On-Demand Paper Piecing with Freezer Paper Workshop

If you're like me, you love the weird angles and the precision that paper piecing makes possible, but you hate ripping out the bits of paper after you finish making a block. I switched to using freezer paper years ago after discovering that using freezer paper means I'd never have to rip out those bits of paper again. Cue the angel chorus! Removing the freezer paper is like peeling the back off a sticker 🎉 It's so much less hassle and so much faster.

If you've been around here for a while, you may know that I periodically teach a workshop called Paper Piecing with Freezer Paper. I love teaching other quilters how to paper piece with freezer paper so they can skip ripping out bits of paper, too.

Teaching live workshops is lots of fun, but it also has its limitations...I can only host so many workshops, and you can only sign up if you're going to be free at the time the workshop is happening. That's why I'm excited to tell you about my on-demand Paper Piecing with Freezer Paper workshop!

Included in the workshop

With the on-demand workshop, you'll learn:

• what tools you need for paper piecing with freezer paper (you probably already own most of them)
• how to prepare the reusable freezer paper template. Yes, each template can be reused many times, so no more printing a template for each block.
• how to paper piece your blocks using freezer paper
• how to remove the freezer paper template. Well, really you know how to do that already, since it's like peeling the back off a sticker 😆

Along with the video lessons, when you enroll in the workshop, you'll receive:

• the Burst quilt pattern. Burst is scrappy and beginner-friendly and the pattern includes instructions for three sizes.

• the Storm quilt block pattern. Storm is a 12" block that creates a great secondary pattern when multiple blocks are sewn together.

• a discount code for my pattern shop, so you can save on other paper piecing patterns.

Enroll today

To learn the game-changing magic that is paper piecing with freezer paper, enroll in the on-demand workshop today! You won't miss ripping out the bits of paper at all 😂

Ombre Twirl Pattern Release

After releasing the Stripe Shuffle pattern on Saturday, I'm starting off the week with another pattern release! Ombre Twirl was last year's Stash Artists pattern for May and it is now available in my shop 😊

Ombre Twirl lets you turn your small light, medium, and dark scrap squares into a fun and vibrant quilt.

The pattern includes instructions for the 60" x 72" throw size I made, plus 48" square baby and 96" square queen sizes. 

As with any scrappy quilt, delving into the scraps to find the perfect lights, mediums, and darks is one of the best parts of making an Ombre Twirl quilt! Which colours do you know for sure you have enough of all three values to make multiple blocks? Which colours do you think you may not have all the values? I knew I'd have lights, mediums, and darks in blue and green no problem. I was surprised to find all my reds are the same medium or dark value, so there's no red block in my Ombre Twirl quilt. I couldn't get the ombre effect at all!

As a nice bonus, there are no points to match up in Ombre Twirl 😊 

If your scraps are calling you and asking to become an Ombre Twirl quilt, pick up your copy of the pattern today!

Stripe Shuffle Pattern Release

Do you have a list of things you want to do 'someday'? Things that don't have a deadline and so keep getting put off while you take care of the things that have the extra urgency given by someone else's expectation that you'll do them? My 'someday' list is either impressive or scary, depending on how you look at it, but it is ever so slightly shorter today as I get to cross off adding this pattern to my shop.

This pattern release has been a looooooong time coming! Back in 2018 I made the quilt top and shared the free pattern for it as my 5th blogging anniversary celebration. Last year, during WIPS-B-GONE, I finally finished that quilt and now I have updated the pattern to include instructions for baby and queen sizes along with the throw size. After spending years on my 'someday' list, the Stripe Shuffle pattern is now available!

The Stripe Shuffle block is stash-friendly and super-quick to piece. If you're looking for a last-minute graduation or wedding gift idea, this would work perfectly. It would look great in so many different colours, too! I couldn't resist mocking it up in a few variations. Of course, I love how it looks in all blues.

Spring colours are so pretty, too.

And the fall colours version makes me want a drink of hot apple cider.

What colours would you use? Or what should I mockup next? It's so fun seeing how a pattern would look in different colours.

Zach was my quilt holder the day I went out to get pictures for the cover of the pattern and for this post. It was windier than I was expecting, so it wasn't as quick as he might have liked. Quilts don't like to hang flat and straight when the wind is blowing even a little! 

Thankfully Zach humoured me long enough to get what I needed. I so appreciate my guys who go along with my quilt holding requests!

The quilting on my Stripe Shuffle was started in 2018 on my Kenmore machine, then finished last year on my Janome 6700. I quilted a daisy chain in the middle white stripes and wishbones in the outer white stripes. When I finished that, I felt like it still needed something more, so I added a string of large pebbles down the center of each of the wide teal, black, and grey stripes. The narrow coloured stripes aren't quilted.

For the quilting thread, I used white, black, a couple of greys, and a couple of teals to try to match the fabrics as much as possible. The colours don't show up well in this picture of the back, but the texture sure does!

It has been a while since I did such dense custom quilting on something that wasn't a mini or baby quilt and at times I felt like the quilting was never going to be finished! At the same time, it was nice to take my time and work through quilting each individual design. I love that there are many ways to make a quilt, so we can do what we feel like in the moment. Dense custom quilting? Go for it! A quick, all-over meander with some flowers thrown in? Perfect choice! Hand quilting? It'll be gorgeous!

If what you feel like making in this moment is your own Stripe Shuffle quilt, you can pick up a copy of the pattern in my shop!