Hey There, Little Red Riding Hood

...you sure are looking good

you're everything a big bad wolf could want ...

Another baby quilt was needed and I was ready to do something different. I confirm that this particular project met that requirement--for better or worse, as the saying goes.  As often happens, inspiration hit as I watched random You-Tube quilting videos and discovered the existence of the Add-A-Quarter Ruler, a clever little tool that allows one to measure and trim a perfect quarter inch seam allowance.  Wow, this ruler is the best invention since the one tablespoon cookie dough scoop! 

I've had some experience with paper piecing, but the very existence of this ruler led me to believe that there might be more to the technique than I had realized.  Ha!  So. Much. More.  Over the course of this project, I read many blog posts and tutorials that highlighted common paper piecing mistakes and I made every single one.  Sometimes twice. The very best ever tutorial is on Phoebe Moon Quilt Designs. I must be a True Paper Piecer, because I committed every one of Phoebe's Seven Deadly Sins of Foundation Paper Piecing.  Again, twice.

There are some elements of paper piecing I'll just never get, like WHY would one be expected to print a mirror image (reverse image, whatever) of a pdf pattern when one desires to make the exact replica of the depicted product?  I mean, basically the seller is saying "here is a pattern to make THIS lovely quilt" when what they really mean is "if you want YOUR quilt to look like this, then you have to click around on your computer until you can find the printer setting to reverse this image, or Little Red Riding Hood is going to be looking left instead of right and she won't even be on the right path to Grandma's House".  Yes, I do have an extra Little Red Riding Hood block with the darling girl walking right out of the side of the quilt.  

The other frustration was caused by my fabric selection, so that one was on me.  I LOVE the Little Aspens fabric, which is from the Maywood Studios Forest Friends collection.  There is a definite direction in the print, however, and getting all those trees to stand up tall and straight was tedious and time consuming, and more than a couple of times tree branches were listing a bit to the right or left and had to be straightened, i.e. a new fabric piece cut and resewn.  The next paper piecing project will have NO directional prints.  Period.

I also used a few prints from the Cottontail Cottage Collection by Bunny Hill.  I used Meadow Green Houses from this collection for the backing.  These houses are where Grandma's neighbors live, I'm sure of it.