Eternal Paper Piecing Projects

I have a tendency to start projects without a plan.  Things that don't have patterns, but are interesting. And I'm ok with this!  For me, quilting is more about the process than the final result.  A few years ago, there was a talk at our knitting guild that discussed how people either are either focused on having results or feel satisfied merely by the doing.  I'm a process quilter!

Yesterday I pulled out all kinds of my 'Eternal Paper Piecing Projects'.  I don't know what motivated me, but I was ready to 'move the needle' (a phrase people use at my work!) on a few things. I was working on 5 different projects at once!! Bananas! But as long as I was paper piecing one project, might as work on others.  It's hard to alternate between 'regular' stitching and paper piecing, because it is too much to change the stitch length back and forth.

At my January retreat, I started a project that makes me question my sanity.  It's a log cabin diamond pattern from "Little Bits".  I've done 2 other patterns by them and really loved the results.  The diamond shape definitely adds a bit more difficulty! I decided to use the scraps from the many yellow and grey quilts that I've made in the last 2 years.  In the picture below, the middle diamond is from January and I started the other 2 yesterday.  There are 24 diamonds in the final pattern! I don't know what I have gotten myself into!! =O

Another project I worked on yesterday was my 'Little Ladies'.  I'm not sure exactly when I started this? 2008? (yes! I looked in my blog history!) The little ladies went missing for a bit after my move last summer. They turned up in a box that hadn't been unpacked yet.  I thought it would be fun to put them up on the design wall and see how they have progressed. I have a few more light background than I do dark, so I decided to work on a another dark background yesterday.  They look animated and fun when they are in their parts waiting for the final block assembly! =)

I've had these trees for a while.  Some of them were not 100% completed, so I finished those up.  I have patterns for quite a few more, but I don't have very much of the grey in large pieces (but I have a ton of little chunks from trimming up another quilt).  What to do?  I could try and order more of the Moda Bella that I used? I know the dye might not match up perfectly? I could make more with black? I saw a cool pattern on Pinterest that might be a fun layout, where the trees are spaced far apart with quite a bit of negative space.  For now I will let them age!

And the last eternal paper pieced project I'll share today is my micro-itty-bitty pineapples.  Of course I can't seem to find a photo of the other colors I've made.  I have quite a few others completed- 10? There was a purple and I'm pretty sure it committed suicide by falling off my design wall into the garbage!! =O  The grey has been sitting half finished for quite a long time (notice a trend!!).  This photo is still not complete-- It needs another piece on each corner. The clover clip and foot are there for an idea of scale.  These guys are super tiny!

Linking up with Judy's Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times.

xoxo

Sew much going on...

Sew little time to blog about it...

I've had a lot of quilty things going on lately, but I've struggled to turn them into blog posts.  Last Monday, the Mad City Quilt Guild had a workshop scheduled with Jacquie Gering, but unfortunately, she had an emergency and couldn't make it from Chicago to Madison. In addition to the workshop, she was going to speak at our evening guild meeting.  We needed a last minute replacement, so I volunteered!

In January, I was scheduled to present a paper piecing demo, but our meeting was cancelled due to the Polar Vortex. This worked out pretty well, because I had a lot of the prep still handy from a few months ago.  The talk was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed sharing one of my favorite techniques.  I don't have any nice photos to share of the evening (I was a bit busy!), but I can include a few pics of things I shared in the trunk show portion of the talk:

My first paper piecing project (I use them as coasters!)

Some fun pumpkin wall hangings:

A Mariner's Compass wallhanging (still needs to be quilted)

One of many trees I've been making with no real purpose:

A Christmas Tree I drafted last year (not yet quilted)

My Circle of Geese:

WIP: Cartwheels

My Featherweight wall hanging (I don't have a 'final' picture handy, but it's done!)

A baby quilt for Little Leah:

And a baby quilt for Amelie (Kaffe Fassett's pattern)

But wait, I have more to share!!  I'll keep it brief and maybe post more on this later...

Last Saturday the Mad Mod Quilt Guild had a Sew Day at The Electric Needle.  I was able to join in for a few hours and made an adorable little gnome.  I was a bit distracted and didn't get any pics!! Maybe tomorrow?

And finally-- tomorrow is a big day.  I have the day off from work, so I can attend the Prairie Heritage Quilt Show in Sun Prairie.  I entered 2 quilts.  AND-- this coincides nicely with the afternoon meeting of the Mad City Quilt Guild.  Hooray!!  See?  Sew much going on!

Saturday Sewing Solitary Style

Last week, after spending 5 days at retreat sewing with 40 ladies, I took a little time on Saturday to be by myself. It was almost like my own personal retreat, because I didn't really do anything else all day except create.  

The most important project of the day was to prep for a paper piecing demo I am doing on Monday night for the Mad City Quilt Guild.  We are having a 'Schoolhouse' night.  Four people are presenting on different topics.  The members divide into 4 groups and rotate through each presenter's station.  I only have 15 minutes to explain paper piecing!  Gulp!  This is going to be hard!  My plan is to display a string of flying geese at each step of the process.

Over 1 year ago, I made a Circle of Geese mini quilt.  It was done except for having the binding hand stitched.  It's a great sample for my presentation, so I took the time to finish it.  Hmm.  The chalk marks are showing up in this picture?

Next up was to work on using up scraps in Rainbow String Blocks.  My scrap bins are overflowing, so I thought this quilt would help tame them.  Four blue blocks later and there isn't a visible difference. =(  I was thinking I would make 12 diamonds and donate it to charity.

Last up was to work on my Cartwheel quilt.  I got the quadrants complete on block number 10.  Only 2 more blocks after that!  Yay!

And that is when I was too tired to sew any more.  What a great day!

xoxo