Hello and welcome to Paper Piecing Tuesday…. yesterday got away from me so this week we are paper piecing a day late.
This week we are back to green stars. I have 5 blocks to go before I have enough to finish my quilt top… So to start this final green wave we have the Alternating Star…
I had fun making this one, alternating light and dark stripes. The PDF pattern for this 8 inch star can be found here…Alternating star pattern. See you next week for another star!
Over the last month or so I have been slowly making a quilt top, using nothing but my solid scraps. This week I finally finished sewing it all together to make this piece of modern crazy….
It all started when I began cutting up my solid scraps into useable squares…
I was left with a pile of long strips, small square and random shapes. As a scrap quilter I could not just throw them away, so I started making Improv blocks.
My first step was to sew lots of the small little bits together to make bigger units.
If I found a curved piece in amongst the scraps I used it…
The same with triangles (there was no shape biased here!)…
I was not afraid to slash through a block and add extra bits…
And I always made sure that there was tonal variation in the blocks…
I worked colour by colour….first I pulled out all my yellow scraps and made blocks….then my orange…then my red etc. Working row by row, colour by colour I could make sure that there was some flow between each line of blocks…
My blocks finished at 6 inches square and not one of them is even remotely like the another. I found an amazing freedom in making this quilt….there was no pattern to follow, no measuring or pre-cutting to do.
When I needed a break from paper piecing or just wanted to do something quick and creative I grabbed a handful of scraps and made some blocks.
So much fun…I can highly recommend this process… it is perfect for letting go and just playing. There is no right or wrong, just colour and creating and fun.
Last week I posted the last pink block I was using for the baby quilt I am making….it was not my last pink snowball though. While posting on Instagram a friend requested I send the quilt to her…I could not oblige but as a compromise I said I would make her a pillow.
So this weekend I sat down and designed Ellen a snowball block. I must admit I was a little influenced by the New York Beauty blocks I have been making…and I came up with this.
It is a little more complex than some of the snowball blocks but I love how it turned out. The block consists of 56 pieces but came together really quickly. I of course had to throw in some dinosaurs and my beloved Aussie kangaroo print.
Now the block you are looking at is 16 inches big. I enlarged the pattern for the cushion and will add a black and white border around the block to have finished size of 18 inches. So this weeks pattern comes in two sizes… the original 12 inch block for those that want it as an option to go with the other blocks…Ellens Snowball 12 Inch pattern. And just in case you are interested in doing a pillow version like me the 16 inch pattern (which comes in two pieces/pdfs)…Ellens Snowball Pattern A and Ellens Snowball Pattern B.
This week I managed to finish up another quilt… my Cross Stitch Sparkle quilt finally got quilted and bound….it only took 30 weeks and a friggin ton of half square triangles!
This quilt started last year when I agreed to test a quilt pattern for Sara at Knotty Gnome. I love to challenge myself and I had never done anything with half square triangles before so I jumped in feet first. Each block is 18 inches square and I thought I could make a little baby quilt. My original top finish was four blocks by four blocks.
But…in a moment of crazy a month or so ago… I thought I would make the quilt bigger and added an additional 5 blocks! I had just cut a whole pile of 4 inch solid squares so I thought why not use some of them.
Actually I love this size quilt…I think you really get a great sense of the pattern with the extra blocks added.
I used so many different warm and cool solids in this quilt. I know I have tons of Kona and Michael Miller Cotton Couture as well as Moda and a sprinkling of American Made in there. Basically any appropriate solids I had in my scrap bin went into this thing.
I quilted the top using straight lines on my home machine. For some reason I did not want to quilt it too densely and straight lines echoing the grey center square seemed to be the thing to do.
For the backing I used part of an IKEA duvet cover I had in my stash… it was the perfect back for this crazy colourful quilt.
Finally I hand bound the quilt using scraps of different greys. The grey was the perfect way to frame the quilt and contain the colour explosion.
Quilt Details
Pattern: X stitch Sparkle by Knotty Gnome
Fabric: Various solids
Quilt Size: 55 inch x 55 inches
Another Pink themed Paper Piecing Monday…
Today’s block is the last one for my baby quilt. It is another EQ inspired block that I turned into a paper pieced pattern. You can find the free PDF pattern for this 12 inch block here…Pinwheel Snowball
Now that I have completed four of these blocks, I have been playing with the layout for the baby quilt. For the first time I had a plan for my paper piecing Monday blocks before I started making them…
I knew I wanted to make the most of the scrappy black and white background fabric so I cut a stack of 6 1/2 inch square blocks from my b/w stash and started playing with the layout.
I have a bit more rearranging to do with the blocks, but I am close to being happy with the layout. My hope is to have the top done by Friday…weather permitting!
WOMBAT QUILTS 