Saturday, May 1, 2010

After I starting making another pineapple block I thought I would take photo’s along the way so you can see how you do it.  Or should I say how I do it?   I have never taken a class but I was shown how to do it by another quilter.

this is the point I was at when I started to take photos

this is with the pieces building as a building block- going round and round

select a piece of fabric, make sure it is the correct size, you can hold it up to a light and see if it is long enough and wide enough to cover the area needed.

from the front put in a pin to hold it in place if you wish - you do not need a pin if you feel comfortable without one

sew directly on the line, using a very small stitch - smaller the stitch the better for when you need to tear all of this paper off

flip it back over and see where you stitched. Now flip it back to the sewing side, fold your paper back and trim your seam. This can be 1/8th of an inch or a 1/4 - your choice, when using such small pieces I eyeball it at about 1/8th

then I press it down

then fold back each side one at a time and trim - again I do this to 1/8" when using tiny pieces but a 1/4" works well on larger blocks to do this you just fold your paper back to the size of seam you want and cut next to the paper - use a ruler to cover the paper if you think you might cut into the paper by accident. If the cut off access is still big enough to use in another block I save it - it gets tossed back to the scraps as this one did. The yellow ruler on my table is a add a quarter inch ruler that is used for paper piecing.

keep building around the block - follow the numbers. On this piece I want to show you what happens if you haven't looked at a piece close enough. On this blue piece in the little corner there is a piece of salvage showing - in this case it will be alright it will be covered by the next seam. But that is what you need to look for when you are selecting your next piece and to make sure it is big enough.

The next piece - white corner - covers that little bit of salvage and no need to pick out a piece to replace. But if the salvage edge had been a little larger I would have had to pick that piece out.

Final step is to trim all the way around the block leaving a quarter inch seam. Leave the paper on the block and you will eventually join all blocks together and tear the paper off when the top is finished. A pain in the you know what and it might take you a couple days to do it depending on the size of your quilt. This is a good way though to use up tiny scraps and the fabric will hold it's shape and not stretch out. This block measures 6 1/2 inches.

my workspace when paper piecing. I have my small portable table set up with little iron mat/cutting mat, travel size iron, rotary cutter ect. The taller cutting table has my scraps dumped on to it, and then the sew ezi table. Small area but all I have to do is rotate the chair and everything is right there. Everything is within reach. Normally for more exercise I iron in the living room, but when using these little pieces I would be popping up and down so often that I took the easier way out and have it set next to me.

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And the Winner Is-

by Karen on May 1, 2010

in Give Aways

Sherry comment # 19  Here is a link to the random number generator if you have not used it – sure makes it easy no numbers in a hat to deal with.  Sherry I will be sending you an e mail and send me your mailing address the package will be in the mail on Monday.

Congtratulations Sherry.We had all kinds of bad storms come through Arkansas last night and more to come today.  Luckily the bad stuff passed by us again although we were in tornado warning several times.  My oldest daughter who lives in North Little Rock had been in Dallas all week attending a training workshop for assistant managers of the department store  J. C. Penneys.  She flew back to Little Rock yesterday evening and left the airport for home 40 minutes before a tornado was on the ground in the airport area!  You better believe I was on the phone with her making sure she had gotten home alright in that heavy rain :)   We had been on the phone twice, first she called to tell me they were just leaving the airport and that the flight had been alright.  Then I was calling her 40 minutes later to discuss the fact that the tornado was at the airport such a short while after she had left it!

Thanks for all the comments on the pineapple squares.  After reading your comment Wanda I realized yes I did not have to pay that close attention to the color selection of those tiny pieces with so many blocks making up the quilt.  The focus would be on the light and dark layout not individual pieces – your comment was helpful!

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