Parisville Revisited

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So, February. What a mess I made! When I finally finished the block and had the motif sewn on, I started the decorative stitching all around. I ruined it. The sewing foot got caught on one of the seams underneath, and while I thought the stitch was taking a while to work its way out, I didn’t realize it was stuck and sewing over and over and over itself creating a thick web of thread over and under, and …. what a mess! I sent it to Michelle in hopes she could salvage it and/or just create something for herself with it. 
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To begin again, I went back to etsy, and I ordered more of the Tula Fabric to go with the fat quarters I bought a month or so ago, a half-yard set and 10 strips of 3-inch wide designs from the etsy shop. When I began to piece the strips, I realized I had nearly NONE of the original shades of fabric Michelle sent originally. Mine is so pink and purple compared to the sprout colorway. The next flaw in my plan: The half yard of the motif fabric was not cut centered on the heads, so NONE of the heads had a complete motif surrounding it! 
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Final Decision: STOP. Michelle told me she has more motifs, so I’m hoping she won’t be any more bothered with me than she may be already, and I’m sending the block without the motif to let her sew it in on her end. I don’t think I’ve ever messed up anything so bad that belongs to someone else, and Michelle and I have been blogging friends going on years now. I have a lot of making up to do, somehow ... -- michele  

Hello. My Name is ...

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... Michele, and I am a second-year member of the One Block Over Quilt Bee.  I haven't really been AWOL, I've just been working very hard mostly away from home and filling a lot of orders in the studio.  I tend to get all quiet and worried when I haven't been able to keep up with sewing projects that have deadlines and I don't allow myself to even look at the blog unless I'm up to date, so I have no idea what's been going on here since, let's say, Victoria listed her block tutorial.   
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However, the schedule is turning around.  I pulled open Michelle's Parisville envelope and strung the night away while watching TV last night.  Sadly, though, even though I pieced conservatively, I ran out of long enough strips of fabric to finish the third and fourth panels.  To make things easy for Michelle, I just ordered a fat quarter set which hopefully will arrive by the end of the week.  Ooohhh, lucky, lucky!  I just noticed she closed for the week; I must have just made the cutoff.  There are always good prices at Fresh Squeezed Fabrics.  

Victoria's package for the Christmas Flower block is waiting next in line on the cutting table ... Andie, your's it right behind hers. 

Parisville Trolls–February Update

Hi all!

Just wanted to give you a quick update on my February quilt blocks.  I have almost everyone’s blocks – Michele’s & Toni’s are missing.  But here’s what it looks like so far:

There’s one block not in the photo, I need to find more floor space to take a photo.

I’m super excited, this looks so crazy and fun!  I think this is definitely a “Michelle” quilt!

Two Months Catch-up

You'll feel sorry for me when I tell you that I wasn't able to make Michelle's February block, nor Victoria's March block because I didn't have a sewing machine for more than a month. I was in a Florida beachside condo for a couple weeks, and then in Tampa spending time with a ten month-old grandson. Poor me, huh?

But as soon as I got home, I got to sewing! Michelle, your block was especially challenging to make because the strips were in short supply! I had to piece three strips to get the lengths needed for string-piecing. Here's a picture of the wee pile of scraps I had left over. The largest piece was the 2" X 4" print on the far left. 

This is a big block at 18-1/2" X 18-1/2" unfinished. I hope the seams aren't too noticeable.

Decorative stitches on my 830 Bernina Record are limited, but I think this one looks nice.

I was merrily decorative-stitching away when the sewing machine dramatically slowed speed. I couldn't figure out why until I opened the top of the machine to see that a cone of thread I had set aside got caught in the fly wheel! Lots of snipping and "arghs" later I was able to finish the decorative stitching.

Michelle, this is your block and leftover bits that were mailed to you today.

Victoria, thanks for the fun of picking green print scraps from my stash. You'll notice that I was sure to include a palm tree print (see at top right) that's sort of my trademark. With a blog name of "Flourishing Palms," I take every opportunity to work in palm trees.

