Design Wall Monday

My piecing project this week has been the modern alphabet paper piecing quilt by Tamara Kate. 
I started this project at Quilt Canada in June, and just got back to it recently. I have finished the letters up to and including 'R' and have joined the letters in columns.
I couldn't decide what colour to make the H and I letters and finally decided on lime green.


I really like how the green 'HI' turned out. There will be other bits of the green in the bottom row of the quilt, and I have already picked out 2 green fabrics to be the quilt binding.



This is a fun and fairly easy pattern to sew. Some of the letters are a little tricky with the odd angles, but I have really enjoyed making it. 
The letter 'F' is my favourite so far. 

If you would like to make your own version of this fun quilt you can download the free instructions here, and the paper piecing pattern here. Thanks to Tamara for offering this free pattern to quilters! Tamara has lovely fabrics, cards and journals for sale on her website here (no affiliation, just a customer who loves her products!)
Hop over to Small Quilts to see more design wall posts.

Design Wall Monday

Tradition with a twist

This is Aurifil's latest DOM block called "Tradition with a twist". It was a real challenge for me and should not have been as hard as it was. It consists of 4 paper pieced curved log cabin blocks and I have made many log cabin blocks before. Click here to see the link up of finished blocks.



But what can I say... last week was just that kind of a week! Everything that can go wrong in the quilt studio... did go wrong. My seam ripper was used every day, and although I usually enjoy paper piecing, I was constantly making mistakes like this one where the fabric folds over on itself, or the added piece is too short for the space it should cover. It was just frustrating sewing, so I was very happy to see that when all was said and done, I really liked the finished block!

Here are the 10 Aurifil DOM blocks I have finished (includes a couple blocks from last year).

To see more design wall posts, hop over to Design Wall Monday at Judy's.

Paper Pieced Christmas Gift

Paper piecing is one of my favourite techniques, but I don't do it as often as I would like. It feels like a special treat to set aside time to work on a paper pieced project. I gave this treat to myself with a pattern I purchased from Paper Panache. Linda Worland is a master designer and I have been sewing her wonderful Paper Panache patterns for about as long as I have been blogging, which is 13 years!!

I decided to make Linda's Sisyphus pattern for a special friend for Christmas. Do you know the story of Sisyphus? There are different versions of what this greek myth means, but what it represents to me is...
whatever your job/life/situation is, you must continue to be persistent, try your hardest even when the situation is meaningless or hopeless, never give up, and be thankful for the journey/challenge/opportunity. It's all about effort and mindfulness, not accomplishment.

I was thinking about this the whole time I was sewing Sisyphus because this project was a real challenge! These pieces are very small. Look at the size of them compared to the sewing machine foot. Some of the pieces are so small that a number can't even fit in the space!
There are so many things to think about when paper piecing, with the odd reverse angles, and trimming the excess fabrics without cutting the pattern. I had all the components pieced and took them to the cutting mat to trim the edges and accidentally put down 2 pieces at the same time, trimming the top unit correctly and then having a fit when I saw the smaller one hiding underneath.
I'm telling you, I just couldn't believe it! The way that the 2nd unit was accidentally cut meant that there was no seam allowance on one side. The irony of wrecking this project just when I was ready to sew the whole thing together was not lost on me! 
I am the quilty version of Sisyphus!
I had to "go back down the hill" and think long and hard about how to roll the rock up the hill again. 

wrong one on the left - new version on the right

There must be a way fix that unit. Maybe add a blue strip on the edge? No that separated the body from the legs!
After trying a couple of ideas, I decided it was not reparable and I had to reprint the pattern and make a whole new section C. But I was running short on the background blue fabric and had to add in another dark blue, which wasn't too big of a challenge for a scrappy quilter.
And since I had to redo the whole unit, Sisyphus also got a wardrobe change after I decided that the first plaid did not have enough contrast with the blue background.

I did a little bit of machine quilting that you probably can't see in the photos. "Sisyphus" is quilted in the blue area, and "Never give up" in the brown area. I didn't pre-draw the design, just free motion quilted whatever came to my mind and filled in the spaces with straight, curved, or wavy lines.

Here is the completed mini quilt. It finished at about 10" square. The binding is made from 2 plaids since there was not enough of either one to go all the way around. The wonky plaid binding makes it appear as if the quilt edges are not straight, which at first was really annoying me. But now I think that's par for the course with Sisyphus. What a struggle it was... as if the creative process had to mimic the myth! 

Aurifil March DOM

Aurifil DOM block

The Aurifil block for March is called "Lisbon Tile". It is a paper pieced pattern by designer Jo Avery  from Scotland. It's been a while since I did some paper piecing, so I was really looking forward to starting this month's block. 

I try to chain piece as much as is possible with paper piecing. With this block having 4 quadrants, I sewed the same section consecutively on the 4 blocks. It was so fun to enjoy some paper piecing again! 

