Celebrate Christmas Block #22: Circle of Geese Wreath

Welcome to today’s block for Celebrate Christmas!

What a fun program to be a part of! Make sure you check out the current Super Deals, and post any blocks you make in the Celebrate Christmas Quilt-Along Flickr Group so you will have a chance at those great button prizes from Button Mad! Cool beans, man!  :D

I decided to take that really fun Circle of Geese block that I’ve been wanting to make all year, and modify it into a Circle of Geese Wreath. I think this would look fantastic in any holiday fabric color scheme.  It does involve paper foundation piecing, but I’m going to walk you through that, so don’t sweat.  ;D


You'll need paper printouts to sew on, green scraps (a 4 1/2" square cut diagonally works well for 2 geese), a fat-quarter's worth of background fabrics, red scraps for the ribbon, and whatever applique supplies you prefer (I used steam-a-seam).

First, print and prepare the pieces. 


Go to the free block pattern offered by Beth Maddocks at her Piece by Number site: http://piecebynumber.com/pastbom/CircleOfGeese-PieceByNumber.pdf

Print out FIVE copies of page 1 -or- page 2 (depending on which way you want your wreath to spin – please note that it will spin the opposite direction from the pattern because of the way the foundation method works)

We are going to circumvent a common problem with print-out patterns, which is that you find that either your printer has scaled it down or the uploaded pattern is a wee bit too small.

Take your sheets and write “Extend this side” on the two edges as shown. (They touch piece 8 and pieces 2 and 5.)

(notice I printed the Clockwise Spin – your extensions will be on different sides if you print the other one)

Then trim FOUR of the patterns so that you’re about 1/8 inch away from the regular sides, and 1/2 inch away from the extended sides.  (I did mine in one stack to save time)

Take the FIFTH copy and cut it apart. We will use these as templates so we don’t waste a ton of fabric. I cut off the seam allowance on piece 9 and 3.

Layer four 7 x 11” pieces of background fabric FACE DOWN and then lay the templates on top. We want to cut 1/2 inch bigger than the template on each side.

For the green triangles, you can take some 4½” squares and cut in half on the diagonal, or find scraps that are big enough to fit the triangle plus a good ½" on each side.

Now let’s piece!

Turn the pattern over and swipe a glue stick in the center of piece 1 on the UNPRINTED side. (Use a household gluestick if you don’t have a quilting glue pen.) 

Then put down a green scrap FACE UP over the area, making sure you’ve covered the seam allowances around it. 

(Just turn it back around and hold it up in front of your computer screen to check the shadow.)

Now place it back on the table with the printed side up. Take one of those annoying advertisement postcards and line it up with the line by piece 2. 

Fold the pattern down. 

Lay your ruler so 1/4 inch hangs over, and trim it. 










Lay a background from template 2 RIGHT SIDE UP on the table nearby. 

Pick up the folded pattern and lay it on top, lining up the edge you just trimmed with the edge of the template. Also, you can see the outline of the folded-over part to make sure you’ve got piece 2 covered, INCLUDING ENOUGH FOR THE SEAM ALLOWANCES. 


(If your eyes don’t like trying to see that, you can trace the lines on the back.) 

Unfold the pattern and, unless you're super skilled at keeping these pieces where they're supposed to be, put a pin in. (See how I've placed it so that I can stitch without running over it?)

Sew ON THE LINE that’s between piece 1 and 2, extending all the way through the seam allowances that should be on either end.

Shorten your machine’s stitch setting, and tighten your top tension just a bit more than you would normally use. This will make life happy when it’s time to remove the papers.

Open the fabric out and press the fabric side without steam. 


(I do find that real pressing turns out much nicer for foundation piecing than finger pressing or rolling. I also lay a cheap piece of cotton/poly on my ironing board so printer ink doesn’t get on the board.)

Now for piece 3:  With this slightly complex pattern, you need to pop the paper off your stitching on the part that extends past the next line. No biggie. Who cares if it tears weird. Won’t matter.  :D

Once you’ve popped that, you can put the post card down, fold the line between piece 1 and 3, lay the ruler down and trim an added seam allowance, lay the unit on top of a FACE UP piece 3 fabric, open the paper back out, and sew on the line. (just like before)

Repeat the process for each new piece.  Sometimes you’ll have to pop more than one seam end through the paper when you need to fold on the next line. 

