Friendship Circle block

Hi dear Readers,

Welcome back, I'm glad you're here again!

This time I'm presenting my newest Craftsy BOM creation, the Friendship Circle block.

I had a few glitches with this block in the making and was kind of grumpy last night. So the pattern that you're supposed to print out from the website (course materials) is sized wrong. Instead of 12.5 inches the block I made yesterday measures 13 inches. I was so proud when I assembled it and all the points came together as they're supposed to. After oooohing and aaaaahing over it I measured it and it was a 1/2 inch too big. I went to the talk section on  the Craftsy website just to find out that yes, the block was put on the site in the wrong size (even though the test square measured exactly 1 inch when I printed the pattern) and you're supposed to shrink it down to 96%. That  broke my heart right  there. After a little debate on Twitter I figured I'll selvage the block I can't use and will make a pillow case out of it that goes with one of the quilts. Did I mention I'm planning to make 2 quilts out of the 20 blocks? Yes. I think it would be a huge quilt for a baby so I decided to divide the blocks and make 10 blocks in each quilt and that's plenty for a baby.

So after the big  disappointment  yesterday I printed out  the pattern and reduced it down to 96% on the copy machine. I also had cut out the fabric patches that were needed for making the new block. Needless to say I messed up the cutting again and cut the white background fabric patches flipped. I tried to make it work when I was sewing everything together this afternoon, but it didn't work so I decided to use the wrong side of the fabric. And so I did. It's not noticeable at all so I'm not going to sweat over it.

I still have some new things I learned from this block:

• before you start making a paper pieced pattern make sure you measure the print to be the right size
• glue in the seam allowance only, otherwise the glue will turn yellow when you press the piece (ask me how I know! :)
• I really like the new method I was using by trimming the already sewn fabric to include a 1/4 inch seam allowance into which I'll pin the next fabric (is that clear enough to  understand? I need English lessons. Badly!)
• when your iron starts to beep because you think it overheated for being  on stand-by too long, just turn it off and give it some time. It'll work again. At least mine did :)
• when your sewing machine starts skipping stitches on the very last seam you're sewing un-thread the machine and re-thread it again, it solved my problem
• helper cats will help no matter what!

Here he is helping to hold the pin cushion:

Helping to paper piece:

The #quiltphoto theme of the day is: Blue. Here's my picture:

That's all for now, I'm gonna have to think what to work on next, might just assemble the 2 quilts and finish them, I haven't decided yet. Note to self: still have to take photos for the 4th quarter FAL.

Thanks for stopping by!

'Til we blog again! :)

Circle of geese block DONE!

Hi again,

I'm glad You're back! If it's your first time here, welcome!

It's the last month in the Craftsy BOM block making progress and to celebrate that we're doing paper piecing.

I like paper piecing for the precision, but I don't use it very often, for that reason I was pretty excited about these blocks. Not even mentioning that the Circle of Geese block was on my to-do list.

My experience this time was:

• Never used glue before for paper piecing, but I found that it holds the fabric in place on the  edges while sewing the sub-blocks together
• I realized that in my previous paper pieced projects I didn't set the stitch length short enough
• I learned that piercing the paper in advance is a VERY tedious process
• I remembered to cover my ironing surface in order to not to have printer ink on it while pressing the pieces (ink side down)
• When I un-thread my machine I have to un-thread the take-up lever, otherwise I'll have to take my sewing machine apart to be able to get rid  off the wound up thread (YEAH, ask me how I know!)
• I only had to rip once!

All in all, I loved the process of making this block, even though when I started to perforate the papers I thought I'll never get this done, it'll take FOREVER! I'm pretty pleased the way it came out with the points matching. I can say it's my most precise block in my paper piecing career.

For tomorrow I'm gonna be working on the  Friendship Circle block. I have the paper foundation already perforated so it should be easy-peasy :)

I wrote a blog  post yesterday from my phone and saved it, just to figure out later that I can't edit it from my computer, bummer! Rhonda @Quilter in The Gap is  hosting a photo-a-day  for 30 days which is really fun, come and join us! There's a button on the right sidebar (quiet  a big one) so you can see the themes for the days. It only started yesterday, so it's never too late to catch up!

My photo of the day was:

Super small stitches while paper piecing

I'll also have to write a blog post  for the 4th quarter finish along. You can link up your UFO-s/VIP-s by clicking here. Hope to see you there!

'Til we blog again! :)