Here is the first quadrant finished.

I used 5 fabrics... a white, a black, and 3 teals.

What took me the most time with this month's block (the pattern was posted March 15th) was my inability to get the pattern to print out at the correct size.

February and March DOM blocks

Printing a pattern from a computer website rarely goes well for me, and I was unable to resize the block to get it to print the pattern at the correct size.  I even tried downloading the pattern to a USB stick and printing it at Staples. It still didn't print out the correct size. I also tried to resize it on the photocopier which made it more wonky and not square. 
WAY TOO FRUSTRATING!
I briefly considered redrafting my own pattern to the correct size using the old fashioned pencil, ruler and paper method, but considering how much time I had already spent on this block and didn't even have a pattern yet, I just decided to go ahead and sew it as it was. My block measures 11 3/4” instead of the desired 12 1/2”. As you can see, it's not even close to the size of the February block. Oh well, it turned out great and was lots of fun to sew, and I'll have to fix the size problem with sashing or some other kind of magical solution when it's time to put the blocks together!
You can see more finished blocks here.

Addendum... my friend Jackie just printed out the block pattern without difficulty, so it's clearly an issue of my lack of technological finesse :)

A Little Spring Finish

I haven't had many quilt finishes this year since I've been working on lots of complex projects. 
So it's about time to finally share a little finish.

The pattern is from volume 3 of Quiltmaker's 100 blocks magazine and is called "My Easter Dress" by Sonja Callaghan. If you missed the inspiration memory, you can read about that here.

I started paper piecing the block in April, so this one has been finished in a month. That's pretty awesome turnaround time for me! 
I machine quilted stippling in the grass, waves in the dress and a ribbon design on the ribbon. I also added a tiny pink rickrack around the bottom of the dress.

We went for a walk in the forest to get a photo with some trilliums... I know just where to find them. Did you know that when white trilliums age, they turn pink? And that makes the flowers match this little quilt just perfectly!





After the outing I decided that these shoes needed some flower buttons. Such a cute addition if I do say so myself!

Paper Piecing Project

Not all quilters enjoy paper piecing, and some have a real dislike of it. 
But not me - I really enjoy it.
It's like making a fabric jigsaw puzzle. I like sewing the fabric to the paper and then figuring out how to fit the pieces together to make a pattern.
I've wanted to make a block pattern from Quiltmaker 100 blocks magazine from 2011 (issue #3) and have had it ready to sew for a long time. A new issue of the magazine is soon to be released, so I just had to get out this old project and get going on it. 

I decided to use my 1953 long bed Singer 301 and this project is giving her a good workout sewing through layers of paper and fabric.

Here are the pieces I've completed and there are a couple more to go. It doesn't look like much but it represents hours of sewing!
Can you figure out what I'm making? Fans of the Quiltmaker 100 Blocks magazine can probably guess since it was a really popular pattern.

Paper Pieced Pumpkin

When I was at retreat last month, I sewed a little paper pieced block. My friend Barb had picked up this cute little kit for me from Quilt Junction and I was excited to give it a try. 

I must say it was a challenging block with some very tiny pieces. But I stuck with it, and was able to finish all the block components. I decided to go totally scrappy and veered away from the fabrics in the kit. In retrospect maybe pink wasn't a great choice for a pumpkin?!? 

When I put it on the design wall and was wondering about my odd fabric choices, I realized I had made a mistake on the corner pieces. Eventually the seam ripper made an appearance.

A scrappy square pumpkin

A scrappy rounded pumpkin

See how the scrappy pumpkin on the left is square? I don't know how that happened.

I took the block apart, removed the corner scraps and put on white background pieces. 

Ta da!

A round pumpkin! Kind of.

The free pattern is still available if you'd like to make your own pumpkin (or apple or other scrappy fruit) block. Click here to go to the Quarter Inch Mark blog and scroll down to get the pattern link.

Don't forget to round the corners!

Paper Piecing Success

Success!
The sting ray block is completed! This was by far the hardest paper pieced block I have ever sewn. The pattern is available over at Craftsy and is by Quilt Art Designs. I am delighted that I persevered, and that it's finally finished.





I did have a bit of trouble matching some of the seams, but that was easily fixed with a permanent marker. I just added a bit of dark ink where the point of the pen is so that it looks like the seams meet up there.




I was thrilled that my daughter said it looks like a real cownose sting ray! 

Here she is feeding some, so she ought to know how they look!

Post linked to Paper Piecing Party

Paper Piecing Challenge

Sometimes great ideas are way more of a challenge than any "sane" person should take on! I had a brainwave to add a paper pieced sting ray block into my newest Scrap squad project.

I paid for the pattern, had my son download and print it for me (ugh... I can't figure out how to get my old computer to talk to the new printer) and tried to figure out how to organize myself to sew.
I got all the fabric scraps from the stash and got ready to sew.

