Hi friends!
So, do you like to paper piece or do you hate it? Be honest.
I do like paper piecing. Sometimes.
Sometimes I don’t feel like ripping out paper! But, sometimes, it is the right way to go. And I love using the new Add a Quarter Plus ruler. It makes paper piecing very easy and efficient.
This month, our Island Batik ambassador project was to use either paper piecing or English paper piecing and create a mini quilt. I do love a mini quilt!
I decided to play with some paper piecing. First I started with this cute little roll of fabrics from my Island Batik box.
Then I played with with some designs in EQ. I love playing in EQ! I decide to use a star design. I realized I needed a few more fabrics so I added a pink batik leftover from my Valentines project and this great green from my Island Batik stash.
I pieced each section- 4 sections using the purple and orange and 4 using the pink and purple. Then I sewed two sections together and then sewed them together and then sewed the whole thing together! What do you think? I even quilted it myself.
Once it was priced, I had to decide on a quilting plan. Thread choice was pretty easy. This variegated thread from Aurifil was perfect. Added just a little color and texture but did not take over!
I knew that I was going to just stitch in the ditch around the star points to make them pop, but what to do in the “background” sections? I wanted to use my walking foot- no free motion! Luckily I had just bought the book, Walk- Master Machine Quilting with Your Walking Foot by Jacquie Gering. In it there was a quilting design she called Radiating Diamond. Perfect! So that is what I did in the corners.
Then I echo quilted in the other background sections. I think it came out great! It is 12 ½” square.
Would you like to make one? I have a free PDF with some basic instructions and the paper piecing templates. Click here to grab the pattern.
happy quilting!
Kate
p.s. Leave me a comment and tell me, if you do your own quilting, do you free motion quilt or use your walking foot? Or both?
I love your fabric choices. I haven’t attempted free-motion quilting. I use my walking foot, and I just recently purchased the Walk book. I flipped through it briefly and I also have her class in my Craftsy account. I think the two will go well together. My sewing room is upstairs. No computer up there, so it’s sometimes nice to have a book at my side instead of running downstairs to the computer.
Such pretty batiks and a wonderful pattern, too! I’d like to make one of these Radiating Diamonds in red, white and blues and for July 4th and hang it on my covered porch. I do my own quilting, with both FMQ and a walking foot. With more practice (like a hundred years more), it may get good enough to satisfy me!