A Happy Work in Progress

Oh I am thrilled to be sharing this one with you! It's one of those projects that has just turned out exactly as I imagined. Don't you love when that happens?

So here it is! My Red Herring quilt! Okay, okay, it's just a quilt top right now! Soon to be a quilt when I decide how to back and quilt it). 

Before I go much further - I want to say a big thank you for the kind comments and encouragement about this little pattern of mine. In response to some of the questions, I am in the process of tweaking the pattern so that I can share it with anyone who is interested, and also doing a tutorial to help those who are new to the paper piecing world. Really - it's more to do with my goal of a paper piecing form of world domination than anything. ;)

And here's a funny little tidbit for you. My inspiration for this block was the clutch pedal in my car haha! Hey inspiration finds us in the funniest of places. Mine was while I was checking my feet for leeches after walking through the wet grass (paranoid plus) and getting in the car.

I just put in a pretty photo to get rid of the leech image I may have conjured up in the previous paragraph ;)

I saw the pattern on the clutch pedal (who knew they put designs on the pedals in the car!) and thought hey that looks like a cool herringbone pattern! But one thing about the traditional herringbone that I'm not keen on is trying to line it up perfectly when you cut it. I don't trust my cutting skills and I also don't like wasting fabric. So! Light bulb moment. Paper piecing! Of course!

Leech be gone! Admire the pretty fabric. So pretty.

 I drew up the design in Quilt Assistant to fit charm squares so there's minimal waste. Each block uses four charm squares (or close to it anyways!) and then some extra white fabric for the lines in between. I just so happened to have a charm pack of Half Moon Modern that was begging to be made into something fun! So there you have it. And because it's based on the herringbone design, but not quite, I thought "Red Herring" would be an appropriate name for the block. Fascinating back story no? ;)

I was a little disappointed in my charm pack in that it only had 4 charm  squares in red, orange and green so I couldn't make more blocks like I originally planned. However, I am now thinking this might make a cool wall hanging. It's either a big wall hanging or a small quilt (40" square).

Now the big decisions... how to back it? How to quilt it? How to bind it? Binding is the only one of those things I have an idea of. I just so happen to have some Half Moon Modern fabric in yellow polka dots. What do you think? Too bright? As for the rest.... back to my quilting motto... More thought needed. And of course, suggestions welcome!

ETA: There's now a tutorial and pattern available for this little block. You can find it here. Have fun!

Linking up with WiP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced :)