Quilting & Learning - What a Combo!: pieced blocks

Showing posts with label pieced blocks. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Cold and Sunny at The Winter Blues Blog Hop

Welcome to my post in The Winter Blues Blog Hop. A big thank you to Carla for hosting this great event!

Cold and Sunny

For years I've been wanting to make a quilt block that looks like the sun. I found the pattern, Sunnyside, in Spotlight on Neutrals, Quilts and More for Any Decor by Pat Wys. Since I only make one large quilt every two years, making a full quilt for this blog hop wasn't an option, but I still wanted to try out the block.

Cold and Sunny

Challenges

I realise that I haven't pieced a new quilt block in months. I'm going to use that as my excuse for all of the effort this lovely took!

It's always tricky to pull apart the instructions for a large quilt and break it down to a single block. I managed to inverse the colours for one of the section, in the instructions that I wrote for myself. Then, as you can see, I sewed some of the pieces not in the right place. Oops!!!

Oops!

Block is properly pieced with
a velvet border

The pieces weren't the only challenges. For this project, I used some hand-dyed fabrics by Elaine Quehl, a renown fibre artist. The yellow is simply stunning. For the blues, I had bought a Textile Temptation Pack that included dupioni silk and silk-rayon velvet, again all hand-dyed by Elaine. Making this blocks was difficult enough but adding these fabrics to the mix did not make it easier. However, I believe that the pain was worth it. I have the bluest blue that I could find with a bright happy yellow. What more can an art quilter ask for?

Ready to FMQ

Free Motion Quilting (FMQ)

The good news is that FMQ on these fabrics was lovely.

I did a lot of research and finally used two of Leah Day's quilting designs for the sun - Gentle flame (#3) and Sun Medallion (#254) from her Free Motion Quilting Project.

I was considering putting flames in the blue dupioni silk fabric but thought that it might be too much. I'm glad that I decided to use wavy lines, like the heat shimmering from the sun.

Details of the Free Motion Quilting

Cold and Sunny

What I learned

I wish that I was the kind of person who could make a practice piece before tackling the final one. I have no doubt that it would result in a much better final product. Unfortunately, no matter how useful it would be, it's not likely to happen. The best that could happen is that I'll use this pattern for another, different project. Then, at least, I might apply the lessons I learned.
Using different fabric would have made my life much easier, but these were perfect for this project...so I adapted!
Until yesterday afternoon, I had no idea how I was going to finish this block. Finally I added two inch strips to the borders and just turned it under. The back is very messy and uneven, but the front is fine.
I drew the FMQ pattern for the Sun Medallion several times, but I should have practiced quilting it. I just noticed that it's in Leah Day's advanced designs, so a little more practice would have been good.

Thursday, March 26, 2015

No Rules Scrappy Piecing

A long weekend of quilting was just what I needed to recharge my batteries.

I hadn't participated in any quilting retreats since last spring. I was overdue. I love quilting at home but sometimes it's great to be sociable; see what others are making; and of course, learn and try new things.

The night before the retreat, I was planning what to bring. I had energy since I was taking the next day, a Friday, off. I tried to make a new block for my garden exchange - it was a dud. I made a stand from fabric and cardboard for my IPod Touch - it turned out ok, but I managed to get the measurements wrong. No big deal, but a sure sign that I was tired. Very tired.

So Friday I went to the retreat with at least 5 projects to work on. When I got there, I knew that if I did anything that required concentration, that it would be a disaster - so I took out my box of scraps. Turns out I didn't even have the energy to trim them. Not a good sign.

Box of scraps

So what did I do? I started sewing the scraps together. Any old way - it didn't matter, as long as I was sewing. After an hour of this, I decided to do the social thing and go see what my friends were doing. Quite a few of the quilters were making this very cool quilt called Toes in the Sand. It's a quilt of wonderfully pieced triangles set between solid triangles. Very intricate and very, very lovely. I wanted to make one - but that wasn't going to happen that weekend, until it hit me that I could make my triangles out of scraps. No measuring, no fussing with seams, just sewing tons of scraps together and then cutting the pieces into triangles!

When I got home on Sunday afternoon, I had 18 triangles completed. I even made a couple more Sunday evening!

Cutting a triangle from a scrappy block

Scrappy triangle is 12.5 inches on all sides

Tonight I got back into my scrap box since I need 24 scrappy triangles for the quilt. I don't usually write about my process (mostly because I keep forgetting to take pictures!) so this time I made an effort.

Leftovers attached to new piece

Once I have a block that is big enough for my triangle template, I cut out the triangle. To make another triangle, I can attach the leftover fabric to a new piece. I trim the sides to make it easier to add more fabric, and keep going until the piece is large enough.

Trim to be able to add more scraps

I keep going like this, either adding leftover pieces to new blocks or just starting new blocks.

Isn't it adorable?

Pieced block from another project

Old blocks that never quite made it into a project can also be used to build up the scrappy piece. In this instance, this block was for my Beginner's quilt-along. I was using monochromatic colours within each block. I thought that black and white might look good, but they were definitely not monochromatic! Since the points on the block are pretty rough, I really didn't mind cutting it up for this project.

Here is the resulting triangle.

