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)

Featured Quilter: Karlee Porter (@karleeporterdesign)

Friday January 11 - Design Prompt No. 2 - Traditional with a Twist

Katy Cameron (@the_littlest_thistle | the-littlest-thistle.com)

Saturday January 12 - Prickly Path

Anneliese Johnson (@eyecandyquilts | eyecandyquilts.com)

Featured Quilter: Angela Walters (@angelafmq)

Featured Fabric Designer: Alison Glass (@alisonglass)

Monday January 14 - Design Prompt No. 3 - Objects

Alison Robins (@littleislandquilting)

Tuesday January 15 - Voodoo Feathers

Jennifer Sampou (@jennifersampou | jennifersampou.com)

Wednesday January 16 - Design Prompt No. 4 - Creatures

Anne Sullivan (@playcrafts | play-crafts.com)

Thursday January 17 - Folksy Friends

Raquel Olivo (@raquelsews)

Featured Quilter: Kathleen Riggins (@kathleenquilts)

Friday January 18 - Design Prompt No. 5 - Think Outside the (Square) Block

Cath Hall (@wombatquilts | wombatquilts.com)

Saturday January 19 - Fireflies

Sarah Lauzon (@cera.bee | sarahjlauzon.com)

Featured Quilter: Rachael Dorr (@rachaeldorr)

Sunday January 20 - Sunday Book Review!

Sarah Ashford (@sarahashfordstudio)

Tuesday January 22 - Design Prompt No. 6 - Repeat Designs

Allison Dutton (@allisonsews | allison-sews.blogspot.com)

Wednesday January 23 - Jungleview

Merran Fryer (@123bluejumper)

Thursday January 24 - Design Prompt No. 7 - Single Foundation Paper Piecing

Jamie Swanson (@jamiemswansonquilts)

Friday January 25 - Double Diamond Wedding Ring

Elisabeth Hardy (@elisabew | elisabewquilts.com)

Featured Quilter: Andrea Munro (@practicaldazzle)

Saturday January 26 – Recap and Photography

Sarah Sharp (@nohatsquilts | nohatsinthehouse.com)

Eric Lubrick (@ericlubrick | ericlubrick.com)

Cloudy with a chance of poppies

I was delighted when Amanda Herring asked me to join in on the Desert Bloom blog tour for her newest line with Riley Blake. She has made so many great fabric collections and this one had some prints I was seriously crushing on.

Desert Bloom is inspired by Amanda's love of Utah, a state I'd like to visit sometime, and she even sent along a sweet little Utah care package. Did you see the amazing cookies she had commissioned to match the fabric? Adorable!

The blues in this line are my favorite so I really wanted to make something to take advantage of those. I've been playing around with designing some paper piecing patterns in EQ7 and decided some clouds and rain might be cool. Even the Utah desert needs a little rain sometimes, right?

The clouds are 10 x 20" and were fairly quick to piece despite the amount of tiny sections. I may have to work on that... The rain blocks are also 10 x 20". How perfect are those geometric stripes for rain? I love them.

I kept the quilting pretty simple with horizontal waves for wind, vertical curvy lines on the rain, and some cloud-like echoes in the clouds. I was able to use the longarm at my local store, Sewing Machine Service, which made it go super quick and easy!

I couldn't leave out the red prints altogether and what better for the back of the quilt than a whole field of poppies that have been well watered with all of this rain? My friend Kenzie approves.

The quilt finishes at 60 x 70", a great size for snuggling on the couch. Just as soon as this ridiculously hot Seattle weather passes, that is!

Be sure to check out all of the other stops on the tour. There has been some great stuff so far with even more to come.

6/6 - Riley Blake Designs

6/6 - Fabric Mutt

6/7 - That's Sew Kari

6/7 - Beri Bee Designs

6/8 - A Bright Corner

6/8 - Allison Sews

6/9 - Life After Laundry

6/9 - Orchid Owl Quilts

6/10 - Snickerdoodle Stew

6/10 - Just Let Me Quilt

6/13 - Down Grapevine Lane

6/13 - Cream Craft Goods

6/14 - Quilting Jet Girl

6/14 - Rae Gun Ramblings

6/15 - Ameroonie Designs

6/15 - All Things Belle

6/16 - Sue Daley Designs

6/16 - Trillium Design

6/17 - Happy Quilting Melissa

6/17 - Simple Simon & Co.

Float

Winner! Winner! Woo, I'm so excited!

