blog tour // purr-fect patchwork by pamela jane morgan

Do you love sewing and cats? Do you know someone who loves either of those? Yes? I thought so. And you're in the right place. Because today I'm sharing something paw-sitively delightful: The Purr-fect Patchwork Blog Tour! This brand new quilt book by Pamela Jane Morgan is filled with quilts, bags, and sewing accessories, each showing off adorable kitty cats.

Part of this blog hop is about showing off Purr-fect Patchwork, and part is about a giveaway! But before we get to the giveaway and the rest of the stops on this tour, let me show you what I made. I decided to try something a little different with one of these super cute designs, so are you ready?




I pulled out some bright fabrics to stitch together a very sweet kitty. Working on this was so much fun and I loved seeing the tiny pieces come together.



Okay, but you know what? If we're talking about a book filled with cat-themed projects, Darcy Cat simply MUST be part of this right? Thankfully, she obliged and jumped in to a little photoshoot!



Just look at this helpful little kitty! She officially approves of this pattern.




The project I chose to work with is the Tale of Two Kitties Needle Book. (Don't you just love it? And isn't that sewing machine amazing?) What's unique about this project (besides the kitty piecing) is that it's not just a needle book, but also a little sewing pouch. It's purrrrrfect for keeping with your embroidery or English paper piecing.



Speaking of paper piecing, the original instructions call for using foundation paper piecing to make the cat sections as well as the row of flying geese. I won't go into the details of sewing FPP, but basically it involves sewing the fabric and the paper in a way the adds precision piecing without the cutting getting to complex.

I have done foundation paper piecing exactly one time, but I have used FPP patterns to do my favorite technique: English paper piecing. Here's how that goes.



For this, I cut apart all the pieces from the FPP pattern. And then as soon as I did that, I realized that there were a couple pieces that I could baste without cutting the sections apart. So I recut them together.

This is one of the things that you can and should look out for when using FPP patterns for EPP.



Now we get into standard English paper piecing. I glued the paper pieces to the fabric...



...cut all the fabric...



...and started basting the pieces. Most of the pieces are small, so I could just stitch through the fabric. A few are larger and I stitched through the fabric and paper. If you've never done this before, you can see how I baste pieces in this video.

With each new kitty piece basted, I added it in and it was like making a puzzle!



Also, I have to point out that these are the tiniest EPP pieces I've ever worked with. Like, tiny tiny.



One of the great things about tiny pieces is that they join together in a hurry! I used whip stitch for this project.

Just look at these itty bitty flying geese coming together! I'm a sucker for flying geese and I've always thought they would be fun in EPP. Now I know that I can do it!



Now if you noticed in the background of one of those photos, I also basted these extra pieces that are the add on pieces for making the needle book. Here's where things went a little sideways in the transfer from FPP to EPP.

I based the sizes of the pieces off of what sizes were listed for these when sewing them on traditionally. But what I didn't account for was how the overall size of the sewn together EPP would expand slightly because of the thickness of the seams. When I went to sew them on, they were a "litter" bit off and the pieces just didn't match! Womp, womp.

I was left with two options: make new templates and try again or remove the EPP papers and sew them on traditionally.

At this moment, I've hit paws. But I'm leaning toward making new templates so that the whole front of the needle book is hand pieced.



Darcy agrees!

Now, let's get to this giveaway. Pamela and C&T Publishing are giving away an eBook copy of Purr-fect Patchwork. To enter, leave a comment on this post and enter your info through Rafflecopter. The giveaway ends on August 29 and winners will be notified by email.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

But that's just the start. Every stop on the blog tour has a giveaway for an eBook, so you have LOTS of chances to win. AND there's a grand prize giveaway for a physical copy of the book, a #catsonquilts button, and a ton of goodies from sponsors. To enter the grand prize giveaway you just need to leave a comment at every stop on the blog tour.

What are you waiting for? Start making the rounds!

Fri. August 20:
Pamela Jane Morgan | pammiejane.com/blog | IG: @pammiejane
C&T Publishing | http://www.ctpub.com/blog/ | IG: @ctpublishing
 
Sat. August 21:
Sherri Noel | https://www.rebeccamaedesigns.com/ | IG: @rebeccamaedesigns

Shannon Fraser | https://shannonfraserdesigns.com/ | IG: @shannonfraserdesigns
 
Sun. August 22:
Lorna McMahon | https://sewfreshquilts.com/blog | IG: @sewfreshquilts 
Tracy Brittain Loyek | https://www.purplekatzquilting.com/blogs/news | IG: @purplekatzquilting
 
Mon. August 23:
Natalie Santini | https://sewhungryhippie.com/blogs/tutorials | IG: @sewhungryhippie
Kaitlyn Howell | https://knotandthreaddesign.com/blog/ | IG: @knotandthread

Tue. August 24:

Audrey Mann | https://www.theclothparcel.com/blog/ | IG: @theclothparcel
Charisma Horton | https://charismascorner.com/ | IG: @charismahorton )

Wed. August 25:

Mollie Johanson (That's me!) | http://blog.molliejohanson.com/ | IG: @molliejohanson
Corinne Sovey | https://www.corinnesovey.com/home/blog/ | IG: @corinne.sovey

Thu. August 26:

Melissa Averinos | https://yummygoods.com/blogs/yummy-goods-blog | IG: @melissaaverinos
Jeni Gaston | https://woolenwillowdesigns.com/blogs/jeni-s-blog-at-woolen-willow-designs| IG: @jenifergaston 

Fri. August 27:

Tonya Alexander  | http://stashlabquilts.com | IG: @stashlabquilts

Nichole Vogelsinger | https://wildboho.com/ | IG: @wildboho

Sat. August 28:

Stacey Day | http://www.staceyinstitches.com | IG: @staceyinstitches
Amanda Niederhauser | http://www.jedicraftgirl.com | IG: @jedicraftgirl