Cake Mix 3

I am a self-taught sewer (sewist?) and quilter. Thankfully, when I need help, inspiration, or am stuck I can turn to sewing blog and YouTube videos. Quilting has so many techniques or varieties of quilting; paper piecing, hand quilting, long arm quilting, free motion quilting, strip piecing, etc. 

One of the new-to-me techniques is triangle paper. This is paper that you sew on top of and then cut into the perfect shapes that will make up your quilt squares. One take on triangle paper are these cake mixes. These arrive like large pads of paper. You place two fabrics that are 10" x 10" facing each other, lay a piece of paper on top, and sew through it. Then, you simply follow the cutting lines and have perfectly joined half-square triangles.

Fat Quarter Shop sent me this set of "recipe cards" to try out. I decided to use up some of my favorite fabrics that I've loved and hoarded but didn't have a lot left of to use in bigger projects. You can also purchase a layer cake from Fat Quarter Shop that will come pre-cut and coordinate (this is a layer cake that I have my eye on...)

These fabrics are from several different lines and designers but I love each and every one of them. Though I wouldn't normally put them together, I was impatient to get started and decided to make it work. 

Here is a square of two pieces of fabric and the sheet of paper that I've sewn through. There are sewing lines that you follow and cutting lines that you breeze through with a rotary cutter.

The sewing lines have arrows that guide you; I kept the line in the center of my sewing foot as I went. I kept my needle in the down position so that I could pivot and turn quite easily.

The cutting lines are the black lines and it is another step that goes quite quickly.

I can honestly say that I will never, EVER, make half square triangles without triangle paper again!!!

Once you get your shapes cut and ironed, there are several templates that you can follow to set up your quilt squares. I am loving the organic look of these mis-matchy diamonds in such a classic shape. I am going make 42 of these so that my quilt will be comprised of 7 of these blocks by 6. This should make a pretty large and comfy throw.
***that WAS the plan...I opted for a table runner instead to use this Spring, which was 8 blocks by 2 blocks and a strip down the middle, separating the two blocks***

Here is one completed practice square. My white fabric is a bit see through and therefore making sure that seams are nested will be important. I love how to points match up so well because of the way they are sewn and cut by use of the paper. It is a very quick process and the possibilities are truly endless! If you look at the bottom of the cake mix front page, it shows you a few ways that you can arrange your shapes and the different quilt squares that you can make.

After I made 16 blocks I decided to make a row using some leftover squares. I oriented them to make "bars" and use this long strip to separate my two rows of 8 blocks.

After separating the two rows of blocks by the strip in the middle, I added a 4 inch border of fabric around the whole thing.

I opted to quilt this using a wavy line. On my Bernina, it is stitch 4. This is a popular method and while I adore straight line quilting, I thought the wavy line would break it up a bit. I loved it. It was not only a fun stitch, it was quick and easy!

I made a wavy line at each seam line. I centered my walking foot over each seam and let the needle dance back and forth over the seam. 

I bound it using a pink from one of the squares.

I tried using the walking foot with the stitch-in-the-ditch foot to blindly machine sew my binding, but to me, nothing beats hand stitched binding. I won't be so lazy again...

Here it is, fresh from the dryer. I LOVE a freshly washed quilted piece.
This is a large table runner, but I have a large table! 

I am so thankful to Fat Quarter Shop for sponsoring this project!


***Also, don't forget to enter my recipe rut quilt contest! ***