welcome 2020

Hi everyone! Thank you for joining us today. I would like to welcome everyone into the new year 2020! May you all be safe, happy, healthy and prosper in your endeavours in the new year and the new decade.

We rounded off 2019 with a second sew along - The Enchanted Paper Doll Fall Sew Along. I hope you were able to follow along and soak in the beautiful angels, fairies and princesses made by all of the participants in our sew along on Instagram. A great big, wonderful thank you to all who did. I enjoy seeing your creations. Please keep sending them to me.

The winners were:
Dagmar @mamamoose for her radiating Eva for the cutest ever and Jenny @jennymakesstuff for her best use of mix and match templates. Anna @annakroche won honorable mention for her beautiful creations. Thank you so, sew much ladies for participating!

I worked on another fairy quilt block shortly before the holiday. I wanted to show my appreciation to all who participated in the sew along. Each received the free block pattern below. The pattern is now available on Etsy for purchase if you wish to make this fun 16" block for a pillow, quilt or other small design.

Here are the quick stats:

Block Size: 16" Finished
Method of Piecing: Foundation Paper Piecing
Skill Level: Experienced
Pattern Document: PDF Instant Digital Download
Page Size: DIN A4
Number of Pages: 8 Instructions, 8 Templates
Templates: Full Size, 100%, No Scaling
Mix and Match Options: One figure with two outfits
Hashtags: #eppaperdollsmarissa, #enchantedpaperdolls

Your personal fairy of good fortune is here to help you celebrate the new year. Pattern contains templates for one 16" fairy, Marissa. Designed as a stand alone quilt block with segments that can be mixed and matched. 16-pages of instructions including 8 pages of foundation (FPP) templates to print at home for one 16" x 16" FPP quilt block. Use your favorite foundation piecing method. Instructions for foundation piecing method is not included. Instructions for segment construction, pressing directions, inserting the y-seam and coloring sketches are included. Skill level: Experienced

Copyright © 2020 Karen Ackva | All designs, sketches and templates are protected under copyright laws and may NOT be photocopied, duplicated, digitalized or reproduced in any form other than by the original purchaser for personal, private use. May NOT be used as teaching material nor used in sellable items. Please respect the laws to allow small businesses to survive and thrive.

You can make an oversized pillow for the angel in your life.This design uses the Sunkissed Cross blocks (found in the hardcopy only pattern) in the corners. Can you still recognize them with the change up in fabrics? The finished size of the pillow is ~ 22" x 22". Fabrics from Mystical Land by Maureen Cracknell for Art Gallery Fabrics.

When I originally designed the 16", Marissa fairy, I thought about how you could integrate her into an arrangement with the 12 other 12" angels, fairies and princesses from the sew along. This design layout appealed to me the most. (Designed in EQ8, of course). I removed the Sunkissed Cross blocks in this design which brought Marissa into the forefront. Marissa is framed with a three finished borders of 1", 2" and 1". This would be a ~63" x 63" quilt.

Today, I was feeling a little creative, so I whipped up a virtual quilt with Marissa. The fabrics I chose for the mock up quilt are from the Midsommer collection from Pippa Shaw for Figo fabrics available now. 

I used up the original layout with the 3" Sunkissed Cross blocks found in the original Enchanted Paper Dolls Pattern. Instead of a 3 x 4 grid and 12" blocks, I used a 3 x 3 grid with 16" blocks. This would have a 5" print border and 3/8" binding. The finished quilt size would be about 70" x 70". 

For a 4 x 4 grid you would have a large sized quilt measuring ~ 92" x 92". 

With a 2 x 3 grid you would get a large throw quilt measuring 54" x 73" (138 x 185cm).  This would be a great size for a single bed. You can always add a little more to the border (10" cut borders) as shown below for a 63" x 82" (160 x 208 cm) quilt.

Thank you for joining today. I hope I have sparked your creative interest to sew something beautiful. Please share you makes with us.

