Joy Bell Block paper piecing style…

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

Last week saw the start of my new obsession… 12 inch classic blocks that use a simple square block. This week I have been playing with another block which I have seen called Joy Bell, Salem and St Gregory’s Cross to name just a few….

This block is another easy one to put together. You will need…

All these components are 4 1/2 inches unfinished and you can find the pattern for the arrow blocks here….arrow block. And of course the wonderful simple square, which will be in all the blocks here..WQ Simple square block.

When you have made the components the block is easy to put together, row by row.

When I was researching I found so many variations on this pattern… the simple layout above was usually called Joy Bell, and I also made a block using the layout referred to as a Salem block…

There are so many possibilities with this block, so to help with the “playing” process I made a colouring sheet (joy bells color sheet), so that you can come up with your own combinations. Download the sheet, grab some colour pencils and go to work…

11Aug2014

Paper Piecing Monday the crazy edition…

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

Summer has well and truly arrived in Portland and I have been making the most of the sunshine… and not posting as much as I usually do. Sorry about that.

This of course does not mean I have not been quilting… I have still been sewing away, just a little more sporadically than usual. For the last week or so the only thing that has been up on my design wall has been my Starry Night quilt.

As you can see the jigsaw is slowly coming together. I have finished with the star blocks and I am now just making sky. Random weird bits of sky.

This week I went through my EQ7 quilting program and found a pile of paper pieced patterns and printed them out (my sky pieces are currently all 6 inch square or 3 x 6 inches). With EQ I have been able to find a pattern I think is interesting and print it out at both sizes.

Now as stand alone blocks they look a little weird but once you add them to the quilt they just blend into the background in weird and wonderful ways….

No matter how hard I tried to hide it you have probably realised by now that I did not have a grand plan when I started making these blocks, and that I am really making it up as I go along. The blocks are not being placed in any sort of grid and I am just going with the flow, piecing bits and pieces together and seeing what works.

It is a crazy way to work…but really fun. If you are interested in exploring the individual star blocks I have used, you can find links to them under the “Paper Piecing Monday” tab and/or under the “Free Paper Piecing Patterns” tab.

9Jul2014

Wee Wanders WIP Wednesday

Posted in WIP Wednesday by wombatquilts

This week I have been playing with a selection of the Wee Wander’s fabric range by Michael Miller. I love this fabric and have had a blast playing this week.

Using the fabric for inspiration I pulled supporting fabric from my stash and ended up with this lovely bundle.

As soon as I bought the Wee Wanders, I knew what block I wanted to use – the Rolling Stone Block which dates back to the late 19th century…

I found this block, and great instructions on the Dont’ Call me Betsy site. I went with the traditional block layout but no matter what layout you use, it is an easy block that is made up of three units.

1. A single fabric square… perfect for highlighting the wonderful fussy cut horses …

2. A block made up of a rectangle of your chosen neutral (for me it was Kona Snow) and a rectangle of your coloured fabric. This was a great opportunity for me to chain piece, something I do not often get to do…

3. A square in square block, that is paper pieced, but can be done traditionally as well. For my blocks I removed the paper from this unit before I sewed the block together (a first for me, but it worked perfectly).

These units are then laid out to make a finished 12 1/2 inch block. I must admit for my block I enlarged the block slightly to room for the horse blocks. My unfinished block is 14 1/2 inches square.

This week the weather here in Portland has been gloriously hot and I have not got as much of this quilt done as I would have liked. I have three blocks completed…

and…

and as the design wall shows, a number in process.

I am determined today not to be distracted by the sun…or the cat… of the World Cup. AUGH!

7Jul2014

Okay I may have a star addiction…

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

Another Paper Piecing Monday and it is another star. I may need an intervention…but not quite yet.

This block, like last weeks, is using the #opgivewarmth June colour palette that Sarah at www.nohatsinhouse.com set. It is also another great pattern from Don’t Call me Betsy’s Lucky Star BOM (this is from August 2013).

It is pretty easy with just 48 pieces, none of which are too tricky or small.

I am now eagerly awaiting Sarah’s July colour palette, but in the meantime I have paper to rip off these….

30Jun2014

I am blaming the cat….

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

In the short time that the cat has been in our house she has become the scapegoat for a number of offenses…. she has eaten the last of the ice cream, left the light on, very rudely abandoned washing in the dryer and today she is the reason that Paper Piecing Monday is running late….

Despite the cats best efforts, I have finally managed to get a block done…

This lovely star uses the June colour palette for No Hats in the House charity #opgivewarmth. I love the challenge each month of using a different set of colours that I would not usually work worth. I bravely selected a few of the colours in this months palette that were not pink and found Kona Solids to match…

The paper piecing pattern is another one from the Lucky Star BOM patterns from Elizabeth at Don’t Call Me Betsy. This block is the December 2013 Star and I love the square feel to it.

Now the cat and I are going back to watching the World Cup. She is finally over the disappointment of Australia going out and is rallying around the US team.