May 2020 Book of the Month

Another terrific quilt book to showcase this month, courtesy of C&T Publishing. For May 2020, I'm choosing Patchwork & Quilting Basics (affiliate link) by Jo Avery.

To see more of Jo's work check out her blog, myBearpaw, otherwise, take a look at Jo's first book. It offers a wide variety of quilting techniques over many beautiful quilts, perfect for any quilter. 

There are several quilts in this book that I find hard to resist - I'm having trouble choosing which one to start first! I especially like the Zen Garden Quilt, Pinhole Stars, Dancing Pandas, and Semaphore Crib Quilt,

and the Stream and Autumn Trees quilt.

So many choices - I told you there's something for everyone in this book!

I think I'm going to start with Zen Garden, basing my fabric pull off of the nasturtium print on the left, which will be the backing. 

I may add a few more fabrics, but this should get me started. I can't wait!

Happy Quilting!

Thanks for following!

Freezer Paper Foundation Piecing

Ready for one more paper piecing technique? I've saved the best for last!

I recently covered foundation paper piecing and freezer paper template piecing in making the Chocolate Dipped Strawberries. A third berry to complete the runner was made with my favorite technique, freezer paper foundation piecing.

This method is almost identical to foundation paper piecing, but instead of a thin paper, it uses freezer paper and there is no sewing through the paper.

First, a few notes:
If the final block contains units that get assembled into a block, make marks on seam lines on the dull side of the freezer paper for matching and alignment. 

The print on the dull side of freezer paper is the reverse of the final block. The freezer paper is always ironed to the wrong side of the fabric. 

Freezer Paper Foundation Piecing

Fabric pieces for freezer paper foundation piecing can be cut to size with templates, adding a 1/4" seam allowance,

OR use over-sized shapes that will be trimmed. Just make sure that the shape area is covered. 

With freezer paper foundation piecing, all fabrics get pressed to the freezer paper. In the above picture, I've ironed my first piece, the white, to the freezer paper, leaving a 1/4" seam allowance extending past the drawn stitching line.

That seam allowance is released from the freezer paper, and with the help of the firm edge of a postcard, the freezer paper is folded back along the drawn seam.

If necessary, use an Add-a-Quarter ruler (affiliate link) to trim the seam allowance to 1/4".  Position the next fabric piece, right sides together, lining up seam allowance cut edges, and flipping onto the freezer paper to check coverage. 

At the sewing machine, stitch next to the fold, starting and stopping in the adjacent seam allowances.

Press the seam and the second fabric piece to the freezer paper.

As before, use the postcard to create a fold on the next seam line. Trim the seam to 1/4" with an Add-a-Quarter ruler.

Add the next piece, same as before. When all fabric pieces are added, trim the unit/block with 1/4" seam allowances on the edges. If there are several units for a block, keep the freezer paper attached to match up the units. When the joining seam, either stitch through the paper, fold back the paper, or cut off that seam allowance of the units. Only after the entire block is assemble is the freezer paper removed.

Freezer Paper Foundation Piecing Pros and Cons

Pros:

• accurate
• easy to do
• freezer paper printouts can be used 2-4 times
• no messy, tedious paper removal - freezer paper peels off

Cons:

• presser foot may not glide easily over shiny freezer paper
• difficulty running freezer paper through the printer (hint: tape a regular piece of paper to the shiny freezer paper side, along the printer feeder edge - this gives the printer something to grab)
• no control over seam pressing direction
• pattern printed in reverse which may cause fabric placement confusion

For me, the Pros far outweigh the Cons. Freezer paper foundation piecing is my go-to method for paper piecing - it's accurate, with no messy paper removal. My kind of quilting!

This concludes the 3- part series of paper piecing tutorials:

Foundation Paper Piecing,

Freezer Paper Template Piecing,

Freezer Paper Foundation Piecing.

Try them all and choose your favorite!

Happy Quilting!

My Favorite Patterns

Curly Quilt Fill

In my joy of sharing my mouth watering Chocolate Dipped Strawberries early this month, I completely forgot to talk about the quilting, especially the curly quilt fill used in the background.

Isn't it sweet? How about adorable? Cute? Charming? Delightful? Downright lovely? However it's described, the curly quilt fill is easy to stitch, whether using a longarm or a domestic sewing machine - let's see how!

First, some drawings. Start near a seam or an edge, working outward with a circle that curls into the center. Let the curl move inside the circle just enough without overdoing it. Too much, and it becomes a spiral.

Backtrack over the curl to a spot to start the next the curl, which curls in the opposite direction. Think of ram's horns when doing this.

Keep making curls to fill in the area, backtracking either a little or a lot to get to the desired area. 

Some areas really take on the ram horns idea, while other areas are more linear. The backtracking decides where the next curl will start. Let's see this curly quilt fill stitched out.

The size of the curls can also change for different looks, like on Ladybug Dance.

or stay a consistent size as in the background fill in Chocolate Dipped Strawberries.

It's totally up to the quilter and the quilt as to which one works better. Either way, that curly fill will be sweet, adorable, cute, charming, delightful, or downright lovely - you choose how to best describe it!

Happy Quilting!

Thank you for following!