I gave lovely Lis, who sometimes works on the Wonderfil stand at shows, a strip of my puffins and to my surprise and delight, at the next show, she presented me with this wonderful puffin wall hanging. I love the way she has embroidered all the names for groups of puffins on the ladder 'rungs' and it receives so many lovely, admiring comments.
Lots of people also people want to know how to make one of their own. Here, I have made one using my swallow fabric strip and one red campion fat quarter to show you what to do.
1. Cut your six swallows (or other wildlife) roughly into 4 inch squares using the black marks as a guide. Then trim them down into 3 1/2 inch squares, making sure that the motif is in the middle. Don't just cut off the same from each side! Fabric is not always straight.
2. Take you fat quarter and cut 4 vertical strips that are 1 1/2 inches wide. These are going to be the sides of the ladder. You could make them wider if you want. Then cut one strip that is 3 1/2 inches wide. The rest is for the back so put that to one side.
3. Take the 3 1/2 inch strip and cut it horizontally into seven 1 1/2 inch strips. Again, these could be thicker if you wanted. If you are making a bigger ladder, with more wildlife squares, then cut more strips. You need one more than the number of squares you have.
4. Take the motif that you want on the bottom of the ladder and 2 of the seven small strips. Pin one strip to the bottom edge of the square and one to the top edge, making sure that the fabric will be in the right direction when you sew.
5. Press the seam allowances away from the central square.
6. Take the next swallow square and sew it to the top of the top strip.
7. Press the seam allowance away from the square.
8. Add the next strip to the top of the top of the swallow square just as before.
9. Continue adding alternate strips and squares until you have used them all up.
10. Take two of the four other strips and sew them together at the short end. Repeat with the other two strips.
11.Place the strips on either side of the ladder. I placed them so that the join was in the middle.
12. Pin the side strips to the ladder and trim the ends but not right up to the ladder.
13. Sew the sides of the ladder to the main piece and press the seam allowance away from the square.
14. Trim the ends more accurately.
This would be the time to add extra embellishments, like some embroidery, if you want.
15. Cut the large piece of the fat quarter you have left into strips which are the same width as the ladder topper. They should be approximately 5 1/2 inches wide.
16. Sew the two pieces together at the short ends. Making sure that the pattern will be in the right direction when opened up.
17. Cut the sewn piece to the same length as the swallow ladder. This should be approximately 25-26 inches.
18. Cut a piece of wadding to the same size as the ladder.
19. Sandwich the wadding between the back and front of the ladder. Pin and then tack with large stitches to keep in all place.
20. It's time to quilt! I hand-quilted mine. I quilted around the birds and around the squares.
21. I used a magenta biased binding to bind all around the ladder and to make a loop for hanging. This is explained in an earlier tutorial.
Thanks so much to Lis for coming up with this clever, yet simple, idea, and for letting me share it with the world! Lis's puffin ladder has already inspired others. Liz Simmonds made this gorgeous one below. It has slightly thicker rungs and sides, and I think Liz has machine quilted it. Thanks for letting me share this Liz.
