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!
