Wonky Piecing & Easy Appliqué QuiltAlong – Week 1 -Gather the Pattern and Materials

Hello!  And welcome to the ‘first week’ of our third Colourwerx QAL (quilt along) where we’ll be stitchin’ up Wonky Piecing and doing Easy Machine Appliqué – the fun part about this QuiltAlong is you get to choose which animal you’d like to make – A Mini ModDog, a ModCat or a pair of ModFish!

A BIG THANK YOU!!  —
First, I want to thank you so much for joining us here and for your ongoing support of our Colourwerx patterns and Colourwerx Shop during these unprecedented times – brighter days are indeed coming back soon but in the meantime since we are all still self isolating, the Wonky Piecing & Easy Appliqué Dog/Cat/Fish seemed like the perfect project!  The materials you’ll need are minimal and are likely sitting right inside your fabric stash or scrap bag.  The pattern can be purchased from our Colourwerx Shop and no matter which animal your choose (Mini ModDog, ModCat or Mod Fish), all are available in both a paper format or as a downloadable PDF format.

Regardless – Carl and I are so, so, so  happy you are here!!   Please know whether you’ll be sewing up the pattern along side us or just observing from afar, we welcome you and are overwhelmed by your enthusiasm  and so appreciative of your support  – so thank you, thank you, thank you! 

As you can see below it’s a 4-week QAL this time, but please know that you can take it at your own pace and join in anytime.  All of the videos and blog posts will remain here on my blog, as well as be posted on our website and social media pages throughout the year.  There is no fee to join the QAL or our Facebook Group page so feel free to hop in anytime you are ready!

Join the Colourwerx QuiltAlong Facebook Group:   Speaking of the Facebook Colourwerx QuiltAlong Group,  if you want to join with other quilty friends and aren’t yet a member of our Facebook group, I  invite you to join our free QAL Facebook group where you can ask questions, share your progress and of course, post pictures of your finished projects so everyone can share in the fun!  Also feel free to share this invite and any other QAL news with quilty buddies and invite them to join along in the fun!

JOIN THE COLOURWERX QAL FACEBOOK GROUP HERE

Look for a companion video to be posted later this week…..

So this is Week#1 of the Wonky Piecing & Easy Appliqué QAL –  First let’s review the schedule over the next four weeks:

Week 1 (today-April 8th) – Gather Your Pattern & Materials
Week 2 (April 15) – Wonky Piecing & Cut Out Your Animal
Week 3 (April 22) – Quilt the Background Fabric & Prepare Shapes
Week 4 (April 29) – Easy Machine Appliqué & Finish

Here’s what you’ll need though to join in on the stitchin’ fun –

GET THE PATTERN —
• Choose Which Animal You’d like To Create and Purchase the Corresponding Pattern:
There are 3 patterns to choose from : the Mini ModDog, the ModCat and the ModFish – all of our Colourwerx patterns are now 20% off until the end of April so now’s a great time to stock up! Also our patterns are available in both a paper format or as a downloadable PDF format.

Click on the links below to purchase the patterns :

PURCHASE THE PAPER PATTERN – MINI MODDOG

PURCHASE THE PDF PATTERN – MINI MODDOG

 

 

PURCHASE THE PAPER PATTERN – MODCAT

PURCHASE THE PDF PATTERN – MODCAT

 

PURCHASE THE PAPER PATTERN – MODFISH

PURCHASE THE PDF PATTERN – MODFISH

 

GATHER YOUR MATERIALS —
• Each animal has slightly different fabric requirements but as you’ll see below the “wonky piecing” is made from smaller length fabric strips (these strips can be orphaned jelly roll strips or cut from your stash or scrap bin).  Although the requirements below stipulate 2-1/2″ wide strips,  the strips can really be anywhere from 2″ wide to 3″ wide X 14″ in length (or thereabouts).

— For (1) MINI MODDOG, gather these fabrics:
a. (10) 2-1/2” x 14” strips of coordinating fabrics
b. 1″ x 6” piece scrap fabric for dog collar
c. Scrap of black or 5/8” button for dog eye

 

 

— For (1) MODCAT, gather these fabrics:
a. (20) 2-1/2” x 14” strips of coordinating fabrics or scrap fabrics
b. 4″ x 6” scrap for cat eyelids of coordinating solid fabric
c. 4″ x 6” scrap of dark brown or black for cat eyeballs

— For a pair of MODFISH (using the Small Fish shapes), gather these fabrics:
a. (10-12) 2-1/2” x 14” strips of coordinating fabrics
b. (2) 9” x 4” scraps for fish bellies (can be the same fabric or two different fabrics)
c. (1) 6″ x 10” scrap of black for fish head/eyes
d. (1) 3” x 3” scrap for fish outer eyes (white)

•  Additionally, whichever animal you choose you will also need the following materials:
•  (1) Neutral Colored Fat Quarter (or an 18″ x 21″ piece of fabric) for the Background
•  (1) Fat Quarter (18″ x 21″) Size of Scrap Batting or Fusible Fleece (like Pellon 987F)
• 1/2 yard of Fusible Web (not to be confused with interfacing so please check to make sure you have a lightweight iron on advhesive) – Look for the brand names like Heat ‘n Bond Lite, Steam a Seam Lite II, Pellon Wonder Under etc…
• Your favorite threads for stitching the background fabric and for appliqué stitching around your animal shapes.

TRACE THE SHAPES ON THE FUSIBLE WEB —
To be ready for next week – ‘Week #2 – Wonky Piecing & Cut Out Your Animal’ – trace the animal shapes from the pattern on to the smooth side of your fusible web.    If you need to purchase fusible web and can’t do so for a few days , that is ok as you can make up this step in Week #2.

NOTE for PDF Pattern Users: If you purchased a PDF pattern before tracing the shapes, make sure that when you printed out your pattern page you maintained the correct scale for the pattern shapes.  You can do this by placing your ruler on the 1″ scale graphic included on each pattern shape page.  If it measures correctly, you are ready to start tracing.  If it measures less or more than the 1″ scale, then you will need to adjust your printer settings  to “Print Actual Size” and reprint the pattern pages until the 1″ scale measures correctly.

Follow the manufacturer’s directions for tracing you shapes and also:
•  Trace just one of each shape with the exception of the ModFish (trace 2 of each of the Small ModFish shapes).
•  Use a mechanical pencil or #2 pencil to trace the shapes;
•  Trace the shapes directly on the lines – you do not need to add 1/4″ seam allowance to any of the shapes;
•  Trace all of the shapes independently and apart from each other:
•  If a shape has a dotted line, include the dotted line when tracing your shape. Some of the shapes you will encounter here that have the dotted lines are:
•  Mini ModDog – Shape A – second ear
•  ModCat – EyeBalls (lower half of Cat Eye)
•  Mod Fish – Shape K (belly) & Shape M (top of fish) – when you trace Shape H – trace all the way out beyond the dotted lines to the solid line of the fish head shape.

Here’s a quick view of what my animal shapes look like when I’ve finished tracing them on the fusible web.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

DO NOT CUT THE SHAPES APART JUST YET – JUST TRACE THE SHAPES ON THE FUSIBLE WEB SHEET AND SET ASIDE FOR WEEK #2.

Yay!  🙂  That’s it for Week #1!!  Next week – Week #2: we’ll create the wonky strip piecing units which you’ll cut your animal shapes from.

Until then, please be sure to email us at colourwerx@yahoo.com if you have any questions.  Or feel free to post progress pictures on our Colourwerx QAL Facebook Group.

Until your next colour fix and next week’s QAL post ~  happy and bright quilting always!    L&C xxoo