I feel like I’ve fallen off the blogging wagon, time has been short, I tend to share my in progress and finished makes over on instagram (if you’re interested I’m memmens), it’s quick and easy and doesn’t eat into my sewing time!
To get me back into the swing of it (I’m not promising though) I thought I’d show you some paper piecing, I’ve made a few paper pieced shirts over the last couple of months:
I bought the pattern ‘Shirts’ from Pink Chalk Fabrics with a gift certificate I won from Quiet Play in the round up of the And Sew On BOM. It seemed appropriate to buy a paper pieced pattern after completing a paper pieced BOM.
Lee over at May Chappell has organised a shirt swap which I planned to join in but having only made three shirts it didn’t seem worth it. But this week Lee mentioned that she was thinking about round 2 so I got a bit motivated and made one more shirt!
I’d love to know if you have paper pieced and what was the first pattern you tried? I’m teaching a day workshop in a couple of months to some ladies who have never paper pieced before so was wondering how others had started.
Linking up with:
I love these, so cute! I started my class on some simple shapes first, to help them grasp the back to front concept. Then moved on to whole design papers and then designs made up of parts a, b, c etc. Hope that helps. jxo
Very sweet :o) I did my own first pattern. Don’t do that o.O You’re welcome to lift anything you want from the Foundation Paper Piecing For The Terrified series I did a couple of years ago though
Oh wow! I can so see this as a great quilt for quys with the Hawaiian prints and all. So much fun!
My one attempt at paper piecing was years ago, when the spider web craze was around. It wasn’t a success – I managed one block! I see wonderful pieced designs on blogland, but it baffles me how it’s done… What would work for me, would be someone showing me a design which was simple enough to be manageable, yet complex enough that paper piecing was the only way to do it.
Love those shirts!
If you want to start with basics, the Economy block or Tallahassee are nice and simple to get your head around all that reverse-psychology of it all before moving on – ooh and what Katy says – her series was great xxx
I love all your shirts – they are fab! This was the first block I pp’d http://www.freshlemonsquilts.com/?p=1156 as she gave such good instructions on her tutorial. I remember nearly throwing my first pp block across the room in frustration and the air turned very blue, but I was so chuffed when I had the final block done!
I think this block would be easier too as many of the shapes are the same size and you can pre cut the fabric http://www.sewwhatsherlock.com/conversion-project-spider-web/, or maybe just a row of flying geese or square in a square http://www.quilterscache.com/B/BlankPPTemplatesPage.html?
I started with Artisania’s hedgehog, made two, stopped and moved to other stuff but I tend to paper piece in splurges (like the Wallander quilt) and not bother for long periods of time too.
What a great project. Those shirts are so cute!! My first paper piecing was a tiny log cabin block. I only did one and used the block to make a pin cushion.