A Foundation Paper Pieced Seahorse - Pattern Testing For The Tartankiwi

Regular readers will know how much I love to test foundation paper pieced (fpp) patterns for Juliet @The Tartankiwi.  

Whenever I have the opportunity to talk about fpp with newbies to the sport - and it really is a sport but with a little effort you'll soon get the hang of it and love the results - I'm quick to tell them that not all fpp patterns are equal.  There's a lot to be said for a well-designed pattern, it makes life soooo much easier for the sewist and produces fabulous results and, in my book, Juliet is the Queen of fpp design and her patterns are thoroughly tested before they are made available to purchase.

When Juliet showed me her version of the Seahorse (above) and asked if I'd like to be a first level tester I didn't think twice.

The finished piece is enormous - 50" x 50" - YES you read that right!!!

Here's my cut out and glued pieces laid out on the floor ready for me to start folding.

If you don't already have one, I highly recommend you invest in an Add A Quarter ruler by CM Designs - it's the best tool out there for all your FPP work (affiliate link).

I'm tidier and more organised than many in all aspects of my life including my sewing but I'm sharing with you here the total mess I make especially when I'm working on fpp.  It's pretty uncomfortable for me to let you see this but I'm hoping you might find it somewhat encouraging.  I'm busy these days, what with teaching, travelling and everything else and no longer post projects as I'm working on them but rest assured my life isn't always as neat and perfect as my finished project photos might have you believe,  :D 

I made the seahorse totally from my stash and I had yellows and oranges and aquas, turquoises, blues and greens pulled from their storage boxes and scattered everywhere in my search for the right colour and size piece and trying not to repeat apart from in a few chosen areas on the seahorse to pull things together.  

This is the finished back before I pulled the papers out.  

Don't you just love doing that?  But not so much cleaning up the mess it makes?!!!

I'm including this pic to give you a bit of perspective so you can see how huge the finished piece is - my husband's holding it for me and he's 6' 2".  You can also see the menagerie of 'dead' no longer stuffed animals scattered around our floor.  No we don't have small children, we have two dogs and, having brought up three small children into adulthood, I can confirm that these two dogs make far more mess with their toys than the kids ever did AND they don't tidy up after themselves, even when told.

The seahorse pattern isn't available to purchase yet - I think it's in its second round of pattern testing by now so I'll update you when it's released.

Disclosure: I do not receive payment from Juliet @TheTartankiwi for testing her patterns, nor do I receive a commission on any patterns sold via her Etsy store or any other sales method.  This post is purely informational and of no direct benefit, monetary or otherwise, to me.

In the meantime take further inspiration from the other fpp patterns I've tested for Juliet previously:

Click any of the images below to go through to my post about testing that particular pattern:

  

 

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Disclosure: 

This post contains Amazon and Craftsy affiliate links for which I am paid commission on click-through purchases (at no additional cost to you). Otherwise, no payment or commission is received for click-throughs to shared links; the post is for informational purposes only and all opinions are my own. 

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Linky Parties This post may be linked to some great Linky Parties, always a great source of inspiration too. If you click through to my 'Fave Linky Parties' page you can see where I like to share my work.