The fabric line is called Garden Path from Clothworks. I bought it awhile ago at The Hobby Horse because I just loved the brightness and colourfulness of it. I'm going to pull co-ordinating fabrics from my stash and get these blocks done.
I have decided to go with creams and one colour for as many blocks as I can. The first block was #9. I took the paper piecing pattern and I coloured in with my choice where I wanted to place those fabrics.
I used to use crayons, but I've switched over to coloured pencils. I was getting a little nervous about the wax from the crayons melting into the fabric when I pressed my blocks. This block is all purples and creams. I love it now! |
| Yes, that third one is really purple! |
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| See the difference. The first one was just too busy for me. Once this block was done, I moved on to that dreaded pineapple block. No. 39 in the book. What cause so many headaches the day before, just went together beautifully. I did have to change my mind about using green. I didn't have enough selected. I switched it to.......  and now it is perfect..............IMHO (in my humble opinion)
I'm not going to offer any lessons on the blog for paper piecing. I do it my way. I tried to do it other ways and it wasn't working for me, so I struggled with it for a few years before I found something I was comfortable with. When I taught a class a couple of years ago, one of the students told me she used to do it the same way I did, but when she attended a class, the teacher told her she was wrong and had to change. I must say I heartily disagree with that teacher. I advised all my students that day, that if they are happy with the way their work turns out and are comfortable with the technique they use, then that's the way you do it. If a teacher says you are wrong, wrong, wrong, get up, pack up your stuff and walk out of the room. There is no right way, no wrong way. There will be some that disagree with me, but that's okay. That's what makes the world go 'round. I do have my favourite tools for paper piecing. I have a turntable cutting mat, an add-a-quarter ruler, and a wallpaper roller. Karl made mine as what you can find in the stores now are made of plastic. This little roller saves me lots of trips back and forth to the iron. I iron my blocks periodically while I sew them and when I finish them, but I can do a lot of "pressing" with this until I need to go to the ironing board.  Just watch the grid! For this purpose it doesn't matter if the grid is right on, but if you were designing a block, it can make all the difference. Sorry I keep forgetting to tell you the name of the book............. 101 Log Cabin Blocks, by Linda Causee Til tomorrow....................  |