DISCLAIMER

I have not been compensated by any company to promote their products in this post. Company names have been mentioned to properly identify the use of their information, products, and/or services. All of the designs shown within this blogpost are my own designs and may not be copied, downloaded, reposted, digitalized or used for any purpose of promoting your business or any other commercial intent. By doing so, you infringe upon international copyright laws. This includes but is not limited to social media.

enchanted sal - gigi

Hi there! Thanks for joining us. Today marks the seventh week of the Enchanted Sew Along. A great big thank you to all who are sewing along. It truly warms my heart seeing what you make with the patterns!

We will be looking at the beautiful, Gigi in this post. She hasn't been shown yet. She remained a bit of a secret as well as four other figures. 

Before we get into the blog post, I would like to share with you one of our sponsors. Gütermann, a German thread and fabric company, kindly offered two sets of quilting thread and premium cotton fabrics for our giveawy. Two lucky participants will each receive one set. It looks like three 1/2 meter cuts in those bundles too. There are a couple more suprises lined up, so stay tuned.

Back to Gigi. She is a beautiful garden fairy with a cute little bob hairstyle and a
jewelled crown. She flies bare-footed, because she loves to feel the grass touching her toes. Gigi has large (Fairy Godmother) wings that extend to her shoulders. There are only a few critical points that need to match up when sewing her together such as the wrist, wings intersections and hair around the face.

Gigi would look exceptionally beautiful with a bun. I used the crown segment (bun) from Jael featured on the front cover of the pattern book.

Or you could add the precious halo from Babette? You can add or remove segements on the templates. Instructions are given in the pattern on how to do this.

Or you could omit the tiara altogether and add the crown segment from Agatha.

And with all of the figures from the Enchanted Paper Dolls, you can mix and match the bodices and dresses to create your own styles.

There are so many possibilties with these figures. I would really love to see what you create with the patterns. Have fun.

I decided not to link up via InLinkz. Please email your figure to me or post on Instagram Thanks for joining.

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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

enchanted sal - eva

For those of you who are following our sew along, thank you for joining us and reading this post. It tickles my heart. Today we are taking a look at Eva, a beautiful garden fairy with short wings and a knee-length dress.

Each week a new figure will be highlighted from the Enchanted Paper Dolls pattern book. I may even give some tips and tricks about sewing the figure as well. ; ) If you would like to purchase the entire book or just an individual PDF of one figure, you can purchase them here on Etsy or at your local quilt shop. If you shop doesn't carry it, ask them to get in touch with me. We sell wholesale as well.

In appreciation to all who are sewing along, we are offering two prizes:

1. Cutest Figure
2. Best Use of Mix and Match Templates

We are starting to gather up the prizes for these two special winners. I don't really want you to sew along just for the prizes, so I don't like to tell about them in the beginning. They will be very interesting though and worth the effort. We will pick the two winners in December after all figures have been introduced.

You can link up your figure for the week here at the bottom of the post. The link will be open for two weeks from the start date of the post. You can also post on Instagram. Make sure to tag me and use the hashtags: #enchantedsal #enchantedpaperdolls #eppaperdolls and/or #enchanted(figure name).

Eva is the figure of the week. She goes together rather quickly, so I chose to do a little more fussy cutting on her. I made sure the wings were going in the same direction by pinning the wing templates to the fabric then cutting them out.Since most of the figures are symmetrical, you can fussy cut one side and usually use the rest of the cut fabric for the other side of the figure and foundation paper template.

When it came to her legs, I slightly pre-cut my fabric for the angle of the sewing line to ensure my background fabric would keep its direction. It doesn't really matter with the background of my fabric, but the edges of the fabric keep their stability and I don't have  bias edges around the outside of the patches. This gives the overall block more stability. If you want to understand the cutting of this patch, please refer to the previous post for more details.

And here is Eva all layed out. The other two figures are also layed out underneath her. I made a little video of how you can mix and match the figures easily. I just have to cut the film into a real movie. The will come soon.

 Another view of the mix and match foundation papers/templates.

