Have you ever wanted to try a new technique, but were a bit intimidated by it?
That was me with paper piecing. But thanks to Carla over at Lollyquiltz, I have overcome! Carla wanted to purge a stack of her quilting books and I was one of the lucky ducks that received some of her bounty. This was one of the books. It has patterns of paper-pieced quilt labels. They are like mini blocks.
I figured now was a good time to give it a try. What did I have to lose, but a bit of fabric?
Here is my first attempt. It was a complete disaster. I couldn’t figure out what I was supposed to turn back and what I was supposed to trim.
I was about to give up paper piecing forever when I remembered all the knowledge that is out there in cyberspace. Some kind soul must have done a tutorial on this, I thought. After a quick search on YouTube, I found this video.
Even though I didn’t have the tools she recommends in the video, I was able to follow her technique. I used a regular acrylic ruler and gave it a shot with some scraps and voila! I made a crazy rose!
After that, I was completely smitten. I went searching the internet for free patterns. I found one by Ula Lenz and I made this.
And then I made it into this.
Ooh-wee! There’s no stopping me now! I’m so glad that I gave paper piecing a try. Who knows what I’ll stitch up next?!?
What technique have you been itching to try?
6 comments
fun! ironically i was paper piecing today, too! with mixed results… it was a little hard to wrap my brain around exactly which side was which… i'm in a bee group that is making polariods this time around. bree is our leader and here's her tutorial: http://my-crafty-crap.blogspot.com/2011/12/polaroid-quilt-block.html
Woo hoo, you've got it! Paper piecing was a challenge for me too. But once you get the concept, you wonder why you found it so challenging! It's a really fun technique with killer results. I encourage everyone to try it.
Love paper piecing!! Very nice work you do! 🙂
Your work is absolutely beautiful!! Nicely done!
Yay! Good for you, Nicole! Paper-piecing is a bit of a mind stretch isn't it? Currently I'm trying some new blocks (the asterisk being my most recent) and also continue to work on my fmq skills.
You will love doing paper piecing. It's my favorite way to put a block together. The patterns are endless, and, the results, spectacular.
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