Winter Nap: a paper pieced celebration

Welcome to my stop on Island Batik's Paper Pieced Celebrations blog hop!  The ambassadors were each sent one of the newest Island Batik fabric collections and tasked to use paper piecing to create a quilt that was a celebration of some sort.

My fabrics are the beautiful Peppermint Sprinkles collection, designed by Kathy Engle for Heidi Pridemore of The Whimsical Workshop.  I was so excited to get Peppermint Sprinkles, it's the collection I was most hoping for!  I love the red paired with the cooler aqua and light teal, and the winter theme with motifs of snowflakes, deer, pine branches, and reindeer.  The celebrations part of the challenge would be easy, as clearly this would be a celebration of winter. 

I do not enjoy paper piecing, so I was having some trouble deciding what to make.  Then I happened to see an issue of the British magazine Love Patchwork & Quilting at a local quilt shop.  (Issue #127)  This magazine always has some sort of extra packaged with it, and this particular issue had a bonus pattern booklet of 8 animal paper pieced designs.  The inset showed a few of them, including a penguin taking a nap under a quilt.  I snatched that issue up and impulse-purchased it for that bonus pattern!  Penguins would go great with the winter theme of Peppermint Sprinkles!

a single sleeping penguin

I took the pattern booklet home and looked at what I had gotten myself into.  The penguin wasn't going to be *too* many pieces to paper piece, and the quilt part of the block was traditionally pieced.  The original block has a fish sleeping with the penguin but I took out the fish to just focus on the penguin. I decided on a layout of nine penguins.  I used Island Batik's solids for the actual paper pieced penguins: Turquoise for the background, White and Black for the penguin head, and Orange for the beak.  

 

My friend and fellow Island Batik Ambassador Gail of Quilting Gail knew of my dislike of (foundation) paper piecing and offered to do a zoom call to show me her method of paper piecing without actually sewing on the paper.  I did find her method easier and less terrible than the way I had been paper piecing, though saying I like it now would be an overstatement.  Gail also has Peppermint Sprinkles for this challenge, be sure to visit her and see what she made with these fun fabrics!

 

back side with interfacing over the eye stitching

The pattern calls for embroidering the sleeping penguin eyes.  I used blue embroidery thread for this, and then used small scraps of fusible interfacing from making By Annie bags to seal the back of the embroidery, in hopes of  securing the stitches.  Funny moment: I had multiple conversations with my husband about the penguins, especially the eyes.  I thought each conversation included the fact that these were sleeping eyes.  Turns out, he thought the penguins were not napping, but holding up the quilts they made!!!!!  How funny is that?!?!  I guess he is just used to a lot of holding up of quilts! 😀

While most of the paper pieced quilts for this hope are foundation paper pieced, we could use either foundation paper piecing or English paper piecing.  I knew I could never do enough English Paper Piecing for a lap-sized quilt, but I really wanted to add some.  I played around with classic hexagons until I got a decent snowflake.  I thought the snowflakes would make a really fun border for the penguins, and would let me use more of the Peppermint Sprinkles fabrics.  I made four EPP snowflakes for the corners, then used my Accuquilt to cut snowflakes to fill in the rest of the border.

 

Items used in this project were give to me by Island Batik, Aurifil, Schmetz, and Oliso.

I used Aurifil's invisible thread to stitch the EPP snowflakes to the background.  I also used the invisible thread to applique the other snowflakes. As always, I did all the stitching with a Schmetz needle. Schmetz vinyl needs also do really well stitching through fusible web for applique.The piecing was done with a gray Aurifil thread.  My new Oliso iron got all my pieces nice and flat.

 

For the first time in my six years as an Island Batik Ambassador, I have only a quilt top to show you.  I really, really think that this quilt needs snowflake quilting, so I plan to send it out to a longarmer.  Don't you think snowflakes will look amazing with this??  I am debating Black vs Turquoise for the binding, let me know your thoughts!

 

Part of this challenge's brief was to be a celebration.  I like to think of these penguins as taking a winter nap on the shortest day of the year--Winter Solstice.  So this is a celebration of winter, of winter solstice, and of naps!  I'm calling it Winter Nap.  I plan for this to be a couch cuddling quit for my family.  We are biathlon fans and the past two years, have watched the full biathlon season.  A quilt with snowflakes seems perfect for watching a winter sport.  Winter nap measures 77" x 66".

 

If this is a blog hop of celebrations, what better way to celebrate than with a giveaway!  I have put together a prize package including:

• a spool of Aurifil invisible thread, just like the thread I used for the snowflake applique
• a package of Schmetz needles
• a Schmetz quick pocket reference guide
• a Schmezt photo chart of their different types of needles
• magnetic pin cushion
• Island Batik button

To enter, leave me a comment.  I'll pick a winner randomly on Friday May 24th.  You can comment on anything, but if you need a prompt, here are two possibilities:

• What is your favorite thing about winter?
• Do you think I should use Black or Turquoise for the binding on Winter Nap?

Thank you to Island Batik for another fun blog hop!  Be sure to check out all the beautifully Pieced to Perfection Celebrations!  You can find the full schedule here.