Arcadia Avenue: Fly Away

Paper piecing is a great way to learn how to sew an accurate 1/4" seams. If you failed to do so, then your design will not align at all in the end.  You'll pulled your hair and asked yourself, "What did I do wrong?"

For my first  paper piecing project, I fall in love with this beautiful pattern by Sassafras Lane Design called Arcadia Avenue. It's definitely not a pattern for beginners and didn't shied away from this frigthening adventure and with each block, I'll share my errors, tips, and frustrations along the way.

Before you start anything new, it would be a good idea to take a class to familiarize yourself with  a new technique and terms. For my part, I watched a class on Crafsy: Start Foundation Paper Piecing by Elizabeth Dackson . It was very informative and give me confidence that I could do this on my own and found tutoring on website helpful too.  Sassafras Lane Designs  has tutorial for each blocks  for the Arcadia Avenue quilt. You've the purchases the book and it provided an cutting overview for each blocks.

After I completed Fly Away block #1, I found a tutorial on Sassafras Lane Designs. It was an  helpful as I was a bit confused with the paper foundation at first. You can watch it for yourself:Fly Away

My first section went well and was surprised I didn't make any mistakes. So far so good. After trimming it, it look rather nice. Eleven more to go!

 Your trimmed each pieces with the Add-A- Quarter ruler. The ruler tucked nicely against the foundation paper nicely and doesn't move.

A tip: Stapled all the paper foundation together (if they are the same) and perforated on the lines with a pin. It's easier to fold the paper and you can also see it on the reverse.

Tip: Baste first with a longer stitch, check if everything aligns, then sew it again with a regular stitch. After each sections were sewed nicely, I paired them up.

After each sections are paired, then I sewed three section together, making two halves.

All the sections are sewn making two halves and sadly noticed something troublesome. My halves didn't butted together.  I tried to fix it three times, but it still buckled. The hexagon did NOT laid flat.

 If you noticed in the photo above the halves are curved and after verifying it with my ruler, they both didn't have straight edges and that when I said, "What did I do wrong?" I couldn't just start all over, not when I passed hours of sewing, trimming, pressing. *sad face*.

To retract my steps, I cut six pieces on the pattern on muslin fabric and sew them the same way I did  and guessed what? The halve section was slightly curved too!  For sure, I thought, my problem had to be the 1/4" seams. It always the 1/4".  So, using the muslin sampler, I took a bit more unto the seams to test my theory and the problem was solved. I had  straight edges on the muslin half section. Now that I knew what the problem was, I checked every single seams.

Because I was so careful not to sew the points, I slightly sew toward the outside of the 1/4" seams, not on the line, but just beside it. You wouldn't believed by doing so, the problem it created. A little 1/8" here and there can added much at the end.

 Here you can see clearly an example.

 Another example were I sew slightly toward the edge and not on the line.

 When I aligned my ruler over it, that's how much extra there were and you just cannot trimmed it off; otherwise, the section will be off balance with the rest of the design.

 After going over each seams, right on the line this time, it help fixed the problem. Look the result. A straight edge and I didn't trimmed anything or cut the points in the design.

 I'm so happy my block #1 laid flat. It's not perfect, but I'm very happy with it.

WHAT I LEARNED:

• Take a class or watch  tutorial, before starting your own paper piecing.
• Precut strips of fabric for each section.
• Get a Add-A-Quarter ruler.
• Set the stitch length at 1.5.
• Trim each section leaving approximately a 1/4"  on all sides.
• Do not removed foundation paper until all blocks are sewn together.
• There is a sequence in which to sew each pieces.
• Place the fabric on right side up of the pattern.
• Asked for help, if you're in a pickle. Quilters love helping each others.

TO WATCH FOR:

• An accurate 1/4" seams.
• Match each section by basting it first together, check, then sew again with a regular stitch. 
• Removed the paper, at the seams, where all the points meet.

 Sassafras Lane Designs has  wonderful tutorials for each of the blocks for Arcadia Avenue.

Quilt 3- Blue Keys

My Quilter's Planner so far as exceeded my expectations. In many ways, it helped me to address these areas:

• Kept me on schedule
• Used left-over scraps as much as possible
• Used common fabrics. The ones you asked, "Why did I buy that fabric?"
• Alternated fabrics, if I didn't like the one suggested in the pattern
• Choosit e fabrics for my project and precut them at the size required
• Make the quilt top in one day
• With the left-over pieces, I cut them into strips or squares and stored them in a bin
• Recorded and posted my project on my Blog
• Start working on the next project right away

There are many good reasons to start your own Quilter's Planner or to make a list of projects you want to complete this coming year. Go at your own pace. Never compare your pace with someone that has more time at hand or had more resources than you. Every quilter as their own ambitions. What's yours?

                                               Blue Keys quilt designed and made by Barbara Perrino


 Barbara Perrino is a modern designer. Her quilts and project are mostly done in solid fabrics. Many designers are tailoring their designs in that fashion to expose their beautiful quilting work.  Personally, I  came to appreciate their designs and creativity. It really challenged us, traditional quilters, to think out of the box.

The pattern by Barbara Perrino required many whites and blues solid fabrics. So what do you do if you don't have any or not enough? One favourite solution is to go buy more, but that's not what I did.

One fabric I had enough was this green one and looked at the selvage, where the dots are, to select a coordinating fabric that went well with it. Of course, I changed my mind and opted for a white one instead.

There are six huge blocks. A very easy and perfect pattern for beginners.  After I laid the blocks on the floor,  I liked the interlocking pattern the white part did. This pattern could be fun with children's print fabrics.

 It gets bigger and bigger with each additional sashings and borders.

I purchased this fabric on sale many years ago and finally put it to good use. The softer-whites are from the previous project that I ripped off.  Nothing wasted away.

You can purchase Bleu Keys pattern at Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting

Quilt 2- Play a Card

Everything is possible when you want to use your stash and this month was no exemption to the rule.

                                                       

                     My first choice for this project was to use this beautiful Batik: Sea & Sky Collection.

 But before I did so, I checked in my one of my bin that had few Ziploc bags which has leftover fabric from previous projects. To my surprise, one bag has enough 2 1/2" strips for the project in question. The pattern required 27 (2 1/2") and I counted 11 strips. There were also precut rectangles. Just what was needed.

  There were smaller pieces of white Batik and put them aside with my other Batik scraps.

  I was short only of a few pieces and use fabric of similar colours for the rest.

 This is what was left.

 When I laid the quilt on the snow, it was interesting how the white softer-fabric outer border differed from the brighter-white inner border. 

   

 Over here the outer border showed more, but I'm not sure I like it. In the end, I ripped off the softer-white fabric and the quilt is of good size without it. I used the softer-brighter fabric in my next quilt.

Which one do you prefer? Or would you add a whiter outer border?



Play a Card is designed by Brigitte Heitland and you can purchase her pattern at Fons & Porter love of quilting