Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Snip. Sew. Send. Month 3

After the last couple of months of doing everything at the last minute with no small amount of stress (I swear, I'd blink and then the month was gone!), I decided I needed to try something different and finish my Snip. Sew. Send. block before the end of the month. Crazy!

August is Zonnah's month and she requested a 7.5" block that included circles and/or curves. I've had flying geese in my brain lately (in more ways than one, maybe!) and I decided to try and get them out of my system.

original block drawing
Inspired by this and this and Gail Garber's book, Stellar Journeys: Flying Geese and Star Quilts, I drew this block.

Then I used freezer paper foundation piecing to create the geese (a la this fabulous tutorial from Twiddletails).

samples of my freezer paper foundation pieced geese
This was my first time trying this technique, and I was super happy with how well it worked. I can see why many prefer it to traditional paper foundation piecing-- no dulling of the needle and no having to tear paper away!

I decided to go ahead and applique the geese onto the background. This may not have been the best decision because I had a very difficult time trying to position them (I did them needleturn, using freezer paper on top) and there was a lot of bulk in the seams. I had to do a couple of the points twice before I was happy with them. I suspect it probably would have been easier to just do some curved piecing. Live and learn!

completed block for Zonnah
The points are still not perfect, but I'm feeling okay about them at this point and I am happy with the overall look of the block. Hopefully, Zonnah will be happy too!

12 comments:

  1. I really, really LOVE this block!

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  2. What an interesting way to do a flying geese block. Looks like you had lots of fun with it. Nice job! I'm going over to the site you linked to look at the tutorial. I just may have to try one of these. LOL Thanks!

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  3. This is awesome! Love how it turns red in the center.

    How did the Panda quilt come out? I hope it made it through the wash.

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  4. wow! How cool! I really like how you've blended curves and triangles!

    I also have fallen in love with freezer paper piecing.

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  5. That is one super duper block!

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  6. That is a fabulous block! Very creative design!

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  7. That is so cool. It might have been just as easy to sew the curves with the machine but either way you did a great job.

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  8. Wow Robin! That is a stunning block! Stunning!

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  9. This block is AMAZING!!!! I just LOVE it!!!!!!

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  10. holy cow! this is amazing! i can't believe how fantastic that red/orange combo turned out!!! the red center looks great ... she'll be so excited about this!

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