Paper piecing

Linda at Paper Panache combines 2 of my favorite things...mystery and paper piecing. I don't know why I enjoy it so much, but I have enjoyed sewing these blocks for years.  Some have been made into mini quilts and given away,  but I have quite a collection of sewn blocks, and might one day turn them into a great kid's quilt. 
I challenged myself with mystery block #52 to paint all the fabric using Setacolor paints and here are the colours I made.  I worked away on piecing parts over the summer and since the new mystery has been posted (block #53), I can now show you my finished block.
Ta da...my pink flamingo!

Painting and Paper piecing

I enjoy sewing the mystery blocks at Paper Panache and have made many of them over the years. These blocks combine two of my favorite activities - mystery quilting and paper piecing.  I have sewn the block that Linda currently has for sale on the Paper Panache home page which was a previous mystery block #38.

I have this guy up on my design wall and often think about sewing some cat blocks in the border, but just haven't gotten around to it.

(Hey... Linda has a free pattern to sew "a round tuit"  click here!!)

Anyway, it's too hot here to do much machine quilting these days, so I have been slowly working on the new mystery block #52. I had set a challenge for myself to use only fabrics I had hand painted.  (You can read about it here and see the colours I painted).

 I started piecing the blocks and quickly ran out of the light blue fabric  before I had sewn half of the pieces. 

So I got out the paints again and painted more blue. The problem is I never write anything down, so I had to figure out which blue it was, and how much water to add to get a matching colour, and then see if it was usable once it dried (paint always dries lighter). This was trickey and very unscientific, as is my usual style!

But I think I got enough blue yardage that is "close enough". 

Here you can see the parts I had finished piecing on the right, my instruction sheet with the colour chart, the scraps of the original leftover blue pieces, and the remaining pattern pieces to sew, all on top of the new blue fabric...what do you think....is it a close enough match?!?

Paper Piecing challenge

To relax after my family camping "holiday", I have been working on the latest Paper Panache mystery block and it is a doozie! If you're a regular blog reader you know that I really enjoy paper piecing, and try to sew as many of the mystery blocks from Paper Panache as possible.  You can see some of the other mystery blocks I have sewn here.  I love the combination of paper piecing and mystery! 

However, I always make the same mistakes at least once per sewing session. It's an annoying little habit that I can't seem to break no matter how much I concentrate. 

 I always get at least one folded over seam, and I place the fabric piece I am attaching on the wrong side. So now, I just accept my mistakes and say to myself  "oh good, I got that mistake out of the way now" and carry on...."accept the things you cannot change"!!

*Mystery spoiler* coming up...if you don't want to see the latest paper panache mystery block don't keep reading!  Here are my pieces all sewn and trimmed. Some of these little tiny pieces were really labour intensive. I figure that it took me between 6 and 7 hours to get the block to this stage.

So what is it!?! It is a fish of some sort. Not being a fisherwoman, I don't know if this is a real kind of fish or not...looks like a flying geese fish to me! I wish I would have sewn my fish in bright colours with a blue background, but I followed the colours recommended on the pattern. Anyway, here is my flying geese fish...she seems to be yelling "I've had enough of 'holidays' with 10 children and I want some quiet time to sew"!
If you want to get this pattern, you can buy it over at Paper Panache - click here.

Retreat projects report #1

This is one of the first projects I wanted to finish at retreat. In my previous mini class I taught the wheel of mystery a.k.a. winding ways (you can see my first quilt here). The pattern is from the EQ5 block called "four leaf clover". I thought it could be easily changed to this variation of the design by drawing heart lobes on each petal and it could become a Valentine's mini. I had finished most of the applique by retreat, so I just had to stitch in the ditch, buttonhole stitch around the hearts, bind, and sew on the buttons. I think the bias binding gives it a nice edging. Blcoks are 3" and the quilt measures about 9.5".
Warning...mystery spoiler ahead!
I must have been still thinking about Valentine's day because my next project turned out to be more of the same theme! I had printed out the mystery block from Paper Panache and gathered the fabrics a while ago, but didn't have a chance to get to it until retreat. This is what the pieces looked like from the front and how the block pieces fit together from the back.

And this is the finished block...a Valentine's rose.
The process of these mini paper pieced mysteries is truly one of my favorite quilting activities...not too time consuming but complex enough to be a challenge. Thanks to Linda who has been providing these delighful free mystery blocks for years ( I have made 7 of 50 her mystery blocks).

Summer is finally here

It has been strange weather lately - wearing coats one day and sweating in shorts and tshirts the next. However, I enjoyed watching my daughter's soccer game yesterday while sitting in the warm sun...summer must be finally coming! My peonies have bloomed and are just beautiful this year, so I have to show you a picture to brag about that - even though I have nothing to do with it! They don't usually last very long after a few good rains that smoosh them but I sure adore them while they last.

Don't look at the next photo if you are planning to sew the Paper Panache mystery block and don't want to ruin your surprise. I took a few minutes away from machine quilting to finish piecing the mystery block and here it is.

I always enjoy piecing Linda's mystery block and this is one happy looking sun block! I made my usual mistakes that I make every time I have a paper piecing session: 1) sew on the wrong line or out of sequence, and 2) cut a piece of fabric just a bit too small. I eliminated my usual third mistake (I sew a piece of fabric wrong side up) by using all batik fabrics on this block. I don't know what I will do with Mr. Sun - maybe make a little wallhanging for my front door for summer.

Mystery solved!

Shortly after easter, both of my children started with a violent stomach flu...ugh! I have set up a little hospital here and have been busy night and day. It is like having a newborn again! All the things I had planned to finish this week won't get done. Oh well, at least the children are starting to feel better and so far my husband and I have avoided the bug. I hope to be able to venture out to the guild meeting tonight.
I did finish my paper pieced mystery block from Paper Panache. All fabrics were from my stash, so I am happy about that! I'll have to figure out what I want to do with it. I'm thinking about adding a border or two and making a little spring wallhanging. The little black thing on the bottom is supposed to be a bug...the little creature type of bug, not the stomach virus kind of bug!! I'm not sure if I will put something else there or enhance his appearance with some stitching. Maybe after all this vomiting I don't really want to be reminded of "bugs"...and will cover him over with a little flower!

Paper pieced mystery

I have had some time to sew together the pieces for the mystery block. Here they are resting on my ironing board. Any guesses as to what I am making?!? These pieces are not trimmed yet, and need to be sewn together.

Check in tomorrow to see what it is!