enchanted sal - agatha

Happy Sunday to you! Today is all about the angel, Agatha. She is the first figure in the Enchanted Paper Dolls series and our lovely autumn sew along. If you are new to our sew along, this will be a 12 part series highlighting each of the figures featured in the pattern booklet. You can buy the entire booklet or the single figure, Agatha as an instant download.

Before we begin, I would like to remind you to cut most of your fabric for the sashing strips and Sunkissed Cross blogs if you are making the entire quilt.

Did you miss the first post? Don't worry. You can read all about the Enchanted Paper Dolls Sew Along here.

Second, I find it a great idea to cut 3 3/4" wide strips which will allow you to cut most all of the smaller pieces. I like to cut strips of fabric when foundation piecing. From those strips, I cut the smaller patches.

Agatha is no ordinary angel either. Her detailed crown and hands make for a tricky combination. This might not be the best figure to start foundation paper piecing, especially if you are trying to sew quickly and your family keeps interrupting you. You might wind up with a figure below. Everything matches up perfectly, but oops! Something is not quite right. This was my conversation with myself while sewing. "Isn't she supposed to be wearing gloves? Oops! Oh, that's okay. You are flexible, Karen. This one has no gloves today. But wait a minute? You forgot her light blue wing segments too. Okay, when you have time by yourself (with no family interruptions), take her apart and redo the arms/wings."

 

I took her apart the next morning and re-sewed the bottom two portion of the arm segments. It probably would have been faster just to sew all three segments again, but I didn't want to waste the upper segments.

Now, she looks much better. Agatha put on her golden gloves and painted her wings a light blue.

I am really happy with the way she turned out in these fabrics. I think I finally have enough contrast going on. I thought the white background fabric might be too strong, but it really allows the color to pop. These lovely fabrics from Art Gallery are also the right scaling for these figures. I used some tricky fussy cutting on some of the patches. This is an advance technique when using and cutting directional fabric. I wouldn't recommend it for the background fabric though, but you can use it on the dress/wing sections. I am thinking about giving an advance FPP class showing these techniques. If you are interested in such a class, please drop me a note so I can organize one.

Another important tip I would like to pass on to you is about squaring up these blocks. When foundation piecing, it is a good idea to square up the block at the end and not always to trim the paper segments on the seam allowance lines. I generally like to square up and trim the segments just right before I sew on another segment. I use a real quarter of an inch too when trimming, just in case the templates are slightly off.

The outer pieces of these figures are usually filled with rectangle patches of fabric. I find providing a template for a square or rectangle a bit overdoing it. That's why I just fill with rectangle patches of a specified size. It saves on paper as well. And as you might discover below, I cut some of the patches oversized just in case the block shrunk due to too much pressing.

I used my big 15" ruler to square up the blocks. Yes, this ruler will get a lot of use in your sewing room if you don't already have one. This is one of the first rulers I bought, and it is so worth it. 12" blocks are a standard size block.

Looking closer at the markings, you can see the 6" line going straight through the middle of Agatha's dress. That is a great way to center and square. Since all of my blocks will have sashing strips in the final quilt, it doesn't really matter if the blocks have the exact amount of spacing at the top and bottom of the blocks. If you were to line up all blocks in a row without sashing, this might stand out more. But not in my case with sashing.

What more can I say about Agatha? I am in-love! The block came out exactly as I had planned it (with the exception of redoing the arm segments). The papers are left in for now. The blocks photograph a little bit better with the papers in. You can see on the sides where I filled with rectangle patches. The light shimmers through.

If you would like to make Agatha, please link her below. We all would love to see your version. Feel free to mix and match with the other figures, because that is truly the fun part about these dolls - you can mix and match the segments!

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Take a look at previous posts and see the other figures. 

Agatha | Babette | Celeste | Daphne | Eva | Fiona | Gigi | Hailey | Isabella | Jael | Katharina | Lilly

Do you remember I said I was thinking about some prizes? Well, I think we should have a link-up contest. What do you think? How about three different categories?

1. Best Use of Fabric
2. Cutest Ever
3. Most Unique or Best Use of Mix & Match Templates

We'll talk more about that later. For now, you can link up your Agatha below. I look forward to showing you my Babette next week and seeing yours as well!

Happy quilting!

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