Picture Piecing Technique

Since we only have 13 blocks for our Korean Friendship Quilt, I decided to try this to even things up.

This is a design by Cynthia England that Kimberly had. It is a picture piecing technique. It seemed a bit daunting at first, but once I started doing it, I quickly realized how EASY this is. It is kind of tedious (like the hexagons), and takes a lot of time, but it's doable. Kimberly asked me if I would try this again, and I said maybe, if I was really motivated and excited by a design, but I wouldn't do anything bigger than this size. However, some of you might find it more enjoyable, and I admit, I did get really excited about my finished project:)

So, the pattern is printed on wax paper. You cut out the pieces, iron them on to the right side of the color of fabric you want, and cut them out leaving a 1/4 inch seam allowance.

As you can see, some of the pieces are super small, and Nicole F. asked if that made it difficult to sew them. No - with the seam allowance, they are just big enough that it isn't a problem.

As you are cutting out pieces, you need to be VERY organized. The pattern is arranged in groupings, lettered A-O. Each of the groups need to be kept separate, and so I kept them all in individual ziplock baggies.

Now you start the sewing process. Start with group A. Each piece is numbered, 1,2,3...which indicates in which order you sew them together. Sometimes there are groups of pieces within the group (indicated on the pattern with a dotted line). For example, in the picture below I sewed pieces 1 and 2 together. Next, I would normally sew number 3 on, but in this case it was in a separate group. 3, 4 and 5 were in the same group, so I sewed those together in order, and THEN I could sew that group to the 1 and 2 group. Does that make sense.

As you can see, you leave the wax paper on as you continue to sew. If you are more of a perfectionist than I, you can adjust the wax paper as you go along - if you sewed pieces together and you were a little off from the edge of the paper, you can pull off the paper piece and re-iron it on closer to the seam you made.

As you continue to piece everything together, the picture begins to emerge. Here was my finished project (minus the butterfly body)

I had to make a few changes, because the pattern makes a 12x12 block, and that was bigger than what I needed. You can see that my side borders are thinner, and I actually cut off quite a bit of the blue from the bottom, and I didn't piece the butterfly into the pattern, but appliqued it on afterwards, and it was a smaller butterfly too. I was really happy with the results, and I'm glad I did it. Kimberly said she is going to try this pattern this summer.

If you like the look of these, then don't be afraid to give it a try. I know my instructions aren't the best, but you can actually watch videos of the process here. Also Cynthia England has these two free patterns on her website (click on either image to go to the pattern).

You can see her other patterns here. Some are for full quilts, and some for blocks. Do you see the old-time sewing machine one under her nostalgia series? I LOVE that one (it reminds me of my Grandmother's vintage sewing machine, which I learned to sew on), but it is a quilt-size, and an advanced level pattern. If I am completely insane some day, I will buy that pattern and attempt to do it;)

As for the friendship quilt challenge, now that most of us have all our blocks, we seem to be a little stuck. Kudos to Darsha for being the first one to complete this challenge - I guess you had to, seeing that it was your challenge;) We all love the look of Darsha's quilt, with the frames around each block, and have wondered if we will just copy her;) I googled images of friendship quilts, and her are some interesting ways you could do it.

Okay, that last one is actually a bulletin board, but I was trying to find a picture of a checkerboard style quilt, so whatever:) Also, Kimberly talked about doing a wall hanging rather than a quilt, finishing each block separately, and then hanging them down a chain or ribbon. I was thinking of doing a wall hanging too, 2 blocks across and 7 down, which would be a good size to hang on a door. Here are some other wall hanging ideas.

I can't wait to see everyone's finished projects!