Pretty Bobbins

A little while ago I started following a blog by Gemma at Pretty Bobbins. You can check her blog out HERE.

A couple of weeks ago Gemma was looking for pattern testers for her paper-pieced block, Star Gazing. It's a 15" finished block. I contacted her and said I'd like to be a pattern tester, I'd never done anything like that before although one of my friends has recently had a lot of fun being part of something like this!

She asked what my experience is with paper-pieceing. I consider myself intermediate. I know how to do it, I know it's the perfect technique for certain quilts....I just find it hard to wrap my poor brain around it sometimes! Once in a while I just have to put it away because it's just not happening on a given day.

Well, I got at the pattern on the weekend. I had no troubles with the pattern, except a mistake I made all on my own, lol. At one point, I was so conderned with colour placement, that I totally forgot to pay attention to the order in which the fabrics were added to the piece. Soon enough it became evident that things weren't looking quite right....easily fixed with the seam ripper!

Here's a picture of all the components  done and ready to sew together....

...and here it is, all done....

It worked out great! It's a large enough block to make into a pillow, but it should also create some great secondary designs if repeated in a quilt. I think I'll try it again in a more "controlled" way....using all the same blues, reds, etc., to see how it looks.  This one was scrappy, which what I like to do a lot of times in my quilts.

Have a great day!