English Paper Piecing - Progress

Back in January I shared my thoughts on English Paper Piecing, something I started after being drawn into what I had been seeing from others online.  I continue to work on it a little at a time, so I thought I'd share my progress.

English Paper Piecing

In my previous post, I hadn't started putting the "stars" and "flowers" together in any sort of pattern, so since then I decided to add some white space between.  I love how the collections take on different shapes as you get them assembled.  Clearly the "flowers" stand out, but sometimes, the "stars" turn into tumbling blocks where they are joined to a white diamond.

I think I've decided to leave the basting stitches in place for the finished product.  I like how it helps to keep the overall piece laying flat.  The one exception may be the center of the flowers and the white hexies.  I still do have an idea that there should be some fabric overlap to help prevent the batting fibers from poking through, and by releasing the basting stitches and pressing the allowances outward, then many of the seams will have a backing.

Now, how big will I go with this project?  I still don't know.  What I'm considering next is changing up the layout a bit to keep it interesting!

Farmer's Wife - Week 11

We are on to week 11 of our Farmer's Wife Quilt Along and we'll be working on three more blocks, one foundation paper pieced and the other pieced using more of our favorite half-square triangles.

• Block 9 - Box
• Block 12 - Broken Sugar Bowl
• Block 104 - Wild Geese

Continue reading for this week's instructions.

Pondering Drunkard's Path

I grew up enjoying an heirloom quilt that was given to my parents as a gift, made by the ladies in their church.  It was a Drunkard's Path pattern, made with two fabrics, white and sky blue (if my memory serves me).  The quilt was just gorgeous and had the perfect weight and drape after years of washings and use.

Drunkard's Path - Two quarter circle options

Here are my thoughts on getting beyond the details of the planning and getting to the doing of making one for myself.

Farmer's Wife - Week 9 - Our Blocks

Finishing week 9 of our Farmer's Wife Quilt-along, we are, essentially, 20% of the way to completing all 111 blocks.  Very exciting!

This week we took on three more blocks using a variety of techniques.

Block 29, Economy, was foundation paper pieced and a very clean looking block.

MJ's Farmer's Wife - Block 29 - Economy

Beth's Farmer's Wife - Block 29 - Economy

Farmer's Wife - Week 8 - Our Blocks

We were falling behind, so this week included two blocks, Silver Lane (Block 79) and Waste Not (Block 97).  We have now finished 19 blocks!

Block 97 - Waste Not

Here is the simpler of the two blocks for this week.

MJ's Farmer's Wife - Block 97 - Waste Not

Beth's Farmer's Wife - Block 97 - Waste Not

Farmer's Wife - Week 10

For week 10 of our Farmer's Wife Quilt-along, all three blocks use foundation paper piecing. The blocks are:

• Block 58, Mother's Dream
• Block 75, Rosebud
• Block 94, Tall Pine Tree

These three are of equal difficulty, each broken into 3 or 4 sections.

Farmer's Wife - Week 7 - Our Blocks

Week 7 was all foundation paper piecing.  Our blocks turned out beautiful!  Here is Block 5, Batwing.

MJ's Farmer's Wife - Block 5 - Batwing

Beth's Farmer's Wife - Block 5 - Batwing

Farmer's Wife - Week 6 - Our Blocks

Three more blocks to share!  Here are our Farmer's Daughter blocks (Block 32) from week 6 of our Farmer's Wife Quilt-along.

MJ's Farmer's Wife - Block 32 - Farmer's Daughter

Beth's Farmer's Wife - Block 32 - Farmer's Daughter

Farmer's Wife - Week 9

For week 9 of our Farmer's Wife Quilt-along, I'm going back to three blocks.  They are:

• Block 107, Windblown
• Block 92, Streak of Lightning
• Block 29, Economy

I would classify Windblown as difficult, but only because there are so many pieces. Economy and Streak of Lightning are straight-forward.

Let's go...

Farmer's Wife - Week 8

We are falling behind!  But we will catch up, and to help us along I'm only posting instructions for two blocks this week.  One is pretty hard and the other is easy.  This week we'll be making:

• Block 79, Silver Lane (pretty complicated)
• Block 97, Waste Not

Let's get started...