What I learned:

Not following any rules, not measuring and just playing with fabric is very therapeutic.
Although there are no rules, there are some best practices! The first one is to iron - a lot!
I made some of my triangles around a focal point, but tried not to make too many of these.
I have often played with my scraps when I want to sew but don't know what to do. When I started making these triangles, I had all kinds of partially sewn pieces that I could put together.
When you think a piece is doing well, cut it up and place a thin strip of fabric between the two pieces. It's also fun to invert the pieces when you put them back together.
The resulting triangle is often a surprise. Since I used a paper template, I'm never sure what my triangle will look like until it's been cut.

I now have 22 triangles and have chosen my background fabric. The next part of this project will be more structured. It'll be back to following the rules - just like going back to work after a vacation!

I've linked up to Fabric Tuesday and Link-a-Finish Friday (the quilt isn't finished but most of the triangles are!). Check out our fellow quilters!

Tuesday, August 05, 2014

Trying new things

I'm not sure if other quilters feel this way, but I tend to stick to things that I know and feel comfortable making. Although I love to try new techniques, I often need extra energy and courage to start.

Block 2 - Amethyst

For example, most of the blocks that I've made to date for my Grandmother'sChoice quilt are pieced. For you non-quilters, a pieced block generally means that we cut the various pieces of fabric we need and then sew them together. The pieces are generally rectangles, squares or triangles in different sizes. We sew them together to make a specific pattern or block. If the pieces are other shapes, then we can trace the shape and make a template (although there are now fancy rulers to replace many templates).

Quilters will often have strong opinions about using templates. Until recently, as soon as I saw a template in a pattern, I skipped it! I was sure that cutting rectangles, squares or triangles was just much easier. Now I'm not so sure.

Block 33 - Contrary Husband

In my Grandmother's Choice quilt I consciously stayed away from anything with a template. However, there were a few blocks that I wanted to make that required templates, such as block 48 representing Canadian suffrage. So, I gave the template blocks a try. After all, they're only 8 inch blocks - if they don't turn out, I don't have to use them in the final quilt!

In my lastblog about Grandmother's Choice blocks, quite a few of the blocks were made using techniques other than straight piecing. Here are the blocks that I made using templates:

block 2 - Amethyst
block 33 - Contrary Husband
block 34 - Coffee Cup
block 48 - Fair Play

Block 34 - Coffee Cup

Block 48 - Fair Play

They mostly turned out well. My favourites are the Amethyst and the Contrary Husband blocks. The Coffee Cup didn't turn out as well as I had hoped but it had nothing to do with the template but rather my choice of fabric. (I really have to listen to my instinct when I do these!)

The Fair Play block, representing Canadian suffrage, went well even if it had two challenges - templates and curves. I know I shouldn't be intimidated by curves since I've been sewing sleeves on clothing most of my life - but it's a little more intimidating on a block (mistakes show up more!)

Block 7 Alice's Flag

Another technique is the appliqué block. To date I've only done a few of these:

block 7 - Alice's Flag
block 21 - Parasol
block 36 - Sunbonnet Sue

These blocks are more or less fine. Appliqué is just not my forte, but I will keep trying to get better! The good thing about appliqued blocks is that they will be quilted over, so that will help hide any little problems and keep them attached.

Block 36 - Sunbonnet Sue

Block 21 - Parasol

Since I LOVE paper piecing, I decided to see if I could convert a template block into a paper pieced block. First of all, I read a couple of articles by Carol Doak, the queen of paper piecing. The first article is Piecingon Paper - Converting Traditional Designs to Paper-Foundation Patterns. The second article is Piecing onPaper - Designing Your Own Blocks. Between these two articles and experience paper piecing, it was simple enough to do.

These are the two blocks that I converted to paper piecing:

block 11 - Little Red Schoolhouse
block 17 - Mother's Delight

Block 17 - Mother's Delight

For the Little Red Schoolhouse block, converting it to paper piecing was mostly a matter of figuring out where to separate the sections. The only adjustments I had to make were to cut up the side section of the sky into two parts.

Block 11 - Little Red Schoolhouse

I also had to add a border around the block since it was more like 7 inches. That was an error in photocopying the pattern.

Block 17 pattern and sample piece

Block 11 Paper Piecing Pattern

The Mother's Delight block looked easy enough but turned out to be very tricky to sew together. As you can see, I made a sample piece using scraps before trying the real thing. The tricky part was connecting the top part (A&B) to the bottom part (1,2,3,4). It involved what can either be called an inset or "Y" seam.

Those can be difficult to sew, but when I googled Y seam to make sure that this is what it's called; I found a great tutorial by JennyBeyer. I may go back and redo this block - it'll depend on how ambitious I feel when I get back to this project.

What I learned:

Templates are not always difficult to use. I'll try to be a little more open to doing projects with them from now on.
Appliques are still difficult! I guess I need more practice.
I was really happy to convert those two blocks to foundation paper piecing. I think that for pieced blocks with many small pieces, paper piecing is a good option when possible. It was a good experience - now I know that I can do it.
Next time, I might want to check out the internet tutorial BEFORE I finish the block.

Link to Grandmother's Choice: Votes for Women website