This week’s Hodge Podge blocks start with the classic Broken Dishes….
This is simple little 6 inch block comes together really quickly, with just four block pieces….
There are a couple of different versions of this block you can do… with quite a few of the traditional blocks using this colouring version.
So if you want to add this to your collection you can find the free paper piecing pattern here…broken dishes pattern… and there will be more patterns coming this week.
As promised I am posting another on of my Hodge Podge Sampler blocks…today’s block has the wonderful title of Mosaic No.1 and is block number 334 in the 1922 version of the Ladies Art Company Quilt Pattern book (link to this later version of the book can be found here).
The free paper piecing pattern for this block can be found here….Mosaic No1 block.
If you downloaded my first pattern, the Arkansas Snowflake on Monday, the pattern is a little small….Monday evening I amended the PDF so everything is fine, but you may want to down load the new pattern just in case…Arkansas snowflake pattern.
Now the final piece of business is naming the winner of this fabric bundle…
I had 300 entries for the draw and the lucky winner, selected at random is… Linda who commented “I don’t seem to have much of an imagination when I want to buy fun fabrics, so this lot certainly would give my, umm, somewhat ‘boring’ stash a fresh and happy ‘zing’! I think I would make my first ever hexie quilt; Recently, I punched out a huge bag of hexies, then realized I didn’t have any fun fabrics to make hexies with, so there sits the bag, on my coffee table, making me feel guilty…..”
Congratulations Linda and thank you to everyone who entered.
For a month or so I have been thinking about what I wanted to do for the next Paper Piecing Monday series, and I finally decided I wanted to do a sampler quilt. Now there are lots of different sampler quilts/patterns/books out there, The Farmers Wife, Dear Jane, the Women of the Bible as well as more modern samplers like Tula Pink’s 100 City Sampler and Elizabeth Hartman’s Patchwork City.
I looked at all my options and made two key decisions… I wanted to got traditional and I did not want to do all the half square triangles that are involved in most of the Farmers Wife/Dear Jane etc. blocks. So I pulled out some of the reference books I have and trawled through the online copy of the Ladies Art Company Quilt Pattern Book of 1898 (you can check it out here).
So my new adventure will be mainly paper pieced interpretations of very traditional blocks…where I can I will give you the name or names the block goes by as well as any different layouts for the block pieces…with a few of these traditional blocks different fabric placement gives you a completely different block and block name. All the blocks will all be 6 inches square finished.
So to start I give you my version of the Arkansas Snowflake…
You can find the free paper pieced pattern for this block here….Arkansas snowflake pattern.
I will be posting more blocks throughout the coming weeks…and not just on Mondays… so stay tuned.
This past week I have working away on projects for other people… which has somewhat limited my selfish sewing. In between finishing charity quilts I have been making tiny little houses…
These little buildings are 5 1/2 inch square and are the only paper piecing I have done in the last week or so…. the pattern is called “Outhouse” and is by Carolyn Friedlander …I am also using mainly her fabrics to make this round of blocks…
I am going to be teaching a class on making these little houses at my LQS, Modern Domestic, and this will be my class sample…
I am almost done with making the blocks and it has been a fun challenge… and I have employed quite a few tricks which have made the process a little easier.
I am looking forward to getting back to some of my other projects later this week…. I hear my Lizzy House butterflies calling my name.
Today it is my turn on the Back to School Blog Hop and today I wanted to talk about an under rated paper piecing tool – coloured pencils.
As you can tell my pencil set is well used. Most quilters will pull out colour pencils to colour in pattern sheets or maybe sketch out block ideas, but as a paper piecer I use mine all the time to colour code my patterns.
Not all paper piece patterns need to be colour coded… simple patterns can be easily followed without coding help…but with more complex paper piecing patterns, a splash of color can save on the unpicking and hair pulling when you are sewing a pattern.
For example this block is little complex…
For this pattern I used EQ to play with colour placement, but coloured pencils and paper work just as well, particularly if a colouring sheet has been provided…..
So before I started sewing it I pulled out my coloured pencils and scribbled away, marking the pattern with the predetermined colours I am using.
I choose colours from my pencil box that corresponded to the coloured fabrics I was using for the block….
So that the coding made sense to me as I sewed….
I regularly use this process for my paper piecing blocks… and will use symbols if I am using more than one type of fabric in the same colour range… remember the code just has to make sense to you…
When making my Cross Star quilt colour coding with pencils became an integral part of the quilt making process as I had to work out how each block fitted into the overall quilt pattern.
So next time you are paper piecing, dust off those colour pencils, do a little colouring in and make the paper piecing process a little easier. And if you want to play with this block, I have included a colouring page in the pattern PDF… Cross Plus extra block.docx
But before then, check out the rest of the super awesome Blog Hoppers for their tips:
Sept 1: Peta Minerof-Bartos of PetaQuilts
Sept 2: Cheryl Sleboda of Muppin.com
Sept 3: Teresa Coates of Crinkle Dreams
Sept 4: Cath Hall of Wombat Quilts
Sept 5: Sam Hunter of Hunter’s Design Studio
Sept 6: Melanie McNeil of Catbird Quilt Studio
Sept 7: Mandy Leins of Mandalei Quilts
Sept 8: Rose Hughes of Rose Hughes
Sept 9: Megan Dougherty of The Bitchy Stitcher
Sept 10: Lynn Krawczyk of Smudged Design Studio
Sept 11: Susan Beal of West Coast Crafty
Sept 12: Sarah Lawson of Sew Sweetness
Sept 13: Jane Victoria of Jolly and Delilah
Sept 14: Jemelia Hilfiger of Je’s Bend
Sept 15: Ebony Love of LoveBug Studios
Sept 16: Misty Cole of Daily Design Wall
Sept 17: Kim Lapacek of Persimon Dreams
Sept 18: Christina Cameli of A Few Scraps
Sept 19: Bill Volckening of WonkyWorld
Sept 20: Jessica Darling of Jessica Darling
Sept 21: Debbie Kleve Birkebile of Mountain Trail Quilt Treasures
Sept 22: Heather Kinion of Heather K is a Quilter
Sept 23: Michelle Freedman of Design Camp PDX
Sept 24: Kathy Mathews of Chicago Now Quilting Sewing Creation
Sept 25: Jane Shallala Davidson of Quilt Jane
Sept 27: Cristy Fincher of Purple Daisies Quilting
Sept 28: Catherine Redford of Catherine Redford
Sept 29: Amalia Teresa Parra Morusiewicz of Fun From A to Z
Sept 30: Victoria Findlay Wolfe of Victoria Findlay Wolfe Quilts
October 1: Tracy Mooney of 3LittleBrds
October 2: Trish Frankland, guest posting on Persimon Dreams
October 3: Flaun Cline of I Plead Quilty
WOMBAT QUILTS 