Starry Night continues – Paper Piecing Monday

After last weeks easy (read 18 piece) blocks I decided to up the fabric piece count with this weeks star.

This fabulous star is another free pattern from Quilting on the Squares new bonus compass star patterns. The Cactus Star Block star is a 64 piece star, with enough complexity in the colouring that I had to resort to coding my pattern…

I must admit more and more orange is creeping into these stars…along with a touch of dark purple here and there. I just can not seem to limit myself too much colour wise, particularly with these more complex blocks. They work best, I think, if you have variety in your colours.

4Nov2013

Starry Night Part 2 – Paper Piecing Monday

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

After some of the discussions about the complexity (or not) of last week’s block, I decided to do a really simple block this week.

This block, which measures only 8″ x 8″, was made using a free paper piecing pattern by Moira McSpadden at The Quilted Snail. I thought my Starry Night quilt would work best if I vary the size of some of the blocks – my usual Paper Piecing Monday size is 12″ x 12″. This block only uses a mere 18 pieces of fabric and is really quick and easy to make.

It is so easy to make I made two…

If I am honest I made this block first but was not completely happy with it so made the other version.

28Oct2013

Starry Night Paper Piecing Monday

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

First of all I have to explain, for those of you that do not know me, I have the attention span of a gnat. I get bored easily and always have more ideas than I have time. With this revelation in mind I hope you will forgive me for putting aside my pastel paper piecing blocks and starting a new project… Starry Night.

I had the idea for this series of blocks the other day while watching an episode of “Face Off” and after seeing Quilts of a Feathers fabulous WIP Tardis quilt, and just had to run with it. Then I discovered that Quilting on the Square had added a six more free blocks to it’s Compass collection and it seemed like Kismet. I promptly picked the Rolling Compass block pattern (block3countryregister) and went to work.

Another fairly simple star pattern with just 40 pieces, but once again the scraps make it look more complex than it is. I think this is going to be a fun quilt to make.

ps. last night my husband did a very technical spreadsheet thingy and choose a winner of Give Away. Congrats to Melintheattic. A bundle of fun goodies will be winging their way to you soon. And thanks to everyone for the kind comments left on the site… made me feel all mushy.

14Oct2013

Paper Piecing Monday tips

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

This week as I put my paper piecing block together, I thought of what I have learnt this year doing these blocks… and thought I would share some of my tips.

So this week I choose another of Julie @ 627Handworks great blocks. The block, Siouxsie, is one that Julie has put up on Craftsy and is block 13 of her Block Rock’n series. At a $1.00 for the pattern is it a bargain. You can also download Julie’s free Block Rock’n blocks at Craftsy as well.

Tip #1… I always download the pattern to my desktop before I print. This is the best way to guarantee that you are printing to the correct scale. I had some fun issues printing directly from the website early on in Paper Piecing Monday’s life, which resulted in me have to remake some blocks. Also make sure that you tick the “print in original size” box in your print dialogue box.

Tip #1a… I use normal photocopy paper for printing my patterns. It is cheap and easily available.

Tip #2… If the block is complex or I am making it complex, I use coloured pens to mark up my paper pattern. This way I do not lose track of what colour goes where.

Tip #3… I always glue down my first piece of fabric. I go through so much Elmers glue it is not funny. I find it easier to align the first set of seams with one of the fabric pieces already stuck in place and pins cause fabric bunching which is annoying.

Tip #4… I am always generous with my seam allowance on my scraps. I have found it is much easier to work with BIG scraps or pieces of fabric than it is to work with precisely cut pieces of fabric. In paper piecing you get all sorts of weird shapes and having an abundance of extra fabric means that you can get even the weirdest shapes to work, without having to re-sew the block over and over.

Tip #5… Do all sewing with a small stitch length. I usually do my paper piecing stitching on a length of 2 – 2 1/2. This helps make ripping the paper off at the end easier, but also ensures the integrity of the sewing. Ripping the paper off the block can cause stitches to loosen and the smaller stitches helps with this immensely.

Tip #6… I use scissors to trim my excess fabric, not a rotary cutter and ruler. I find it quick and easy – I can do it while still sitting beside my machine. No one ever sees the backside of the block, so I do not mind if it is a little messy.

Tip #7…. Your iron is your friend. I iron all my seams/pieces to get them to lie flat. For this block I sewed the first two fabric pieces together on all the pattern sections and then stood up, ironed all the seams and then sat down and sewed the next fabric piece to the pattern. For last week’s fox block I used my mini iron to sew as I went. Whatever way all seams get ironed.

Tip #8… Before I sew together the finished paper pattern pieces, I rip the paper off any bits of the pattern that are bulky or intersect. This makes the block less chunky and means my sewing machine is less likely to hiccup when it hits the multiple layers of fabric/paper. With this pattern the center pieces of the block needed to be pulled. I leave enough of the paper so that you can still see your sewing lines.

Tip #9… Tweezers are an essential paper piecing tool. When you are removing the paper pattern at the end of the process, the big bits are easy but tweezers are the only way to get those pesky little bits of paper that are hiding in the corner of the block.

Tip #10… If at all possible train your husband, children or friend to help you pull the paper off your finished quilt top. It really does make life easier.

30Sep2013

Paper Piecing Monday Scapbeelicious style

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

This week’s paper piecing Monday is a little different. I recently joined my first quilting Bees – one of them is a do.Good.Stitches circle and the other is a fabulous collection of fellow bloggers who set up “Scrap-bee-licious”. For both Bee’s I was “queen” this month, which means I am choosing the pattern/colour scheme for my fellow quilters.

The Scrap-bee-licious Bee caused me the most consternation as this quilt is not going to charity, but will be staying with me. I have only kept one quilt so far in my quilting history, so I had to think long and hard about what I really wanted. So after much umming and ahhing, hair pulling and mind changing I settled on…

… low volume. A couple of weeks ago Sarah at No Hats in the House posted photos of one of the most amazing quilts I have ever seen. Her “Once Upon a Forest” quilt took my breath away. Inspired the beauty of this quilt, I have asked my fellow Bee members to make me a scrappy low volume paper pieced block or two.

I have not selected a specific pattern to be followed but have asked them to make me any 12 inch paper pieced block they want. There are so many fabulous free paper piecing patterns on-line, including this one (called Circle of Geese) from Pieced by Numbers or Julie at 627handwork’s Block Rockn’ blocks or Quilting on the Squares Compass Collection.

As I discovered with this block there is a method to getting contrast and detail when you are working with low volume. When I pulled fabric for this block I pulled two different type of low volume from my stash:

1. Pastel, soft solid fabrics.

2. Predominantly white fabrics

The importance of the contrast these two different low volume fabric selections give you was highlighted to me when I made the mistake of using two pieces of solid light grey in the background. In the resulting block…

–

..you can see how the grey pearl bracelet in particular distracts/hinders/muddies the circle of geese pattern. A little unpicking and some re-sewing later and the block was just what I wanted. I am now excited to try a paper pieced star or two using these colours and I can not wait to see what my fellow Bee members come up with. This is going to be fun.