Patchwork Please!

 I made 2 little Triangle Patchwork Box Pouches from this book by Ayumi, you can find her blog here.

Sorry for the yellowish photo, I took it at night.

I auditioned all of my color combos to make sure they looked great together.

I made this box pouch once before and I paper pieced the triangles.

You can see my tutorial here.

 This time I cut out triangles and sewed them all together by chain stitching.

I should have watched my own tutorial!

I don't paper piece very often and always have to refresh my memory before attempting a new paper piecing project.

The points are beautiful and crisp with paper piecing and I can't always guarantee perfect points otherwise.

I know some people who can, but I'm not 100% there.

Sewing the zipper was soooooo easy!

I just topstitched them on.

See the little twill tape on each end?

Do you ever shop at Anthropologie, one of my favorite stores?

Those ribbons are the handles from their shopping bags, I always save them :)

Ayumi gives you extra fabric in the measurements, so I trimmed mine off and they are perfect!

The whole bag is lined with quilt batting which gives the bag great body and sizing.

So cute!!!

Colorful goodness :)

The lining looks a little large in the photo, but it actually fits perfectly.

Even the sides are done in patchwork.

I love the red geometric fabric, but I don't remember the name of it.

I bought 5 yards on sale once, used it for a quilt back and have been using scraps of it ever since.

I'll be sad when it's all gone.

Squeel!!!  The bottoms are in patchwork too!

Each of the sides of the box pouch have different patchwork.

These pouches are a little tricky to make the first time, but after completing one, the second one was easier.

I'm going to fill one of these bags with goodies and give it for a gift to a quilty friend.

The other bag will go to a friend on her birthday.

I hope she likes it :)

Patchwork Please! Triangle Patchwork Box Pouch

I finished Ayumi's "Triangle Patchwork Box Pouch.

I posted a tutorial of the paper pieced triangles here.

This is the fun book that is full of goodies!

I love the triangles!

Look at all of these delicious colors!

I really like the grey chevron bottom :)

This is a view from the top, I like the contrast of the red zipper and the blue Amy Butler fabric.

A bird's eye view of the "sew cherry" lining.

The lining was hand sewn to the pouch.

The pouch wasn't a quick sew, partly because of the paper piecing, the zipper and the hand sewn lining.

I really enjoyed making it because the end result is so cute!!!

Patchwork Please! paper piecing tutorial

I bought Ayumi Takahashi's book, Patchwork Please!

It has all sorts of cute projects in it.

I saw Lori Holt's sweet little Triangle Patchwork Box Pouches and decided to make some myself. 

I've only sewn a couple of blocks that have been paper pieced, so I don't have tons of experience.

This is the book, I think it's great!

This is a photo of the triangle patchwork box pouches.

I made a row of the triangles and realized that I forgot to add the seam allowances!!!  Aaaagh!!! 
 I decided to share a tutorial with you :)

Here are all my squares paired up, enough to make two rows of triangles.  When paper piecing, always cut your fabric pieces quite a bit larger than required.

I traced two rows of templates on freezer paper, and added seam allowances this time!

The pencil lines weren't dark enough, so I outlined the stitching lines with a fine black marker.

I put the template on my light box.

If you don't have a light box, you can use a window or the TV on a fuzzy station!

I put the first two triangle pieces right sides together, and laid them over the first diagonal stitching line, making sure to overlap over the stitching line by l/4" for the seam allowance.

Adjust your stitch length to be a little smaller than normal so the stitches will perforate the freezer paper.

Stitch the fabric to the paper, leaving a l/4" seam allowance.

Take the template with the fabric sewn onto it, to the ironing board.

Press the top piece of fabric away from the first piece.

Place the next piece of fabric onto the existing ones, on the light box.

Overlap it over the stitching line, by l/4" for the seam allowance.

Stitch.

Trim off the excess fabric, leaving the seam allowance.

Press the fabric away from the sewn triangles.

Lay the fourth piece of fabric over the sewn ones, right sides together on the light box.

Overlap l/4" over the stitching line for the seam allowance.

Stitch.

Press the fabric away from the stitched ones.

Trim the seam allowance to l/4".

Press the fabric away from the sewn ones.

Sew the next piece of fabric over the existing ones, matching up the stitching lines on the light box.

Trim off the seam allowances.

Press the fabric away from the sewn ones.

Again, sew another piece of fabric to the already sewn ones, matching the stitching line on the light box.

Trim the seam and press away from the sewn fabric pieces.

Sew another piece of fabric onto the template, matching the stitching lines on the light box.

Sorry for the blurry photo.....

Press the fabric away from the sewn fabrics.

Trim the seam allowances.

Sew the last piece onto the template, leaving a seam allowance that overlaps the stitching line.

Press the fabric away from the sewn ones.

I think I sewed on the stitching lines pretty well, considering the template was always on the bottom of the fabrics I was sewing.

I used the light box to get the placement.

Now it's time to trim the fabric from the template.

The fabric's trimmed and even with the template.
Pull the paper from the sewn triangles.

Now my triangles have seam allowances!

The photos were repetitive but I hope I was able to teach you how to paper piece triangles.

Let me know if you have any questions :)