Thursday 23 January 2014

WIP - Global Bee blocks update

Our Queen Bee for January, Anna from Quilting Along The Grain, picked this paper pieced pattern called Kaleidoscope.  You can download the pattern free from Red Pepper Quilts Craftsy Shop if you would like to make some.  Anna wanted 2 of these teeny 4.5" blocks from us in the Global Scrap Bee and it being paper pieced I thought easy, I'll make her a few more!

I'd forgotten how much of an up and down success ride I have with paper piecing.  I made some paper pieced Doctor Who blocks and got lots of practice, designed the ears for Robot bear no problem and 24 fussy cut square in a squares later I thought easy peasy, I've got this down!  Well last night, while watching Benedict Cumberbatch in Parades End, I struggled to get a matching seam on the two halves of the block.

The seams coming together can be quite bulky and my machine just said nope, not doing that.  I came to the  middle section and it stuck in place, needle going up and down and nothing feeding through.  Of course I had stitch length set to 1.5 for the paper piecing bit and forgot to change so ripping out was a pain!  This was attempt number 1 (I eventually binned this one it hurt my eyes so much!)



Attempt #2 went better, still a bit off but at least no refusal at the jump!  In the end by the time Benedict's character had made his mind up to leave his wife, I had 2 decent looking blocks!

Maybe I was distracted by the love story or maybe practice makes perfect but 2 done at least for Anna to fulfill the brief.

Of course I tried again and things went much better.  The answer was in the pinning!


 To join the two pieces together I placed a pin in the join between the blue and white triangles to find the spot to pin from the back.
I moved the pin to the back spot as below and instead of turning the pin back into the fabric I placed a pin on either side of this one.
The trick was to keep this straight and when I did the pieces nested in better, my machine liked it better and I got really pretty points.  Pinning any other way gave me pieces that moved the seams on top of each other and my Husqvarna Viking didn't like it!

So now I have 4 blocks! Don't they make a lovely repeating pattern?  This is going to be one really lovely quilt.


I'm thinking these would look great as a cushion with 4 rows and 4 columns too!

Linking up to

Needle and Thread Thursday

and I Quilt Thursdays is back today too!

17 comments:

  1. Great blocks! did you remove the paper before you joined them together? I always leave it till the end as it stabilizes the fabrics.

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  2. They're beautiful! I have found keeping one pin straight does make a huge difference with some blocks too.

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  3. This is going to make a lovely quilt!

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  4. Cheery fabrics! Lovely.

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  5. These are really fun blocks and I love the diamonds they make in the negative space too!

    Kim
    http://tiesthatbindquilting.wordpress.com/

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  6. Those are great blocks! Glad you found a method to get those points together so well, they look awesome now!

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  7. those 4 blocks together look fabulous!

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  8. so bright and pretty! Bet they are like chips, you just want to make one more...
    LeeAnna Paylor
    lapaylor.blogspot.com

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  9. Paper piecing is such a challenge. I avoid it like the plague! Your blocks are lovely. Visiting from NTT.

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  10. I've yet to make a quilt with a white background...but I'm inspired by your post to do so! Thanks for sharing!!

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  11. wow those are teeny tiny! but so cute!!

    Thanks for sharing at Needle and Thread Thursday!

    :) Kelly @ My Quilt Infatuation

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  12. those blocks turned out perfect! I had problems with the points in the middle too. I wonder if making the block bigger would be any easier? Either way I would like to make them bigger!

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  13. What lovely blocks! I'd love to see how your queen bee chooses to quilt them :) thanks for linking up!

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  14. I love the secondary pattern! yes, they are going to be one pretty quilt.

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  15. You did a fantastic job, these are beautiful, can't wait to see the finished product!

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