Paper piecing the Night Sky

This weeks Paper Piecing Monday is all about the Night Sky. This week I have and will be playing with the background blocks for my Starry Night quilt. My strategy is to use all those scrap pieces of patterns I have printed and lying around the office, with most of them so far being 6 inches square.

I started last week with a half log cabin…

and this week I added some paper pieced crazy blocks….

some left over star pattern pieces from Carol Doak’s book…

some strange flower log cabin pattern I found in amongst the paper pile…

and of course there has to be some flying geese….

I have decided to go with the majority of the sky being paper pieced, as it will make piecing the quilt top together much easier. I find that piecing paper pieced blocks and traditionally pieced blocks together can be fraught with size issues and usually if there is a large enough amount of traditional piecing I remove the paper from my blocks so that everything is “paper less”. If I am just sashing blocks then the paper stays on… it is the best way to ensure accuracy.

So the sky is underway… and despite the disparate style of blocks, they seem to work together well.

Okay I admit there is an insanity to this activity but it is kind of fun. There is no right or wrong… just lots and lots of navy blue, and a smattering of purple. Quilting heaven for me.

16Jun2014

Gator Quilt Paper Piecing Monday

Posted in Finished Quilts, Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

A few months ago I agreed to test a paper piecing pattern for Louise at I’m Feeling Crafty. I was thrilled when Louise sent thru the most darling Alligator pattern, in three different sizes no less.

To test the pattern I decided to make the smallest version of the Alligator, my theory being that the smallest patterns are most of the time the fiddliest/hardest to make.

This pattern does have a few parts to it, but Louise’s instructions are easy to follow and the design makes assemble straight forward. I used the pin method to make sure that my points aligned, and it worked perfectly. When I was done with my small Gator I had a block measuring 9 x 21 inches.

The three different sized patterns Louise’s includes are designed to make this lovely quilt…

But I wanted to shake things up a little, so I put the Gator up on my design wall and started playing… a butterfly and some scrappy cream solids later I had a finished baby quilt.

My Alligator is definitely the star of the show…

button eyes, and all…

For the butterfly I used a paper piecing pattern I found on Craftsy. It adds such whimsy to the quilt I think.

To finish things off I used a yard of Michael Miller fabric I had hidden in my stash for the backing…

I did some straight line quilting with some kitty help… yep you warmed me last week this would happen and it did!

And finally some Kona solids, in blue and brown for the binding…

Using the small Gator pattern this quilt ended up at 35 x 39 inches. Next time I think I will use the medium Gator pattern and add more butterflies. It is such a great block I will definitely be using it again.

You can find Louise’s pattern for sale on Craftsy and if you want some Gator inspiration, check out the other testers work on the …

June 9th- I’m Feelin’ Crafty

June 11th- A Quilter’s Table

June 13th- Marci Girl Designs

June 14th- I’m Feelin’ Crafty– showing off other Testers work!

June 16th- Wombat Quilts

June 17th- Wholesome Midwestern

June 18th- Shaffer Sisters

June 19th- Crafty Shenanigans

June 20th- I’m Feelin’ Crafty

9Jun2014

Tackling the Night sky

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

This week I made the last star block for my Starry Night quilt and started to think about how I want to put this top together. The final block …

….is another wonderful creation from Don’t Call Me Betsy’s Lucky Star BOM. I am loving revisiting these patterns in both the 12 inch and 6 inch sizes. There was no way I was going to do this pattern at 6 inches… too many little pieces for even me, so I went with 12 inches.

As I started playing with all the blocks I had done for this quilt I realised I wanted to have quite a bit of “night sky” in the quilt top. I also decided the negative space for this quilt has to be pieced and scrappy to stay true to the blocks I have made. So the fun of making the sky has begun…

I am going to make lots of random strange scrappy blocks to make the sky… using bits and pieces of left over paper piecing patterns I have lying around. My hope is the effect will be like this…

Just when I thought I was close to a finish, I have moved the goal posts a little.

Finally I leave you with the joy that is currently my quilting life. Somehow my husband got talked into looking after a friends cat for a couple of months. I, of course am allergic and unfamiliar with their strange catty ways. Can someone explain why they insist on doing this?

2Jun2014

Revisiting Starry Night

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

Last week’s paper piecing blocks, along with some of your comments, reminded me that I needed to finish my Starry Night quilt top up. So this week I am determined to make some good headway on it…. starting with a couple of new 6 inch blocks…

This little star is another of Don’t Call Me Betsy’s “Lucky Star” blocks from last years BOM series. It was fun using my teeny tiny bits of scraps to make this pretty.

I did make a small adjustment because of the size of the block, and used a larger scrap for the final blue sky piece, opting not to do a little piece in the corner. I also realised making these blocks that I needed to use smaller scale prints to get that scrappy contrast.

With my second star I managed to squeak some Pearl Bracelets in, but I had to position the scrap just right so the dots showed up. This block is a 6 inch star that I found on my EQ7 program – it has some neat paper pieced blocks. Julie at 627 Handworks’ Global Concept block is very similar to my tiny block, but bigger. You can find her free paper piecing pattern here.

I think one or two more blocks and I will be ready to start putting this top together. I am going to work this week at how I want to handle the negative space, playing with some scrappy navy/blue blocks as filler. I will share the results next week.

26May2014

Some Lucky Stars to end the month…

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

This month I have been having a blast making blocks for #opgivewarmth. Sarah at www.nohatsinthehouse.com set the most fabulous palette for May and I have been having fun raiding my scraps each week. This week I got extra carried away. I started with…

This darling star is 6 1/2 inches (for a 6 inch finished block) and the pattern comes from Don’t Call Me Betsy’s Lucky Stars BOM from last year (2013).

I loved this paper piecing BOM series but extra loved the fact you got every block in two finished sizes per pattern – a 12 inch version and 6 inch version. I had not made the 6 inch blocks before so thought this was the perfect time to give some of them a run.

I went with some of the easier patterns at this size. There are some beautifully complex blocks in this series but I was not emotionally ready to tackle them at the small scale.

The Lucky Star paper piecing series is running again this year and you can still get last years series as well. Elizabeth at Don’t Call Me Besty has fabulous instructions and each BOM series comes with great introduction to paper piecing instructions and test blocks. It is worth checking out.

So these are the last of the May blocks heading to Sarah. I will now sit patiently and wait to see what wonderful palette she has chosen for June. While I wait I will be dusting off my Starry Night quilt and doing a few more of these small Lucky Star blocks in blue and yellow.