With all of the visits to and from Clothworks / American Made Brand for the Meetup and Seattle MQG, I kept hearing about this Tiny Quilt Challenge they were having and wanted to make sure I entered it.

It took me a little while to decide what I wanted to make but eventually I settled on Amanda's Teeny Tiny Feather pattern (that little block finishes at 4" square!!) with a whole lot of negative space. I mean, as much negative space as you can have in a quilt that's only 10 x 12".

I had fun sewing up these feathers at our retreat in September. I didn't want them to be solid colored feathers though, so I did a little bit of improv striping that was different for each one. I should have kept in mind that these would have extra bulky paper pieced seams but it all worked out alright.

I made 3 different feathers and arranged them as if they were floating in the breeze. The quilting was easy, I knew this was how I wanted to quilt it as soon as I decided on the feathers. Because it's so small (and I hate my Juki walking foot) I used the regular foot and it was all good. I've named this one Float.

The cherry on top was getting an email from AMB letting me know that I had won 3rd place in the quilting category! I win an awesome prize and this little guy will be on display at a special Tiny Quilt Exhibit at Road to California in January. You can see more about this and all of the other winners on the Clothworks blog, including Bainbridge Island MQG's Marla Varner!

All of the Arrows quilt

This one has been lingering in various stages for a few months now so I'm happy to have it finished and ready to donate. February was my month to be the quilter in the Believe circle of do. Good Stitches. I asked my circle to make arrow blocks in a soft springy palette with neutral solids for the background.

It was fun seeing all the different blocks that came back to me. Some big, some small, some paper-pieced, some improv. So much variety! And because I did not limit them as far as size went, there was a lot of variety in that, too. It made laying them out a little more challenging for sure!

I really like the layout that I ended up with and there are some more great blocks on the back that didn't quite fit the color scheme of the front so it's almost like a whole second quilt.

I thought about how I wanted to quilt this one for awhile and was trying to think of a way to free motion quilt it that wouldn't be too busy for this quilt that already has a lot going on. Then Jen posted about a new foot she got for her Juki that has a guide on it (Jukis do not come with one, sadly) and my mind was made up. What better design than a giant spiral that looks like a target of sorts for this quilt with so many arrows?! I will definitely be using that foot again, though maybe on something a little smaller. My shoulders are still feeling that workout from constantly rotating the whole thing.

I found a fun print in my stash that had just the right colors for the binding and this guy was finally ready for picture day! Thanks to my friend Grace for helping me take pictures in Pioneer Square this weekend.

This was one of my Finish Along goals for the quarter so CHECK! It's also my last quilt with the Believe circle. I've since moved to a new circle, Emerge, and look forward to making my first quilt for them in August. Time to start thinking of a plan....

Allison

Free Motion Friday: Stitches Swap

I sent off one more swap package last month, for the Bitches Get Stitches Swap. Angelina had a great idea for a swap that would include swearing and sewing. Of course I was all over that and I even signed up to moderate one of the groups. The whole swap is still wrapping up but I think it's safe to say my partner (Angelina - lucky me, sending to the swap mama!) pretty much loved her package. Because she was the only person in the swap who knew for sure who was sending to her, I tried to be pretty secretive about what I was making. It's always more fun to be surprised when you get your package I think.

I used another Alison Glass pattern, Feathers, and shrunk it down to be about 15" x 20". The quilting on this was really fun. I wanted to do something to echo the feathers a little bit but also add a little something else. I saw a few sneak peaks of Christina Cameli's new FMQ book and loved the lilp pad motif so that's what I used. I was inspired by Allie's binding finish on my selvage mini to do something similar on this one - I did a very visible whipstitch on the front with embroidery floss. I think it adds to the feathery theme.

She's from the Seattle area originally and this was sent just before the Superbowl so I was happy to be able to also include a few Seahawks items in addition to the other extras.

Who's down with FPP?

Paper piecing - yuck. It's hard, right? I used to feel that way but not anymore! It can be so much easier than you're making it. Really, who wants to spend any amount of time ripping paper out of seams while hoping you don't rip the seam along with it? How about all those times when you put the fabric wrong side up, or it doesn't quite cover the piece it needs to and then has to be ripped out - but it has all those teeny tiny stitches! Terrible, I know. But the precision is awesome and so I had to find a way to make it work. I ended up finding several different tutorials that used freezer paper piecing (FPP) to do this and it rocked my paper-pieced world. Seriously. Read on to see how I do it while keeping my sanity.

