A new Tattoo quilt—The Intro

This project may prove my undoing or the welcome of epiphany moments—time will tell.

I have sort of a like-hate relationship with foundation paper piecing, and I’m hopeful this will be the gateway to a love of it.  I consider the technique a necessary evil in some situations, and have tried to avoid those situations.  But I learned of this particular quilt pattern when Tula Pink showed hers in her Tula Talk Tuesday videos on Facebook and Instagram in mid-2020 and was immediately smitten. This was during the Click Buy Now period; I bought the pattern and a lot of Tula Pink fabrics for it (her True Colors and Homemade lines). The fabrics have been in a Bin ever since and this is the year for them to come out of hiding and be joyously sewn together. 

The pattern is by Berene Campbell of Happy Sew Lucky Designs—I love her patterns.  There is a story behind this quilt which makes me appreciate it even more; go to her blog to read it.  The story is also included with the pattern.

I purchased a ream of newsprint to print the pattern (hey, I make mistakes and own them) and it arrives this week. I have a small color laser printer and I’ll be mindful of pressing because I hear that the laser toner will transfer to the fabrics. I no longer have an inkjet printer but may buy some ink for a friend that has one.  

I’m making no modifications to the pattern other than adding an outer border as Tula Pink did with hers.  The finished quilt size per the pattern is 63” x 72”, adding the border I’m contemplating will make it 75” x 84”.

Now, here’s the kicker—I bought a lot of Alison Glass fabric to make an additional Tattoo quilt.  God only knows what was going through my head, but a couple of weeks ago, I had a conversation with someone about the color pink—I’m not a fan.  Turns out, she is a huge fan of pink, especially Barbie pink.  Since this quilt is for her, that made it much easier for me to decide which colorway to make for her.  The Alison Glass version will be for me.

This is another opportunity for me to digitize the quilting designs. If you can zoom in on the photo above or one in her Etsy shop, you will see there’s an abundant amount of negative space for some dreamy custom quilting—it was the closeups of the custom quilting on Tula Pink’s quilt that sent me over the moon.  It spurs me on my resolve to dig into the course I bought 2 years ago and educate myself.  I have the opportunity to take a refresher class, but I’m thinking I’ll save my money and re-review the course.  How hard can it be?  I’ll let you know.

I thought about doing both quilts at the same time.  The goal is for the Tula Pink version to be completed by the end of November.  It’s for a special event that may or may not coincide with my retirement at the end of the year. If I can complete it sooner, even better. 

Here’s hoping the meltdowns are few and the triumphs are plentiful; I will keep you posted. In the meantime, go make!