The first block of the year for the No Girls Allowed Quilt Bee is going to Sandy G. His request, a paper pieced Lone Starburst block. Thankfully the pattern for the block came with a full tutorial on The Peony Teacup.
Paper piecing, yes I said it, the dreaded paper piecing. It’s usually the bane technique of the traditional quilter. And I am certainly no exception. Before this month, I had one experience with paper piecing and it wasn’t pretty. Backwards, upside down, wasting material. It’s just a concept that didn’t work for me. It, of course, had nothing to do with having little to no quilting experience at the time (Yeah, right!).
Lone Starburst Block, Light Variation
With great trepidation I downloaded the file and printed out some of the pattern. I read through the tutorial a couple of times and finally mustered the courage to give paper piecing another attempt. This time, the experience was completely different. If anything lead to the revelation that paper piecing can be fun and have awesome results, it was the preparation that was suggested in the tutorial.
Pre-cut, stack and assembly-line the blocks, it’s really the key to remaining calm and happy. I do it when I’m doing traditional piecing, I don’t know why I didn’t think to do the same with paper piecing. Overall it’s made the whole experience more enjoyable, and I don’t dread this technique at all anymore. I can personally say that I’ve had so much fun making these blocks I can’t seem to stop. I’ve decided that for each of the blocks I make to send away this year, I’m going to make some to keep here, and then I’ll get a total of 2 quilts out of all the work.
Lone Starburst Block, Dark Variation
Sandy requested that we make one block in light fabrics, and another in dark. It’s a neat concept, and I can’t wait to see how he treats the blocks after he has them from everyone.
If you’re interested in trying out this block, the PDF pattern is available for download here, and was made by The Quilting Climber, who also has a tutorial, and helpful information for printing the pattern for use.
