Last fall I went to the Houston Quilt Festival and saw a new-to-me paper piecing company called LegitKits. They had show-special prices, and I was lucky enough to win a further discount, so I bought one of their kits, called Little Hummer. The pattern comes with all of the necessary fabrics and, of course, the paper-pieced pattern. Since finishing the Exploding Star quilt (photo to come as soon as I find a way to take a picture of it! It’s too big for my husband to hold up.), I’ve been working on my little hummingbird — which isn’t exactly tiny, as it will measure about 30″ x 40″.
I’ve always enjoyed paper piecing, but my only caveat on this one is that I’m very nervous about running out of some of the various fabrics. The company has a wonderful policy where they’ll send more of a color that you need — absolutely free! — but I’m still nervous. <g> Besides, the kit doesn’t include any fabrics for binding, let alone for piping. I’ll figure something out, though.
At any rate, I’m about three-fourths of the way to the end of the piecing; there are four rows of four blocks each, and I only have one more row to go! Here’s the top row:
And here are the bottom two rows:
Aren’t the colors absolutely glorious? The “missing” row will complete the bird, of course. Stay tuned ….
5 thoughts on “Paper piecing again”
Oh the fabric colours are glorious! Can’t wait to see the finished humming bird.
Thanks, Candice — I wish I could take credit for those colors, but it’s a kit. Still, I agree that they’re just gorgeous! 🙂
I have never gotten on with paper piecing but I do so admire the results people who can get their head around it gets from the many patterns out there. I have a book by Ruth McDowell I have kept for over 25 years thinking I would be able to “crack the code” one day but so far it escapes me. Can’t wait to see the finished hummingbird. Hope you don’t run out of fabric and have to wait for more.
Thanks so much, Dagmar! As for paper piecing, I think Ruth MacDowell’s work is amazing, but it’s not exactly what I’d think is for beginners to the technique. I’d recommend Carol Doak, instead, whose designs are much simpler and who gives ideas for how to cut fabrics with little waste.
Dagmar, Ruth McDowell does fabulous work, but I suspect her stuff isn’t really for beginners; I could be mistaken. However, I learned to paper piece from Carol Doak, who has much simpler designs to start up. She also gives tips for how to cut fabric so that there is minimal waste and how to “rescue” a piece if you make a mistake.