I love foundation paper piecing! It is the best way (IMHO) to get accurate points and seams especially when working with small pieces. What is it? Sometimes called sew and flip, it is the technique of sewing fabric directly onto a printed pattern and the flipping it over and sewing another piece to cover the raw edges. Usually you can just follow the lines on the printed side so it is really easy. The hardest parts are getting your fabric pieces the right size and shape to cover the shape you are working on, figuring out in which order to sew the pieces, and working upside down and backwards. For a more comprehensive description and instructions check out this YouTube tutorial from Connecting Threads.
I do foundation piecing almost exactly the way Karen (from the video) does with a few exceptions. Instead of pinning I use either a dab of glue stick or a piece of blue painters' tape.
Additionally, instead of paper or vellum, I have recently been using a foundation product that doesn't need to be taken out - Ricky Tims' Stable Stuff Poly. I think both foundations (lightweight paper or Stable Stuff) are good it just depends on the final product. I really don't like removing papers, so this works for me.
I'm working on a couple of foundation pieced projects at the moment. Sedona Star, a BOM from Sarah Vedeler, and Enchanted Forest, a BOW by Janeen Van Niekerk of Quilt Art Designs. I'm loving the Enchanted Forest (I added the adjective enchanted - it fits), I keep thinking about painter Bob Ross every time I piece a little critter (remember? "its your world, you can put little squirrels and rabbits anywhere you like").
Janeen is the QUEEN of foundation piecing. She has patterns for animals, cars, dresses, traditional blocks and anything else you can think of. Check out her Pattern Shop at Craftsy. She also has BOM and Quilt Alongs on her website every year. Enchanted Forest is the Art Quilt Along for 2015.
To make Enchanted Forest, I've needed green fabrics - lots of different greens! Lime, Avocado, Olive, Kelly, Moss, Forest, Spring, Hunter, Spruce, and Blue-Green. And lots of different prints - Solids, Tone on Tone, Textures, Dots, Stripes, Foliage, Swirls and more. It's been fun looking over the green Fat Quarters in the shops I've visited. Of course I also needed blues, reds, yellows, browns, grays, and oranges for the critters.
So, I've finished week 5 of 12 - some sky, sun, flying geese, 3 trees, 3 birds, and 1 lizard. I hope to catch up - Janeen has been sending out a pattern a week and I am 4 weeks behind.
Janeen lives in Pretoria South Africa. I wonder how many people from different countries are participating in her Quilt Along.
So, if you are at all curious about foundation piecing, check out Janeen and Quilt Art Designs. They are terrific!
Well, the Kaw Valley Quilt Show is over and I feel I can take a few deep breaths and figure out what to do now. It almost feels like one of those dates like New Years, Birthdays, First Day of Spring - you know, those days when you think about resolutions and new habits.
I have started reading a book Better Than Before by Gretchen Rubin; it's all about starting (good) or stopping (bad) habits. So, being the quilty person I am, I thought about quilting habits.
I have gotten into some pretty bad habits over the last few years. Habits are bad if they cause problems and I have several bad habits in my studio. I also have found there are things I don't do (like quilt documentation - the Quilt Show really pointed that out to me when I couldn't remember who had quilted some of my earlier quilts) that would really make quilt life better if I did them.
So here is my list of Starts and Stops. Most of them are obvious to quilters.
Start . . . Stop . . .
Securing starts and stops Snacking while quilting
Trimming threads as I go Buying "unallocated" fabric
Tidying at the end of each session Leaving scraps all over
Prepping for next session
Documenting my quilts
Blogging more consistently
Reading more blogs
What good habits do you have in the studio? I'd love to hear them!
Curious about habits,
Four months sure went by fast! The Kaw Valley Quilters' Guild Annual Quilt Show is this Saturday and Sunday and I'm almost ready.
I have the privilege to be this year's featured quilter. Over the last several months I have felt excited, scared, overwhelmed, frustrated, ready, not ready and absolutely exhausted. Tonight I am excited and exhausted.
