Tessellation Sew Along – Week 1

Welcome to my idea of a leisurely summertime sew! Since the Tessellation quilt pattern by Alison Glass and Nydia Kehnle attracted so much attention at Spring Quilt Market, I thought it would be the perfect project to work on! I hope you will join in as we spend 6 weeks working through the pattern. And there will be some awesome prizes for those that complete at least a quilt top!

Every Monday, I will post a quick photo tutorial for each week’s block for those of you that are new to foundation paper-piecing (however, you will still need to purchase the pattern in order to complete the quilt – I will not be providing any templates on my blog).

If you are sewing along, feel free to post your progress photos on your preferred social media (Instagram, Twitter, Flickr, etc.) and use the tag #TessellationSAL and #alisonglass so we can see what you’re making!

The schedule:

• July 14 – Get your pattern (and optional triangle ruler) here. Select your fabric, and begin by cutting all ‘A’ triangles.
• July 21 – Assemble all ‘B’ triangles.
• July 28 – Assemble all ‘C’ triangles.
• August 4 – Assemble all ‘D’ triangles.
• August 11 – Assemble all ‘E’ triangles.
• August 18 – Assemble all ‘F’ triangles.
• August 25 – Complete the quilt top. I’ll share some ideas for quilting.
• September 1 – Enter your completed quilt top to be eligible for PRIZES!!

Here is my Tessellation quilt top that I completed last week, in order to prepare for the sew along. I made my version in ‘Indelible’ fabrics by Katarina Roccella for Art Gallery Fabrics. You can read my full review on this quilt pattern by clicking here.

Prizes

There are some great prizes lined up as well, and will be awarded based on those who enter a completed quilt top by September 1, 2014.

Prize #1 - Large Aurifil thread collection and a fat quarter set of Field Day. To be awarded to the ‘Most Creative Use of the Tesselation Pattern.’

Prize #2 - Field Day Embroidery pattern, perle cotton set, fat quarter set of Andover Chambray. To be awarded to the ‘Viewer’s Choice’ (most regrammed finished quilt on Instagram).

Prize #3 - Field Day fat quarter set, three new quilt patterns set. To be awarded to ‘Alison’s Favorite’.

Today, we’re going to start off easy with choosing our fabric and cutting all of the ‘A’ triangles. These are all solid triangles, so once you’ve chosen your fabrics, you can jump on in! This pattern is great for either solids or prints. For my Indelible quilt, I used half coordinating solids and half prints. Alison recommends that if you decide to use prints, that you choose fabrics that read as a single color. For example, if you squint your eyes, the fabric should look blurry and appear as a single color (even if they do actually contain more than one color – but there should be a definite dominant color). Fabrics that read as several colors will be less than ideal, as the triangles in your finished quilt will be less apparent. I decided to focus on only 3 colors in my quilt (purple, teal, and gray), although this can certainly be done as a ROY G. BIV rainbow quilt.

The ‘A’ triangles, which we will be cutting this week, are just the solid triangles. You can either use the paper template in the pattern or purchase Alison’s acrylic ruler from her shop. Here are mine all lined up. I found it helpful to count all my fabrics and divide them among the number of ‘A’ triangles needed. This will also work later on when you will need to cut segments for your paper-piecing. I kept a scrap piece of paper and noted how many I would need of each color/fabric and what size cuts to make based on the cutting instructions. I feel like this was a real time saver and helped me cut each fabric completely before moving on to the next, as I already had my cuts all mapped out. Do what works best for you.

I’ll see you next Monday as we work through the ‘B’ triangles next week! Don’t forget to tag your progress #TessellationSAL and #alisonglass!

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