Candy Cane Love

Today I nervously put my next foundation paper piecing pattern on sale now at Etsy- Candy Cane Love. This is unashamedly Christmassy.  I love red and white, especially at Christmas and the candy cane stood out for me as the pattern I wanted to make for Christmas sewing.  

This pattern is intermediate level- it is a little harder than Winter Woolies which is a beginner level pattern.  There are some very small pieces to make the cane curve and enlarging the blocks would make them easier to work with if you find little bits a challenge. You get a 15 page PDF document to download,  pattern pieces and instructions to make 3 candy cane blocks as well as pattern maps to show how all the pieces fit together, photos, pictures and general paper piecing guidelines and helpful hints. There are two rectangle mirror image canes that can be sewn together to make the candy cane heart in the mini tote bag.  You could also use these separately- I think they would work well in a line of three, maybe on a table runner.  I used my tomato reds to make the canes for the candy cane heart and stamped with versacraft ink in the centre.  I have posted a free tutorial to make the mini tote bag here!

In addition to the two rectangle cane blocks, there is a square cane block.  I used cherry reds for this cane-there is a lot of red in my stash!  Amy has been invaluable in her pattern testing for me for the second time- I owe her big time!  She used one of the rectangle cane blocks for her beautiful Christmas linen stocking here!  The sweetie fabric is the most perfect match.

Now I can draw in photoshop, I made some improvements to my pattern formats.  All the pattern pieces for each cane are on a single page so that you can enlarge them all in one go to make bigger blocks.  The blocks I made up are 6"(square block) and 6.5" (rectangle) tall- finished size.  Photocopying by 200% would produce quilt size blocks of 12" and 13" and there is room around the canes to trim the blocks if required.  I also put in alignment marks to match the sections up- I found this really helpful.  I have put in a cropped pic below so you can see how the marks work.    You can see how the pattern pieces have a little colour too so to help you know which bit is which!  They are pastel shades on the pattern pieces and will print equally well in black and white- that is how I use them, or colour without using all your printing ink up!

This is the square block in a potholder, perfect for all the Christmas cooking.  I 'll post more about this one tomorrow.

I hope you like it!