In the morning I am leaving for LA on a short trip, and I'll get back on Friday afternoon just in time for final set up. Thankfully my friend Shari is hanging the majority of my quilts for me.
I'm hanging 15 quilts and then showing 9 more that we didn't have space for (but really I didn't have time to sew on a hanging sleeve). Then I'm doing something a little different - at least I think it's different.
I'm going to show and talk about some UFOs. When people display quilts at a show, we see beautiful, finished quilts, and then I usually assume that the featured quilter has it all together - all their quilts represent a theme, they are all perfectly finished, including labels and documentation. OK, so maybe they aren't as "perfect" as I am imagining. But it sure looks that way.
I plan on showing the more everyday, human side of quilting - the early practice pieces, the "can't wait to start" but don't finish quilts, the not so beautiful quilts, they are the ones I'm most excited about. I'll also have a display of some workshop projects that I'll eventually finish. I have learned so much about quilting over the last several years, and I've learned a lot about myself and life.
So, I'm still working on the details, I'm sure I will be down to the wire (like a lot of quilters). I'll be giving a short talk at 1:00 on both Saturday and Sunday. I'll be at the Mea Bernina table on Saturday and hanging around with my quilts on Sunday. So please come down to the show at Crown Toyota and visit with me. I'm sooooo excited!
I've started lots of new projects this year and today I am happy to say that I finished a long-time UFO. Last year (or was it 2013? or 2012?) I took a class with a great teacher and friend Kathy Pflaum at Stitchin' Traditions in Topeka. We made a wall hanging from the book 3-D Folded Blocks by Geesje Baron and Esther Vermeer. And today I finally finished it - quilting, binding, hanging sleeve and all.
The blocks look like regular traditional quilt blocks. But they aren't! Each of the shapes in the block is achieved by folding fabric into squares, rectangles or triangles and layering them. It was really fun and a very unique way to make blocks. The shapes are layered and sewn together around the outside edge of the block.
For example, in this block, the shapes would be sewn together about where the cream border is. Then the borders (cream and green) were added, and then they were set with the red background. One very important tip for the folded blocks is to really get a good, sharp crease. I used Faultless Extra Crisp Magic Sizing and I really like the result. It's a bit hard to find here in Lawrence, so I order it by the case.
I decided to quilt this myself. One of my favorite quilting motifs is pebbles (are pebbles?). I started quilting this at a Stitch On retreat last year (or the year before? I see a pattern emerging here - I can't remember stuff!). Pebbles take a lot of time for me, as well as a lot of thread. Luckily I kept the thread with the project so I could complete it with the same thread - at least on the top! One would think after doing this many pebbles that I would be good at it. No such luck. My pebbles are still irregular and my "sew-overs" aren't exact. I'm not good yet, but I'm better than I was!
I really enjoyed these blocks and I imagine that some day I might make a sampler from all 71 different folded blocks in the book.
Keeping Curious!
Squeeeee!
Guess who has been asked to be the featured quilter at the Kaw Valley Quilters' Guild 2015 Annual Quilt Show! Yep, yours truely! I feel so honored, a bit scared, and really excited.
My brain parts are having shouting matches with each other over which quilts to show, what my theme should be, and whether or not to show a few not-quite-finished quilts. What will people think of my quilts? Of ME? My work isn't good enough. My quilts don't have a theme. How am I ever going to pull this off.
OK, self, this is not Paducah, Houston, or Quilt Con. It's Lawrence Kansas and these people are your friends . . . . I mentally shake myself a few times and then calm down. I can do this.
Theme - none of my quilts could "hang together" because they are all so different. Style, Color, Size, Story - all different. The only common denominator is that almost all my quilts are a result of something I wanted to learn. I have always had a love of learning and a curious mind (hence the name of my blog ;-D ), so it is no stretch for that quality to find its way into my quilting life. OK, theme is something about learning.