Wowzer - this is the hardest paper pieced pattern I have ever tackled! Check out how some of the pieces are smaller than the eraser of my pencil! And there are almost 80 pieces in this 9" block! 
What was I thinking?
Sometimes I am my own worst enemy!

Mellow Yellow

I can't believe it's the last Saturday of March already - it's the last week for playing with the yellow scraps over at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.



I decided to do some paper piecing this week and sewed a palm branch block.
This free paper pieced pattern is from Quiet Play and is still available if you want to give it a try. The blocks finish at 6" x 7" and each block uses 14 small scraps.

Here are the 13 blocks I've made so far. I started this project in the middle of 2012, and add a block now and then when I have enough small scraps and feel like doing some paper piecing. I don't know how many I'll end up making, but it's a fun project to visit once in a while :)



And of course I made a few more little Alamo Stars. All of my smallest batik scraps go in a bin for these blocks. These are 2.25" blocks and so cute!

To see more yellow scrap projects, hop over to SoScrappy's link up.

Paper Piecing Craving!

Sometimes I just get a hankering to do some paper piecing.  I found a great blog with lots of original and free paper piecing patterns called Sew Hooked. In April Jennifer hosted a "paper pieced pattern a day garden party blog hop" and showed many cute patterns! She also has a series of blocks from The Hobbit, and many other themes series including Sesame Street, Blues Clues, Hunger Games, Start Trek, Harry Potter, etc.  So many unique patterns...check it out! 
If only there were more hours in the day! I just don't have time to start a new project and want to focus on finishing up my UFO's.
After seeing Connie's post showing a cute block she was sewing, I thought to myself "well, maybe I'll just quickly make up one teeny tiny, little block". I had to hop over to the Quilt Play blog's tutorial and print out the pattern to try. It was very fun and a great use of scraps! So now I apparently have started another project for my rainbow scrap challenge!

I did have a slight glitch and cut my pattern by mistake...not once, but twice, sewing that last light center strip! It was easy to fix using the Scotch Magic Tape (a trick I learned from a Carol Doak book).
It sure was fun to do some paper piecing again.
To see what other purple projects the rainbow scrappers are working on, click here.

Guild Meeting

Another lucky quilty day for me...I won two prizes at guild meeting tonight! The first prize was for being the ONLY person to have a quilt to 'show and share' at the meeting!

And the second prize was for the block I made from September's mixer game...my partner and I each had to make a block using the orange fabric squares we were given at the September meeting and bring the block back to the October meeting. I used a block pattern from The Quilter's Cache which is a great website for hundreds of free patterns. I picked out a paper piecing pattern for a 6" block called "Fox and Geese". Somehow my block didn't end up looking exactly like the diagram, but close enough! The fabric square in the middle is from a 1/2 yard piece of fabric that my husband just brought back for me when he was in Vermont! I thought I could spare a tiny bit for a worthy cause!

I love paper piecing but don't you just hate the job of removing the paper from the back?!?! It's a mindless task that I do while watching TV, but I'd still rather be stitching than ripping!!

Anyway, my luck is going to be passed on to one of my blog readers. I am going to add one of my prizes to my Thanksgiving giveaway (see post here) so make sure you leave me a comment on that post to be entered in the draw. Here is the beaded point protector made by Jackie James that you can win in addition to the fabric and chocolate!

Note to Judy...I changed my blog settings so you should be able to enter an anonymous comment now! Don't want my faithful blog readers to be left out of the draw!!

Relaxing with paper piecing

Okay, I think I was a little hasty yesterday in saying crazy things about not starting new projects! Today I took a few deep breaths, had a little chocolate, and started working on a new paper pieced block by Carol Doak. I belong to Carol's Yahoo group and she designs new patterns at every big milestone as the group grows. This block pattern was to celebrate 4,000 members in the group! I just had to make one in my fall batiks. I like how Carol gives the measurements to cut out all the pieces before you start sewing and here is a photo of all my pieces all ready to sew...pure delight!
Now mind you, this sewing was not just to start a new project. No, it was purely for meditative purposes only...to give me some time to think about what to do about the mystery next weekend.
Here is the finished block. It was supposed to be 6 1/2" unfinished and but mine is 1/4" short of that. The block has 56 pieces of fabric in it. I think my version is a little too orangey, but I'd like to give it another shot and bring in some other colours.
I have come to the decision that I will probably/should do next weekend's mystery because the pattern designer (Deb) said that the small version only took her 3 1/2 hours to sew. Now how can a person pass up that tiny, little bit of fun and the opportunity to use up more stash!?!?
But I also promised myself that I must finish 2 projects between now and then before I can start this new mystery. Now that sounds somewhat reasonable, don't you think?!?!

Happy Easter!