On this figure, I chose to use the bonus crown and hair for Eva. I love the original bodice and chose to use that instead of the bonus bodice included. If you want to make her without the crown, she will look like the figure below. I added the crown so you could mix and match with the other figures.

And here she is in all of her magnificent and glorious charm...Eva.

You can choose to omit the side panels and make a 6" x 12" block. You can do this with all of the enchanted figures with their hands down to the sides of their bodies.

Thank you for joining us today. We look forward to seeing your enchanted paper doll. Please link up here or on Instagram. Enjoy your week.

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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

enchanted sal - celeste

Hi again and thank you for joining us on our third week of the Enchanted Sew Along. If you are new to our sew along, let me give you a quick recap. Each week a new figure from the Enchanted Paper Dolls booklet will be introduced and highlighted. I will be giving a few tips along on how to sew it together. You can purchase the booklet here or purchase the individual PDF's of the figures here.

This week we will be introducing Celeste. She has more delicate and ornate Fairy Godmother wings that end right before her shoulder rather than at the center of her back. I think this wing style also changes the look of the entire figure. I added the accent of purple to the bottom of each wing as well to really bring out the wings.

One of the really fun things about these figures is that they are all designed to be mixed and matched with each other. Just take a look at Celeste's segments below. You can take any bodice and any dress and exchange them easily. The heads, arms and feet will take a little bit more planning when using different skin tones, wing styles and hand positions.

Here are some fun design ideas you can do to change up Celeste if you wish.

As with all of my designs and images, I used the computer software - EQ8 by the Electric Quilt Company. It allows me to design and see instantly what my quilt and quilt blocks will look like before I sew them together. You can add your own fabric to the fabric library to get the best impression possible.

Once again, it is very important to work with a good contrast to allow her beautiful, outstretched arms to stand out.

After sewing each of the enchanted figures a second time, I have realized that all of them have certain fine points that take more time to sew. There isn't one particular figure that is "easy - peasy." On Celeste, the crown is more time consuming. I find those wrist segments a bit challenging as well, but totally worth the effort. The y-seam on this figure gave me some trouble as well. I am not exactly sure why, either. 

When designing her dress, I could have designed the dress in three horizontal segments as shown below. I decided against it, because I wanted to be able to use one solid, fussy cut piece of fabric for the main dress segment. I liked the ruffles on the outer sides as well that give you the option of changing the ruffle color.

Are you sewing along too? We would love for you to link up your figures below. If the link isn't there yet, it will be there shortly. Link up any or all of your figures on the corresponding blog post.

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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

Thanks again for stopping by. Please join us next week to see Daphne.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

enchanted paper dolls sal

Hi everyone! Thanks for dropping by today. I bet you are really curious about the Enchanted Paper Dolls Sew Along as well as getting your hands on a copy of the pattern. Me too! There was (and still is) a problem with the printing. I had a special edition spiral bound version and booklets printed. The spirals came out fine, but the booklets had problems with the scaling. Over the course of 64 pages, the templates no longer measured what they were supposed to. They were 3,4mm or >1/8th of an inch off. I talked with the printing company, and it wasn't supposed to happen a second time, but it did. So, we all are just going to have to wait patiently for new booklets. It is my honor and commitment to offer you the best quality product for the best price. Hang in there, it will be worth the wait.

So, with this unexpected curve ball in my sew along planning, I have decided to push the entire sew along back two weeks as well. I want to give everyone the possibility to have the hard copy pattern before the sew along begins. That way, you can plan your fabric choices better. This will not be a mystery sew along. The blocks are the same as in the pattern booklet.

I will provide fabric requirements for three different layouts - 2 x 2, 3 x 3, or 3 x 12 blocks if you choose to make a different layout. However, I will not be giving the cutting and assembly directions. The pattern does include a 40" x 40" wall hanging with four blocks of your choice.

Feel free to add the blinkie below to your website or blog if you decide to join in the sew along fun.

Stay tuned for some fall sewing fun! Please join us starting September 29, 2019. Thanks for dropping by!