And - when you sew on a line that meets the extended sides - sew all the way to the edge of the paper.

NOTES:

When you lay down on top of whites, if you let the white jut out a smidge, you will avoid darker colors showing through the front side.








**Just make sure you ALWAYS add your ruler with the 1/4 inch extended. I’ve made the mistake of cutting right at the edge of the postcard (I guess my brain figured I put a measuring device down already when I put the postcard down). If this happens, then you get to unpick the last seam and redo the whole last piece (or more). So pay attention to what you’re doing.  :D

When you have all four quadrants pieced, trim the outside edges (leaving the 1/4 inch allowance intact) ONLY on the two inner sides. These are the side along Piece 9 and the side along Pieces  9, 3, and 1.

Now tear the paper off. 


This is a great excuse for sitting in front of your favorite show!  Works best for me if I go in reverse order from how they were sewed, pinching my left fingers right at the stitching on one end and roll-pulling the paper away along the length of the line while my left fingers slide along to support the stitches.

Sew the block together: 

Line the inside corners up on the straight edge, and sew two sets of these.  Just let those two untrimmed edges go as far as they want off the outer edge of the other quadrant.


And then put the halves together so that you end up with a block that looks like this.

Now it's time to square up the block to 12-1/2". 

If your printer scaled down the pattern, no worries - you're not short any where!  :D   

Add Christmas Embellishments: 


All that’s left is to cut a bow out of scraps and appliqué it on, using your favorite method. Throw some berries in, too, or a horn or a teddy, if you like!

If you like my bow, you can use my pattern. Here's a pdf file of it: Bow 


And if you want to print out this tutorial, here is a docx file you can access: Circle of Geese Wreath






Enjoy!!  This block is perfect for a modern sampler quilt or a pillow cover. 

Don't forget to explore the wonderful Celebrate Christmas site and post pics of the blocks you make at the Flikr group.  :D


Celebrate Christmas headquarters:
http://quiltinggallery.com/quilters-fun/celebrate-christmas/ 

Flickr group:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/celebrate-christmas-quilt-along/

WIP Wed #20 - Do you know about newsprint endrolls?

OK, so. . . My summer smash through UFOs came to a screeching halt as I road-tripped last month away taking kids to their school locations and then got shoved into my own studies. So the biggest WIP for me now is actually my "Society and War" masters-level history course.

This was the pile before the final 3 arrived.  Yes: Bleh.

But I'm REALLY GETTING EXCITED now for the 2-day quilt class I have at Quilting By the Bay with Jacqueline deJonge at the end of this month!!  I signed up for it over a year ago. So for quilting, my current WIP is getting all the prepwork done for that class.

Isn't this amazing?

There were several quilts to choose from for the days on which I'm registered. I must have been drunk off of success after the Judy Niemeyer class I did in January, and chose the most advanced for my class days: Listen With Your Eyes.


Well, it's gonna be amazing. HOWEVER, let me warn you - many of the deJonge patterns do not have the papers you actually stitch on, but only have a master copy. This is one of them. (Of course - that's my luck!)  So you have to make your own foundation papers. The instructions suggest tracing each one, but I was not about to do that. My printer does a very good job of copying exactly 100%, thank you!

The masters are full of big black squares, though, and not wanting to waste that much ink, I did trace sections of each checkerboard arch to make copies from. (By the way, you ARE allowed to get photocopies for your own use, but not to share with others. Jacqueline stated in an email to us to make sure, if we're getting copies, that they print out exactly 100%, so there you have it, right there. I did not break any copyright laws by using my printer instead of my pencil.)

Now, here's a tip that can save you LOTS and LOTS of money: Don't Buy Foundation Papers or Fabrics. Use newsprint. You can go to a printing press and ask for an "End Roll".  These are the leftovers on a roll that  won't last the next printing, so they discard them.  Many places will let you have one for free. Mine was a gift from a gentleman in our guild who takes his truck to the printer's and asks for as much as they'll give him for $10. He typically drives away with 7-10 endrolls.

My endroll is 23" wide - perfect for cutting 4 sheets at a time out of a spread such as this.

