Making Puffy the Puffer Fish

For month three in our Awesome Ocean Block of the Month we are making Puffy the Puffer fish. 

I really enjoyed making these little guys and love their soft colours.  I think in the overall quilt they provide a nice counter-balance to the brighter, more saturated colours in the Octavian blocks.  It was also nice to dive a bit deeper into Elizabeth Hartman's Reef collection and introduce some more of the prints, plus new kona and Essex linen coordinates.

Stop! 

This bit is important

Before you start cutting, there is a small error in the pattern for Puffy.  Piece G should be 1.5 x 2 inches, not 1 x 2 inches

If you want to double check Elizabeth Hartman has included a pattern correction on her website, and you can read the details here

Don't stress if you've already cut piece G too smal. You should have enough fabric left over in your pack to cut another piece if needed.

My tips for speedy cutting

Speed up your cutting time and cut the pieces for the blocks in layers.  Unless you have a super-duper rotary cutter, I suggest splitting the 8 fabrics in each group in half and cut the pieces you need 4 at a time. 

I think I mentioned this last month but thought I would show you this time.  As I cut each shape, I lay them out at the top of my cutting board with a little label.  Nothing fancy here -  I'm just using Post- Its.

I've seen somewhere on Instagram someone use pretty painted wooden clothes pegs that are marked with numbers.  You could also use binding clips if you wanted.  For now though, pins and a scrap of paper is woking just fine.

Making the Fins - tips for nice straight seams

After making Octavian last month I feel like I'm getting into the swing of things so constructing the face and body units went just like clock work.  Of course I chain pieced each seam, so they seemed to fly together.

The strips we are using to make the fins are only 1/2" finished, and with the white Kona Snow in the centre, any wobbles in your seams will be quite noticeable.

My method requires pressing these seams open.  Even if you normally press yoru seams together, its not a problem to have them opened out in this part of your block. 

Trust me - grab some scraps and try out this way first.

1.  Sew either E or I to one side of the white piece L and press the seam open.  
2. My patchwork foot is 1/4" from the centre needle position on both sides.  For the next seam I used lined the opened out seam allowance as a guide along the edge of my 1/4 inch foot, NOT the edges on the right side like I normally would. As you can see here, my first seam must have been the teensiest bit narrow as there is about 1/16th of an inch on that right side.  Following the seam allowance means that I am correcting this as I sew and that bright white strip will be bang on 1/2" when finished. 

Press that last seam open as well.  Another advantage of those open seams in the fin units is that you will be 100% certain that you wont have any shadow from the coloured fabrics shining through.

 Here you can see my nicely nested seams at the back of my fin unit - and yes.... I'm flashing my backside ;-)

When you sew the corner squares on, make sure that you  get those angles going the right way. Somewhere along the way I got mine in a tangle and flipped one the wrong way, and of course I didn't notice until after I had trimmed the excess.  

So don't be a dummy like me - split your fin units into two sets and double check those angles.

Despite this boo-boo, Puffy is a lot of fun to make and my little school of puffer fish is pretty sweet don't you think?  If you are loving these cute little guys ( and who wouldnt?) there's still some spots available in our BOM  for $55/month.  Join here and sew along with me