Playing Again I have been taking over the Dinning Table again for another fussy cutting session. and have completed a fille...

This week I started hand quilting my la passacaglia quilt. Of course there are many different methods to hand quilt, but this is what I've ...

The quilts in this category were beautiful and the standard was as high as ever. Traditional patchwork techniques were demonstrated in abundance on each quilt – applique, piecing, hand & machine quilting. Being able to examine the quilts up close, I could see the skill and appreciate the hours of work that went into each … Continue reading "The Festival of Quilts 2015 – Part Two – Traditional Quilts"

By now you have looked thru the acrylic templates to see how the fabrics you selected will translate into shapes and are ready to cut into that first piece of fabric. You have a color plan in mind for the first rosette, and an overall strategy for the entire color theme. Right? Or…..perhaps you took a more cautious step and just picked one fabric, and are going to wing it from there. Attack with reckless abandon! Either way.....let’s get cutting. I had an overall strategy in mind (brights as you can see by my fabric selections in my prior post) but that was it. I wanted prints to provide movement leading your eye around the piece. I wanted a range of scale and shapes such as lines, dots, organics, ditsy, geometrics, florals to provide visual interest yet play well together. I started with a plan for fabrics for each rosette but that quickly changed. Some may work in theory but not as well wrapped around templates, or too much pattern or too much of a color, or not enough contrast. All these things need to be kept in mind. Viewing thru the template is a great start, but you may need to cut a few 'finished size' pieces and nest them together to see how they work. Tweak if you need to.....unless you are the type of person that will be happy and consider it a learning process. If you are one of those people that over think things, and nitpick and criticize points that aren't 110% perfect.....don't cut too far ahead. And lighten up! You're working a quilt with a new technique…. not solving world peace. Start with your 5 center diamonds. If you start with a fussy cutting plan, it's really helpful to mark registration lines on the acrylic template. This is especially helpful on florals, but not as critical on simple stripes that can be eyeballed. But......be sure to use something you can wipe off like a wipe off marker board pen....not a permanent marker. Align the template on the fabric and mark around the outside edge. For complex prints I cut with a small rotary cutter so I don’t disturb surrounding designs I may wish to use later. It looks like Swiss cheese after a while but it’s easier to handle. Next, turn fabric pieces over and lay then in the same direction. This helps you glue baste in a consistent direction…more on this later. Next, paper punch a hole in the center of your paper template. The hole makes it easier to insert a tooth pick or wooden skewer to pop them out later. This isn't mandatory, just helpful. Now…..you are ready to begin basting. If you decide to glue baste like I did, stock up on extra packages of refills as you go thru them quickly. As mentioned earlier, lay your cut fabrics shapes all in the same direction if they are fussy cut. Direction isn't important if you use an all over print. If you decide to thread baste, and since I've not done EPP before I'll refer to you YouTube for lots of English Paper Piecing methods. So....on to glue basting. Dab the glue stick point onto the paper template and lift up. Carefully flip it over and position it exactly on your fabric. This is especially important on fussy cut pieces. Repeat this step carefully for each paper piece. Lay a thin line of glue just inside the edge of the paper piece. This (roughly 1/16-1/8”) leaves you a few loose threads to sew into that aren't glued down. This also helps remove the papers in the end. You'll get a feel once you sew a few together, another reason why it's better not to go too far ahead right away. Continue glue basting around the corner, in the same direction each piece. The tails and designs will all be in the same direction if you've done it right. Don't they look great all coming together in the center? So...that's it for cutting and basting. Recapping a few hints and reminders: 1. Place removable (no permanent markers!!) registration marks on your acrylic template to line up your pattern before cutting. 2. Start by cutting only a section at a time until you see how colors and shapes will play off each other, and its neighbors. 3. Paper punch a hole in the center of your paper template before basting to make it easier to pop them out in the end. 4. Baste your pieces in the same direction; the majority will nest together making stitching easier. Next post we will do some stitching…….

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 [email protected] 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!

This is the current state of my Passacaglia. I've never been one for following patterns, and those familiar with the Passacaglia will see that I've gone off piste and beyond the edges of the large Rosette. I want to see if I can expand the pattern indefinitely. Round and round. A break between each round will be good for my sanity. It's all Liberty and shot cottons. I'm pausing for a while now while I decide on the next fabric. Linking up with Jessica over at Life Under Quilts

