Modern Stitching Bee - August 2014

Trumpet fanfare please for the most regal of all Queen Bees, Queen of the Cumberland Gap, the majestic Rhonda!

Rhonda asked for Union Jack blocks in brights and white so here are the two I stitched up for her:

This first one is my favourite.  I love the red and yellow together!

The second one is orange and a beautiful shade of jade which hasn't pictured very true here.  Looks more turquoise here but it isn't.

Rhonda pointed us in the direction of this tutorial from Molli Sparkles.  It works beautifully but does require some attention when orientating the diagonal segments for cutting.  Mind you, paying attention was worth it, I reckon!

Great block choice to finish up a year in the Modern Stitching Bee.  I've made a ton of blocks this year, been introduced to many low volume backgrounds, learned some gentle curved piecing and just been made so welcome in the Bee by Rhonda and Leanne and the other Bees.  Thanks ladies for letting me join in with this year's fun!

Paper-Pieced Mug Rug

Learning to foundation piece on paper has been on my list of new things to try for a while now and last weekend I finally got around to having a go.

First effort paper-piecing after a few unpicking
and resizing fabric moments. Pity it is the wrong way round

In retrospect I could have chosen an easier pattern to start with but must admit to having been swayed towards this Union Flag block by the beautiful blocks made by the Ringo Pie Bee crew. They are just so talented, you have to check them out. If you fancy having a go yourself, there's a great paper-piecing template for a Union Flag at Four Twin Sisters.  Once I had my little practice block made up I liked it so much I didn't want to just stash it away in a drawer so I used Kerry's fab tutorial for single binding little things to make it up into a mug rug.

Adding binding a la Kerry's tutorial on the laptop screen!

Quilted and bound - not bad for a first effort, though
my hubby did point out that technically I didn't get the
placement of the wide stripes correct (he's a spotter).

Put to use as a mug rug.

I have some more practicing to do before I've quite got the hang of this patchwork technique, and think that perhaps I should go back a few steps and try some simpler patterns to become more familiar with the method. But I really enjoyed this piecing technique and my mind is racing with fun possibilities for future projects once a little more perfecting has taken place.