Two additional tips when making this block:

1. If you have a Sara Nephew Clearview 60-degree Triangle, it's great for trimming the six triangle units before sewing them together. 
2. It's helpful to put a piece of lightweight paper beneath the center circle, before appliqueing it down. The paper adds nice stability. My old Bernina doesn't have a blanket stitch, but the number two utility stitch looks nice.

It will be so fun to see these blocks made into quilts! Michele, Michelle or Victoria... whose quilt top will we see first?

Linda in Iowa

Parisville and a favorite tool

I made Michelle's block last night.  I used one of my favorite notions/tools, Fork Pins!

I call them fork pins, but I think the commercial name for them is U-pins.  They come in this little blue box, and are used to pin seams, to keep your seam lines or points lined up as you sew your seam.  You can safely sew over them, because they are even finer than glass head straight pins.  

You place the pin through the seam allowances on both ides of your seam....

Sew your seam without removing the pin (you can remove it just before you sew over that area, if you really can't make yourself sew over a pin), and voila!  Perfectly matched seams:

Loving Tula Pink's Parisville line, gorgeous colors and prints (even though the center medallion fabric kind of freaks me out--it appears to be a woman's head being devoured by a lion...), and what fun to incorporate some of our fancy stitches!

February’s Block for Michelle

For my blocks this month, I’m basing the pattern off the Nigella quilt by Amy Butler. Basically, I’m having you make a string block on a muslin foundation (times 4), and then centering a fussy cut piece on the string background.

I will have your fabrics in the mail this week, but wanted to write up the directions so that you have them available. You can click each picture to make it bigger.

The fabrics I’m sending out are from Tula Pink’s Parisville line. I’m a big Tula fan – her Flutterby line was the first “designer” fabric I ever purchased, and I’ve been smitten with her bold use of color and her innovative (and sometimes hidden) patterns in her fabrics ever since! For this block, I’m using the Cameo print as my focus/center fabric.

Anywho, I’m including four 9.5” squares of muslin and a bunch of pieces of various widths – please feel free to cut each string to an unfinished size of 3/4” or wider. Most of my strings in the sample above where around the 2” mark. For the steps below, I recommend chain piecing the 4 blocks to make things go a bit faster.

On each muslin piece, I’ve drawn a line 2.5” from the center. This is where you place your first “string” right side up, which should be at least 2” wide.

Place a 2nd strip right side down on the 1st strip, lining up the edge. Make sure the string is long enough to cover the entire muslin piece when it gets ironed open.

Continue until the entire muslin piece is covered. Try to get a variety of prints and colors on each block.

Trim the blocks up using the muslin as your guide.

Sew the four blocks together with the plain muslin part toward the middle (of course, yours won’t look so symmetrical with the color placement – please mix it up a bit!):

Fold your focus/centerpiece fabric evenly in both directions to determine the center point (feel free to iron in a crease if that helps you get it lined up.

Center the fold lines on the seam lines of the four block pieces and pin in place. Using a coordinating thread (I used a hot pink on mine that matched the color in the print perfectly, so feel free to use color if you have it), sew a 1/8” raw edge around the edge of the centerpiece. If your machine has any fun stitches, please feel free to jazz up the edge stitching!

If you have any questions or concerns, just shoot me an email!

Seriously Wonky

Thought I better get Heather's done before the next batch of fabric arrives. Loved making this log cabin. Hope you like it Heather, it's seriously wonky!

I added that white and the solid brown - looking over the blocks so far, if you say I can add other stuff it will most likely include white. Fair warning.

Sunshine in the Cabin

February block for Heather....I gotta say, 16.5" is a BIG block size... I kept adding strips to this and thought I'd never get to 16.5". But Heather, it's a fabulous big block size with these wonky cabins! I'm calling mine "Sunshine in the Cabin", as I started by fussy cutting one of those great sunburst floral motifs out for the center...
It looks wonkier in reality than it does in this photo for whatever reason... LOVE, LOVE, LOVE your color choices, Heather! I had no problem finding fabrics in my stash and scrap basket to add to this (we have very similar fabric tastes, I think!) This will be a lovely quilt, no doubt!