kick off - enchanted dolls sal

Hi everyone! Thank you so very much for joining us today. We are starting with the kick-off post for the Enchanted Paper Dolls Sew Along. What is a sew along you might be asking yourself? Well, it is a great community builder where you sew a pattern along with other enthusiastic quilters showing and sharing what you have sewn. Instead of just sewing something by yourself, you get to meet new people. I highly encourage you to visit the other participant's feeds and websites. It is a very nice gesture that we do appreciate. So join us now until mid December for the sew along fun!

Fees

So let's get down to some important information. There are absolutely NO FEES for participating in the sew along! However, you will need to purchase the pattern booklet or at least one of the weekly digital patterns featuring one of the twelve different angels, fairies and princesses from the Enchanted Paper Dolls 64-page pattern booklet.

Hardcopy Pattern

You can purchase the pattern booklet from my Etsy shop or from your local quilt shop. These German patchwork stores carry the pattern.

• easypatchwork SHOP
• einfach bunt quilts
• Niemanns-Land

If you don't see your store, ask them to purchase the patterns for their quilt shop. If this isn't an option, you can purchase individual figures each week as a digital download as they are presented. You can purchase the ones that appeal to you. However, if you decide to buy all 12 figures, it will be twice as expensive as the hardcopy pattern. So, please keep this in mind.

Digital Patterns

You will be able to download each individual figure as a PDF document to print right from your very own computer. There will only be one download per week in a DIN A4 (European) page size. This has the dimensions of 210 mm x 297 mm. This is not an American 8 1/2" x 11" which is slightly wider. When you go to print, please print "no scaling." If this does not work, you may be able to scale the page to 110%. Always check the scaling dimensions referenced on the page.

How long will the SAL last?

Well, there are twelve girls so the simple math tells me it will be at least 12 weeks. So this really is a fall sew along lasting right up until Christmas. : )

Sew Along Schedule
Week One	Oct. 6	Agatha
Week Two	Oct. 13	Babette
Week Three	Oct. 20	Celeste
Week Four	Oct. 27	Daphne
Week Five	Nov. 3	Eva
Week Six	Nov. 10	Fiona
Week Seven	Nov. 17	Gigi
Week Eight	Nov. 24	Hailey
Week Nine	Dec. 1	Isabella
Week Ten	Dec. 8	Jael
Week Eleven	Dec. 15	Katharina
Week Twelve	Dec. 22	Lilly

 

How can you participate?

Each week, a new figure will be presented. That means, there will be some eye candy (photograph) highlighting that weeks doll featured here as a blog post and on Instagram. All you need to do is sew and linke up your figure for the week. There will be a link up below the post. Please only link up that week's figure or a mixture of templates using at least some elements of the weekly figure. Because, if you didn't already know, you can mix and match the segments of ALL the dolls! These are #mixandmatchfpp dolls! You can change up their heads, hands, dresses, arms, crowns, etc. How cool is that?!

Will there be prizes?

I prefer to have good clean fun in my sew alongs. I promise you this, I will be thinking about some really fun things along the way. I will be offering a goody to everyone who participates!

What are the fabric requirements?

I am making all twelve enchanted figures and want to set them off in a 3 x 4 block quilt. If you want to do that too, here are the updated fabric requirements using the same sashing and corner blocks as in the pattern booklet. There will be no instructions here for how to make the sashing strips and the Sunkissed Cross blocks. You can find those in the pattern booklet.

Fabric Requirements (Yardage)	2 x 2 40” x 40”	3 x 3 60” x 60”	3 x 4 60” x 70”
Background	1 ¼	2 ¼	2 ¾
Fabric 1	1	1 ¼	1 ¾
Fabric 2	¾	1 ⅛	1 ¼
Fabric 3	½	¾	1
Hair	¼	¼	½
Skin	¼	¼	½

 *I do my best to ensure the measurements and requirements are accurate. It may be possible that a mistake occurs. Please forgive me for any indesprepancies. Do not hold me liable. : ) 

What will the layout look like with 3 x 4 grid of blocks and how big will that be?

This quilt is a very good size for a young lady in your family or as a cozy sofa quilt. It measures 60" x 75".
You can choose to make the scalloped borders explained in the pattern booklet or go for quick and easy border shown below. The outer border has been increased to 5" finished instead of 4 1/2".

Don't know if you want to commit to an entire sew along?

Some of you may only want to make just one block. That's perfectly fine. What can you do with one 12 inch block? Well, you can make an 18" pillow out of it. Add the sashing and Sunkissed Cross corner blocks listed in the pattern. Instead of making a flange, make piping on the outer edge of the pillow.

What fabrics should I use?

I've been sewing up these dolls for a couple of years now and have a few tips for you when choosing fabrics. It is very important to use contrast. That is my most valuable advice. If your skin tone is too light and the background is also light, you won't see your figure anymore. I love to use Kona solids and used the Sediment Fat Quarter bundle to make almost all of my dolls. I change up the colors sometimes. Great skin tones are TAN, SAND, WHEAT, RAFFIA, KHAKI & EARTH. Hair colors are EARTH, COFFEE, CHOCOLATE, SABLE & MOCHA. Add a bit of SPICE for redheads. I haven't found a blond color that I like yet. Maybe that would be MUSTARD.

Here's some more advice about fabrics - use smaller scaled prints and even tone-on-tone fabrics. They will show up the best especially on some of the smaller piecing. Verena at einfach bunt quilts put together some very nice ton-on-tone bundles here in Germany.

Pictured below are the fabrics that I will be using for the sew along. They are small to medium prints. I am using the largest floral blue print for the outer border. The same print in pink will be used for dresses and wings. See the mustard and eggplant colored fabrics? These are contrasting (complementary) colors. These will make the design pop. If you are looking for these exact fabrics, they are from Maureen Cracknell's Mystical Land Collection for Art Gallery Fabrics. I purchased them here in Germany at Kleinkariert. The Autumn Vibes Collection also from Maureen Cracknell would also rock for this sew along!!

Avoid a directional fabric for the background. It will cause you a lot of headaches. Go for a non-repeating small print, tone-on-tone or even a solid. It is extremely hard to work with diagonals and stripes when foundation piecing unless you are going for that look. Irregular, small dots are great to work with. Check out my Octoberfest Girls, Anna & Greta below. They both use little, tiny dot backgrounds. You can purchase these mix and match Oktoberfest Mädls digital patterns in my Etsy shop. You can exchange their segments with the Enchanted Paper Dolls too.

Although you can use as many different fabrics as you want, I feel narrowing down the fabrics give it a more unified look since all of the dolls are different to begin with. I experienced that with my last wall hanging. It was a little too loud for me in the end.

So now it is time to scout out your fabric fabrics and prints! Get your patterns and start planning! Next week we will be introduced to Agatha. She can be quite a challenge too with her smaller hand segments. Looking forward to seeing you then! Happy weekend!