Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Heart Block Redo








I was really bugged by the way my first foundation paper pieced heart came out without a point at the bottom (no one to blame but myself)...

When at first you don't succeed...



The second one came out much better.  It's much more delicate looking, especially with the pointy bottom.  I put a lot more effort into putting the fabrics together this time too, and I think it shows.

Live and learn. 

Last night I remembered that I had purchased a book from Carol Doak when she spoke at last fall's DQN quarterly quilt guild meeting.  I wish I had had the money to take a class with her when she was in town, but such is life. 


Now that I've finally done some paper piecing I feel pretty confident that I can reproduce some of the beautiful blocks in this book.  I recalled Carol mentioning the use of a postcard or thin cardboard when bending the paper back to trim the fabric.  I quickly looked it up in the book and I gave that a try this time.  Boy did it work!

Her book also gives the proper amount of fabric each star will take and how big to cut the "scraps" for each part of the block.  When I finally get a chance to focus on something other than quilt show duties and transcription, I definitely will work in a "chain" fashion by sewing one part of the block on each block at a time, instead of trying to finish each block before moving to the next.  And, I'll definitely either use newsprint or vellum instead of regular copy paper.  Foundatoin paper piecing totally rocks!

 
 
  

2 comments:

  1. Paper piecing is a great way to do may quilt blocks. I love your heart. It is SEW beautiful.
    Sharon

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  2. I love the way Carol Doak teaches paper piecing. I have this book and have made 8 of the stars so far - they are awesome! You'll enjoy them and it's a great way to use up some scraps.

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