A Stylish New Bath Mat!

Welcome to my stop on the Paper Pieced Home blog tour! I can't wait to show you the project I made. Penny's excellent book is full of fabulous foundation patterns but the clawfoot bathtub is one of my favourites. It didn't take me long to claim the bath mat as my project for the tour.  We had a lovely old cast iron clawfoot tub in our first home. A bath in that thing got cold in about 5 minutes, but it was very romantic with it's vintage fixtures set on a hardwood floor in a tiny bathroom.  I am pretty sure the bathroom was built around the tub because I cannot see how it could have been moved through the door!

One of the best technical things about Penny's book is that all of the foundation patterns are included on a CD so all you have to do is pop it into your computer, click on one button to open the book, then click on the project you want from the table of contents.   As long as your printing options are set to "print actual size" and NOT "shrink to fit" you're in business. A handy square printed on the first page of each pattern lets you measure and confirm you are printing at the proper scale.

If you are going to create this bath mat, just be sure to click on the Clawfoot Bath Mat project on page 84, not the Clawfoot Tub block on page 75 (which is a slightly smaller tub complete with shower head and embroidered water detail) when you are ready to print your pattern pieces.

I made this entire project on retreat a couple of weeks ago and it went together beautifully! I taped all of my pattern pieces together, then cut them apart on the blue lines just as Penny instructs in the excellent "Basic Steps" section starting on page 11.  I am an experienced foundation paper-piecer, so I had no trouble making this block (and I must say, some of the giant pieces of tub and wallpaper background help to make you feel like a rockstar when your block sections are complete with only one or two seams!).  On the flipside, even the tiny pinky nail-sized pieces around the clawfoot were easy to piece.  Unfortunately I don't have any process photos as our retreat was over a very dark and rainy weekend.

Choosing fabric for this project was really fun. I wanted to try and stick to Penny's cute sample in the book, so I pulled my only diagonal plaids (I have two) from my stash and set to work finding just the right coordinating "wallpaper" fabric. I really wanted to use the aqua floral from Farmdale as it looked amazing with the pink/grey plaid but alas, I didn't have nearly enough fabric [Foundation piecing always uses more fabric than you imagine when just looking at the pattern pieces. You have to account for the long pointy angles and include your 1/4" seam allowance outside the actual pattern piece.]  I think this old Amy Butler floral does the job, though.  Majority opinion on retreat voted for the black piping insert before the border to delineate the wallpaper from the plaid.  I adore the Mirror Ball Dots tub (although I'm a little worried about the mirror balls picking up dirt - I fully plan to put this mat to use in my daughter's bathroom).

As per Penny's instructions, the bath mat is quilted with a piece of white flannel inside with white terry cloth backing.  I know it will be washed repeatedly and I didn't like the idea of trying to hand-stitch through terry cloth, so I attached the binding by machine.

How'd you like to receive an digital copy of Penny's book? There are such fun patterns that would make amazing house warming, wedding, baby or anniversary gifts, or blocks that could be combined into a special mid-century modern, gardening or baby quilt.  What has caught your eye?  Leave one comment below to enter and I'll draw a winner with the random number generator on Easter Sunday. COMMENTS ARE NOW CLOSED, thank you.

The Paper-Pieced Home: Quilting a Household One Block at a Time

By Penny Layman

Interweave/F+W; $26.99 US

You can check out the rest of the tour and enter to win on the fun blogs listed below. Then on Monday, tune in to Pat Sloan Radio to hear Penny talk about her book!

The Paper-Pieced Home

Blog Tour Schedule

3/16       McCall’s Quilting / Sewing Machine Block

3/17       Love of Quilting / Review

3/17       Sandi Sawa Hazlewood  of Crafty Planner / Watering Can Block

3/18       Quilty Pleasure (Quiltmaker blog) / Review

3/18       Imagine Gnats / Rotary Phone Block

3/20       Verykerryberry / Lion Block

3/21       Artisania / Cast-Iron Skillet Block

3/23       Where the Orchids Grow / Lamp Block

3/24       Katie Blakesley of Swim Bike Quilt / Layer Cake Block

3/24       House on Hill Road / Oven Mitt Block

3/24       Lee Heinrich of Freshly Pieced / BBQ Grill Block

3/26       Pink Penguin / Allie-Gator Block

3/26       A Happy Stitch / Giraffe Block

3/27       Bijou Lovely / Jar Block

3/27       Two Little Banshees / Saucepan Block

3/27       Charise Creates / Espresso Mug Block

3/30       Karen Lewis Textiles / Couch Block

3/31       Poppyprint / Clawfoot Tub Block YOU ARE HERE!

3/31       One Shabby Chick / Stack of Books Block

3/31       During Quiet Time / Sleeveless Dress Block

4/06       Pat Sloan The Voice of Quilting / Author Podcast Interview