Generations - Lizabeth

 Hi there and thanks for dropping by. This month we are debuying our beautiful Lizabeth, the next figure in our Generations Paper Dolls. Lizabeth stems from the 20th century wearing a slightly shorter dress and socks with her shoes. In her basket you will find her daily purchase from the fresh market. She also has beautiful highlights showcasing her lovely hairstyle.

As with all of the figures from the Generations series, you can mix and match the head, body and dress of all figures to create new ones or customize your favorite components.

Thanks for dropping by. Don't forget to check back on December 31, 2021 for the new Fairy 2022.

enchanted sal - katharina

Hi and thanks for joining us today on another edition of the Enchanted Paper Dolls Fall Sew Along. I am happy you could stop by. Grab a cup of coffee and read a little bit about the next figure in the sew along.

We are looking at Katharina today. This name is the mother of all names for me just like Catherine or Katherine. Why? Both my name and my sister's name is a derivative of this name.

On Sunday, December 29th, two winners will be picked to win two identical prizes.

• one for the cutest ever and 
• one for the best use of the mix and match templates.

Contest Rules:  

Make one figure from the pattern booklet or from the PDFs with individual figures. Sew the figure as shown in the instructions or mix and match to make your own figure. Upload the photo to Instagram or send me a copy of the photo. Enter as many times as you would like for more chances to win. We will have a social media voting on Instagram starting December 26th. Hurry up, because there are just two weeks left. Open to quilters at least 18 years of age. Void where prohibited.

Here is what you can win thanks to our great sponsors!

One set of quilting thread and three 1/2 yards of premium quality fabric sponsored by Gutermann.

 

AND one 28 mm rotary cutter, 1" x 6" ruler and mini cutting mat sponsored by einfach bunt Quilts.

That's worth a shot, don't you think?

Now on to our enchanting princess, Katharina. She was inspired by Cleopatra. Do you see the resemblance? I gave her a bit of a yellow tinted skin color. All of my figures in this quilt have different hair colors and skin colors. I wanted to have an international variety of princesses, angels and fairies. I also removed the inner stone in her crown and fussy cut the light blue print.

The one of the really cool features on this figure is that you can shorten her hair length by omitting or skipping the sewing line on the templates. This is explained in further detail in the instructions. The below examples are created in EQ8 - my quilt designing software which I also teach if you are interesting in learning.

That's all for today. Thanks for joining us. If you would like to purchase the individual PDF or paper book with all 12 figures, you can find all of them in my Etsy shop or at your local quilt store such as einfach bunt quilts or Niemanns-Land.

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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

Please join us next Sunday, December 22, 2019 for our last and twelfth figure, Lilly.

enchanted sal - jael

Hi and thanks for joining us today on another edition of the Enchanted Paper Dolls Fall Sew Along. I am happy you could stop by. Grab a cup of coffee and read a little bit about the next figure in the sew along.

We are looking at Jael today. Her beautiful name is Hebrew and means "mountain goat." She is a noble and strong.I just love the name which is pronounced with a Y instead of a J. I like saying it with a J though.

Before we get into the blog post, I would like to share with you again one of our sponsors. Gütermann, the German thread and fabric company, kindly offered two sets of quilting thread and premium cotton fabrics for our giveaway. Two lucky participants will each receive one set. It looks like three 1/2 meter cuts in those bundles too. I hope to show the rest of the loot next Sunday. : )

And here is our second sponsor - einfach bunt quilts with two matching Mini FPP sets including a 28mm rotary cutter from Fiskars, a 1" x 6" Creative Grids ruler and a mini cutting mat from Olfa! These are the best tools when sewing small and sewing foundation paper piecing. Thank you, Verena! We truly appreciate your generosity.

Our two winners will be picked at the end of the sew along

• one for the cutest ever and 
• one for the best use of the mix and match templates.

