Paper piecing frenzy

In looking over my sewing to-do list, there's an inordinate amount of paper piecing of all three varieties.  I've got freezer paper piecing for the Piece Bee gals, foundation piecing for a blog hop, and EPP for both a blog hop and a bee.  Whew- by the end of this month I should be a paper-piecing guru! 

I've just clipped the last thread on a block slated for a blog hop hosted by Soma at Whims and Fancies.  Here's a little sneak peek:

The only thing left to do is figure out how to format my hand-drafted design into a template to share without the use of software.  Check back here Saturday for the completed block and free pattern.  In the meantime, visit The Halloween Paper Pieced Blog Hop, which runs through October 31st, for the blocks shared so far.

There are a few other freezer paper foundation piecing blocks on my short-list.  A photography-themed block, a classic British toy block, and a Viewmaster block are due (in some cases, overdue) to my Piece Bee With You beemates.  The pattern for first two have been planned, but not drafted, and the third has been provided to the group. 

Having only tried my hand at freezer paper and foundation paper-piecing, I'm excited to finally take a stab at EPP.  Hexa-Go-Go has been collecting dust on my shelf the past few weeks while I scour the interwebs for tutorials and video how-to's.  First up are EPP stars for the do. Good Stitches October block.  Rachel was kind enough to provide printables for the 6-point stars.  She also has a wonderful instructional video for those, such as myself, who may need help.  

Just to give myself a little added pressure to learn English Paper Piecing, I've joined up with the Travellin-Pic Stitch Blog Hop hosted by Quokka Quilts and The Littlest Thistle.  This blog hop runs the whole of October and November- check it out!

Linking up to Lee at Freshly Pieced for:

The devil is in the details- Girl Skipping Rope take 2

     After 3 days of sewing, unsewing, design tweaking, and re-working an entire section, the first paper-pieced block I've ever designed and drafted on my own is done.  So much work never went into a 10-inch block!  
     Meet Ginger:

    

She's more than a little patchy- a testament to my lack of paper-piecing skills.  The head section was the part I had to tweak.  Those pesky y-seams!  The second incarnation was done without them, and came out much neater.  There are a few other spots that didn't need to be chopped up so much, but I wasn't looking at the big picture when I was piecing, and then the block came out a rectangle.  For me, squaring up meant adding fabric, not trimming back! 
    Nevertheless, I think she turned out well (I can't bring myself to refer to her as an inanimate object.  We spent too much time together).  I'm very sad to see her go (as are my children), but this week she'll be on her way to her new home in Melbourne, Australia.  Hope you like her, Jane! 
     Next month's Piece Bee With You block shouldn't be so much of a struggle for me now that I've got one under my belt.  Some takeaways from constructing Ginger:

• The first sketch should not be the final draft
• Draft the design using squares, rectangles and triangles.  Here I did the opposite- chopping the design up into squares, rectangles and triangles, which resulted in umpteen teeny pieces
• Avoid y-seams if at all possible
• Know the targeted block size beforehand
• Measure twice, cut once (an oldie but goodie)

Just for fun, here is a pictorial history of Ginger's progression (first blogged here):

girl skipping rope

     Oh my sainted aunt!  I jumped in feet first with this block!  For the Piece Bee With You October block, I sketched out this for Jane, who requested girls in dresses.  All those tiny pieces- what was I thinking?  I'll tell you what I was thinking... I fell in love with the sketch and knew she had to be made.  So post her in the swap's Flickr pool I did, to make it official.  Now I'm committed.
     See how nicely the lower half of her body came out?

 She was easy, until I got to her upper extremities.  So many teeny pieces of fabric to maneuver through my beloved, if temperamental, machine.  There are a couple of places where y-seams are required- putting those newly acquired skills to use (though still in the process of trying to master them).  Because of this, and the teensy weensy pieces in the top third of the block, a few bulky spots were unavoidable.  I'm hoping that the recipient will love her so much that she won't notice :)
   p.s. I unintentionally worked some Denyse Schmidt's Katie Jump Rope into the block.  I was looking for green in my stash to represent grass, and this was the only thing that could pass.  How neat is that?