Allison Sews: Adventures in Urban Village design

If there's one part of piecing I love, it's definitely paper piecing. Even more so when I use my freezer paper method. So when I met Sarah Sharp in our do Good. Stitches circle way back when, I always looked forward to her months as lead quilter since she loved paper piecing as much as I did. Later, when she started selling her own patterns, I was so excited for her. I've had a Folksy Fish quilt on my to-do list ever since and I'm basically in awe every time she releases a new pattern.

When Sarah told me she was creating Adventures in Paper Piecing and Design, I knew it would be awesome. It was even better than I imagined. I love this book! There is so much great information about both working with paper piecing patterns and creating your own. She invited me to make some sea creatures for Folksy Friends and you just might be able to spot my Invisi-Jellies in her finished quilt.

I know by this point in the book tour you've heard all about how amazing this book is and I hope you've had a chance to get a copy for yourself (check out my instagram for a chance to win a signed copy directly from Sarah!). You've seen the projects, heard about the design prompts, and just about made your way through the whole book.

Today is all about creating a repeat design. The Jungleview pattern completely blew me away when I first saw it and I'm kicking myself a little for not signing up for that day of the blog tour - it totally would have jumped the quilt to-do list to get done in time for this post! But I'm glad I decided to create my own repeat pattern instead as I ended up with something I think is pretty great.

The hardest part was deciding what to draw. Seriously. I considered many things but then remembered this picture I took on a trip to Iceland years ago. Reykjavik is the most charming little city and I just loved all of the colorful little houses I saw from up high in the Hallgrimskirkja church. So, houses it is.

I followed Sarah's steps to draw out my pattern, moving the quarter pages around to make sure all the lines matched up. Then I added some windows and other details and thought - holy crap, this is way too busy for one little square.

Back to the drawing board, with bigger houses this time and a bit more planned alignment. By version 3 things were looking pretty good and I was ready to divide it up into sections and then the pieces within those sections. H's and T's, H's and T's. They were endless.

At this point I remembered that I own EQ8 and thought it would be a little easier to mirror and enlarge if I put it all in the computer. In it went and, with a bit of tweaking the lines here and there, I was ready to print my pattern and sew. Yay!

I've started sewing and though each of my 4 blocks have many pieces, they are pretty simple and go together quickly. I could have left more blocks windowless or ready for improv piecing but I think I'm pretty happy with the final pattern.

When I was filling in colors in EQ8 I just happened to go with an icy, wintry color scheme and I liked it so much that it will likely be how the whole quilt ends up. I've started with some darker fabrics for now but we'll see where it goes. I'll make the blocks just a few at a time and not every block #1 (or 2, 3, or 4) will use the same color for the houses so it will be a little more varied than this final mock-up. I sure do look forward to working on this over the next few months and finishing it up long before I'm looking for a quilt to cuddle up with next winter.

Did I mention before that Sarah is giving away a signed copy of Adventures to one of my lucky followers? Head over to my instagram to enter. She's so generous, she will even ship internationally. Anyone can win! Unless you're one of those annoying spam accounts.

There are many other awesome stops on this tour and a few more still to come. Be sure to check them out for more giveaways and a ton of creative projects. And then head back to your sewing machine to paper piece all the things!

#adventuresbooktour

Adventures in Paper Piecing & Design

January 7 – 26, 2019

Monday January 7 - Plant Lady

Heather Givans (@crimsontate | crimsontate.com)

Featured Quilter: Marion McClellan (@myquiltdiet)

Tuesday January 8 - Graffiti FPP

Sarah Sharp (@nohatsquilts | nohatsinthehouse.com)

Wednesday January 9 - Design Prompt No. 1 - Learning by the Letter

Giuseppe Ribaudo (aka Giucy Giuce) (@giucy_giuce)

Thursday January 10 - Snooze

Amanda Castor (@materialgirlquilts | materialgirlquilts.com)