Now on to Jael - (the J is really pronounced silently like a y.) I chose to make her in a darker skin tone this time, because I wanted to celebrate our diversity. All of the Enchanted PD series have different skin tones and hair color. No two are alike.

If you take a look at Jael's dress, you will see that oversized blue flower on her skirt. I fussy cut it to be exactly where it is. After sewing it up, I realized the size of the flower is a little distracting. It looks as if the legs are off-centered, but they are not. I measured exactly 6 1/4" through the middle of the crown, neck and legs (feet) when squaring up the block. It is really exactly in the middle and not offset at all.

This was the original Jael made and landed on the cover of the pattern. You might be able to identify a slight change and/or adjustment in the heads of both figures. The one below is the original and allows you the most possibilities to lengthen the hair on the sides. I knew I would be making the shorter hair pulled back with the bun, so I drew the lines on the templates and sewed those. Or you can use the side hair templates from Isabella instead. She also comes with a very slightly different bonus bodice shown in the figure above. It is cut straight across instead of slanted on both sides.

Thank you for joining us today. I look forward to seeing what you do with our figure, Jael. How will you style her hair? Will you give her a bun as well?


There is still some time to make a figure and upload for your chance to win one of the provided sets above. Good luck to everyone.


Enjoy your week. Happy sewing and quilting.


Please LALL (Leave a Little Love) in the comments below. I would love to hear from you and what you like about the angels, fairies and princesses. I somehow feel that blogging is old school. Is it interesting for anyone anymore? Am I wasting my time? I've been seriously playing with the idea of retiring as well. Thanks for listening.

If you would like to purchase the individual PDF or paper book with all 12 figures, you can find all of them in my Etsy shop or at your local quilt store such as einfach bunt quilts or Niemanns-Land.

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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 - isabella

Hi everyone. Welcome to the Enchanted Paper Dolls Falls Sew Along. I am really happy and excited that you are joining us today. I see there aren't too many followers of the sew along, but I am happy nonetheless. There are a few diligent participants that are sewing along. Let's all applaud them, shall we?!

Today, we are introducing Isabella, the ninth figure in the Enchanted mix and match series. She is our first princess and very noble at that. Victoria, Crown Princess from Sweden, was my inspiration when designing the figure.

Before we get into the blog post, I would like to share with you again one of our sponsors. Gütermann, the German thread and fabric company, kindly offered two sets of quilting thread and premium cotton fabrics for our giveaway. Two lucky participants will each receive one set. It looks like three 1/2 meter cuts in those bundles too. I hope to show the rest of the loot next Sunday. : )

And here is our second sponsor - einfach bunt quilts with two matching Mini FPP sets including a 28mm rotary cutter from Fiskars, a 1" x 6" Creative Grids ruler and a mini cutting mat from Olfa! These are the best tools when sewing small and sewing foundation paper piecing. Thank you, Verena! We truly appreciate your generosity.

Our two winners will be picked at the end of the sew along

• one for the cutest ever and 
• one for the best use of the mix and match templates.

Now on to our first princess - Isabella. She is wearing a transparent, tiered dress and her royal magnificent crown. I do admit, the crown is a bit of a challenge, but that is the only difficult part on this block. I inserted some saphires into her crown by fussy cutting some of the yummy pink flowered fabric from Art Gallery Fabrics, Maureen Cracknell's Mystical Land. I'm in love, aren't you?

Remember, all of the figures from the Enchanted Paper Dolls series are mix and matchable. You can exchange the crowns, arms, feet, bodices, dresses and heads on all figures. You can even add or exchange the wings. This is what Isabella could look like as an angel. She would making a stunning fairy godmother as well. I almost used the background below for my fall sew a long, but I was a little uncertain about the scale of it. It is so hard finding a good background for these blocks.

Thank you, again for joining us today. I hope you have enjoyed seeing the nineth figure in our Enchanted series. There is still time to join in and sew a figure for your chance at one of the two main prizes. We would love to see your paper dolls.

