So here are the first few pieces of the new quilt.
I'm trying out English paper piecing for the first time, just to see what difference it makes to the patches. I'm following some brilliant directions by Karen Turner on her blog which make perfect sense, but I just don't 'get' it yet. I had originally wanted to make stars but couldn't in the end face all the angles, having struggled with a prototype I put together a while ago. So I found this book which as well as providing plenty of detail about quilting in general also has patterns to copy, which is far easier than trying to make them from scratch, and I've decided on Jacob's Ladder, which should be fairly straightforward as it's just squares and a few triangles.
The girls have been busy too, Milly is obsessesed with 'sticking' at the moment - she actually prefers to do the cutting whilst I do the sticking - and has asked to do this nearly every day. She takes little squares of coloured paper I've cut up for her and very very carefully cuts and tears them into tiny pieces which I then glue down. Luckily we both find it quite restful to do!
We've also had some fun painting sessions:
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| Love this triumphant gesture! |
Such good fun getting covered in paint!
Anyhow, back to the sewing :)
Thanks for the mention! My directions were never really intended as a full-on tutorial, and I may have to go back and add a little to it some time to clarify certain points. Good to see you having a go though. Most people either love or hate paper piecing, in the end. Generally if you're just doing straight line seams with shapes of the same size, it's unnecessary, but paper piecing is very good for either very tiny pieces or lots of pieces of different shapes and sizes. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteThanks Karen! I think it's important (for me anyhow) to try a technique out on something simple so I can see results easily - I tend to get easily dispirited otherwise. I'm a full-steam-ahead or stop-dead kind of gal! I can see already that the process has great potential for scrappy pieces because they hold their shape so well with the paper reinforcement. More fuel for ideas simmering on the back burner!
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