Kaleidoscope Mariner's Block

I have put together a quick paper piecing pattern for the Mariner's compass block that I used for Amy's pillow since some of you were interested in it.

 I modified the typical Mariner's compass a bit by adding more points to the stars in the back.

Download link here for the block pattern pieces.

Each Pattern only makes 1/4 of the entire block.  You will need to print out the pattern four times to get each of the 4 block sections to complete the entire Mariner's compass.  Make sure your printer is set to print at 100% or 'No Scaling'.

All seam allowances are 1/4".

Here is a schematic of the finished block.  The finished block is 12".

A piecing guide is shown here

For the pillow, I rotated the star just because I liked the look of it that way, but you can make it however you like.

Enjoy.

Happy Sewing!

Ghastlie Napkins and other creepy things

It's October! Month of Halloween decorations, preparations, and lots of sewing at our house.  The kids really get into this Holiday. They usually start bugging me to pull out all the decorations sometime around Sept 1st and I try to hold them off until at least October arrives.

Somehow Halloween always manages to take me a month to get ready for and about a month to recover from.  Maybe it's because I'm always frantically making Halloween costumes for the kids.

I was secretly hoping that once the kids took HomeEc they would start sewing their own costumes - yeah umm that hasn't really happened - a girl can dream right?

Meanwhile,  I pulled out these Halloween napkins sewn back in the summer.   They'll make for a Ghastly Table-scape.

I used the same Napkin Tute from Penny that I used here, just with wider borders ~ turns out I like them better that way.

I used a mix of different Halloween fabrics - Tula Pink, the Ghastlies and some Riley Blake.  The kids are having fun creating a Ghastlie family tree.

Are you ready for Halloween?

Happy Sewing!

Special Delivery

This little airmail package is headed ...? ...somewhere on the planet, to my partner in the Pillow Talk Swap round 9.

And inside this package what should we find?

Just a little sunshine from Oregon.  Here is the Mariner's compass block made into a nice large pillow for my partner.

In fun, cheery colors. I hope you like it partner!

It's headed your way...

Happy Sewing!

Something wicked this way comes....blog hop

 When Soma announced that she was looking for designers to submit blocks for a Halloween-themed paper-pieced blog hop, I was all over it. I love Halloween, it's probably my favorite holiday. All those costumes, decorations, pumpkins and creepy ghoulishness appeals to my quirky sense of humor. Love-it!

Trying to narrow down an idea for my block for the blog hop was considerably tougher. I finally settled on these witchy feet.

So here is the Day 4 design for the Halloween paper pieced blog hop.
 

The block is 10.5 x10.5" (a 10" square block when finished).

Pattern pieces for this block can be downloaded here.

Piecing instructions can be found here.
ETD: NOTE  Piece Q1 runs off the page and the last section of it is on page 5.  You have to tape/glue them together before you can sew.
NOTE2 - in the piecing guide the pieces A2 and A3 are mislabelled.  A2 should be labelled A3 and vice versa.

Cheers

Caroline

I hope you like the block. This is my first time participating in a blog hop and so far I'm having a blast with all the creativity flowing around.

Stayed tuned to Soma's blog as there will be a new Halloween-themed block every day this month!
That's a lot of ghoulish goodness!



Happy Halloween and Happy Sewing!

Mariner's compass

 It's pillow talk swap time again, I think this is round 9.  I missed the last round due to other committments.   This round, I'm working on a Mariner's compass modified slightly from the original pattern.  I took out some points and added some triangles and this is what I came up with.  It's kind of a starburst now...

My partner likes bright colors, so I hope that this is up their alley.




I thought it would be fun to look at my previous submissions so I put together this collage.  Sometimes, you get involved in so many swaps it's hard to remember what you've done in the past.  These were some fun projects for me. This swap always pushes my creativity.  I love coming up with original designs tailored to my partner's likes.  More of a challenge than you might think sometimes.


Happy Sewing!

Halloween Blog Hop

It's October!!! Can you believe it? Where has the year gone already?  I just wanted to pop in and let you know about a fantastic blog hop going on this month.  Starting today, and every day this month there will be a new paper pieced Halloween themed pattern available at Soma's blog (Whimsandfancies.com).

If you love Halloween and paper piecing then this is the blog hop for you.  Pop on over and check out the fun projects.  Just imagine what you could do with 31different halloween blocks?! Right? Quilts, runners, placemats, the possibilities are endless.   

Go check it out!  Happy Sewing!