Please LALL (Leave a Little Love) in the comments below. I would love to hear from you and what you like about the angels, fairies and princesses. I somehow feel that blogging is old school. Is it interesting for anyone anymore? Am I wasting my time? I've been seriously playing with the idea of retiring as well. Thanks for listening.

If you would like to purchase the individual PDF or paper book with all 12 figures, you can find all of them in my Etsy shop or at your local quilt store such as einfach bunt quilts or Niemanns-Land.

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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 - hailey

Good morning everyone! It's Sunday morning for me and just getting to writing our weekly post. While my family is spoiling me with our traditional (American) Sunday breakfast, I get to take a few minutes to write our post. I have exactly fifteen minutes, because my goal was to post before 9am GMT.

Today marks the eighth week of our Enchanted Sew Along. Every week a new figure from the Enchanted Mix and Match Series will be highlighted. This week we are celebrating Hailey.

Before we get into the blog post, I would like to share with you again one of our sponsors. Gütermann, the German thread and fabric company, kindly offered two sets of quilting thread and premium cotton fabrics for our giveaway. Two lucky participants will each receive one set. It looks like three 1/2 meter cuts in those bundles too. I hope to show the rest of the loot next Sunday. : )

And here she is, our Hailey! I created her with the lightest skin tone I found in my Sediments Solids fabric pack from Robert Kaufman's Kona solids. I used a saffron color for her hair. She is very light skinned and pale, but I wanted to make all of the girls using different skin tones and hair colors. #Diversity is beautiful! We all should celebrate our own beauty and not compare ourselves to other.

If you already have the pattern, you will know there is a secret to Hailey. If you were wondering how to create her hair as shown in the pattern with her bangs to the side, it is actually a flip face/hair of Lilly yet to come.

Hailey is really a straight forward sew. Once again, there are just a couple of critical points that need to match up like the wrists and feet. Other than that, she is seems to be easier than the other figures.

Here is Hailey from the original quilt featured in the pattern. Don't you just love the dark hair and skin tones? I do! As you can see, her hands have been flipped over. You can mix and match everything in this pattern. If you would like to purchase the individual PDF or paper book with all 12 figures, you can find all of them in my Etsy shop or at your local quilt store such as einfach bunt quilts or Niemanns-Land.

Thank you for joinging us today. Happy sewing.

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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 - 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 - fiona

Hi everyone! Thanks for dropping by. I truly am tickled that a few are actually following the sew along posts! Thank you for your interest and support. This week we are taking a look at Fiona. This is our sixth week of figures. We are not halfway through our sew along. I have been gathering prizes for two winners and will be showing them in the next weeks.

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 to individual quilt shops as well.

I didn't shoot any in-progress photos of this one. I just worked right through the figure. Fiona comes with a bonus collar and bodice to change it up. The one I sewed, however is the original figure with a slight adjustment. I was fussy cutting most all of the pieces an realized the bodice was clashing with the skirt, so I added the purple belt to break it up. I feel it works much better. It is really simple too, to add a belt. Just add a line anywhere parallel to the bottom of the template to make the belt. Add an additional piece of fabric and sew on the line.

Fiona's collar can be a challenge, but I wanted to give her that 1960's look like Samantha from Bewitched. I also gave her a lighter skin tone than the other figures. I planned on giving two figures in this series a lighter skin tone. It can be a little problematic using such a light skin color with a white background; I prefer to give the entire block more contrast. I actually enhanced the color a bit to increase the contrast.

As you can see, Fiona is not wearing any shoes. You can use the provided template or simply skip the sewing lines on any of the other templates. It is described how in the front section of the pattern book.

I will skip adding a link up. If you want to share your figure, just send me a photo of <1MB to my email address or share on Instagram. Please tell me if I may share on social media or not. You will be included in the drawing for prizes automatically after receiving your photo. Thanks for dropping by. Enjoy your day!

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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

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!