Blue lagoon, new pattern

Freezer paper piecing is my favorite technique! Here's my new design I am working on, I called it "Blue lagoon".

However the color combination may vary, of course!

In my new tutorial I will offer several color combination for this beautiful bargello star. Here's one in spring colors,

another in bright fall palette,

rainbow diversity

and this one's my favorite so far, I called it "Chocolate paradise".

Now let’s talk about freezer paper and advantages of using it for pattern

Freezer paper has a plastic coating on one side only. Traditionally it’s used to wrap up meats and fish for freezing protecting it from freeze burn. 

However it can be also successfully used in patchwork and quilting to help with many patterns and projects. The secret of freezer paper is the ability of plastic to melt with the touch of hot iron and temporarily adhere to fabric. If you use the right temperature on your iron, your pattern can be peeled off the fabric and used again! And again! This is what makes this method most attractive!

All you need to do is to put piece of freezer paper on the fabric, plastic coating side down and iron it with medium-hot iron, no steam. You need to practice a little to figure out what temperature on your iron is the most appropriate. If you use too hot iron, the plastic coating can be overmelt and stick maybe to hard, it will be not easy to peel it off then, and also the pattern can not be reused.

If your iron is not hot enough, the pattern would not stick good and will fall off the fabric when you sew. Even if it’s only the corners of the angles not adhered and raised, it’s not good enough for precision sewing. We know how important for the quilter that all corners match, so be sure the pattern is attached well enough to the fabric.

Using freezer paper in multi-block piecing technique.

There are several reasons why I prefer this method.

1)   You don’t have to stitch through the paper as in foundation piecing technique.

2)   You save your time machine piecing vs hand piecing.

3)   The template can be used multiple times.

4)   Freezer paper stabilizes the fabric when ironed which makes much easier to work with the fabric and match all points.

5)   There is no need to cut the whole template to small pieces. Fold your pattern by the lines between numbers and use it as a stitch guide! All you need to do is iron the piece of fabric to freezer paper, fold by the line on the pattern, join the second piece of fabric to the bottom and then stitch them together, not through the paper, but very close to the folded edge of freezer paper. Try not to stitch through the pattern, making holes in it; your stitching line should be as close as possible to the folded edge of a pattern. If you stitch carefully, you can save your pattern and use it multiple times!

6)   When the whole block is done, peel the pattern from the pieced block. You can reuse the pattern several more times and make more of these blocks with the same used pattern.

all wedges done and sewn together.

Can't wait to surround it with these star blocks...

To be continued...

Happy sewing!

Natalie Quiltessa