In our shop, we have TONS of patterns for quilts of all
different sizes, apparel, bags, and other fun things. I’ve picked a few of my
favorites, and I’ll be trying them out for the next few weeks—a top, a dress, a
quilt, and some other necessities. We’ve gotten lots of new and exciting quilt
patterns in lately, and I just had to try Forest Abstractions, Violet
Craft’s newest pattern.
Before I started the quilt, I was absolutely terrified of
paper piecing. I attempted a simple block in June and ended up throwing it in
the trash. So when these patterns arrived at the shop, I nervously purchased it
with the hope that I would eventually finish a few blocks.
Two weeks later, it’s finished! It’s my favorite finish so
far this year. I love how all the tiny pieces form beautiful forest creatures.
I usually struggle with pulling fabric for projects, but since there are six
different blocks with six different color palettes, it was incredibly simple!
I was incredibly surprised at how quickly I worked through
it. Violet has some amazing instructions and tips on her blog, and she’s posting tutorials for each block throughout the next few months. She’ll also be posting some
bonus blocks if you want to make the quilt bigger than 48”x60”--I'm excited to see which other blocks there will be!
To avoid using three yards of backing fabric (because I'm obsessed with Party Streamers and want to hoard them forever), I cut one piece of my main backing fabric to 64", then cut two 8"xWOF strips, sewed them together, then sewed along the side of the main fabric.
This pattern would be a great way to put scraps to use. Or,
if you’re like me and don’t have many scraps, we have some really great bundles
in the shop that would easily get you started! Cherie would be a great start,
since there are lots of neutrals with pops of color. Or maybe a couple of our scrap packs! It would be really neat
to see this quilt made with solids as well—maybe a few months of our No Prints Allowed club could make their way into a Forest Abstractions quilt! If you need more inspiration, the hashtags #forestabstractions and #forestabstractionsqal on Instagram have quite a few other blocks.
