Sunday, June 18, 2017

June

After sewing piles and piles of Panama Pyramids,

And adding a black print background pyramid to each of my pieced pyramids,

And lying them all out and starting to sew the rows together,

And machine quilting and quilting and quilting,

It is FINISHED! Panama Pyramids Sew Along 2016-2017

 

I spent most of the last month working on Panama Pyramids but I also finished a couple more Celebrating Mary Brown blocks.

The four corner sections of the quilt are complete and sewn together.

I decided that bottom right blue striped vase was a little light and plain so I added a little tweak.

Next block featured birds, (and a dog who I suppose is barking at them-that is what my dog does). I love picking out special fabrics for bird wings.

One of the best Applique tips I ever received was to prep berries with the same thread they will be appliquéd to the block. It makes for a "hairy" block but a quick stitch once you start appliqueing them down.

I must admit the next block gave me pause. I stared at this pattern for days trying to decide how to do it.

I finally decided to do a sort of applique-curved paper peicing thing. I copied the pattern on heavy weight freezer paper and cut out each section and ironed it to the back of the fabrics (luckily the pattern was reversible).

I glued under the seam allowances of the convex curves and left the concave curved seam allowance extended. Sue Daly (Patchwork for Busy Fingers) describes this technique much better than I do on a YouTube video for making a paper pieced apple core shape quilt. I appliquéd those prepped convex curves over top of the concave piece.

Section by section and lots of pressing it came together.

Because that last block worked so well with an English Paper Pieced technique I just kept right at it with the Seven Sisters block. EPP the stars

Then applique them onto the background.

And finally a simple back basting applique block, this one seemed quick after all that paper piecing.

Happy Stitching all,

Cheri