Garden Party - free PDF pattern

Jennifer over on Sewhooked is hosting a paper-pieced pattern a day all month long to celebrate her birthday. How awesome is that? She has the birthday and we get the presents! I am honored to be included in the group of talented sewists who are creating patterns and today is my day to share a pattern with you.

This block was designed for maximum versatility. There are three distinct sections to the block: tall birdhouse on the left, small birdhouse and butterfly on the right. Each section is pieced separately and then joined together. In addition, each half is the same width so you can join the blocks vertically if you like to make one long block or a small wall hanging.

The birdhouses are probably the easiest parts to piece. Just one of these would make a cute snack mat - or you could add extra background material to make a set of placemats!

You could even make several birdhouses of varying heights to make a perfect Spring table runner.

The butterfly is the most complex portion of the block, but I would encourage you to give it a try even if you're relatively new to paper-piecing. And if you'd rather skip it, you can always replace the butterfly portion with additional background fabric.

I hope you enjoy this pattern as much as I enjoyed creating it!

Garden Party PDF

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to check out the many other blocks featured this month.

***And thank you to those of you who alerted me to a problem accessing the PDF. It seems to be fixed from my end of things with the file being made public so that anyone with the link can access it. If you are still having any trouble, let me know. Thank you for your patience! If you haven't already figured it out - this is my first time trying to post a PDF link on my blog!***

Under the wire

Thank goodness February had that extra day or I wouldn't have finished my Cocorico block for the month!

Muriel chose Pippi as her theme. I remember growing up with Pippi Longstocking stories and films so this was a fun trip down memory lane.

When I think of Pippi, it's always about her hair and her stripey socks. Too chicken to even attempt her face, I settled on the stocking feet. I like the bold graphic quality of this block, though it was a bit of a bear to construct. Thankfully, Muriel likes it - and that's the most important part of all!

Petite Piecing

This year, the Portland Modern Quilt Guild decided that it would be fun if we each made our own name tags. Last night I realized I better get going on mine if I wanted to wear it to our meeting tonight!

So here's my super-teeny-tiny paper pieced sewing machine name tag! The entire thing measures 3" x 4" so it's pretty small.

Sewing machine details are embroidered on and I stamped my name with Versacraft ink, which is then heat set to become permanent. Tape measure print is a lovely scrap from Ayumi (thank you!) and the binding is heath by Alexander Henry.

All in all a very fun and satisfying project that took relatively little time. Can't wait to see everyone else's name tags at the meeting!

UPDATE: Free paper-piecing pattern for the sewing machine HERE.

Language

Parts of this post may offend. I do not mean for them to offend, but there you have it. Maybe it will help to know that I started my career in theater as a stagehand and carpenter before moving on to stage management. When working backstage or in a scene shop, I was often the only woman and I picked up some rather unladylike habits. Cussing like a sailor would be one of them.

I worked very hard on this quilt block.

Lots of teeny tiny piecing.

Completely and totally imperfect because I have never tried making these types of paper pieced letters before. They were HARD!

This picture isn't all that great but I wanted to share how all those seams need to play together on the back of the block.

This is for Chawne's "Give a F*ck" communal quilt project. You can read more about it on her awesome blog. Be careful - you will get sucked into her amazing crafting.

It turned out vaguely patriotic with all that red, white,and blue. Perhaps I've been watching a bit too much of the current debate cycle. Or maybe I was thinking about the economy. Or about the whole Occupy movement. Or about how we don't adequately fund our schools. Who knows? I like it. Like I said, it's not perfect, but neither am I. So we made a good pair.

Until I mailed it out and had to say goodbye.

Now I'm glad to have these pictures to share because I'm afraid the block has gone missing in the mail. It's been a week and has not yet been received. I'm prepared for the worst.

And I guess I need to make another block.

Fuck.

***UPDATE*** I am so so so happy to report that the block arrived safe and sound at its destination! Whew!

Gratitude

I am in constant amazement. Really.

Every. Single. Day.

Here's one of the current reasons:

A dry field trip to the farm and pumpkin patch with Miss B's preschool class. Good times! Huge difference from last year (when we did NOT wear our boots) and the fields were nothing but a big ole mud slick.

Another reason I'm feeling the love:

I recently grabbed up some sweet fabric from Ashley's destash and asked about any FMF scrap packs she might have. I'm trying to put together a small and simple quilt using some of the coveted fabric as a fundraiser for the Arthritis Foundation. She was so gracious and kind and she sent me these gorgeous pieces. I never cease to be amazed at the kindness within the sewing/quilting/crafting community.

And the crazy amazing cherry on top of everything?

I am now the grateful and awestruck owner of this amazing book.

After posting about my search for Patchwork Patterns 318, I was sent a few leads on getting a copy. None of them panned out. The book was either already sold or waaaaay out of my price range. I kept looking but must admit that my search became somewhat half-hearted.

About two months later, I got an email from Stephanie, who read my blog post and was about to list her copy on etsy. I was headed out to Camp JAM and asked if she could wait to list it until I got back from camp because if I could afford, I would take it!

