Hi, I’m Caroline (@casperbrigg) and welcome to my fourth blog for the Little Miss Sew N Sew Patchwork and Quilting Club level 1.
First things first, is opening the box and checking out the fabric. I LOVE this autumn themed fabric called Snuggle Season from Lewis and Irene. This is completely my aesthetic with lovely burnt oranges, warm browns and teal greens covered in pumpkins and gnomes. I absolutely love it!
I also enjoyed my treat of a lovely Twinings cup of tea and a biscuit while reading through the booklet and watching the videos online. Looking at the 3 variations of this month’s block, which is houses, I chose to do the second variation of 4 houses. I thought this would show off the fabric really nicely.
This month I’m showing you the cutting of the background fabric. The cream bumbleberries fabric is used as a common theme throughout the blocks. It is also used as the sashing (strips between the blocks) to join your completed blocks into a quilt top. Each month there are instructions regarding the background fabric. This month there are 3 sashing pieces, all 12.5” by 3.5” to cut out and keep safe. It’s important to cut these first, and then cut the pieces for the block afterwards.
Moving on to cutting the patterned fabric. I noticed for the version I had chosen that each fabric needed the same pieces cut. So I lined my 4 fat eighths up and following the cutting instructions for 1 house I cut all 4 fabrics at the same time. This made cutting out much quicker. I knew I could cut through 4 layers at a time, and my new rotary blade made very short work of it, but I would only cut through as many layers as you are comfortable with.
Having learnt last month that the stitch and flip corners are tricky I re-watched Victoria’s video. I drew on the diagonal line on the back of the background squares just like last time. Unlike last time I changed the foot on my sewing machine to my standard foot that has a stitching guide and I tried to keep this guide either on or slightly to the right of my drawn line. I am much happier with the result of the stitch and flip corners for the roofs of the houses. I may even be tempted to revisit the hearts block with this new knowledge.
The remainder of the houses was pretty straight forward. I kept all the houses laid out on my table and kept putting the newly sewn section back into its position to make sure none of them got mixed up. Adding the sashing between the houses is a bit fiddly because the strips are so thin. I also managed to sew the long sashing strip to the top of both sets of houses, so I had one row completely upside down. A quick unpicking and resewing and the block is finished!
I love the look of this block. I think the cosy looking fabrics are just perfect for some cosy looking houses. Revisiting the stitch and flip technique has helped me to understand a bit more about the construction and the necessity of using the right tool for the job. It really does make things easier.
Take care and I’ll hopefully see you again next month.