The New Approach To Foundation Quilts

As soon as I arrived home from The Curvalicious Tour, I got to work on my monthly assignment as an Island Batik Ambassador. I couldn't wait to sit at my sewing machine and do a couple of quick paper pieced projects, of course with Island Batik fabrics. Paper piecing has come a long way. I have always found it a great method to achieve those perfect points. I feel though that there has been a reinvention and explosion. The available patterns are not just stars and mariners compasses, but such a fun variety including vignettes, animals, winding geese and words.

Of course I had to try my "Philly Love" quilt pattern in batiks. I love the bright colors. You can find the pattern on Craftsy by clicking HERE.

I have always wanted to try this sewing machine pattern by Quiet Play. As with Philly Love, it's a downloadable pattern. I like instant gratification. You can check out all of her patterns HERE.

 

I have 2 tips I'd like to share. The first is when joining 2 sections of a paper pieced pattern together, I use wonder clips instead of straight pins to hold the pieces together. There is no distortion with the wonder clips and I've found I can be more precise.

The other tip is for machine stitching a binding. After stitching the binding to the back of the quilt, press it open and then fold it to the front of the quilt. Then, I take full advantage of the use of a stiletto. I use it for both pulling the binding into place and keeping it in place as I stitch, especially at the corners.

 

 

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A Secret Swap

I have had so much fun participating in a swap on Instagram. Here's my quilt that I'm sending to my secret swapmate. I can't tell you her name or where she's from,because it's a surprise.

The swap was announced on Instagram and the basis was paper pieced patterns designed by #quietplay. Paper piecing has had a resurgence. It's a technique where fabric is stitched into a paper foundation. About 8-10 years ago, it was brought to popularity by Carol Doak and was used to get perfect points when piecing such motifs as stars. It has also been used to achieve very intricate pieced patterns. Lately, it has become the rage with some young ,odeon quilters. The detail is amazing and there are lots of pieces. You can see #quietplay's patterns at www.quietplay.blogspot.com. She says that her most popular pattern is the Geometric Sewing Machine. Isn't it cool?

There were 305 people that signed up for the swap. We each filled out a questionnaire with some choices for a pattern, our favorite colors and fabric choice and if there was anything we really didn't like. The swap organizer then assigned us a swapmate, and we were split into manageable size groups. My group was #qpteamamerica4 (Quiet Play Team America 4). The person I was making a mini quilt for, was not who was making a quilt for me. From the options my swapmate gave me, I chose to make the Geometric Elephant.

It was a downloadable PDF pattern. What's cool about this, is that you print it yourself anywhere in the world. There's no shipping charge and if you want it immediately at midnight, you can have it. Now that's immediate gratification.

My swapmate also gave some fabric choices. I chose pink.

As the making of the swap progressed, I posted photos to our IG group and said "Swapmate, what do you think?" Of course my swapmate didn't know it was for her, so I would receive lots of comments from the group as to whether they liked it or not. I looked for my swapmate's answer to guide me through my choices, because I want her to love her quilt.

There were a lot of sections and some of them had tiny pieces.

I couldn't wait until the elephant came together.

This was the point where I became uncertain as to the taste of my swapmate. Would she like the quilt simple as above or with a pieced border?

I loved the triangle border, but the quilt wasn't for me. I posted both the simple quilt and the tricked out quilt on IG and kept my fingers crossed that she would reply.

There were lots of comments. Some liked the plain and some liked the triangle border. I waited and kept my fingers crossed that my swapmate would leave a comment. These borders made a big difference. Finally, she commented and I was so happy that she liked the pieced border. Yay!

I used a paper foundation that I designed to piece the border and I loved using the wonder clips to hold it in place while stitching instead of pins.

The swap deadline isn't for a few weeks, so I'll have to wait to ship it out, and I can't wait to receive my quilt. I'll share it when it arrives, but honestly, I have had so much fun making the Pink Elephant.

If you want to follow me on IG, I'm @oyveyquilts. Maybe we'll end up being in a swap together one day.

 

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I've Always Wanted to Make One

I am fascinated by quilts that are completely pieced with squares, rectangles and triangles, yet have what appears to be curves. My favorite of this is called Storm At Sea. I have always wanted to make one and I thought it would look stunning in silk, and it does!

The quilt is made completely with silk dupioni. The construction of the quilt is very simple. It's made from 3 basic blocks: a small square in a square, a larger square in a square and an elongated diamond. 

I used paper piecing for all of the blocks, because precision isn't my forte and precise points are important for this pattern. I found downloadable patterns here: http://www.generations-quilt-patterns.com/storm-at-sea-quilt.html

I made the quilt top almost one year ago while I was in Key West last winter. I hemmed and hawed about how to quilt it. I looked all over the Internet for some ideas. Frankly, although I conside myself a decent machine quilter, I was intimidated by all of the open white space. So when in doubt, contact a professional long arm machine quilter. Barb Persing has quilted another silk quilt for me and she did a wonderful job, and she did a great job on this one too. 

I debated whether to finish the edges with a traditional binding or to face it, which is used for more artsy type quilters. I decided to use the traditional binding because of all the white. I thought that with a facing it would just run off the edge, especially when hung on a light colored wall. 

I liked Barbs comment. She told me that she loves quilting the silk because the stitches sink into the fabric, but she wouldn't want to piece it. 

I wish I were a better photographer so that you could see the iridescence of the silk. Here's a close up. 

Minimal quilting in the colored sections really lets the dupioni sing. I back all my silk for piecing with fusible tricot. It's important to stabilize it. 

I can't wait to share this quilt on its maiden voyage. I'm giving my "Sensational Silk" talk on Monday at the Quiltmakers of Boyertown. Maybe I'll see you there.