February Blocks

I managed to my blocks for a couple of BOM's done this weekend.

And Sew On... February block

First was "You Little Ripper" for the And Sew On... BOM at Quiet Play.  I was nervous because it's the first time I've done such little pieces in paper piecing, but it worked ou OK. When I sewed the sections together, the seam ripper didn't line up.  I grabbed an actual seam ripper, took it apart, sewed it back together with about the same results (it does look more crooked in person) so I'm just going to let it be.  Once I have all the blocks done I will probably feel up to fixing any of my errors that will bother me if left as is.

With the learning curve for all these bits I'm being pretty random in my fabric selection, but there are a couple of blocks I really love from this series that I plan on making second ones of after I've gotten through the trial and error phase, and I'll have a better idea how to choose just the right prints for them then.

Lucky Stars BOM - January

After looking at my January block for the Lucky Stars BOM and really thinking about print choices, decided I probably wouldn't be happy with the results at the end if I didn't switch to solids.  Since I'd gotten the Kaffe Fassett shot cottons without a plan in mind for them, I thought they might work well for this, so I redid January's and made February's in the same night..

Getting the hang of paper piecing seems more difficult some days than others (I still keep forgetting to read directions...) I actually made blocks backwards..TWICE since I wasn't reversing the imagine in my head as I went, so I have two extra blocks from February's star.



 

Lucky Stars BOM - February

On the bright side it encouraged me to get busy thinking of my quilt back design and how to incorporate them, so at least they won't go to waste! 

Things aren't lining up and matching perfectly for me all the time, and neither of my January blocks seem to have quite enough of a seam allowance for two points (top and bottom ones in the above picture).  On top of that the shot cottons are thinner than a lot of quilting cottons, and seem a bit more prone to wrinkle up as I sew them, but I like how they are looking so far and I imagine the fabrics will look absolutely gorgeous on sunny days!