I finished my first rosette for my La Passacaglia quilt! I used some of my Bluebird Park fabric from Kate and Birdie to put this cog together. It was definitely a challenge to figure out what direction I wanted to go with this. At first, I had a different centre to this cog. The original version I just wasn't feeling it though. I tried auditioning other fabrics, but nothing was really working. Neither really works.... So I percolated with it for a while to figure out what was wrong with it. I looked through so many pictures of rosettes that other people had made, and thought a lot about what I liked about them. I realized that one thing I love about these quilts is the beauty in repetition. Another thing I love, is the distinct layers of each cog, like a bullseye. A bold star shape in the middle is a solid base to build upon. So when I looked at mine, I felt like it was strong in repetition, but weak in the distinct layers, especially the star. So I picked apart what I had so far and started over with the centre. I changed the middle to make a definite star, and changed the long diamond shapes to the green with a white flower instead of the dark grey linen. The dark grey just blended in too much with the bunnies/butterflies above. Also, the green tied in with the star points so much better. I like the final version much more than the original. In the making of this first rosette, I also realized the need for some fussy cutting templates. So I made some (and wrote a tutorial, in case you need some too!). And I also felt the need for a needleminder. I was inspired by @tinkerellen on Instagram to put together a simple magnetic needleminder made from a small wooden fox. He fits in well here! And in case you were wondering what size these pieces are, here is a picture to give you an idea of the scale. Tiny! I have really enjoyed working on this first rosette. The journey so far has been so enlightening, and I loved figuring out what works and what doesn't. I can't wait to keep making more! To read more about this project, have a look at : The Homemade Heart's La Passacaglia Quilt Index

It has been awhile, I know. My current project moves along very slowly and there is not much progress to show week-to-week. I've started my second rosette. This one is labeled #3 in the schematic for the quilt. It is one of the large ones, with five more rounds to add before it is complete. I did more fussy cutting for this one. I do like the impact of fussy cutting but it takes a lot of time. I cut several sets of pieces from the same fabric when I cut the pieces for the third round you see above so with those pieces already cut, some of the future rosettes should go together more quickly. My sewing room is a mess! I pulled fabric from my stash for this project. Originally, it was neatly piled at one end of my sewing table but as I sort, match up sets of fabric for each rosette, and cut, it has become messier and messier and now the fabric lies in three heaps on the floor. Cleaning to be done later, now it is time to sew.

So, the organizing started yesterday continues. But I’ve taken a brief rest from making a mess in order to clean up… why does it always make a mess to clean up, by the way? During this little break I decided to work on La Passacaglia for a little while. I’ve started sewing on some blue stars onto that dark on on the right hand side. But the longer I look at it, the more I don’t like that particular rosette. It’s too dark, and not like anything else in the piece. So, I think I’m going to take off the blue stars that I sewed on in hopes of lightening it up some, and put something else there. In the meantime, there’s been a little movement out of the stash. Used this week: 1.1 yards Used this year: 29.9 yards Added this week: 0 yards Added this year: 32.5 yards Net stash added: 2.6 yards There is an unintended down side to doing all this little bitty pieces in hand sewing… it takes forever to get any size used numbers. Oh well… I’m continuing to have fun, even if I do have to do a little bit of unsewing. I can use the blue stars on another piece, so it isn’t a total loss.In fact, I like the way the blue looks on the rosette right beside that awful dark one, so maybe I’ll use them there. I’m linking up to Judy’s Stash Report, to Slow Sunday Stitching and to WIPs Be Gone.

Well, I am having fun working on my La Passacaglia rosettes. Progress is slow and steady. Here is a picture of the big rosette in reds and ...

I haven’t been doing any hand stitching lately. But, I do have something to share about my past Sunday stitching project. I entered La Passacaglia into our Fall Fair here in our delightful city, and it took first place in its wall hanging division. Yippee! Woohoo! Happy dance! We went to see it last Wednesday evening, just to see what it looked like actually hanging up. Here’s a pic of our grand daughter Abbie and I standing in front of it. I haven’t done a stash report since way back at the end of July. I’ve been keeping track, just haven’t actually had a chance to write up a report here. So the numbers are going to be looking rather good, considering they cover over 6 weeks. The up side to the rush before a quilt show is all the finishes which take up lots of stash for making backings. Add to that, the new quilt that I’ve designed and am self testing the instructions for, which involved doing all the cutting at once, and I am back in positive numbers again. Used since August 1st: 25.4 yards Used this year: 68.5 yards Added since August 1st: 11 yards Added this year: 61.45 yards Net stash busted: 7.05 yards I have big plans for the rest of today. I’m going to spend it sitting in front of my sewing machine to see how much more I can get done. I just might have some blocks to show on a design wall post tomorrow. I’m linking up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching and Judy’s Stash Report.

Inklingo, Burlington, Ontario. 43,365 likes · 1 talking about this. Everyone starts with the FREE shape collection on the Main Beginner's Page. Print on fabric today to see how Inklingo simplifies...

Here is the process I use to assemble a laPassacaglia rosette. Every little shape has its own important role in this masterpiece. T...

I thought it might be helpful to share the following with those planning or currently constructing this quilt . If you are working off o...