Paper Piecing Monday presents Zeppelin

Well the end is definitely in sight with my latest sampler quilt… with this week’s block I have enough blocks for my quilt top layout. So here is the last of my bright and grey blocks – The Zeppelin.

All of the blocks in this quilt have come from the free Block Rockn’ paper pieced series by Julie at 627Handworks. You can find the Zeppelin and the other great patterns here. Julie has just released the last pattern in this series so there are 12 free patterns in total. You should check them out – they range from easy (like this one at just 20 pieces) to complex (her last block, Floyd, is fabulous but much more intricate with 80 pieces).

Because of the size of this pattern you had to stick two pieces of paper together to make the foundation, but that was about as complex as this gets. This block fitted in nicely with the others I have done. Last night I pinned them up on my design wall, so I could start mocking up how to finish this top.

I have a vision in my head how it all should look, I now just need to work out how to make my quilt top match my idea.

I am hoping to get this top finished shortly – unlike my red/aqua top which is still sitting in a box waiting for me to decide what I want to do with it. I am desperate need of some sewing fairies… any one have some spare?

19Aug2013

Flying Geese Paper Piecing Monday style

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday, Quilt patterns, Scrap quilts by wombatquilts

This week I am taking a short break from my grey sampler quilt to share a little Bee crazy with you. I was super excited to recently joined a do.good. Stitches circle. I excitedly did the first blocks for my Bee, forgot to photograph them and then sent them to the wrong person. I was off to a flying start with the group!

Then the August block was posted and I must admit I gasped a little. This is why – 3 inch flying geese culminating in a 12 inch block with 96 pieces…

The requested blocks were from Liesel Made’s crazy mini patchwork sampler series. You can find the original post here. As I read the instructions for making the block I thought there had to be a way to make this which was not going to freak me out. My answer was of course PAPER PIECING! Paper piecing was the only way I personally was going to be able to make those precise little triangles.

So I pulled out my graph paper and made a pattern.

In the end these were fun blocks to make. I used up lots of little scraps which always makes me happy and messed with the triangle layout a little. If you want to make this block the paper way, please feel free to use my graph paper pattern – 3 inch Flying Geese pattern.

Next week it will be back to our regularly scheduled program.

16Aug2013

Star String quilt top finished

Posted in Finished Quilts, Quilt patterns, Scrap quilts by wombatquilts

I am so thrilled to have finally finished my star string quilt top… and extra thrilled that it turned out exactly like I pictured it. So without further ado, here she is in all her scrappy wonderfulness…

I must admit my strong feelings about this quilt maybe effected slightly because I designed the quilt block. You can find the free paper piecing pattern and details about my inspirations here on the original post.

I had a lot of fun making this quilt slowly, piece by piece. Using colour pencils and paper I worked out each square in advance.

The central stars are made from lots of little bits from my scrap pile. The black and white fabrics were a little bit of scrap pile and a lot of stash cutting.

I wanted bright colours for the stars and mainly worked with red, yellow, orange, blue, green and purple with a smattering of apricot, fuchsia and citron.

The finished quilt top is 62 inches square – five blocks across five blocks down. This of course meant there was a lot of paper to pull off the back.

I am now off to vacuum up the paper and thread pieces that are littered all over our living room floor, before my husband comes home!

12Aug2013

Paper Piecing Monday the Global edition

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

Welcome to another edition of Paper Piecing Monday. On the weekend I found the perfect layout of my current sampler blocks and I am very excited. The pattern uses just 10 blocks so I am nearing the end of this colour way. But before we say good-bye there is a block or two to do…

The block is Julie at 627handworks “Global Concept” paper piecing pattern. You can find the free pattern here. As with all of Julie’s patterns there are so many ways this block can be interpreted. I went with the light grey star in the center after toying with the idea of using the light blue fabrics in the center piece. I am loving how it finished up.

The block takes 35 pieces and is one of the least complex of Julie’s patterns, not that you can tell by the finished block. Using all scrap pieces to make my “Global Concept” added a complexity to it, which I love.

More music inspired paper piecing next week…

5Aug2013

Mercury rising – Paper piecing Monday

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

Today’s paper piecing pattern is called Mercury, which seems quite appropriate as the temperature gets warmer and warmer. Is it just me or do you also find it harder to quilt in summer? The sunshine and daylight keeps calling me out to play.

Anyway back to Mercury…

Yep it is another fabulous free paper piecing pattern from the amazing Julie at 627handworks. You can find the pattern and directions on here. I think there are only two more patterns left in Julie’s Block Rock’n paper piecing patterns. There are going to be some severe withdrawal symptoms when these blocks end and any suggestions on how to convenience her not to stop would be greatly appreciated.

56 perfect little pieces which make up this fun block. As you can see from the pattern there are a couple of different options for piecing this thing. Again you can have fun with it and play around with your colours and fabrics.

Now the call of the sun is too much… I am heading outside for some vitamin D.