric safe marker and a quilting ruler, draw a 4" x 6" rectangle onto the center of your piece of muslin. (I used a black Pigma Micron 05 marker and heat set the ink with the dry cotton setting of an iron, as explained in the Design Transfer part of this series.)

4. Trim the colored fabric.

• Mixed Media Option: Trim the colored fabric to a 5" x 7" rectangle.
• Crazy Quilt Option: Trim the fabric to a 3.5" x 4.5" rectangle.

5. Pin the postcard fabric to the muslin foundation. 

NOTES: The rectangle you drew in Step 1 will be the back side of the muslin foundation.

If needed, hold the fabrics up to a window to be sure the colored fabric is where you want it within the triangle on the back of the muslin.

Mixed Media Option: Center the 5" x 7" colored treasure chest fabric (colored-side-up) on the front side of the muslin. From the back side, pin the treasure chest fabric to the muslin. 

Skip down to Step 7.

Crazy Quilt Option: Decide how you want your postcard oriented and place the 3.5" x 4.5" rectangle on the front side of the muslin. The block needs to be pieced. See Step 6. 

6. Piece the crazy quilt fabric postcard. I chose a portrait orientation for my crazy quilt postcard and placed my treasure chest at an angle along the bottom edge.

The numbers in this image show the order in which the fabrics were added.

Fabric 1 - the colored image:

The colored fabric extends past the left side and the bottom on the bottom-left corner of the rectangle drawn on the back of the muslin.

Fabric 2: Find a scrap of tan or light brown fabric (think sand.) Be sure the scrap will extend beyond the borders on the bottom and the side of the rectangle on the back side of your muslin.

Place the fabric right-side-down on the treasure chest fabric, lining the edge with the sand-colored bottom edge of your colored fabric.

Place pins along the edges of the rectangle drawn on the back of the muslin.

Using 1/4" seam allowance, sew along this seam. (My stitched seams extend about 1/4" past the rectangle on the muslin on both sides.)

Press the seam with iron on cotton steam setting.

Open the fabric and press both fabrics flat onto the muslin foundation.

Trim the right edge even with the edge of your treasure chest rectangle.

To do this, flip the piece so the front is face down on your cutting mat.

Fold the muslin back away from the edge of the fabric. Set your ruler over the muslin, so you will not cut it by mistake. Line the edge of the ruler with the edge of the treasure chest fabric and trim the sand colored fabric.

As seen in the next photo, I also trimmed the bottom. Leaving an extra 1/2" to 1" of fabric extending beyond the rectangle drawn on the muslin, I trimmed the fabric on the bottom.

Fabric 3: Find a scrap of blue fabric.

Place the fabric right-side-down and pin it along the edge you just trimmed.

Sew the seam from the top of the treasure chest fabric down to the bottom of the sand fabric.

Iron the seam.

Open the fabric and iron the seam open.

Flip the fabric face-down, fold the muslin along the top seam of the treasure chest fabric. Place your ruler over the muslin (so you cannot accidentally cut it), line the ruler up with the top of the treasure chest fabric and trim the blue fabric. 

Trim the blue fabric so it extends about 1/2"-1" beyond the side of the rectangle drawn on the back of your muslin.

Fabric 4: Find another scrap of blue fabric. Be sure it is large enough to cover the remainder of the rectangle drawn on the back of your muslin foundation.

Place the fabric right-side-down and pin it along the top seam with the treasure chest and blue fabric.

Sew the seam.

Press the seam.

Open the fabric and press the seam open.

Without cutting the muslin foundation, trim the blue fabric so it extends about 1/2" to 1" beyond the rectangle drawn on the muslin foundation on the top and the left side of the block.

With the muslin foundation up, carefully pin the edges of fabric from the front. (It will look similar to the photo below, but with seams sewn on it.)

7. Baste the front of the postcard to the muslin foundation. This step is the same for both the mixed media and crazy quilt versions of the postcard.

I set my sewing machine to a longer stitch setting and sew along the lines of the rectangle on the muslin. This makes it easier to remove this thread after the block has been embellished.

Your postcard is now ready to embellish!

This will be covered in the next part of this tutorial. 

If you skip ahead, keep the following tips in mind:
A. Your postcard cannot be more than 1/4-inch thick and the stabilizer will add roughly 1/8-inch to that thickness. Your beads and/or charms should be small or thin.
B. After embellishing, we will be cutting the 4" x 6" rectangle. Keep all embellishing within the rectangle you drew on the muslin. The basted seam helps you visualize that area as you work.
C. You will be sewing along the edge of the postcard when it is done. Place all beads and charms at least 1/4-inch away from the outer edges of your basted rectangle.

Links to related blog posts:

Treasure Chest Sketch

Treasure Chest Tutorial Part 1: Gathering Supplies

Treasure Chest Tutorial Part 2: Design Transfer

Treasure Chest Tutorial Part 3: Coloring Fabric