And Sew On... A paper pieced BoM

 I am very excited to be hosting a foundation/paper pieced Block of the Month (BoM) for 2013! The theme is sewing – something we can all relate to! All the blocks are focused on things that you might find in your sewing room.

Here’s how it will work:
On the first of each month, starting January 1st, I will release one of the designs as a free pattern in my Craftsy shop. It will be free for the entire month. At the end of the month, it will be listed for sale, and a new design will be offered on the first of the next month and so on.

We’ll start with the easier blocks and move on to the harder ones. That gives you a chance to build up your paper piecing confidence so you’re reading to tackle the more complex designs! Each block measures 10” finished (10.5” unfinished).

You can find the details for the previous blocks here:
 January's block
 February's block
 March's block! 
 April's block.

Find May's block here!

We will be doing one block per month for 9 months. That takes us through til September. In October we will put the blocks together into a mini quilt/wallhanging (roughly 35” square with sashing). November will be the month for show and tell.

At the end of each month, there will be a linky party here at Quiet Play for you to share your finished blocks. Trust me, you’ll want to do that. Not just to show off your paper piecing prowess, but because there will be prizes up for grabs!

You might like to join the Quiet Play flickr group too, where you can share pictures of your progress, ask questions and chat amongst yourselves.



So what do you need?
First and foremost: patience! Paper piecing is a great technique but it is time consuming. I avoid having y-seams in my patterns and try to minimise the angles so that the piecing is fairly straight forward but there’s no getting around that it takes time.

The usual sewing bits and pieces – machine, seam ripper, thread, seam ripper, scissors, seam ripper (did I mention that one already? You’ll definitely want one or two. I have four!).

You’ll also need access to a printer and the ability to open PDF patterns (i.e. using Adobe Acrobat etc). All the patterns are in PDF format and you can download them from Craftsy. So you’ll need to have a Craftsy account (doesn’t take long to sign up at all).

Please note: I am a Craftsy affiliate and get a bonus if people purchase Craftsy classes  etc  but the main reason I’m choosing to upload them into my Craftsy shop is that it means you can download the patterns instantly and not have to wait for me to email them out to you – which would be time consuming for me, and hard on you having to wait because of the time zones. Plus then I can put them for sale later to support my very expensive fabric habit.

How much fabric?!
Oh the million dollar question! Paper piecing does tend to waste a bit of fabric – but it is also great for scraps. Giving generous estimates: I use less than one fat quarter for the background fabric of a block, and less than fat eighths of fabrics for the rest of the design. I scrap-basket dive a LOT for paper piecing! So save those scraps – you’ll find them very useful!

Also novelty prints, sewing themed prints etc are great! There are some great chances for fussy cutting in these patterns so keep those in mind!



To surprise or not surprise… that is the question!
I have really ummed and ahhed over whether to keep all the blocks a secret and make it a surprise each month or share the layout up front. (Just ask my Wombat Stew gals, I’ve plagued them with questions and indecision!). I’ve decided that personally, I don’t really like mystery quilts. I like to know what I’m getting into upfront. So! with that in mind, I’m going to share the EQ7 sketch of what all the blocks look like together. If you want to keep it a surprise though, look away now!



(Dramatic pausing spacing)

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Tada! All nine patterns put together! So you can see some of the patterns are obviously more involved than others (such as the Stash cupboard and the sewing room) so we will work up to those as we go.

Prizes?! Did someone say prizes?
Why yes, yes I did. There will be more details to come, but I'm very happy to say that we have the following sponsors on board. Do check out their fabulous shops – you just might find some supplies to get you started!

Whew! Well I think that’s enough information so far! I hope that you’ll join in – it really ought to be a lot of fun! Make sure you pop back on the first of each month for the new pattern.

Feel free to grab a button to put on your blog! (BIG thanks to Alyce for making the button work for me!)
<center> <a href="http://quietplay.blogspot.com.au/p/and-sew-on-paper-pieced-bom.html"> <img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-mJ_NAgWzrrE/UNElgqLUASI/AAAAAAAAClo/ZONmYydhuzI/s200/And%2520Sew%2520On%2520BoM%2520Button.jpg " border="0"/></a></center>
In the meantime, feel free to let me know if you have any questions!