Paper Piecing Success!!

I consider myself pretty adept at most techniques of traditional quilt making.  Paper piecing, however, has always been a huge stumbling block.  Every time I tried to paper piece a block, I thought that paper-piecing addicts must be a crazy bunch.  Why would anyone put themselves through this?  My ability to place and then sew and then flip a piece of fabric and have it end up where it should, despite cutting it almost twice the size necessary, always ended in frustration. 

I have been forced though to confront my lack of paper piecing ability.  I am starting (again) on a Dear Jane quilt - this time as b.o.m. through Stitchin' Heaven (their instructions are absolutely wonderful).  Also, my youngest son has asked for MoonGlow by Jinny Beyer, as a grad present in a couple year's time,  how could I say no?

I have been a past member of the The Quilt Show and receive their email newsletters.  When I saw that Carol Doak - "the queen of paper piecing" - was a guest on an episode, I had to renew my membership.  I am trying to cut down on quilting expenses this year, but I felt that the annual membership was less than the cost of some quilt classes, and as I don't attend any of those, then, here's my class! 

I watched a wonderful demonstration by Carol, and I think finally the lightbulb moment has come.  I attempted, successfully and without many arrggghhh moments, a paper pieced Dear Jane block.

Then I had to face my first Dear Jane triangle - paper pieced.  Oh my.  An hour later, voila!  Yes, it took me that long....because I was doing a lot of talking to myself, and I did make a few errors.
 

So I proudly and happily carried my little block over to the cutting mat to square it up using my DJ triangle ruler that had been sitting unused for a few years.  Acckkk!  Why is my triangle so small?  What on earth have I done?   It turns out that the foundation paper I printed from my CD was the wrong size triangle.  Ohhhhh...I wish you could have seen me after that discovery!

This morning, I'm starting again - on the correct size triangle - and I think I'll have it done in about a half hour - pretty good progress!

Folk Style Sampler top

Machine applique block designs from Folk-Style Sampler, by Michelle Hill, Australian Patchwork & Quilting, vol. 12 no. 12 and vol. 13 no. 1

Trim and square large blocks

A couple of weeks ago I finished the last block in a series of machine applique blocks, from a pattern called Folk-Style Sampler, by Michelle Hill, Australian Patchwork & Quilting, vol. 12 no. 12 and vol. 13 no. 1.  I had received the first part of this series pattern as a Christmas gift a few years ago...then had to go and get the second part!

These blocks finish at 16" - I don't have a 16 1/2" ruler, and hardly have 16" of space on my cutting board.  So I used freezer paper to help me out.

First I cut a large piece of freezer paper, folded it carefully into fourths, then, measuring from the two folded edges, measured a square 8 1/4" so the freezer paper would measure 16 1/2" when opened.

I marked a line on the freezer paper, 1/2" up from the bottom, where I want each vase bottom to sit.  And, marked a vertical and horizontal centre lines (although for these designs, the vertical line was the only important one).

I can then iron the freezer paper on to the block, placing the marked line at the bottom edge of the vase, and centring the vertical line through the centre stem.

Now, I can take it to the cutting board and it doesn't matter if the block overhangs the edge a bit or is a bit crowded in the space.  I can use my 24" long ruler to trim the extra fabric!  Voila!

This worked so well, I think I'll try it on those Mountain Top blocks, although I'm not sure how well it will worked on a pieced block with lots of seams.

The original pattern for the Folk-Style Sampler called for a wide floral border; however, I want something smaller that will fit on to a certain wall in my hall.  I think I'm going to go with a formal setting of a three-strip setting - black, background ivory, black; with nine-patch setting squares.  This is a layout I did just to see what the black would look like in the finished quilt.

A week has gone by....

and I never got started on quilting a quilt that I finally got sandwiched.  Here is "pick and choose" that I made during the summer - posted here in my blog.

If I'm lucky, while sandwiching a quilt I can see where and how I might quilt it.  I"ll then mark those areas with green tape so I won't lose the idea.

I've marked where I could do straight line quilting through the diagonal set squares; and something interesting in the square open space.

But, instead of getting started on the quilting, I got involved in planning yet another applique quilt.  If you've read much of my blog, you'll know how much I struggle with starting and sticking with a hand applique project.  I find lots of great patterns, then spend way too much time choosing fabrics, then I don't like it anymore, and start again with another pattern.  I'm not going to say much at this time, because maybe I'll surprise myself and actually stick with this project.  Let's just say that after several days of making up fabric sets that might work; internet shopping for ideas; and trial runs of actual sewing; I think I may have come up with an idea that I'll stick with.

