Forever Quilting 4 You

Island Batik September Challenge

This months challenge was to do a paper pieced project, either EPP (English Paper Pieced) or FPP (Foundation Paper Pieced). Because I am a paper piece fanatic, I was excited to finally be able to do this month’s challenge, the technique I love most!

Each Island Batik ambassador was given a specific fabric line and colorway for this challenge. Mine was Magenta Dusk by Designer Kathy Engle, which ships to your local quilt stores in September.

What is your process for making a new quilt? I first pick a pattern and then the fabrics. So what happens if the fabrics you are given to use are not in your wheel house and you are left wondering “what now?” You use a life line and phone a friend! I sent the above pictures to my travel/teaching partner Carol Stanek in Georgia and asked her for advice. With Carols help I had a new outlook on the project at hand; when two brains work better together than one. With Carols help and encouragement I started to see the light at the end of the tunnel (I don’t think it’s a train…?) and the process of working with colors out of my wheel house started to feel comfortable.

Now that I got that ironed out, it’s time to pick the pattern. Because I do paper piecing almost every day, and it’s my first (and favorite) technique of choice, like most quilters I have many patterns that I have hoarded over the years. So when Carol suggested I use one of my prized paper pieced patterns I was a bit reluctant to do so, but here is what Carol had to say that changed my mind.

Carol reminded me about a BeColourful pattern I had that was no longer in print so why not use it? It’s a pattern that is no longer available to purchase, so it’s not one I could use to teach a class. However, the thought of using one of my prized patterns – the one I had always dreamed about making with Christmas fabrics like the photo on the cover – was difficult for me to swallow. But the more Carol and I talked about it I actually began to see what Carol was talking about, and the process started to come together.

This is the pattern Carol and I were talking about, it’s called Heavens Light and Christmas Dreams by Jacqueline de Jonge of BeColourful, which is in the Netherlands. Some day I would love to be an authorized teacher for Jacqueline, and I’m currently working towards making that happen. But for now, back to the challenge at hand. With a newly found vision of and comfort level with the colors I have to use for this challenge, and a pattern in hand, I’m ready to get started.

Firsts things first. The first thing I do when starting a paper pieced pattern is to cut out all of the papers that I will be sewing my fabrics to. I am a stickler about cutting my papers out one by one, using a ruler and making sure that each piece is cut out an 1/8″ away from the outer line of the pattern.

Next, I figure out where each color is going to be placed. The original pattern called for 3 red fabrics, 3 green fabrics, 1 gold fabric and 3 black fabrics. Because I didn’t have these colors in my fabric bundle, I did the next best thing – I picked out 3 deep purples, 3 rich golds, 1 light gold, and a deep blue. Placing all of the fabrics in the bundle I had to use next to each other, I felt that the whites were too busy to use for the background color on this project, so I decided to use a different white background fabric from another Island Batik collection I had on hand.

With the fabric choices picked and the foundation papers cut out, I now had to figure out where to place the fabrics. I stuck to my original layout design of one purple, then one gold, and so on until the pattern piece was complete. I then proceeded to make 17 more, for a total of 18 pieces that matched, but not exactly, which results in more contrast, variation and dimension, but also makes the process go a bit slower.

With all 18 triangle shapes sewn together, now is when I remove the paper. Yes, removing the paper is a messy job, but removing the paper now makes it much easier to assemble the quilt. It provides for a better seam allowance, the pieces lay down beautifully when pressed, and you don’t have to grab the tweezers to pull out tiny pieces of paper from the seams; now there’s a really messy job!

Heavens Lights is a Christmas table runner with 3 stars and a piano key border. Putting the piano key border together proved to be quite a challenge. I decided to add a few more colors of fabric from my collection to this border, and started sewing them together. Did I mention that the piano key borders are made with 121 half inch pieces of fabric? So I got about 20 piano keys into the process and realized that I didn’t like the colors I had sewn together. Out comes the seam ripper! I usually enjoy ripping out seams . . . when it is someone else’s quilt that I’m helping out with. But when I have to rip out seams on my own quilts, that’s another story. Let’s just say “if you see me with a seam ripper in my hand, now is not a good time to chat!”

