Tiny Town Sew Along Week 1

HELLO everyone! I hope you’re all ready for a load of cute little houses and trees.

The Tiny Town sew along is for anyone who would like to make the Tiny Town quilt! Over the next four Wednesdays I will be posting some tips and tricks at this same web address, for making your quilt. There is no charge or registration for the sew along, however you will need the Tiny Town pattern, which is available as a hard copy HERE, or a PDF download HERE. If you purchased the add on yesterday, it has been emailed to you today. Please note that owing to the new website delay we’ve had I didn’t quite finish my border - I’m stitching it as soon as I close my computer, and you will receive the updated pattern with the border information via email before the end of the week.

The set with peeper templates and papers is also available for purchase, however it is optional - it just means you don’t have to make all the papers for the English Paper Piecing of the houses yourself.

There is also a Halloween version of the pattern, that has some very cute little ghosts and tombstones to applique. That is available for purchase as a PDF download HERE, or you can join my StitchyMites subscription club and receive it free as part of your membership. StitchyMites will also be receiving some extra Spooky Town tips and tricks.

The first part of the Tiny Town quilt is to make all your houses! The pattern is written in the simplest manner for making them in my opinion. The houses are English paper pieced, and then appliquéd to the background fabric. This makes it very easy, as the EPP is only one seam for each house, and the papers ensure that your houses are accurate and have neat and tidy edges. Its very quick and efficient.

The best way to tackle this quilt is to cut out and baste a load of houses, and start stitching them into their groups. You can find the numbers of houses for each row and markers to keep track of your groups of houses in the Tiny Town pattern (and the different sizes and groups in the Spooky Town add on). You’ll find that these houses are really addictive, quick and easy to sew.

Don’t worry about any applique this week unless you’re a really speedy prepper. In order to be ready to sew down your rows of houses next Wednesday, all you need is ONE set of houses basted and stitched together so that we can talk about

The video here has some tips and tricks for English Paper Piecing in case you’re a newbie at that! I used glue for this quilt, but I show both glue and thread basting, and talk about why EPPing this little quilt is a lot easier and faster and less scary than doing a regular EPP quilt.

If you are wanting to do the Spooky Town version of the quilt, the lettering that is in some of the rows is a fabric I designed myself. You absolutely do NOT need to have the fabric to make the quilt,  but it sure is cute with it. The fat quarters come in three colourways, and each fat quarter has the all of the words:

HALLOWEEN

TRICK OR TREAT

BOO

SPOOKY TOWN

as well as some wee ghosts to add to your quilt if you choose. I have used a black and an orange fat quarter. If you want to use it, you can buy it HERE.

I chose to use the words SPOOKY TOWN but you could use as many or as few words as you like - the little Halloween quilt has been designed to take even the longest word in the row. I am using BOO in my border and some of the ghost house prints.

PLEASE NOTE. There are two different kinds of panels available at my Spoonflower shop for sale. One has WHITE seam allowance showing around the houses, and the others have NO seam allowance showing. If you are English Paper Piecing the houses, please purchase the houses with NO seam allowance showing, so that you don't see a white edge when you turn the fabric over the papers. If you are hand piecing or using fusible web, please purchase the houses with the seam showing to make your stitching and cutting easier.

Spoonflower fabric is fairly stiff at first, and it smells a little like the ink they use to print. I recommend prewashing before you sew.

Have fun with houses peeps! Please use the hashtag #tinytownquilt on Instagram or join my Sarah Fielke Quilts Facebook group to share your progress and see other people’s work. See you on Wednesday, September 27 for Part 2.