Southwest Star - Variations on Designs w/ Attachments
I posted the paper pieced quilt Southwest Star recently. Today I played in EQ7 a little. Instead of designing with the whole block, I used one quarter of the block. The star is basically round with points = symmetrical or even. One fourth of the block is a quarter of a circle in the lower right with points in the upper left = asymmetrical or uneven. These asymmetrical blocks are fun to design with in EQ7 with the "Block Serendipity" tool. I am attaching a few variations and the PP units. These are the same foundations: [1] right reading and [1] reverse make one quarter of the block that finishes at 12". The foundations are 6" finished.
Some of you commented or e mailed me about wanting to learn to paper piece. Carol Doak is the grand Dame of PP. She has an excellent class at Craftsy online. It is on sale for the next day or two. $20. (I am not affiliated with Craftsy - I have just taken 45 of their classes - many are free). It is a great platform. You can ask questions, post projects and the instructor and/or students can help along the way if needed. If you have ANY interest in paper piecing, I would check it out ASAP.
TIP: for those of you who have said that they want to paper piece but cannot stand to pick out the paper, you have many options, and I will give you my tip. There IS special, thinner paper and paper that vanishes after soaking in water, but here is what I do that works great:
When you are sitting in front of the TV at night, take your foundations and put one on your lap on a book. Using your fingernails or a credit card etc, fold all AND crease on each line - open - and fold and crease the other way. It sounds time consuming. I did enough for one queen size quilt in one night. When you are ready to paper piece, you do not have to flip over to see the lines to line up seam allowance etc because you can see all the fold lines. I use regular #20 copy paper
It also makes them tear very easily - that - and your small (1.5) seam length. When you are all done, grab a section of the quilt and hold on to the diagonal ends of a block and "pop" it - most of the paper will pop out loosen with this quick pop on the bias of each block. Try a Square in a Square block to try the pre-creasing and block popping...
Enough chat, here are the other Southwest Star variations using the quarter block to design. If you have EQ7, I am happy to share the project file for this. I made some extra blocks and quilts. It has a .PJ7 extension. If you do not own EQ7 it will not work.
Enjoy and all comments/suggestions are great.