Hello again, I’m Caroline (@CasperBrigg on Instagram) and here’s my blog for the Patchwork and Quilting Club at Little Miss Sew N Sew. I’m up to block 8! I can’t believe I’ve got so far through already.
Inside this month’s box is the beautiful fabric from the Puffin Bay collection from Lewis and Irene. There’s also the instructions booklet for the block of the month, which is the Flying Geese block, a matching thread and a sweet treat.
I looked through the booklet, and after the confidence of the stitch and flip technique on block 7, I decided I would attempt variation 3.
There’s lots to cut out for this variation. As you need to cut the same from each fabric, I cut all 4 at once. Keeping track of which fabric to use was quite difficult, so I wrote the numbers on the offcuts to keep me on track.
I started making up the flying geese units and all seemed to be going well. This is a good time to mention directional prints. 2 of the prints have no direction, but the other 2 do. I noticed when sewing the blue wave corners on that I had to line up waves in a different orientation so when they were flipped over the waves were going from side to side.
Everything was going ok until I got to the puffin fabric. I realised that I wasn’t going to get a single whole puffin on any of my units. Disaster! I went back to the fabric I had left and I re-cut 2 of the 3 rectangles and all of the squares. Then I had the fun of working out which square went where to get the most out of the puffins. You may notice one of the squares was put on upside down to get the waves in the right direction and avoiding cutting the head off a puffin!
Once all the units were made and pressed, I started sewing them together. First along each row and then the rows together. I made two units of zigzags (3 rows each) as I wanted to see which way I wanted the two sets of zigzags to go. After looking at both orientations I decided to switch the top zigzag the other way up. I think this makes it look more like a complete pattern, rather than a never ending zigzag.
This final seam was a struggle. Where the 2 points of the flying geese units (hopefully) meet there is a large amount of fabric. Quite difficult to sew over. And once I had sewn it I noticed the points don’t really match. The seam lines do though! And if that wasn’t enough for this block, the pressing of the final seam is really bulky. I’ve managed to get it lying flat for my photos, but I think I might go back and press the centre seam open and see if that helps.
Overall I like the effect of this block. It looks better in the photo than it did when I had just finished it. In hind sight I’m not sure the complexity of the block was matched by my skill level. I certainly struggled with the number of small units and part of me wishes I had chosen the first variation where the units are larger and there are less points to worry about. I guess that's a lesson learnt!
Tune in again next time for more gorgeous fabrics and the next block of the month challenge…