Paper Piecing Monday overload

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

Today’s paper piecing Monday is a “three for the price of one” deal. I got a little carried away doing my neon blocks last week and thought I would share all the blocks I made. First up is…

A flying geese block, of sorts. I wanted a graphic block that was not a star and this is where I ended up. I think you can have a lot of fun with this block, depending on how you choose to colour it and lay it out.

It is a pretty simple block and you can find the paper piecing pattern here…Neon Lost Geese. Next up I did another graphic block…

I know I am going to revisit this block because I am dying to make this pattern with a more scrappy approach and fussy cut centers. Too much fun. I have made a 6 x 6 inch pattern for this block, Neon Square block but I think I will enlarge the block for my scrappy version.

The last neon block I made this week was a re-do of a paper piecing pattern I made last year…

Yep I revisited the marvelous Julie @ 627Handwork’s Marley block. You can find the free pattern here. This pattern is fabulously bold, geometric and perfect for this quilt sampler. I now have only two more blocks to go before I can finish this quilt up.

10Feb2014

A Feathered Starry Night

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

This week I am quickly jumping back into my Starry Night quilt, mainly because I think I am close to having all the blocks I want/need…plus I am slightly addicted to the blue-yellow contrast. The result of the weekends playing was this star…

We were snowed in this weekend which allowed me to play a little. I designed this pattern, a copy of which you can find here Starry Night Feathered but instead of printing it out as I usually do, I thought I would give tracing paper a go. So I traced my pattern on the paper, using a good old-fashioned pencil and ruler. This is definitely the down side to tracing paper. I had previously tried to get my inkjet printer to take the extra thin tracing paper but it was not having any of it.

So the advantages of tracing paper are…

(1) it is thin enough that lining up your fabric is easy

(2) the thinness of the paper also means that you get less bulk where seams meet and

(3) my stitches had less give when the paper is remove and the paper was easier to remove.

The downside…

(1) if you can not get it to print on your printer, tracing the pattern is a laborious task

(2) I missed the extra sturdiness that photocopy paper gives your pattern, particularly when sewing the pattern pieces together. My pattern kept flopping over and moving.

(3) it is more expensive per sheet and not as easy to find as photocopy paper.

Okay the experiment is over and so is the snow. I am going to stick with photocopy paper… and go back to using my sheets of cardboard as a background to my blocks instead of wonderful snow.

3Feb2014

We have neon…we have pink…

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

What more could you want?

This paper piecing Monday sees me full embracing the Neon crazy. In my defense I did not start this but I am definitely going to finish it. This week I worked out exactly what direction I wanted to take with this quilt and so designed this block with my new “cunning plan” in mind.

You see this quilt was inspired by two “orphan” blocks that I inherited when I took over my role at Portland Modern Quilt Guild. I hate to see fabulous blocks go to waste, and love the challenge of finding a way to use them. I warn you I inherited a lot of weird and wonderful things and you will see more of them over the next 12 months.

The two blocks I started with were 11 inch neon pink and grey. I do not know who made them, but they are fabulous. My plan is to border the grey blocks with 1 inch of white sashing and make a checker board style quilt with alternating 11 inch grey blocks and white border blocks.

So for this week’s block I designed a snowball style block, with a larger than usual white border. I am loving this block and can not wait to make it in my traditional scrappy style. The block is a fun 40 pieces and was really simple to whip up. The 12 inch pattern can be found here…WQ Neon Block 2.

I also wanted to thank everyone for their kind comments about my “magazine debut”. I quilt because I love (in a crazy insane way) but I never thought other people would enjoy what I made as much as they have. I continue to be surprised by the response my quilts get, touched by the comments people leave and grateful for the friendships I am making.

Thank you.

27Jan2014

Another Neon Monday

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

This week I was just not able to make myself do another blue block… so to mix things up I thought I would make another Neon block. I recently inherited some Michael Miller Neon scraps and a couple of unused Neon blocks and thought I would try to make a neon quilt for the PMQG charity drive. So here is my first contribution to the quilt…

This is pattern is not too complex but I like how the star seems to have a frame. I did manage this week to get all my points to align and I really learnt from last weeks palava, which means the pattern is ready for use. You can find it here…WQ Neon Star block 1.

I am taking a brief break from my Starry Nights and I am looking forward to doing some non-star paper piecing blocks for this Neon quilt.

20Jan2014

The drama of Paper Piecing Monday

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

Oh it has been a fun morning of paper piecing this Monday (please note this statement is to be read with an Aussie accent and a hefty amount of sarcasm). This week I designed my first 12 inch star block. I was pleased with what I had come up with and that I was finally getting a hang of the design software. I printed out the pattern, sewed up the blocks till I had four square blocks…

I had colour coded my pattern because I wanted to play with the lights and darks of this block and was thrilled with how things were working out. Then I went to sew the squares together and discovered a tiny design fault – one of the seams does not line up exactly… insert appropriate swear words.

Frustrated I decided to sew the whole star together anyway just to check out the design… this is how it looks.

I was planning on attaching the pattern for this block, but I now have to go and amend it. I will make sure a correct and proper pattern is attached to this Star in my “Free Paper Piecing Patterns” section as soon as possible.

I am now debating whether to unpick it, start again or just call it good and move on.