Monday, November 19, 2012

Mini Monday: Paper Piecing

On Saturday, the OrlandoMQG hosted a paper piecing workshop with the talented Carolyn Friedlander.   Disclaimer:  most of the photos in this post are from my Instagram ;-)

Carolyn showing her Olive quilt
We were lucky to see Carolyn's quilts in person, including a few made with her new Architextures fabric line due out soon. 

Pattern for workshop
I am a beginner paper piecer at best, so I was a little nervous about keeping up at the workshop.  I needn't have worried.  Carolyn is a very patient teacher, and her explanations and pattern directions are easy to understand.

Quilting with my walking foot
During the class, we paper pieced trees from her Olive pattern.  I wish I had taken pictures of all the different blocks made by our members.  There was such a wonderful variety.  I completely assembled one tree block, finished a second tree, and made progress on a third during the Sew Day workshop.  

Tree Mini
With all the other projects I have going on right now, I knew it would be a while before I finished all four Olive tree blocks and assembled them into a quilt.  I didn't like the idea of shoving this project in a corner as I usually do until I have "free time".  With that in mind, I took the first block made and finished it as a mini quilt.  I had seen something similar during Carolyn's trunk show.

Quilting lines on the back
The tree fabric is a Moda woven; the background is Kate Spain Fandango gifted to me.  I used an orangey shot cotton for the borders along with a scrap piece of linen.  The quilting lines can best be seen on the back which is a Riley Blake fat quarter.  I used a yellowish thread (can't remember name) from Connecting Threads.  Binding still needs to be done, but it finishes at 12"x15".

Shirts pattern by Carolyn Friedlander

I was feeling so confident in my newly acquired paper piecing skills that I purchased Carolyn's new Shirts pattern!  

Thanks Carolyn for sharing your time and talent with us!!!  

3 comments:

  1. Sounds like the workshop was awesome! I love your mini...your quilting lines look great!! I have got to pay more attention to what ya'll are doing at your guild meetings...such a short drive...sigh ;-(

    ReplyDelete
  2. I **LOVE** that pattern! I've got it, but I haven't made it yet. Still working Palmetto, another one of her patterns.

    ReplyDelete
  3. What a great workshop! Where is she from? Is she local talent? I'd love to get here here! I love paper piecing for the accuracy it gives me. Your block turned out really great. I love it quilted all by itself. I also love how you threw that little bit of different fabric in your border, too. Really makes it. You are so clever. Well done, Rene'!

    P.S. I'll be in FL for a couple weeks in December. Maybe we can get together!

    ReplyDelete