Bloggers Quilt Festival 2012

It is that time again, when Amy at Amy's Creative Side hosts and organises the Bloggers Quilt Festival.

 If you haven't been here before, welcome, I am Kerry, I love vintage, scrappy and paper piecing and that leads me nicely to my entry; 'Vintage Notions'.

This mini quilt is pieced in a variety of ways.  The centre sewing box is a combination of foundation paper piecing and freezer paper template pieced.  All the spools are freezer paper pieced.  There are a zillion Y seams- practice, practice, practice  these to get them licked!  I made it to showcase the sewing box block that I designed for the brillian Sew Out Loud quilt a long and as a teaching aid for Fat Quarterly retreat where I am running a couple of sessions on Y seams.  It feels like there is a bit of everything in this quilt...

Machine quilting, hand quilting, rouleau loop, vintage button and  many favourite fabrics, all with a faded, old sewing box feel.  'Vintage Notions' is all about how the old can inspire the new.

I have this rolled up and in my case for the retreat.  You can find the free sewing box pattern here - I am off to see more quilts!

Sew Out Loud:Vintage Notions Quilt Block

It is my turn in the Sew Out Loud blocks- I guess you are all still reeling after Charise's amazing Design Studio block last week!

This block measures 12.5" unfinished and is made in 3 sections, the top and bottom of the block is rotary cut and the middle tray section is pieced.  I have done two sets of instructions as I know some like the template freezer paper method- I find this easier for fussy cutting and it is great for Y seams, and others like the foundation paper method where you stitch through the pattern- a precise method so you will get a neat finish

Version 1. Freezer paper pieced with or without Y seams

Version 2.  Foundation Pieced, without Y seams (You need Adobe installed I think to view this one)

Many of the fabrics for this block were supplied by the Fat Quarter shop who generously sponsored the Quilt-a-long and I have listed the fabrics at the end of this post.

Whichever method you chose the rouleau loop is on both versions so I thought I would show a few pics here to help if you haven't sewn one before.  You can see the bias strip seamed, trimmed and ready to turn through here with a loop turner- it is a hard job without this but you could use a blunt tapestry needle as described at the bottom of this link

Once it it turned through and pressed, this is where you position it on the background fabric strip- the red mark is the centre of the bottom edge.  The loop should be pointing upwards.

And this is the loop hand stitched on and long ends trimmed.

Another technique that I use in both patterns is using tick marks to join pieces and sections really accurately.  

The trick is to place pins vertically through the tick marks to line them up perfectly front and back.

You can either slide the pins out and hold tight all the way to the machine or pin within the seam, fine pins help for this.

Block Fabrics

Background Wall- Lost and Found Worn Dots by Mind's Eye for Riley Blake

Table- Sweet on NYC  by Katie Plitt for Timeless Treasures

Basket edge trim-Daisy Cottage White Leaf Stripe by Lori Holt for Riley Blake

Basket-Daisy Cottage Yellow Tossed Daisies by Lori Holt for Riley Blake

Basket Inner-Pinelope Gold Needle Thread by Anna Griffin

Tray and some of the notions- assorted Suzuko Koseki fabrics from my stash

Other notions: Kumiko Fujita and a scrap of a Robert Kaufmann fabric from Vintage Couturier range

If you make the block, please add to the Sew Out Loud Flickr group, and you can add it to my group too!  And remember, the final block for Sew Out Loud could be designed by you!  Suzuko Koseki will be judging this stage- more news on this to come from Julianna and Joanna soon

Sharing

This is ending up being a bit of a lost week, I am under the weather so not much is happening here, sewing progress is slow and most of the time is spent unpicking mistakes- let's draw a veil over that and instead I would like to share the work of a couple of friends.

Looking for a quick scrappy project?  After a gentle nudge from Penny, Leila has her first pattern for sale

You can buy it here .  

And, if you are feeling  like a little more paper piecing, Amy has made her stunning Vintage Skier block into a pattern on sale here

Amy has great attention to detail in this pattern with notes on suitable fabrics and the most wonderful shaping that makes the skier jump out at you!

And Julianna kicked off the Sew Out Loud Quilt a long with this stunning graphic block

 

Details and free pattern are found here. You can join this quilt a long at any time, dip in, dip out whatever you fancy- Flickr group here

Proud of my talented friends!  Back when normal service resumes here x

Paper Piecing Help/Quilt a long/Sew a Long

Maybe you are new to paper piecing and want a bit of help, support and community as you find your way around the different techniques, there are a couple of Quilt-a-longs coming up.

First we have Sew Out Loud {Quilter's Word Play}- I don't know what the fancy brackets do but they often come up in crafty projects and blogs- anyway here is the button

the code can be found along with all the other starting info at Kirie's blog and also at Julianna's blog.  There are great prizes and a design competition for the 12th block- as for the judge, it will take your breath away but I am sworn to secrecy!  Flickr group is hereLooking for something at beginner level?  Bought a copy of Fat Quarterly 8 Paper Piecing Issue?  Dolores at A Labour of Love is planning a sew-a-long using the projects from the ezine!  The idea is that you can support each other through the different techniques.

And, thinking ahead now, I will be at the Fat Quarterly Retreat in June teaching a class or two.  I will be doing a technique class on paper piecing using the freezer paper template technique but with a twist-it will be hand sewing, no machine needed.  This will include stitching an inset Y seam- if you can learn it by hand it will be a breeze by machine! And if you can't wait for more help, check my pages link on paper piecing resources!