A Tisket A Tasket blocks

I'd thought I show a picture of my completed redwork version of BunnyHill Designs' 2009 block of the month, A Tisket A Tasket.  I was happy to have kept up with this b.o.m., and finished the last block between Christmas and New Year.

I did the redwork with a brown floss, on a pale pink plaid background.  Here they are shown, in no particular order, on a bright red floral fabric with a matching darker brown fabric.  I'm not sure if I'll set these as a wallhanging, with sashing separating the blocks, or use the blocks as part of a bigger quilt.  I'm in no hurry to make them into top just now.

Blue and White

I have a bin full of blue fabrics - squares, scraps, strips, and a couple of fat quarters.  I've been wanting to make a blue and white quilt for a couple of years - and everything blue has gone into this bin.  I decided that this was the year to make a decision. Period.

I finally found the pattern I wanted - Rememberance, from Kim Diehl's book Simple Seasons - that uses just two fabrics for the entire quilt, it's almost a sampler of 15" blocks with pieced sashings and a pieced inner border. I've liked this pattern for a long time.  I guesstimated how much yardage I had, and compared my size of scraps to the sizes that needed cutting.  Then I got to cutting - and cutting - and cutting - by now my little workspace was full of baggies, bits, reject blues (those that were a bit too green) all over the floor and everywhere.  I was down to the last few bits to cut.  Where on earth was I to find 24 - 3 1/2 x 2 1/2 inch pieces, now?  Arrggh... Then do I really have to cut 16 2 1/2" squares out of all these leftovers?  And finally, how I am to get 3 1/2 x 7 pieces now!  I really should have read through the whole list and cut the bigger pieces first.

This is about when I wanted to run screaming from the sewing room...and on return, toss everything blue into the garbage!  But I didn't.  I took a deep breath and re-assessed.  It turns out the 3 1/2 x 7 pieces were part of the pieced border, which was one of my favourite parts of  this quilt, but they aren't meant to be.  I'll have to redesign something at the end.

This morning I couldn't wait to see if all my work would turn out a pretty quilt.  So I cut up what I needed of the white background to make one of the blocks.  Wonderful!  I think I'll be very happy working on this, one block at a time.

Mountain Top

I am having a lot of fun working on Mountain Top blocks, from a block of the month by Homestead Hearth, pattern by Laundry Basket Quilts.

If you are a terrific scrap saver (which I'm not) this is a great pattern to use up those bits.  I chose to do it as a b.o.m., to keep from being overwhelmed, and because I wanted a huge variety of fabric.  Three blocks a month don't take much time.  Just looking at all variety of bits of fabric keeps me interested.  I remember once doing a scrappy quilt from all my leftovers,  that's when I was better at keeping scraps, and the memories!  Recalling all the quilts and quilts-that-might-have-been!


This is a block where I use my favourite ruler - the Easy Angle ruler.  You save a bit of fabric, as strips are cut 2 1/2" instead of 2 7/8" in the usual prep of hsts.  And they are so accurate!  Don't be concerned about sewing on the bias, especially with the small size of these triangles - every hst I've ever made with this ruler has been so accurate I no longer measure to check.




After sewing the triangles together, I take the whole chain to the ironing board and without cutting them apart, lay them out with all dark sides up, then just press them one after the other.


Here are some of the blocks laid out on the floor.  This is a big quilt!  It finishes at 79 x 94.  I think I'll be giving it to a niece who is going off to univeristy this summer/fall.  These are 15" blocks, with sashings, 30 blocks to the quilt.  I've got about 20 finished this far, and I'm still thinking about making it smaller, or making a border which this quilt doesn't have.  The original can be seen here.

Some sewing done over the Christmas break...

I made up three Affairs of the Heart blocks - finally - after trying out different methods such as back basting and freezer paper on top.   I finally decided that the pieces were just too small, I wasn't that comfortable in using the backbasting method; and with the freezer paper on top I was very concerned that I would not quite place the pieces right so that the symmetry would be lost. So I decided to machine applique them, with a fusible, using variegated threads to add some dimension.  I did the embroidery stitching by  hand.  I was quite happy with the results but I'll only do a few more like this and then make a small wallhanging.  I'm going to re-think my approach to these blocks as I know now they'll be machine applique rather than hand applique.

I made a couple of more blocks of Garden at Dusk (from Cindy Lammon's book, Gathered from the Garden), and was able to put together about two-thirds of the top.  This quilt will be for my niece Emily.

Then there was practice in hand piecing.  I made a Dear Jane block, hand pieced - it took nearly three hours!  I surely hope I get faster if I plan to hand piece all 224 (I think) blocks in this quilt.  I'll talk about my method as I get going on more of these.