I still have to hop around and hide some easter eggs before I can go to bed. But first a few quilty website updates.
1. The fabric requirements are posted for Quiltville's next mystery called "Orange Crush". I'm very excited to start a new project and hope I can figure out these fabric requirements...they are pretty tricky this time!
2. Linda at Paper Panache has a contest for a new mini mystery challenge. I am WAY behind and not likely to catch up any time soon on my mystery blocks!
3. And here is one of my favorite spring quilts that I paper pieced a couple of years ago. I always love to bring it out of storage as a sign that spring is here. Well this year, spring is here on the calendar only...we still have piles of snow!
If you like these quilt blocks, the pattern is free from eQuiltPatterns and is still online - click here. You have to order it as if you are purchasing something from them, but the total of your order is $0!! Although the easter eggs took a while to piece, this was a fun wallhanging to make.
Happy Easter!

My Lucky Day!

I am sooo relieved to be blogging tonight! My computer died again this week - for the second time in 6 months. I am so tired of palliative care for this "old" computer, but don't want to spend the time and money that is necessary to purchase a new one. Luckily my DH has breathed life into some of the programs again and tonight it is working somewhat. I can't wait to visit my favorite bloggers and see what I have missed. I still can't work the email yet, but am feeling a little hopeful that it will be revived soon.

And another lucky thing happened...I found my paper pieced blocks that I started piecing at quilt retreat, which I had "lost" in packing/unpacking after the retreat! For some strange reason I left them in a quilting magazine I was reading at retreat and found them this week when I picked up the magazine to finish reading it.

I had started paper piecing the word "winter" to include in my winter wallhanging that I have been working on for years. (You can read about that quilt and see some of the quilt blocks here.) I am using the letter patterns from Wendy Vosters website (which are free!). You can download those here. As you can see I have only finished half of the word, so now I will go ahead and finish the rest of the letters.

Paper Piecing Class

On Saturday I treated myself to a fun day of paper piecing with Denise McKenna from Meadow Lily Bridge. The quilt guild had sponsored this class and I had been so busy with my MIL in November that I thought I wouldn't possibly be able to go. But since I am having a wonderful break for a couple of weeks, while my MIL is finally getting some excellent medical care in a senior's facility, my schedule is not as crazy as it had been. My husband encouraged me to get away for the day and spend time sewing with my guild friends, so I did!

In the morning, Denise taught basic paper piecing skills and since I didn't want to do the beginner block (I've made many many heart blocks over the years!) I started working on my advent calendar blocks. I have wanted to make Denise's advent calendar for a while, since 2 of the quilters in my UFO group have finished their advent calendars. I had "quilt envy" and wanted one too! I picked out fabric to make my first blocks and in the morning I was able to finish a tree and a candy cane...2 down and 23 more blocks to go. Obviously this won't be finished in time to use this year, but it will be fun to have a Christmasy project to work on over the holidays when I have a few moments (I can dream, can't I?!?!).

Here is a photo of Denise holding one of her Advent Calendars. (You can click here to order the pattern if you have "quilt envy" too!). One of the interesting things about how Denise paper pieces is that she uses Chiropractor Headrest paper that you buy at medical supply stores for her foundation. It is stronger than tissue paper, but you can see through it easily so you don't have to hold your project up to the light to see where the fabric is. I enjoyed trying that and found it easy to work with. The draw back is that you can't run it through the printer and have to trace your block before you sew.
In the afternoon we worked on a more challenging 7" star block, and believe me, it was challenging! You sew the inside star block separately and then glue it to the overall pattern. Then Denise taught us how to make a flat piping border on a paper pieced block. I just love to learn new things and was happy with how it turned out. I think I might use a heat resistant batting and turn it into a potholder (not one to use of course, just to look at!).

Accidental new project

I really didn't need a new idea! I have so many projects that need attention and that I want to finish. But sometimes when you are looking for something in your stash and you see other goodies, then you get distracted and start something new by mistake. Or maybe this just happens to me?!?! I was checking my stash for backing fabrics to see what I need, because my quilting friend Debbie (Hi Debbie!) called to tell me about a fabric sale where I could get some great backing fabrics at reasonable prices...oh, and she also called to complain about the frequency of my blogging entries :)
So here's a new one Debbie!!
Anyway, I thought I would take a quick inventory of what I might need to buy at the sale (as if I "need" anything!), and I found a big bag of batik scraps from another of my quilting friends (Hi Judy!). And the next thing I know, I was making a new scrappy paper pieced mini quilt! Look at the beautiful pile of scraps...who could resist?!?
But I was tired and shouldn't have started something new and fiddley. So I covered all my usual paper piecing mistakes at least once. When I was using my favorite Magic Tape to patch up the pattern I cut by mistake for the third time, I thought I better pack it up for tonight.
Hope I have time to get to the fabric sale...now what was it that I needed?!?!