Merry Mini QAL - Week 3 - Tree borders

Welcome to week 3 of the Merry Mini QAL! Isn't it fun seeing how different your mini looks once you've added the alternating squares borders? Here's how my three look at the end of week 2.

A quick update about my embroidered text block. When I wrote last week's post, that text block was still drying after being soaked in water to get rid of a bit of stickiness after dissolving the Sulky Sticky Fabri-Solvy. I'm happy to report the stickiness was gone when it dried after that soak. I do find the fabric doesn't look as pristine a white as the other two (they were all cut at the same time from the same fabric), but it still looks white, if that makes sense.

Week 3 - The tree borders

If you haven't already joined the QAL, there's still plenty of time to join in for some Christmas in July fun! You can pick up your pattern here. From now until the end of July, the Merry Mini pattern is 20% off with the code MERRYMINIQAL, which should already by applied if you click on the link. Once you have your pattern, enter your email address here to have the weekly emails sent to your inbox so you don't miss any of the QAL blog posts.

As a reminder, here's the weekly schedule. Click on the links to go to the previous posts.

July 1 - Make the text block 

July 8 - Make the alternating squares borders

July 15 - Make the tree borders

July 22 - Quilting

July 29 - Binding

This week we're making the tree borders. There's a little bit of strip piecing going on and the trees themselves are foundation paper pieced.

Strip piecing is oddly satisfying. It feels great to stitch strips together - it's fast and it's easy - and then cutting them apart reveals these perfect little units. The tree trunk units would be fiddly to sew with individual pieces, but they become perfectly manageable with strip piecing!

If foundation paper piecing is new for you, or you haven't really conquered the technique yet, don't worry! These tree units have only two seams per tree, so they're the simplest paper piecing you could do.

I have two paper piecing tools to recommend for you. The first one is freezer paper. If you've been around here for any length of time, you've probably heard me sing the praises of freezer paper for paper piecing. If you're new here, trust me when I say I talk about freezer paper every time I talk about paper piecing 😊In fact, I love this technique so much, I teach it for guilds and for workshops I host myself once or twice a year. Now I'm excited to say I also have an on-demand workshop to teach the magic of paper piecing with freezer paper!

Why do I love freezer paper so much? My absolute favourite reason for using freezer paper for all my paper piecing is that I never have to rip out the bits of paper when I'm finished making a block. I used to hate that part! Now I don't have to do it. At all. Ever. Where I used to avoid paper piecing because I didn't want to have to rip out the papers, now I can paper piece whenever I want without subjecting myself to that frustration and annoyance. It's fantastic.

The second reason I love freezer paper is that you can reuse your templates. These templates I'm using for my current three Merry Mini quilts were used to make my first two Merry Minis last year and they're still perfect. After this week, I'll have made 30 trees with these two templates, plus one template printed on regular paper to be able to make these templates, instead of the 30 templates I would need if I were using regular paper. 

If you'd like to reuse your templates and never rip out bits of paper again, be sure to check out my on-demand workshop!

If I haven't convinced you to give freezer paper a try, and you're going to stick with regular paper, then you might like this tool instead. Carolina Moore designed the Foundation Piecing Water Pen to make removing the papers easier. When your block is finished, you fill the pen with water, then run it over the seams on the paper side. The water softens the paper, making it easier to pull away from your stitches. While I prefer using freezer paper, I have tested this out and it worked really well, so I recommend it if you're paper piecing with regular paper.

Once your tree borders are added, along with the spacer borders you'll find in the pattern, your Merry Mini quilt top will be finished. Can you believe how quickly that came together??? Next week we'll get to baste and quilt it! Do you know how you'll want to quilt yours yet? I haven't even thought about it for mine yet.

Remember, if you share your Merry Mini QAL progress on social media, use the hashtag #MerryMiniQAL and tag me (devotedquilter on IG and devotedquilterdesigns on FB) so I can see. I'd love to cheer you on!