Thursday, September 19, 2013

Whiskers

Paper piecing. Any chance it's a "love it or hate it" type of thing? I truly admire the people who do it and the projects they make. I am amazed at how someone can get an idea for a design and then break it down into small sections that can be joined together with a straight seam. It really is a gift.

But I don't think it's for me. As a technique, that is. This month, our assignment over in the Happiness circle for Do Good Stitches is to make one of these Whiskers blocks in catfish colours - oranges, greys, and watery hues. I appreciate Craftsy making the pattern available as a free download - thanks, Craftsy!

Here is kitty:
You can't tell with the way the light is but the background is a nice grey pindot from one of Bonnie & Camille's lines. The orange is Glimma and the nice charcoal fabric is Running Stitch by Patty Young. I think the colours came together nicely and the block itself - not too bad at all.

I'm not a fan of the amount of fabric it takes; you need to have generous slabs of fabric to ensure the section is completely "covered". I'm not a person who prefers to sew with itsy bitsy scraps or crumbs, so the chunks I cut off end up in the garbage can - phooey! I imagine with (lots) more practice I would feel more comfortable cutting it close with my fabric pieces, but obviously, I'm not there yet. I also don't care for a lot of texture in a block when it comes from seams - from great fabrics and contrast, yes, sewing lines? No.

It's okay though, right? I really do like how the block turned out and I learned something new - can't complain about that. For now, though, I'll probably stick to other methods of piecing (and hope those little scrappy bits of fabric don't end up in the dog's mouth!).

e.







3 comments:

  1. The only think I didn't like about paper piecing was the apparently giant pieces if fabric you needed for any diagonal pieces. There's a pretty easy solution! I just wrote it off as too much work in the beginning; but as I got more irritated by the waste I tried it! Just trace each shape from your template onto freezer paper, add a quarter inch around it (I do a pretty generous almost 3/8 usually to be safe) then you can just use that as a cutting guide, or fuse it to your fabric for easy fussy cutting. I'm fairly sure because of the way everything reverses you'd fuse to the wrong side of the fabric, but I always get things like that wrong the first time so double check that haha. Hope this helps! c:

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  2. Erica! I have been trying for days to get on your site. It just would not load! Your kitty is very sweet and yes paper piecing is either love or hate ; )

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  3. I love the precision that you get from paper piecing, but I do not like the fabric waste, either. I'm in a paper piecing bee right now and sometimes it's like a form of torture and sometimes it's pretty good. Depends on the shapes in the pieces and whether or not I'm using my own fabric. I love this cat block. I had the pattern pinned. I'm thinking about using it for the paper piecing bee - Great job. I love the colors and that Glimma fabric is fab.

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