What about UFOs? I have a ton of UFOs and most of them were started in a workshop. I would like to talk about some of them and the technique or teacher that makes them special. I could maybe bring a few of them and have friends hold them up like they do at guild programs. I could take pictures and do some sort of slide show, assuming I can locate a projector and screen, and assuming slides can even be seen in the large bright room where the show is going to be held. I think showing UFOs might be OK if there aren't too many and there is something really special about them.
I hope to see many of you at the KVQG quilt show. It will be April 18th and 19th at the Crown Toyota facility. In addition to the quilts there will be demonstrations and vendors with some cool stuff. Our Guild website will have info and details.
Now I've got to go get some quilts finished!
Facebook can be dangerous - we all know that. It's especially dangerous for someone like me who is addicted to Block of the Month quilts.
I follow several groups on FB - one of them is "For the love of paper piecing". That's me! I love paper piecing - foundation piecing to be more descriptive and to differential this technique from English Paper Piecing (which I also love and for which there is also a FB group).
Several weeks ago, Janeen Van Niekerk from South Africa posted to the FB group that she was starting a 12 week quilt along. Oh Boy! The quilt is sooooo cute. I couldn't resist and can hardly wait til March 4th when it starts. Come to think about it, it's not a BOM, its a BOW, so maybe it doesn't count against my BOM count (grin).
I'm thinking about using Ricky Tims' Stable Stuff Poly because it's a great medium for foundation piecing, it can go through the printer, and it doesn't have to be removed (my least favorite part of paper piecing).
So, my plan is to purchase fabric for the sky and use my scraps for the trees, critters and flying geese. I'll let you know if I stick to my plan. Once I get into my green fabric scraps I may have to add a piece or two to get the contrast. We'll see!
Only a week to wait! Curious about foundation piecing? Check out this tutorial. Want to join in the Forest Quilt-A-Long? See Janeen's website to sign up.
P.S. I'm writing this from Lawrence Memorial Hospital. My sweetie Saul has had some heart issues and is currently recovering from a catheterization and had a stent put it. He is doing well and will be home soon. During idle time, my thoughts go to quilting . . .
It's a disease - I haven't met a BOM I did not love. Well maybe 1 or 2. Not only do I love them, I feel like I just HAVE TO do them. Even though I already have 5 . . 6 . . . no, it's 7 going.
Last year I signed up for an 18 month Dear Jane BOM through Stitchin' Heaven in TX. Thankfully they delayed the start until January 2015. So this past January, I received my first set of fabrics and some extra tips for the first series of blocks.
Dear Jane is a quilt made (well finished and dated) in 1863 by Jane A. Blakely Stickle of Vermont. The quilt blocks were then drafted into a pattern and published in 1996 by Brenda Manges Papadakis. There are 169 four inch blocks, 52 border triangles and 4 corner blocks (my mathematician hubby tells me that is indeed 225 different blocks).
I had already bought the book and in fact got it autographed by Brenda, but I thought that instead of obsessing over color choices, I would just do a BOM that included fabric. There were several choices out there - traditional, reds, blues, or brights. I decided to go with traditional, although I tend to prefer the bright colors. My reasoning? How could I do a Dear Jane in anything but the original colors? Jane went to so much work to make the quilt and Brenda took years to draft the patterns, so to honor them I decided to go traditional.
The notes that came with the fabric indicated that I can do some of the blocks using a foundation paper method. Too bad the notes didn't have the foundation pattern. No problem! I could make one. Foundation piecing is one of my favorite methods. I love it because the points turn out nice and pointy, the seams are straight and everything fits together perfectly. If you are curious about foundation paper piecing, here is a tutorial to check out. The one thing that paper piecers and appliquers all know is that you have to reverse the design in order to get it to come out like the picture. Oops! I forgot to reverse the design. It looks great, but my pinwheel is turning backwards. Oh well, I'm not doing it over just because a pinwheel is spinning clockwise instead of counter clockwise.
So, 1 done, 224 more to go. It feels a bit overwhelming when I look at how many more I have to make. I'll add them to my BOM list and make progress slowly and steadily (I hope).
I am officially a Janiac!
