My First Experience with Paper Piecing...and Katmandu Arrived!

Here is my first try at paper piecing. It may be my last! The pattern is available at Cia's Palete http://www.ciaspalette.com/patterns/03/4_point_star.html and is a nice pattern . I read up on several tutorials how to do paper piecing, but am not the best at learning how to do something like this from reading...I do much better with an actual person showing me. I have seen this done on Alex Anderson's show, and even thought "oh that doesn't look so bad" which makes me laugh now! I screwed up several different ways and did plenty of unsewing. It really isn't all that hard, but I just don't have a very geometric way of thinking so I had trouble visualizing the size to cut the fabric (sometimes I cut it out backwards--sigh) and a few times I sewed it on in the wrong direction...finally I started pinning on my sewing line and opening it to make sure it was right and that I had enough fabric to cover all areas. I had two of one size and two of another and had to rip out again and try to make two bigger. Not sure if the paper was acutally different size (possible since I may have printed them on different days) or if I just sewed inside the seam on two and outside it on the other two. I was going to start over, but decided to just make it passable for now and move on since I really wasn't enjoying it much. Ta Da here it is.

Try not to laugh...for a first try it isn't THAT bad, is it?
On to the next topic. Many of the blogs I read (and I love to read them!) have been talking about their pincushions and that got me to thinking I didn't even have one! I used to have a tomato but got rid of it when I got my magnetic heart thingy which is what I use every time I sew. I went looking just in case I had kept my boring old tomato though and found this little black and red pincushion with MD on it (my son's initials) that he made me in school several years ago. I have never really used it, but now I plan to find a job for it!

I also decided to splurge and order myself a cute pincushion since I will soon have a quilting studio and will need to look like I know what I am doing (grin) so I ordered an adorable one from http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=3988 but not telling which one yet...you can try to guess what my style would be if you want!
I also got my order of Katmandu fabric designed by my favorite hip guy Mark Lipinski in the mail today! I couldn't decide which fabrics I wanted since I haven't found them in my local shops and only can see them online, so I got crazy and ordered a kit with forty fat quarters and more from Abbi May's Fabric Shop http://abbimays.com/index.php and they look SO GREAT in person! I have no idea if I can even cut them up. One is better than the next and I am glad I get to see so much of it in these fat quarters! I am not sure if I am going to make the BOM kit that I bought from or do other things with it, but for now I will just look at them and wonder at the talent of fabric designers like Mark! If you are not already a member of Mark's Pickle Posse you should really come join us for the fun in our Yahoo group. It is NEVER boring there! I can't wait to see what Mark comes up with next. Oh and Abbi May's gave me a cute little freebie with my order which also made my day! It is to hold needles and buttons and such and I don't have one, so that is awesome too!