These suckers have YARDS and YARDS of paper on them still! And it's the perfect weight for paper foundation piecing. (Tutorial about that sewing technique here.)  It's also superb, according to Earnest, for rolling out across a table and letting kiddos go hog wild coloring or painting. Or drawing out a full-size original design and using that for pattern pieces. Or spreading on a work surface to protect from the overspray of basting glue. Or using as an easy tear-away foundation for satin-stitch applique. Versatile stuff!

To use the newsprint with my printer, I needed to cut it into paper sizes. A bit of a pain, but definitely worth the money saved when I used 98 sheets of the stuff! That would have cost quite a bit in "official" foundation paper or fabric.


You do have to be careful and make sure your printer is not set on "fit to page" or any custom size that will give you anything other than an exact replica. And you can't use the fast setting, because the paper's too thin and will slip.


After printing all the duplications for each section out and CAREFULLY slicing the rows apart, according to directions, I finally have this complete set of foundation pieces all ready to go!

~*~*~*~

Goodness - it's been so long since I did a WIP post, I forgot to include a link to the party!

A big "Thank you!" to Lee at Freshly Pieced for hosting WIP Wednesdays 

It really keeps me motivated to keep those UFOs going! (Go check out what everyone else is doing - there are some really neat projects out there!)

Also, Check out my BOMs AWAY Mondays regular link-up.  

This week's stats:

New Projects – (Listen With Your Eyes by Jacqueline deJonge)    

Completed Projects This Week -  0  

In Active Progress - 1    (Listen)

UFO Firing Range - 31.333          

Finishes for 2011 - 24  

Completed tops awaiting quilting:

One charity wheelchair quilt

Center of Marissa’s Moment of Freakishness

Marissa’s Moment Pillowcase panel

Dreamy Unicorns

Wagon Wheels West #2

Be Attitudes

We Love Kelly

Devon's Silk Spinners

Kelly's Thirties Hand Quilter

Kelly's Calico

Poor Forgotten Orphan from 15 Years Ago 

A Paper-Piecing (foundation) Tutorial, courtesy of BOM 5, Glacier Star

I finally got to sew again, and the next BOM up was a lot of fun - involving a paper-piece quilt from Judy Niemeyer.

I have to say, I *despised* paper foundation piecing when I first tried it a few years ago. It was such a pain to try placing that next fabric piece on the backside of the pattern in a way that would not leave gaps once the stuff was all sewn and flipped, and then you had these irritating huge seams to trim away.

Well, I saw a Niemeyer quilt I just HAD to make (that's it, over on the left), so I decided to grit my teeth regarding the method and get it done. Got the pattern and the fabric, took one look at the directions, and said, "Wow!! Now why couldn't I ever think of such an approach?!" That pattern, as well as a tutorial she has posted on her Web site, teaches a very simple technique that makes paper piecing so much easier!

As I did this month's portion, I wanted to share this process so that others who love the results of paper piecing but have been too frustrated with the process could also break through to the other side. I wish I'd thought of doing this at the very start, so my pictures would show the whole story in pure sequence. But you'll get a good idea, and I'll share some personal tips on tools and concepts.

Step 1: Prep the paper

You start with your paper pattern. I had already mass-cut the fabric pieces using the cutting template that came with it. Locate the position of the first piece and swipe a glue stick on the BACKSIDE of that area. (Any water-soluble glue stick will work, but I love the narrow Sewline sticks.)

Then place your first fabric piece onto the glue, RIGHT SIDE UP, making sure you've covered the entire first area plus its seam allowances.

Step 2: Layer for a Sewing Line

Flip the paper back over and locate the first sewing line (you'll see I'm on the third seam, but the process remains the same). Place a folding tool right on the sewing line.

Tool tip:As you can see, I did not purchase quilting template plastic as recommended. I LOVE free tools, and those annoying oversized advertisement post cards are good for sooo many things around the house. Use one of those for this task! They're perfect. 

Fold the paper down. . .

[If this is not the very first seam, you'll need to rip the paper in the last seam allowance area to allow the paper to fold on the seam. More on that later.]

. . .Then place a ruler over the edge so you can trim the excess off at the 1/4" seam allowance.

Whatever you do, DON'T FORGET THE RULER~!!  Otherwise, you cut off the seam allowance and then you have to pick the affected pieces off, cut new ones, and start all those sections over again. Major pain. I know from experience!

