Monday 18 March 2013

Drunks and Designers

The recent surge in Craftsy BOM catching up continues!

September's blocks were based on the Drunkard's Path pattern, so two lots of curved pieces to conquer. The first up, called Chain Block, looks to me like snakes slithering across the floor but that might have something to do with my distaste for curved seams :)

Craftsy BOM Sept 1

Not only were the curved seams a pain to sew, but I also managed to get marks from the iron on three of the individual blocks and had to do them again.

The second Drunkard's Path block was called Cleopatra's Puzzle and was much more to my taste than slippery snakes. Can you spot the problem I only discovered after I had put it all together? Are you beginning to see why I have put off doing these blocks for so long?




Should have paid more attention to the fabric placement when I was cutting out those pieces! 

The final month's paper-pieced blocks will be light relief after these :)

Fortunately not all of my blocks recently have been so problematic. Last month in Katy's Everything and the Kitchen Sink SAL she showed us how to design a paper-piecing pattern using Microsoft Word. Having had my monthly struggle to come up with something appropriate for the Star of Africa Bee block, I thought I would have a go at designing my own paper-pieced block. The theme for February was shoes. Having visited the V and A Museum in London a few weeks ago, I had an idea of what I wanted to do for my block, but until Katy's post no idea how to achieve it.

There were some fabulous shoes on display at the V and A,

from the very old

to the very glamorous

and the retro!

The ones I chose to represent in my block though can just be seen in the bottom of this photo

The rivet shoe boot was designed by Alexander McQueen, so I even managed to fit in a Scottish connection as his parents were from Scotland!

Here is my interpretation for the Star of Africa block


Designer Shoe block


I even managed to add a McQueen signature skull to the zip! Yes, I did get a zip in the paper-pieced block, it was an interesting experiment I can tell you :)

I had great fun designing the block and will definitely have a go at doing this again, thanks to Katy's brilliant instructions.

Waiting to see now what is next up for the Bee, it will be challenging I know.

Linking up to  http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yBA0dP9XZiY/TdlBWrZfbOI/AAAAAAAAAcM/mjC0IDWrqZY/s1600/BOM+Button.jpg and Plum and June


UndertheTableandDreaming Quilter in the Closet

19 comments:

  1. Oh the dreaded Drunkard's Path curves! I'm in awe of your paper pieced shoe block, I did have a look at Katy's post last time you mentioned her method but I'm going to have another read of it now :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh I'm not a huge fan of curved seams either - but you did a fabulous job!

    Well done on the paper pieced block - looks fab!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Well done on the curves! Very cool shoe block

    ReplyDelete
  4. WOW!!! Your paper pieced (I know what that is now) shoe block, is amazing, Fiona.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Well done! Your paper pieced shoe is amazing, I love the skull zip. Well done on the curved blocks as well!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Wow!! That shoe is amazing!!! I have to say I really like your slithering snake block and I hate snakes!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Love those curvy blocks! But that shoe is just amazing. Brilliant job!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Well done on conquering all those blocks, still love that zip :oD

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hmm - the commenting thing is spazzing out - LOVE that zipper! Very cool. And I can't see what's wrong in your Cleopatra block - it's quite pretty!

    ReplyDelete
  10. the curved seam blocks are fab, I can't see the problem with the second one? Love the fabric you've used.

    that shoe block is amazing! Well done on designing that!!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Oh wow, your shoe block is fantastic! The added zipper is so neat! You did a great job on the curved seams, though I can see all those curves would be stressful! I've done one curved block ever and that was enough for me LOL!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Your curvy blocks are lovely but that shoe is just brilliant!

    ReplyDelete
  13. I can relate to the Drunkard Path blocks - not my favorite either. I love the shoe block with the added detail. I've bookmarked the site so when I finally have time I can check it out. Great Job Fiona!

    ReplyDelete
  14. I've never sewn curves before for a reason, I guess;) So I've looked at your block a couple times and I'm not sure what's wrong with it! Which fabric is placed wrong? I can't tell!!!

    Thanks for linking up!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Love that Cleopatra's Puzzle - I may have to give it a try!

    ReplyDelete
  16. For a couple of weeks life got in the way if reading blogs, But back to normal now, so I've just had a lovely 10 minutes catching up with you :-)
    BOM - it makes it unique - its a lovely block anyway, and well done on the curve!
    Shoe - wow! Well done
    Washbag - so that's what the white foot is for - great project
    BoM - looking great!

    ReplyDelete
  17. I used to hate doing curved seams too, but I love it now that I have a curve master foot. It takes a bit to learn how to use the foot properly (and I think that they charge too much for the foot), but it does really work great and saves a ton of time.

    ReplyDelete
  18. I love your Cleopatra Puzzle. It is lovely, and of course your design of the shoe is AWESOME!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment, I read and appreciate every one! I will reply by email unless you are a no-reply blogger, in which case you will need to check back in the comments list for my reply, sorry!

Anonymous comments have been disabled due to the level of spam comments I have been receiving lately, sorry!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...