Honey Pot Bee March blocks - paper piecing

Not gonna lie. Paper piecing was a challenge for me. I downloaded that pattern for the As You Wish letter block, and watched a video, and tried my luck. With very frustrating results. The most frustrating of which was putting the project aside for a while. (this version was headed for the trash) I didn't want to give up on the quilt block bee, but the last two March blocks were paper piecing, and I just wasn't ready.

Then the April blocks were posted. Another paper piecing block. But this one was a star block, and I could see the logic in the construction, and could have built it without the paper. AH HA! So, once more into the fray. This time, I looked at the pattern and cut pieces that I was going to need. I cut them larger that they would strictly need to be, because I know that placement is one of my weaknesses. You know, that "how do I position this fabric so that after I sew the seam it lies where it is supposed to?" Yeah, that. So larger pieces helped. Not humongous, but half to a full inch bigger all the way around than they would actually need to be to fill the space on the paper. It really helped to have the pieces cut out. One my first attempt, I was trying to cut the pieces as I went. It didn't help much, which contributed to the frustration.

Yesterday, I sewed. The putting the back of the fabric to the back of the paper still felt weird, but I managed to be consistent with that. (Yes, sometimes I still have to check if I got the front to front of the fabric - even after many YEARS of sewing.) I still made some placement errors and had to pick out a line of stitching. I even made a cutting error and had to cut that piece again and resew (boy did that feel dumb!) But nothing that I couldn't recover from. Nothing that made me lay the piece down and walk away.

As You Wish, a letter block

This is the March block, that caused me such problems on the first attempt. It isn't perfect, but this bee isn't about perfect, for me. It is about stretching my sewing boundaries. and this block certainly did do that.

I learned several things in this process. The first was about precutting the pieces. Which, if I was thinking, is what I do for other blocks, so why would I think I shouldn't for these? Having to cut them bigger seems kind of wasteful to the Granny in me. (My Granny lived and made do through the Depression, and wasn't big on wasting ANYTHING.) But then, I've saved these scraps of fabric in big tubs so that I have them to do this with. I have to tell myself the learning means it isn't wasted!

The second thing I learned is that even though I can do paper piecing now, and I will not shy away from any of the paper pieced blocks on the bee, I wouldn't want to make a whole quilt that way. Some people love a process like paper piecing provides. Some people are all about that process. To me it seems fiddley. Like I'm going over the same material too many times. Printing the pattern, sewing the pattern, picking out the paper afterwards. It DOES help get the points in the right places, and that is an attraction, so I may have to revise this opinion some day in the future, when I have more time on my hands. At that point, I think I would also experiment with different (lighter weight) paper as well.

One thing that was helpful about the paper pattern, was that I could mark the various pieces with which fabric I should cut them from. Of course, it helps to look at some finished example of the block so that you get the finished look that you are going for. My star block turned into a variation on the theme as I mistook which parts of the "rays" should be in the background fabric. Basically which parts were actually the rays.

April star block

I don't think it looks bad, just different from they others. The same piecing was there. The same learning. I am actually pretty happy about my points on the triangles, and that I got the various sections to meet up where they should, so my corners are pretty good too! And, even after my admission that I don't love paper piecing, I will probably print out another pattern of this and have another go at it. Maybe not this weekend, but...

I'm not sure I would have taken on the challenge of learning to paper piece on my own, so I'm glad that the Honey Pot Bee pushed me to try something new. I'm also happy that I went into the Bee with the attitude that I was willing - and wanting - to learn along the way, so I was open for the challenge. I also like to acknowledge that there was reinforcement of some things I already knew, and now, I actually know that I know them!

By the way, there is still one paper pieced block that I have yet to tackle. it is a numerical block for 2017, that I think will be perfect for the quilt that I am putting together from these blocks. What a way to mark a memory.