Paint Box Quilt Along: Week 2

Welcome to Week 2 of the Paint Box Quilt Along. Now is when the fun really begins. Are you ready to get piecing? We’ll start easy with the paint blocks. We suggest laying out all of the squares to make sure your color placement is correct.

Since this quilt is small, you should be able to fit everything on a table or countertop. Double check all of the color placement, and then you can stack everything up and begin sewing the squares together in pairs. It doesn’t really matter which direction you press these seams, since they are surrounded by background fabric, so just stay consistent and press toward the same color in each block. Once you have the blocks pieced, you can stitch and flip the corners. Check out a time-lapse of the process below:

Once you have all of the corners sewn onto the paint blocks, you will need to trim the extra corners and press the seams. We have recently started doing this backwards, by pressing the seams first and then trimming the extra corners. We have also started using a tailor’s clapper to help our seams lie flatter. Both of these steps seem to be helping a lot with more accurate blocks. Here’s a video that shows how it works:

Once the paint blocks are finished, there are just three more blocks to finish this week. The paintbrush handle is a stitch and flip situation like the paint blocks, so just follow the same method for that. The paint brush and ferrule are going to involve some very beginner level foundation paper piecing. If you have never done FPP before, this is the perfect place to start!

You will begin by photocopying the templates in the book. You can also trace them onto a separate piece of paper. Ours look a little different because they are the original ones we designed when we first made the quilt, and it was easier to just print that off than use the copy machine. We use regular printer paper for our FPP templates, but you can also get specialty paper for the job. Here are a couple of options (affiliate links): Carol Doak’s Foundation Paper and Papers for Foundation Piecing.

Once you have the templates on paper, the first thing you will do is fold the paper on all of the lines (except the outline of the whole block). Next, you’ll glue the gold piece of fabric (1 on the template) to the back side of the paper. We use Elmer’s washable glue stick for this step. You can also pin the fabric through the paper to hold it in place. Fold the paper back on the line between pieces 1 and 2, then trim the gold fabric 1/4″ away from the fold. Line up the white background scrap of fabric with the trimmed side of the gold fabric, making sure it extends past the paper on both sides. You can pin these together, although we didn’t in the video. Then, you’ll take the paper to the sewing machine and stitch together from the paper side, along the line. You will want to use a shorter stitch length than usual to help perforate the paper for removal later. We use the 1.5 setting. For lines that go to the edge of the design, you can extend the sewing line all the way to the edge of the paper, and you will want to backstitch at the start and end for these blocks. Here’s the Part One video recapping all of this:

After you have sewn the first line, press the seam just how you would a normal quilting seam. Repeat the process from Part One with the line on the other side. After you have sewn all the seams and pressed everything, you will trim everything on the outside line of the template. This outer line is the seam allowance, so you don’t need to add anything extra. Once the block is trimmed, you can rip the papers out or wait until you’ve sewn it into the rest of the quilt. It’s up to you! Here’s the video for Part Two:

Once you’ve paper pieced the brush tip and ferrule, you’re done for this week. Sit back and admire your beautiful blocks. You can share your progress in a couple of different ways:

On Instagram, use the #paintboxqal and #theclothparcel hashtags. You can also tag us @theclothparcel. (Note that if you have a private Instagram account, we won’t be able to see any of your posts, so you will have to message us with a screenshot.)
In our private Facebook group, you can share photos in a post or in the comments of any of our posts. You can also ask for help or advice there!
On this post, you can leave a comment telling us about how things are going for you.

We would love to see your progress, and every post you make on Instagram, in our Facebook group, or comment on this post will earn you an entry into our prize drawing at the end of the quilt along!

Next week, we will start piecing the quilt top. Let us know if you have any questions about making the blocks or anything else about the quilt along in the comments!