Well, imagine my surprise when I returned from camp to find an email from Stephanie, telling me about her grandmother's lifelong love of sewing and how she'd had to stop when her arthritis became too painful. Stephanie wanted to give me this book. And I promptly burst into tears.

I mean, really? We hear all the time from so many places what a messed up world we live in. I'm telling you - this world is great! People are amazing! There is goodness all around.

So I sit here. Filled with gratitude for family and friends and strangers who have become special people in my life. Life is wonder-full.

And yes, I know I used the word "amazing" a lot in this post. What can I say? It is what it is.

A Snow Globe is Born

Thanks goodness for the PMQG all day sew this past weekend. I actually completed a quilt top and worked on my latest paper pieced block. A snow globe for Melinda!

Melinda is one of my new friends over in the Cocorico bee on flickr. Her theme was "Vintage Christmas". I remember collecting snow globes as a child. I just loved shaking them up and watching the sparkley snow fall down over the scene!

This block was lots of fun to work on, though in the interest of full disclosure I have to admit to spending a bit of quality time with my seam ripper. There are a couple of places that I wish I had done a little differently but overall, I think it turned out okay.

Here's a picture with a ruler in it to give you an idea of the scale. Tiny! Curved piecing still makes me very nervous, so I made the snow globe and will applique that onto the background fabric.

And that quilt top I finished? Hopefully, I can get that basted and quilted up in the next week or so. It all depends on the kids and schedules and life.

Speaking of which.... this past weekend the whole family went to the Jingle Bell Run/Walk kick-off party and it was a blast. We got to speak about our family's experience with Owen and his juvenile arthritis. And Owen even got up in front of about 350 people and told a joke. I'm so proud of him! If you'd like to help him reach his goal, just follow the link on the top right of the blog.

Cocorico ~ Krista's Block

November is Krista's month over in the Cocorico paper piecing bee on flickr. She chose "Hit the Slopes" as her theme because her whole family enjoys winter sports and skiing. One of her inspiration photos was a ski boot, so I tried to tackle that.

I really enjoyed designing this block and figuring out how to get that typical ski boot look with the leg portion leaning forward. I'm a little worried that the fabric choices have made the boot a little busier than I would have preferred, but Krista likes it and that's what's most important!

If you are interested in trying paper piecing or want a cute winter pattern to sew up, check out Kerry's very first PDF pattern for sale! Kerry's work is impeccable and I just know that the same amount of thought and care that she puts into her sewing has been put into this pattern. I just purchased mine and can't wait to stitch a few up. And she promises more patterns to come.

Looking forward to beginning a new quilt this weekend at our guild's all day sew. What are you working on?

A bee block for Annabel

For her month's theme in Cocorico, Annabel wanted blocks made with an orchard theme. After thinking about the theme for awhile and coming up with a couple of different possibilities, I settled on making a bee.

I love bees. I also have an allergic reaction to their sting so I have to be careful! But I really think they're amazing - their highly organized social structure and their efficiency at caring for their hive, working together, and making delicious honey. Of course, they also play a very important part in the life of an orchard because they pollinate the tree blossoms to help make yummy fruit for us to enjoy.

My inspiration illustration is above right. From that picture I made a larger more simplified drawing of the bee on graph paper. Once I worked on the drawing for awhile,I realized a few things:

If I tried to paper piece the legs I would probably go insane.

I needed to slightly shorten the body of the bee so it would look less like a wasp.

This was going to be hard.

Thanks to a PMQG all day sew, I had a lot of uninterrupted time to work on this block and this is what I have so far! Instead of piecing in the legs I'll be thread sketching them with black thread. And I'll embroider the antennae on as well. I'm completely nervous that I'll screw this part up and ruin the work I've already done!

This is just a more detailed look at the bee. There are a few "oops" moments but overall I'm really happy with how this block turned out. I'm especially fond of the beehive print on the bee's body!

Annabel wants to make placemats with her blocks, so I hope no one minds eating their meal with a giant insect on their mat!

Paper Piecing is a Puzzle

As you already know, I am a huuuuuge fan of the mad piecing skills of the ladies over in the Ringo Pie group on flickr. I stalk the group and am completely amazed at everything they do.

Recently, I was invited to participate in cocorico, another paper piecing bee and I am both excited and nervous!

You see, while I am a huge fan of this type of patchwork, I haven't really done any of it myself. The only paper piecing I've done is the circle of geese block and it was really hard to wrap my brain around the whole concept.

But I accepted the invitation because I am so completely inspired by the other members and don't want to miss this chance to learn more and push myself to develop this skill.

July and August are practice months so I decided to jump right in and draft my very first piecing pattern all by myself - a dragonfly!

Let me tell you, when I finished this block I felt like a total rock star! Something really clicked while working on the pattern and sewing it up wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be. There are some little oops places but nothing too bad for a first try. The hardest part for me was definitely figuring out the pattern. I think looking at it and figuring out the puzzle of how to piece it really helped my brain understand this technique in a new way.

There is still an amazing amount to learn but I'm excited to see how this bee develops over the next year.

Do you do paper piecing? Any tips or tricks?