Seam ripper in hand I proceed to undo all of the piano keys that I had done, trying at the same time to save the paper foundation pieces so I can use them again. With most paper pieced patterns you only get one set of papers, so I tried very hard to gently rip out the seams and to not rip the paper, but that rarely, if ever, turns out well. So, what do you do with a paper foundation piece that is all chewed up and pretty much unusable? What I do is get out my Scotch 3M Restickable glue and glue scraps of foundation papers to the back side of the unit. I had plenty of scrap paper on hand from when I originally trimmed the paper pieces. So I dug through the waste basket and found what I needed to stabilize the foundation unit so I could redo the work I had just done… or rather, undone.

“Take two” on the piano keys. This time I scaled (pun intended) back my color choices and only used the same fabrics I used in the star units. Now the piano keys are looking much better and I’m again on my way to finishing this portion of the project.

Two days later and I’m still trying to piece the piano keys and really need a break. So what did I do? I started a completely different paper pieced project. I don’t usually do more than one project at a time, but the fabrics in the piano keys were starting to look like Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches and I needed to walk away for a bit and cut up something bright and cheerful, which turned into four days of cutting fabric on the other project.

Four days later, back to the piano keys. This time I’m determined to get this pattern done so I can move on to the quilting, and you know how much I love the longarm process!!! Well, actually, the more I’m using the longarm it has started to become much easier to use. And, I’ve been coming up with my own designs!!!

Now it’s time to assemble the table runner. All of the foundation units are trimmed and the papers have been removed. Now to add the background and piano key borders and it’s done. Not so fast though… making stars involves “Y” seams. I’m a huge fan of sewing “Y” seams, but at this point it’s 3am, and although this is the time of day I do my best sewing, doing “Y” seems is time consuming and tedious. Each “Y” seam needs to be marked at the 1/4″ intersection to ensure that the “Y” seam lays flat when it is sewn together.

I finally finished the “Y” seams and I’m moving on to the borders! Woo-hoo! I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and now I’m certain that it isn’t a train! I’m in the final stretch! I’m almost there! But wait! The sun is starting to come up! That’s a sign that it’s time for me to take a nap, and that sounds really good at this point (by the way, I’m a night owl not a vampire). But instead I push on, cross the finish line, and this month’s challenge using the Magenta Dusk fabric bundle to make my paper pieced Christmas table runner is complete!!! It’s now 6am and past my nap time, so I’m heading off to take that ever so elusive nap, after which I will get started with quilting this project! But for now, g’nite!

Along with the Magenta Dusk fabrics from Kathy Engle of Island Batiks I finally finished my spool of Aurifil thread #2800, which is a very light green. No, your threads don’t always have to match your fabrics. If you haven’t been keeping track of how long I’ve been using this one spool of Aurfil, it’s been three quilt tops. Not too bad for one spool of thread!!!

Schmetz 80/10 Sharps Needles again came to my rescue in this challenge; I ran over several Clover Pins and never broke one needle or pin. Schmetz Needles, you rock!

Clover pins are amazing and bend before they brake when you run over them when sewing. Ladies/gentlement, don’t try this at home!

Hobbs Heirloom batting was my go-to batting for this table runner. It was a great project to use up some scraps that I fused together.

Ready for the longarm and some fun, creative quilting, after a really good pressing!!!

Note: because this is a BeColourful Quilt and I am in the process of trying to become an authorized teacher this quilt will be shipped off to Shawna Crawford in Montana for custom quilting, which is a requirement of the authorized process.

Fabrics SKU’s used in this month challenge:

112345880 – Swirl-Multi Purple Grey, 112345267 – Swirl-Gold Ochre, 112336267 – Dot-Gold Ochre, 112337265 – Floral-Gold Acorn, 112334680 – Dot-Purple Wine, 112339480 – Diamond-Purple Wine, 112337480 – Floral-Purple Wine, 112340261 – Hexagon-Orange Dijon, 0000676549 – Coconut.

So what did I learn with this months challenge?

Being uncomfortable with fabrics out of my wheel house is not the end of the world, it is actually a great adventure.

Using a life line and calling a friend makes the process much easier and makes envisioning the end result much more clear.

Using a prized pattern is okay. I made the pattern and I liked the way it turned out! So much so that I’m going to call Carol and have her send me one of her copies so I can fulfill one of my dreams and make it in Christmas fabrics, but not for a really long time. Those piano keys almost got the best of me, but alas, I will not be beaten by piano keys!!!

Letting go of a prized pattern is hard, but I still have my pattern and now it’s done.

I never have enough Clover pins!!!

Until next time what is on your sewing table?

Victoria aka Tori