fish | Night Quilter

Two words everyone loves to hear, right? I recently released three new foundation paper piecing patterns and had some great pattern testers help me along the way. I offered my blogging testers the opportunity to host a giveaway on their blogs, so now you have a chance to win a free copy of one of my new patterns. Check out these two great giveaways:

Visit Shayna’s blog Wife, Mom, Creator for a chance to win a copy of my leaf paper piecing pattern.

Sarah of Pitcher Family Adventures offered to test both my Leaf pattern AND my original Fishies pattern, so on her blog you have a chance to win your choice of either pattern.

Be sure to take a minute to stop by both blogs to enter to win! While these giveaways are going on, I’m extending the sale in my Craftsy store. Both Fish patterns and the Leaf pattern will be on sale for $3.50 for one more week.

Each of these patterns will be on sale for one more week!

I try to outweigh “check out my pattern store” posts with more project-focused, photo-heavy, quilting inspiration and progress posts, but sometimes there just needs to be a little self promotion (right?). In this case, it’s win win–you have a good chance of winning a free paper piecing pattern, and I’m helping spread the word for my awesome pattern testers.

Wow, that’s a mouthful!! Friday Finish Fishies Foundation Paper Piecing Panel Pattern. If you can say that three times fast, you can have the pattern for free! Thank goodness for abbreviations. (FPP stands for Foundation Paper Piecing, for those who don’t have a full arsenal of quilting jargon).

Fabric pull for testing out my new paper pieced pillow pattern. — Fabric pull for testing out my new paper pieced pattern.

This pattern began as a pillow pattern (in the fabric pull above, the bottom fabric is intended as binding and the second-from-bottom is the backing fabric), but as I pieced it and envisioned it more, I realized it would make a great center panel for a baby quilt or underwater nursery wall hanging, too. I decided to offer the pattern simply as a panel pattern so that the end product can be left to your creative desires. The pattern includes foundation paper piecing patterns for three different sized fish, finishing at 2″x9.5″ (large), 1.5″x7″ (medium), and 1″x4.75″ (small), as well as cutting instructions and a piecing diagram for a full 16″x16″ finished panel (16.5″x16.5″ unfinished).

I can see this pattern being created with any number of fabric color and pattern vs. solid combinations, as well as different layouts. For color, I’m itching to make a version with a scrappy low volume background and rainbow fish. I could also see using the fish individually for other smaller projects, maybe fabric bins for a playroom, kids’ place mats, or even at the bottom of a little girl’s dress.

While the specific instructions for making this panel into a pillow or baby quilt are not included in this pattern, I included a “project inspiration page” with different color possibilities and a rough sketch of one way this panel would work in a baby quilt.

Yes, I said it was rough! It’s in creating patterns like this that I really wish I had EQ! It gets the idea across, though, which is what matters… right? On IG, @onceuponadonkey suggested cutting this finished panel into a fishbowl shape to be used on a baby quilt panel. How adorable would that be?!

This Fishies Foundation Paper Piecing Panel pattern is available in my Craftsy shop. I plan to list additional patterns with step-by-step instructions for making the panel into a pillow and perhaps for making the baby quilt shown above in the near future. What would you make with the pattern?

I’m linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it up Friday & TGIFF, and I’m joining the Paper Piecing Party for the first time!