Hanami QAL: Week 2 – Sewing Your Blocks

UPDATE 2021: Most of these patterns have been discontinued – you can read why here. The cherry blossom block has been renamed to Blossom and you can find it here. However, I have left this post as-is so as to not erase my mistakes but to show how you can change and grow as a person.

It’s been so wonderful to see so many people excitedly preparing to sew up their Japanese quilt blocks! Other than the Day When Instagram Broke, I’ve loved checking out plans, fabric pulls, and even some blocks sewn up already on the #HanamiQAL feed on Instagram.

Talking of which, it’s time to draw the winner for week 1… Congratulations Katie – @iamkateyz! I will be in touch to coordinate your prize.

On to week 2! This week’s task is to start sewing your blocks. You can see the full rundown of the QAL schedule and prize details on the announcement post here – this week you need to post at least one finished quilt block on Instagram using #hanamiQAL and #blossomheartquilts to be in the running for the weekly Aurifil prize.

I mentioned on Instagram that I am trialling using 50gsm paper for these blocks. Normal copy paper is 80gsm, so this is a fair bit thinner. I paid $7 for this pad of 50 sheets of “bank” paper (from Riot, for fellow Aussies), which works out to be 14c per sheet.

I have been really impressed with it! I didn’t have any issues using it in the printer, once I learned to print with only one sheet in the tray at once, whoops! I didn’t need to select any special setting, just printed as normal.

As for sewing with it, it made pressing a lot easier! The Sakura block pattern has a few seams to press in between sections, before sewing the halves together, and the thinner paper makes for a much flatter seam. It is a bit more slippery than regular copy paper under the machine foot, so I recommend going slower than you might otherwise. It ripped off just fine at the end, too.

Would I use it for every single foundation paper piecing block I ever make? Probably not. I will keep it for the more complex patterns with more seams and/or smaller sections. For example, the Milky Way Sampler blocks have much larger sections, so using regular copy paper works just fine.

If you’d like to join in the Hanami QAL fun, it’s never too late to join in! You can find all the details here, but essentially, the only requirements is that the finished product must include at least one of my Japanese quilt block patterns – Sakura, Tsuru, Kokeshi, Kimono, or Hinamatsuri.