Zebra FPP

Mom and zebras in Ngorogoro Crater

Another foundation paper piecing (FPP) today.  While I enjoyed seeing the zebras in East Africa, they weren't my favorite.  To me, zebras just seemed like unusually dressed horses (and I never much vibed with horses).  They are, however, very distinctive and very African, so they have a place on my Memories of Africa quilt!

("Crater" sounds like something you might know you're in, but Ngorongoro Crater, being 161.557 square miles, is so big that except for the moment when you're on the lip about to drive down, you don't really feel like you're in a crater.)

Zebras drinking. The scene is remarkably peaceful considering all their predators sharing the same water hole.

SIZING & PRINTING

I buy and download the zebra pattern from Tartankiwi Designs.  It is drafted at 20" square, but I want it to be 10.5" square; I know if I print it at 50% it'll be 10", so I need to print it a little bigger than 50%.  Here's the math I did: 

original size * decimal version of percent = new size
20 * 0.50 = 10
20 * 0.51 = 10.2
20 * 0.52 = 10.4
20 * 0.53 = 10.6

I just sit there with my phone's calculator, adding 1% at a time until I get the number I want!  Then, in the pdf, I open the print dialog box and tell it to print as a poster, at 53%.  10.6 is a wee bit big, but I can trim it to fit.

(If I'm explaining it badly, this blog post might do a better job of leading you through the technical stuff!) 

A few important considerations when resizing:

• Setting it to "poster" keeps all the pieces proportional.  Don't select "shrink to fit" or something like that, which might skew one side more than another. 
• If you shrink or expand the whole, your seam allowances (on an FPP pattern the seam allowances around each pattern piece) will also change.  When sewing, make sure to trim it with quarter inch seam allowances around each unit. 
• A pattern drafted large might have more details than can easily fit in a smaller space, and vice versa.  In this case, the zebra has a lot of small details in his face and stripes.  Halving the scale will make the pattern quite tight.  I'm game to try it, though! 
  

Pattern printed and ready to be taped together as needed.

COLORS & SEWING

A common feature of Tartankiwi Designs, the work of Juliet van der Heijden, is a background composed of triangle shapes.  Considering how bright the West African wax prints are which will border this block, I choose pale browns to give the eye a place to rest.  I'm also at least partially motivated by a desire to ration my blues for the upcoming flamingo FPP, which is standing in water!  Perhaps the zebra block will look a little dull on its own, but I hope it will harmonize in situ!

My black & white scraps

half a zebra!

I have to pay attention as I sew (the Black and White sections of each pattern are marked with B's and W's), but it's not the kind of attention I enjoy paying; without meaningful color choices to make, I find the process a bit dull, and take three nights to do it instead of rushing through in one session! 

Later I use a black Sharpie to color those white thread dots that show at the intersections of black pieces, because I'm a perfectionist.

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