For this, I'm using the 12" Tallahassee block from Quilters Cache. It's a cute but simple block. Feel free to print out the templates on some freezer paper to follow along. For my paper, I use a roll of Reynolds that I got at the grocery store. I've had it forever and there is a ton left. You can also get it at Amazon. I've heard it can shrink a little the first time you use each piece so I iron it to my ironing board before printing to pre-shrink it. 

You can print right onto the paper with your ink jet printer. Make sure you print on the paper side and not the waxy side of the freezer paper. Cut out each template, adding 1/4" seam allowance to all 4 sides if it is not already included in your template.

Once you've got your templates, you'll want a hot dry iron, rotary cutter, any small ruler with a 1/4" line, and a small cutting mat. I keep this tiny cutting mat right at my machine so I'm not running back and forth every time a sew a couple of inches. I'd never get anything done! I also keep my ironing board right next to the machine when I'm doing this.

On each printed template, you'll want to crease the paper on each of the seam lines. I find it easiest to use my ruler edge to help me with this.

When all 4 pieces are creased, they should look like this. For those of you totally new to paper piecing, we will be sewing the pieces in order of the numbers on the template.

Next we're going to get the fabric for section 1 (the center) ready. For these templates, a 3" x 4" piece is more than large enough. Put your #1 fabric right side down on your ironing board and center a template on top of it. there needs to be at least 1/4" extending past each line you'll be sewing on for the seam allowance. Once you have it where you want it, iron it down. Do NOT touch your iron to the waxy side of the paper or you'll have some iron cleaning to do.

With fabric 1 secured to the paper, fold back on the line you creased between sections 1 and 2. Using your ruler, trim that fabric down to 1/4" past the fold. Here's where it's handy to use an Add-A-Quarter ruler so you can butt the fold right up against the ruler. Any ruler with the 1/4" mark will work though and I tend to use whatever is closest.

Trim off that extra past the 1/4".

Now grab the fabric for section 2. A 3" square cut on the diagonal (either before or after attaching to the template) is plenty big. With the template still folded back between 1 and 2, put the #2 fabric right sides together with the #1 fabric.

Holding your template and fabric up to a light or window, make sure the #2 fabric extends past your folded paper. You can see the shadow in my picture just outside of the folded triangle - that is the edge of my #2 fabric. It's extended past the paper - and therefore more than 1/4" past the block - so I know it's safe to sew it down.

Take the piece to your machine and sew right next to the fold. You want to sew as close as you can to the line without sewing through the paper. You'll want to sew past the paper template on both ends of the seam and your machine should be set for a regular stitch length. That's right - no teeny tiny stitches for us since we're not trying to perforate the paper while we sew!

Here's what your seam should look like after this step. If at this point you realize your fabric #2 was sewn upside down, unpick and try again. It's just a regular stitch length, no big deal. Hold it up to the light again if you like, to verify that the fabric is still covering the full section.

Again with the 1/4" ruler, trim the extra fabric away.

Flip it over, open the seam, and press to the paper. Again, make sure you don't get any wax on your iron. You can iron it with the waxy side down if that's easier for you to remember.

Here's what the other side looks like so far.

Fold back the line between sections 1 and 3 and repeat what we just did. The same 3" square cut on the diagonal is big enough for this piece. Fold section 3 back, line it up in the light or window, sew it down, then press it to the paper.

Voila! We've got 3 sections on, 2 to go.

Sections 4 and 5 are pieced the same way as the others. Fold the paper back, trim the excess from section 1, hold to the light to make sure your fabric for section 4 is the right size. A 2.5" x 3" rectangle will be enough for 2 pieces but because 4 and 5 are opposite directions, you'll need two rectangles for this block.

After attaching sections 4 and 5 your template is now done! It should look like this from the back and front. Trim all around the outer edge to 1/4".

Finish sewing the other 4 quadrants in the same manner we've done this one. It's coming together now!

Gently peel the paper away from each of the 4 pieces you've sewn. Your template can be used several more times before it loses it's waxiness and no longer sticks to the fabric. I've used them up to 10 times, which explains how my roll of paper lasts so long!

Sew your 4 pieces together to finish this little block and congratulate yourself on turning paper piecing into an easy and much more fun technique. Now make 3 more sets and you've got yourself a 12" block. 

Any questions? I'd love to see any blocks you make using this technique! Just leave a comment below with a link. Thanks!

Allison

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