Reverse Applique

Last Saturday we had our monthly BMQG meeting where Pippa taught us her reverse applique technique. Below is what I was able to make during the lesson.

I liked this hand sewing technique and could see myself taking this along with me on trips to have some handwork to do.

I used some of my hand dyed fabrics for this and I think I'll probably make a small wall hanging out of this.  I'll do a bunch of different types of circles in many sizes and colors.  

Doll Quilt Swap 11

I signed up for the Doll Quilt Swap 11 lottery on Flickr about a month ago.  I was hoping I would get selected, but wasn't sure if I would since it was my first time signing up.  I've been following the group for a little while, admiring the work of so many of the women and their talent.

I was selected to participate and was given a partner that seemed to like a lot of oranges, blues and greens.  The problem for me? Orange is my least favorite color and I only had one orange fabric in my stash.

After digging through my stash, I decided on the above fabrics.  My partner also seemed to like a lot of straight, clean lines, so I decided to do a mini bento box quilt.

Here's what I've come up with so far.  The bottom left three blocks are out of place, but I'll fix that before I sew it together.  I still need to make a few more before I piece the top.  Right now it will measure at 10" x 10".  I'll probably make it 10" x 15" or 15" x 15".  The requirement is that the quilt must be at least 9" x 9" to 18" x 18" or anywhere in between.

I really hope my partner likes it.  She didn't comment on my first post showing the fabric choices.  I'm just going to move forward hoping that she just missed it and really does like it.  

And it's Off...

No, I'm not talking about a race, I'm talking about my Moonlit Sky quilt.

Yup, there it is all finished, packaged up and ready to mail out.  I just got back from the post office to send it off to the Lowell Quilt Festival.  In just a few short weeks, this beauty will be hanging on the show floor.  Whoo Hooo. 

I decided to wait to unveil the quilt and its 3000+ crystals until the actual show.  Not buying it?  Okay, you caught me.  I was so excited to finish and get it mailed out by the deadline that I forgot to get a final photo of it.  I promise to get a photo of it at the show.  Promise. 

Onto my next deadline, finishing my Doll Quilt Swap quilt.  But that's another post.

While I Was Away

I've been quite on the blogging front because I've been head down trying to finish my Moonlit Sky quilt for the Lowell Quilt Festival.  I have to send it out by the end of this week, so I've been working on it any time I have some free time.  Yesterday I finished adding the last of the 3000 Swarovski crystals and added and finished the binding.  All that is left is the hanging sleeve and the label.  I'll post pictures once I'm done.

In the mean time, I thought I'd share the project that i took with me to Georgia and the Bahamas.

I started making some hexi's using a free mini charm pack that I won a while back.  This totally isn't my style, but I thought I'd make this into a wall hanging as a gift for someone else.  I laid out all of the hexagons on the piece of paper behind it and taped them to it as I was sewing it together.  This helped me keep the layout that I wanted without hexi's moving all over the place.

I'll probably put this aside for a bit now and pick it up when it comes time to travel another time.  We shall see.  Maybe I'll bring it with my on our upcoming trip to Paris. 

How to Paper Piece Series - Books & Patterns

I'm continuing with my series on paper piecing.  Today I'll talk about books and patterns I recommend. You'll see a trend, mostly Carol Doak books and patterns.  Carol is the queen of paper piecing and does a fantastic job of explaining how to paper piece and comes up with some great patterns.  I'm not really a big fan of her fabric and color choices, but I look beyond that to the great patterns.  There are so many other books and patterns out there that I can't cover them all.  I'm only going to highlight a few that I find interesting. 

To view the first post on tools needed, click here.

To start, I would highly recommend that if you're interested in paper piecing to join the Carol Doak Yahoo group.  There's a link on the right rail of my blog to take you there.  On Carol's site she posts tons of free patterns, including blocks of the month series, holiday patters, milestone blocks, etc.  You can also learn tips and tricks from members and ask questions.  It's free to join and you can get a lot of great patterns and advice on here.

My favorite book right now is Carol Doak's Mariners Compass Stars book.

This is the book where I got the pattern for my Moonlit Sky quilt.

I like this book because it includes block patterns and shows you how to use the blocks in different quilt designs.

The next book I recommend is also Carol's.  It's 50 Fabulous Paper-Pieced Stars. 

I love this book because it has a lot of patterns that range in skill level.  Some blocks might have as few as 6 pieces per section (there might be 8 per block) and others have as many as 15-20+.  It's great for beginners and experts. This book was the first book I got on Paper piecing and used to make my first paper pieced quilt.

This is the quilt that stated it all.  I made one block in an intro to paper piecing class and made eight more because I was hooked.

Paper Piece the Quick-Strip Way is another good book.  While I haven't made anything from this book yet, I've used this book as a reference to strip piece and save time.  I don't follow the same technique, but I learned some tips and modified it to my preference.  There are some great patterns in here as well.

There are also many patterns out there for paper piecing.  I am currently working on the Fiesta! pattern by Possibilities.

The paper piecing directions are not very good in this pattern, but the actual pattern's provided are a great way to try a New York Beauty quilt.  There are a bunch of New York Beauty patterns out there using paper piecing, so look around to find a pattern that you like the best.

Google - Google is your friend when it comes to paper piecing patterns.  There are a TON of great paper piecing patterns out on the world wide web for free.  If you're looking for a free leaf pattern, just search for it.  I have found so many awesome patterns just by doing a search.