It's a blue wall of blocks today. I am participating in Bonnie Hunter's Hearts of Hope Sew-Along. Part 1 was posted on Friday and I have started 12 blocks.
(On the left are two scrappy strips for fun, and my first Moda Blockheads 4 attempt)String piecing blocks on phone book papers is a fairly new adventure for me and I'm not sure if I like it or not. There is something pleasing about it - some kind of tactile enjoyment and perhaps a sense of accomplishment looking in the waste bin.
I do enjoy the mess of sewing with strings and scraps! All of these pieces were pulled out of a scrap bag from my friend Marg. There must be enough fabric for 2 quilts here!
Sewing on the phone book pages, I did find that my fingers got dirty and so did the machine bed. After sewing my blocks I wiped the corner to see how dirty it was. To the left of the seam ripper is cleaned. The photo doesn't really capture how dirty my machine became. I don't love that about this technique.I'm looking forward to Friday's step of how to complete these heart blocks!
Linking up to Design Wall Monday over at Judy's
9 comments:
Great collection of blue blocks on the wall. I agree about the mess from using phone book pages. I prefer to buy blank newsprint sheets at an art supply store. It's not free, but definitely less messy.
Years ago I picked up an end of roll paper from the local newspaper office. It was free then you might have to pay for it now.
I have used the hell out of it for paper piecing and pattern playing.
For paper piecing when its a more complicated pattern I put the original on top of a stack of paper I have folded to the right size... take the thread out of the machine... and stitch the pattern out and use that instead of the phone books pages.
I like all your blue piecing, but have to agree with the frustration of the grime from those phone book pages. I just can't do it. But I do have a half ream of plain new newsprint that works pretty nicely for paper piecing.
I love all the blues in the blocks...so pretty!
Thanks for the phone book technique review. It's clear to me now that I won't be using it for string piecing. Will look for a cleaner paper option.
Your blue scrap piecing is lovely. What purpose does the phone book paper foundation serve? Why can't you just sew the fabric strips together without foundation, then press and cut sections to size afterwards? Asking because I'd love to try a project like this but I don't even know where to find a phone book anymore.
Doesn't Bonnie sew on a black old singer??? So she can't see the ink....
I wonder if Bonnie presses the pages first. I belief that is suppose to set the ink so it doesn’t lift off the paper.
I use yellow pages and haven't really had a problem with ink. Maybe they're just old books! There are options mentioned often including drawing paper from the dollar store, and Carol Oak papers.
I love your wall of blue!
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