The Feather Test

Not to worry, no tickling involved in this test, ;) But I did get the opportunity to test a new paper pieced pattern by Kristy at Quiet Play. I love testing her patterns, and I've tested a few....

Winterbound 

 and lately the Geometric Series....these are fantastic....so many options

And the Feather Test and Review

Release of the pattern is set for beginning of November

This one has a lot of seams, and sewing the quill in the centre was definitely the trickiest part, but totally doable. Take your time press and use lots of pins on the second joining seam. (pictures below)

Also just watch the length of your pieces and the angles. I don't know about you but I always have more trouble with one angle flip then the other, so I lay the piece on  that I am checking and flip it over, mimicking a 1/4" seam to see if my fabric piece is long enough, and placement is right, to cover the angled area needed. If you aren't sure about where the placement is for the reverse side, I hold my piece of fabric with 2 fingers on each end, one finger on the fabric side and one finger on the back where the pattern is printed to make sure it extends passed the sewing line enough on each side.

Another thing to watch as you are joining the last section, the bottom background seam, I was so intent on matching top and bottom an sewing in the quill section straight that I forgot about that seam. You'll want to pin there. (red feather was pinned the other two....before I realized...they are both a little off)

The Feather is a very versatile pattern too, you don't have to sew on every sew line if you don't want, and because of the design it actually could be used as a leaf pattern too. It looks great with solids and prints, and a fantastic way to use up some of your scrap bits, so far that is all I've used.

The pattern sections are coloured in such a way to make it easy to use an assortment of colours/fabrics or to add your background colour in every other piece for a more open looking design.

My Tips

I found if you iron press to set the bulky seam and flip it back towards you

and press, it puts the seam allowance out of the way for joining the next section.

But just to be sure, I pin the 3 areas I want to have  line up, catching just some of the seam allowance area and making sure the end of the pin comes up and is over top of the seam allowance of the other seam. The pin holds the seam out of the way.

 I then add more pins to keep everything aligned as I sewed the last seam.

I also found that if you sewed the seam with the feather side up and the seam side down, it went a lot smoother.

 That's it! I hope you will all drop over to Kristy's blog and check out all her fantastic paper pieced patterns and try this one too when she adds it beginning of November!!

Oops...one more thing..... I added an extra piece to my yellow feather centre, to have feather at the top. Easy, peasy, just draw an extra angled line, and add some of your feather fabric!!

With them all lined up you can see they all are a bit different from each other. The yellow I omitted adding any background between colours and skipped those sewing line, giving me larger yellow section. The orange I believe I sewed every line with the background added. The red was a combination, added background, missed some lines and some background pieces. (I also made a fabric mistake that I fixed by adding an extra section that is not in the pattern. How do I make that work? I'll make that same "mistake" a few times, then only you and I will know it wasn't done on purpose!! ;)

This is going to make an amazing table runner!!

But for now back to my One Block Wonder prep!!

This is harder than I thought....

I had such a great time creating blocks for the One Block Wonders BOM but now that I'm making samples and tutorials and having to keep all this sewing a secret until the beginning of each month, it is harder than I thought.
I love sharing with all of you on social media, and truthfully not being able to post as I'm going has put me into a little bit of a sewing funk, lol. My sewing mojo as it were is low. Or maybe the cold weather has thickened it to slow, ;)
 I'm hoping  if I share some fun things that have been happening in spite of my mojo issue,  I could jump start my sewing attitude ..... ;)

 I made another barn (2 down and 3 more to go!!) I tested a pattern for  Stacey at SLO Studio and one was not enough. As some of you are aware, I live on a working farm. So a quilt was inevitable.

I won a gorgeous FQ Bundle from Sew Fresh Quilts, sponsored by Blank Quilting Corp. it's awesome, can't wait to use this in an upcoming One Block Wonder block tutorial and sample. If you haven't checked out Lorna's blog, you should, she has designed some amazing blocks/quilts, some of which I have been lucky enough to test!!

and a few cute extras!!

And this came in the mail today......can't believe how lucky I have been over the last week....
I won 20 cherry wood labels from All This Wood !! Even the packaging was great!!

They found the font that was used for my blog title.....how great do these look!! (look for a special give away coming....)

and my apologies for the bad lighting in this picture, but only 4 more blocks to go for this quilt!!

and I had to stop and take a few pictures of the gorgeous fall colours! Yes it was cool, overcast and rainy, but the rich colours are amazing....I love the fall!!!

Well Hopefully I will start fresh tomorrow, and get a lot accomplished, because today has be all about talking with you (wish there were emojis, I'd send you all hug) and bookwork....

How are you all making out with your One Block Wonder Blocks? 

I've seen Jeans, done in batiks....and its lovely....isn't it...

 You can share pictures and ask questions and find all the extras in the FB Group, here, just ask to join.

 Don't forget the last week of October there will be a link up party on the blog for all of you who have sewn at least one block. This Months prize is a FQ Bundle of Soft Dreams from P&B Textiles. It is what I made the same quilt top with. It is such a fabulous line.

And another reminder,  Rita from Fabric Please is offering you all a 20% discount during the BOM

Enjoy!!

#34 Lots of Fun Things to Share.....

First I usually write a new post every  Sunday or Monday, but with the storms and high wind passing through our internet has been down for 2 days, and my iPhone decided to crash at the same time. Which compared to the devastation in the US and Philippines is a minor inconvenience! My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone touched by the latest storm systems!!

Internet is now up and the battery in my iPhone replaced, so lets get to some of the good stuff!!

I have joined the Kona Solids Blog Hop taking place January 7-17, 2014. I'm very excited about it and working hard to come up with a fantastic project to feature!! Maybe even a tutorial! For sure a give away, Mad About Patchwork is donating a prize, so make sure you stop by!! I thought it was going to be the first time I participated in a Blog Hop as a contributor...

But, I got an invitation to join another Blog Hop!!!
So December 2-6 is my first official Blog Hop as a participant! I'm over the top excited now! There is going to be a lot of fun and prizes for you too! So check back and join in! More information to come!!

What I've Been Up To:

Some Happy Mail!! I won a prize through Modern Blocks QAL

I won a Modern Patchwork magazine, posting a comment on The Charming Needle, fantastic! So many wonderful projects inside including Josee's Petals and Patchwork pot holders!!

I received my Art Gallery Fabric bundle that I won, on Instagram!! 

I finished my nephew's quilt!! And added a label!! Don't forget the coupon code for labels if you are looking to buy some. Top right corner of blog page.

  I have 3 of 13 (baker's dozen) placemats done for my mother-in-law for Christmas! Last post for these! The back is Fall/Thanksgiving, front is Christmas! They were done quilt as you go.

  I made a casserole carrier. Though I think it would be better called a Pie Carrier! Too small to be for a casserole. (pictures just to show how it works! It would not close around that casserole dish!! lol) Love the fabric though!! (ps. red polk a dot fabric added, because the fabric in the kit was so out of square, I had to add it to make it the size it called for! If only I had understood that it was way too small I would have added more all the way around!! Oh well)