Its times like these when we need to bunker down and think hard about what is important in life. I sat down with my hand work the other night and watched West Side Story...one of my all time favourite movies. It isn't a good one for hand piecing as I love the choreography, the styling and the characters in this timeless tale. It was interesting to note how the ideas presented in the movie both reflected back to the romance of Romeo and Juliet but also were brought forward in the art forms of the likes of Michael Jackson. The dance scene with the Jets belied the origins of Beat It. Now we see the struggle alive in our politics. The moral is see with our heart, speak from our heart and be from our heart...art can show us the way.
When I need to de-stress I turn to hand work. The meditative process of moving my hands to my thoughts is rejuvenating and I am addicted. I caught up with the energetic team at Paper Pieces last market in Houston. They have such great energy and are all about connecting projects with people. I am happy to say that they now sell my book, Mixing Quilt Elements and not only that they have made up packs of papers to make three of the projects in my book!!!! I am thrilled to have their support.
The first pack is for Hope Hammock. This is a special quilt to me and the timing is pretty good as I now pass my four year mark for breast cancer. I started this quilt the day I was diagnosed. It gave me hope and peace while going through treatment and is a constant reminder of how much support I got from quilters at the time.
This one is made with 1 1/4" hexagons and has a great star shape you'll love to make.
The second one they are featuring is New Star. I made this one while traveling. To prepare I selected all the fabrics and made up the hexagons. They were all clipped together so that I could just pull them out and sew in the car, the hotel or on the plane.
It looks like there is a lot going on but each section is a moment in time. I machine pieced the border with all the leftovers...a common theme. If you want to control it more simply use the same color or value in the same spot in each diamond.
The third project they have made kits for is Octagon Baby.
This quilt was a celebration of modern solid fabrics. I string pieced all the leftovers to do the crazy zig zag border. Its a great baby quilt but also interesting graphically to hang on the wall. Its hand quilted with perle 8 just inside the seam allowance.
These projects are all suitable for novice paper pieces. They are among my first projects done with papers so if you haven't ventured into the paper pieces wave they are all good and easy.
Follow Jess from Paper Pieces on @stitches_be_crazy to see what else they have on offer.
Busy fingers...happy life!
I wholeheartedly agree that in these troubled times we need to focus more on what makes us happy. A little had work every day simply soothes the soul. Enjoy your day.
Posted by: Wendy C. Reed | Tuesday, 07 February 2017 at 05:21 AM