Turkey Tracks: July 18, 2021
Design Wall, July 2021
My quilt room looks like a bomb went off in it as there are color-coordinated piles of fabric everywhere as apparently I am working on four projects at the same time.
(1) Here are the strips for the log cabin, all cut—with two blocks organized on the right. I am using the Creative Grids 12-inch log cabin ruler for this project—which makes log cabin blocks super easy and fast to make.
I fell in love with Tara Faughnan’s Wedding Ring quilt the moment I laid eyes on it a few years ago. [Let’s face it: I’ve fallen in love with so many of Tara’s patterns now, having been introduced to her in The Color Collective (Sewtopia, Amy Newbold) three years ago.] This past spring I got as far as buying her pattern, and last week I photo copied the 10-inch versions on to freezer paper and thought I’d “just make a trial block.” Yeah. All of you quilters know how THAT goes. Here’s where I was by last night:
I’m finding it takes a lot of cutting to get started on this project—but that it is gobbling up solid scraps like mad.
The “funky” wedding ring quilt top—now a leader/ender project—is coming along. I will make it 4 blocks wide by 5 blocks (14-inch blocks) so it comes out 56 by 70. That will be a nice lap size. Previous posts cover the origin of this project for me. The block is by Freddy Moran and Gwen Marston and is in their book FREDDY AND GWEN COLLABORATE AGAIN: FRIENDS. And I am indebted to Debbie Jeske (A Quilters Table blog) for making the block without sashing which makes it much more modern.
And here’s how Maria Shell’s “Rattlesnake” zig-zag pattern gets formed with light and dark isosceles triangles. I used Tri Rec rulers to make mine, but Maria Shell shows how to free-hand cut these triangles in her book IMPROV PATCHWORK. I love the scrappy nature of this project.
I’ve cut a lot of strips while going through solid scraps, but have put this one on hold until I get the “funky” wedding ring top off the design wall.
It’s a totally rainy day today, so it will be a lovely sewing day for me—with breaks to console AC doggie.
Louisa Enright's Blog 
Your studio doesn’t look chaotic to me. I can see how each bit and piece is related to something on your design wall. Question: Are the wedding ring blocks made by paper piecing?
Tara Faughnan gives directions for both hand piecing and machine piecing in her pattern. You could use paper piecing, but freezer paper is MUCH easier for this pattern. I put the corners and the bubble on freezer paper too—which makes them really stable to cut out. I’ve done three years of The Color Collective (Sewtopia) with Tara now, and she’s made me a real fan of freezer paper. It’s easy, can be used many times, and there’s no paper to remove. One tip is to remove the paper in the direction you sewed—and to slide a finger beneath the paper as you go to prevent pulling fabric loose at the edges of the seams—I figured that out just recently. If you pull off the paper in the wrong direction or really fast you can really fray the fabric at the seam edges—especially with solids.
Good tip. I have used freezer paper in piecing before and have plenty on hand.
You can also buy freezer paper in regular typing size—like a ream of printing paper. Everything but the corner part of the block will fit on printing size (8.5 by 11) freezer paper. the corner has an extension that you can cut and tape on—or use your regular freezer paper to do that one piece. There is also a way to use regular freezer paper stacked 5 or so deep—with the pattern drawn on the top sheet—and you mark the pattern with your machine needle with no thread. You can use the tip of your iron to lightly fuse the pieces of the stack together so they stay put—lightly though. Probably a video somewhere on doing that. Tara does not include that info in the pattern, but teaches it in her class. It would be really good for the 12-inch block pieces.