Another tool tip: The Add-A-Quarter ruler that is marketed is, indeed, very nice for this job. However, if you need your spending money for other items, go ahead and use any quilting ruler - just be careful because they'll SLIDE on that paper if they don't have no-skid spots attached!

Once you've trimmed off the overhang, pick up the folded paper with fabric attached and place that on top of the next piece of fabric, which is laying right side up on the cutting mat.

Two things to watch:

1) Make sure the fabric will cover the next area AND its seam allowances. I can see through the paper well enough to lift the unit to compare to the next fabric's location, but if you're not confident about that you can always sketch in the lines on the back side to see what's what. You get good at this step pretty quickly since the folded-over paper shows where the piece is needed.

2) Line the sewing edge up the tiniest bit shy of the edge of the next fabric, especially if you're laying a darker fabric over a lighter fabric. This is so you don't get dark lines showing through on the front side of your quilt.

When you have everything lined up, lift the paper back open and place a couple of pins parallel to your sewing line to secure the bottom fabric. Some people can just hold it and sew them, but I still can't. I get too much slippage.

Tool tip: Yes! Those flat-head flower pins are terrific!! I love them OODLES more than round-head pins for this job. Worth the money. Get the thinner ones, the IBC brand with flexible .55mm shafts and 3/8" heads. Supposed to be handy for lace work and knitting as well.

Step 3: Sew your lines and press

I prep several units at a time so I can chain stitch them.  Just pull the threads out enough between units to allow the next one to lay flat.

Make sure the leading end of the bottom fabric is not folded under itself. I've had to pick out more than one seam end because of this!

At your machine, sew along the entire solid line (across the next seam allowances - marked on my patterns with a dotted line). You'll actually want the stitches to start and end a stitch's worth beyond either end of the stitching line.

TIPS:

• Use a medium length stitch. Too long, and it will be a pain to tear your papers off when it's all put together. Too short, and your seams pucker and the paper falls apart prematurely. This varies so much from machine to machine, sorry I can't tell you what setting to use. 

• Use the smallest needle you can. A 70 or 75 with a thin thread (50 weight) is marvelous. And use SHARPS not universals, and certainly not ball tips.

• Some people find they need to tighten their tension a little bit. On my machine, this is not necessary.

 When you are ready to clip your units apart from each other, it is not necessary to trim off the pesky tails. . .

. . . because  when you trim off the next overhang, you will cut those tails right off the unit - especially if you went the extra stitch past the seam allowance area!

[Let me clarify: this picture is here to show you why you don't need to clip the tails - you're not going to do any trimming at this point.]

Take your units to your ironing board and press the newest piece open. You will get a much nicer unit if you press with the iron instead of just finger-pressing.

 Don't use steam, and do back the heat setting down a bit from the hottest level. I go to the halfway mark between cotton and linen on my iron. (You don't want to scorch your paper.)

You're ready to repeat Step 2 to set up your next sew lines!

Getting back to that Tearing concept:

If your next line intersects any others, there will be a seam going across the seam allowance which will impede your fold when you fold the paper down. The work-through is to simply pop a tear in the middle of the paper along those allowance stitches. Sometimes this happens at the edge of the unit where it's easy to rip from the side. On this unit, it happens right in the middle of the paper. No big deal. I just carefully pull the stitches through the paper and pull that tail all the way out while I'm at it. This lets me fold straight across the next sewing line and trim the allowance for Step 2. 

You don't even need to fret about messy tears! The paper is not important beyond giving you your sewing lines, so just ignore those bloops that pop out every now and then.

Moving Right Along . . .

As you work through the steps, it's not long before you find your groove and pick up momentum. Before you know it, you're on the last seam line!

And then you're ready to trim the outer edges of the units! Simply lay a ruler down along the cut line (make sure you're not cutting on the sewing line) and roll away! 

It's so nice to see the finished units go from ugly ducklings to pretty little swans. . .

. . . So that you have some really pretty Floating Flying Geese units:

. . . or some nice New York Beauties:

. . . or even a handful of fun Stepping Stones! 

            - Yes, these are for an entirely different quilt. ;D

And now I have the utmost respect and appreciation for all those wonderful folks who have put together tutorials.  It takes forever!  Thank you for everything you each share.