Millefiori La Passacaglia Quilt Along Link Up 1

Here we go!  Time to start linking up.  If you don't already have the book and materials to get started, I will refer you to a prior post which lists what you will need to get going. Click on the link and you can get together the items you'll need.

La Passacaglia Quilt Along Begins

Some rules for the link up:

1. You may post once during each link up.

2. You must link back to this post.. 

3. Advertisers, please be respectful and don't post unless you are quilting along with us.  If you do, you will be removed and blocked. Should you wish to advertise on my blog, please contact me directly and we can discuss that separate from this link up.

Each month as we move along, you can join in anytime!  I am excited to see what you are putting together.  If you have hints and tips that you feel will be helpful, please send them along to me at SisterOfTheDivide@gmail.com

My first tip to you is, in additon to obtaining Willyne Hammersteins's book Millefiori Quilts, if you are just learning English Paper Piecing, I would strongly suggest that you also purchase Diane Gilleland's book All Points Patchwork.  It is an excellent resourse to help you with how to manage your fabric around your paper pieces. You can get a digital download pretty inexpensively $9.99 on Amazon.com.

Tip two: if you are not going to purchase the acrylic templates from PaperPieces.com then I suggest that you purchase some inexpensive template plastic, you don't need a large sheet, from your local craft or quilt shop and create some templates for yourself.  This will help you to fussy cut your fabric and to keep your pieces neat.  It will ensure that you are cutting a piece large enough to actually properly encompass your paper piece.   

To do this, I put a little dab of glue on a template, placed it on the plastic and used my ruler to draw around it with a fine point indelible marker, then measure again, 1/4 inch away from your paper piece and draw another set of lines.  This will be your selvage and will fold over your paper piece.   By using template plastic you can easily mark key points on your fabric to line up your pieces for fussy cutting.  Mark your templates with the pattern piece alpha letter so that you are using the proper template.

Tip three: I have never used the glue method before, I am a convert!  The pieces for La Passacaglia are so small that it really makes it fast and easy to get your pieces pasted and ready to stitch together. Drawback, removal and reuse of the papers is not really practical. Here is a picture of the backside of my starting rosette. You can see that it makes for a very neat and tidy result.  

There is a great group of folks on Facebook and I would encourage you to join that group, lots of inspiration and good camaraderie. You can find them by searching Millefiori/ La Passacaglia English Paper Piecing.

On their site is a great little link for The Flat Back Stitch a tutorial which is posted here: The Flat Back Stitch on the DIY Addict Blog.

Alrighty then! Open for link up!

Walk In The Park

Labor Day Weekend, staying off the road and enjoying my time working on a "Walk In The Park" designed by Debbie Caffrey.This quilt pattern is published in 4 installments in Quilt Maker Magazine, with the first installment being published in their March/April 2015 issue.

If I'm working on a detailed pattern and I'm switching up the colors from what is illustrated, it helps to have a little guide next to me as a reference.  On this paper, I glue swatches of each of the fabrics and number them to correspond to the fabrics in the pattern. Just an inexpensive glue stick works fine.  I list the name of the quilt, who designed it, the finish size, quantities of fabric needed for both the top and the backing.  I slip it into a plastic sleeve and I'm ready to go.  It helps to keep things straight when there are lots of pieces.

It would be helpful to list where you purchased your fabric, incase you want more.  In this instance I am shopping from my stash.  

One of the gals on my Facebook page says that she copies her pattern and puts it in the sleeve as well, thus preserving her magazine copy. 

Friday afternoon was spent selecting fabric and cutting.  Saturday I started sewing in the evening and decided to stay up into the wee hours. I think it was about 1am or 2 by the time I finally got to bed. The basic components were assembled. Installment 1 was completed and all was right with the world. 

Sewing at night is the best.  It's quiet. There are no interruptions. The cool night air was drifting in through the window and it was perfectly still outside.  We live in the woods and you would think it's normally very quiet at night, but actually it's not. There is a lot going on out there most nights, deer, raccoon, bear, skunks, owls, squirrels...etc.  They are a busy bunch!  But last night it was very quiet, just the sound of my sewing machine as I chain pieced the segments.

Today I spent time with my husband, made some cookies and worked on the second installment.  Tomorrow I will be finishing up installment 2 and moving on to installment 3.

If you want to make this quilt, you can order past issues of Quilt Maker Magazine here: http://www.quiltmaker.com/issues/index.html

I hope you will check back for updates to this post as I finish each segment.