Lately, I have been learning to paper piece. Here is my second attempt to finish Big Little George, a small tutorial from Lynne at Lily's Quilts. I hope to finish the centre and outside bits this week - I think I am fine with these selections. The grey fabrics are all beautiful organic cotton from the line Shades of Grey by Daisy Janie and the solids are Kaffe Fassets shot cottons - both are amazing to work with.
I explained my other paper piecing adventures this weekend in posts here and here. I am currently smitten with paper piecing, it seems.
I am also working hard to finish Party Rings, my quilt from the large dresden QAL at Lily's Quilts.
These blocks are about 30" square so the quilt is 60" x 90". Each block was done quilt-as-you-go style, with the back fabric in place. I joined the blocks in the method Marci from Marci Girl Designs and I explained during a guest post on Lynne's blog. The joining method results in a smooth seam on the front, the batting sewn together using the sewing machine and hand stitching the back fabrics in place. There are some photographs of doing that with these actual blocks on flickr here.
Although the blocks were big and thus there was some amount of quilt wrangling, it was not hard to join the blocks smoothly and securely.
The benefit is that I was able to do very detailed quilting on each block - something I cannot do with my own sewing machine and a whole quilt. Here is my today's favourite quilted part:
This mosaic of the each block shows off the quilting (I have yet to sew in all the threads, I am still in progress). If you cannot see the quilting, click the picture and then on flickr you can enlarge it on your screen.
\I hope to finish the hand sewing of the backing fabric, then decide on binding fabric and attach the binding this week. After all that and after I sew in the threads left from the quilting, it will be all done. I promise to show it off one more time before I give it to my niece.
I am linking to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced, I hope you take the time to see all the excellent work displayed there too.
Leanne
Wowow!Both those projects are fantastic!
ReplyDeleteWhat wonderful detail on the blog. Great Job!
ReplyDeleteThose blocks look so good and I love the variegated thread your using!
ReplyDeleteBig Little George is looking beautiful - that Shades of Grey line is sooo top of my most wanted list... And your quilting on the dresdens is fab :-)
ReplyDeleteLove the colours in Little big George....I might just have to give paper piecing a try again.
ReplyDeleteI also love how each of your blocks is quilted differently...and that your quilting will show up on the back. It's looking so good.
Wow, your paper piecing and your quilting are both super impressive!
ReplyDeleteBoth of these are great! Love the quilting that you've chosen to do - it must've been really time consuming!
ReplyDeleteLittle Big George is lovely - v.soothing colours you've chosen. Party rings is looking amazing - loving your quilting on them. I'm sure your neice will love it when it's finished - lucky girl! Jxo
ReplyDeleteThe quilting on the party rings is awesome!
ReplyDeleteHi Leanne! I love you current work - it's going to be beautiful! Also that other quilt is really wonderful and great idea to quilt the blocks with different style!
ReplyDeleteI love the pink and brown combo - it's beautiful!
ReplyDeleteI love what you're working on, especially the large Dresden party rings! I want to try quilt-as-you-go on the embroidered quilt I'm working on and the antique Sunbonnet Sues that I'm finishing - I'll check out the link you posted! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThe dresden party rings are beautiful!!
ReplyDeleteThe quilting on your Dresden is just beautiful and Big Little George is super - lovely fabrics, reminds me I have one unfinished somewhere under a pile. So glad you are loving paper piecing.
ReplyDeleteThe quilting on your Dresdens is beautiful! I'm sure it's much easier to do such detailed quilting when you're working on a 30x30 square rather than trying to wrangle 60x90!
ReplyDeleteI love your Dresdens. I only just finished the top and am still pondering on how to quilt it but I won't be doing quilt as you go.
ReplyDeleteOh my, I hadn't seen the center quilting of that pink circle...so fabulous! I love it. I am trying to get caught up on all my blog reading, sorry to comment on so many in one day! :)
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