November | 2013 | WOMBAT QUILTS

After some of the discussions about the complexity (or not) of last week’s block, I decided to do a really simple block this week.

This block, which measures only 8″ x 8″, was made using a free paper piecing pattern by Moira McSpadden at The Quilted Snail. I thought my Starry Night quilt would work best if I vary the size of some of the blocks – my usual Paper Piecing Monday size is 12″ x 12″. This block only uses a mere 18 pieces of fabric and is really quick and easy to make.

It is so easy to make I made two…

If I am honest I made this block first but was not completely happy with it so made the other version.

I managed to finish up my Briar Rose Quilt top this week… and I am loving how it came together.

It really helps that I am using Heather Ross’s marvelous fabric line, Briar Rose and a great block pattern, Labyrinth by Red Pepper Quilts. If you want to read more about the block and the start of this quilt you can check out my original post.

The block is traditionally pieced, there was not a piece of paper in sight. My seams are a little squiffy in places but the pattern is so easy to follow and so forgiving it did not take me long to whip this top up.

It was an interesting process for me using the whole line of fabric and not my usual scraps. If I “blocked” myself into a colour/pattern corner I had very limited choices to get myself out (usually I just add another fabric from my stash!). I wanted to use all the fabrics in the line as equally as possible, but also wanted to get the subtle hint of a light block/dark block pattern in the top. I found myself fudging the last couple of blocks to make this work.

I really had to be careful not to use the strawberry fabrics too much. They are my favorite of this collection and I found myself wanting to put them in every block.