Thursday, December 30, 2010

sarah and molly's free piecing study

molly of country hill and i are starting a free piecing study in the new year. each month we will "study" one or two new blocks. we will make one of each block for ourselves and one of each block to send to the other. we're starting in january with two blocks and when we end in october, we will have 30 blocks (15 blocks we made ourselves and 15 from the other) total. enough to make a quilt!

i thought i would open it up for a quilt along if anyone is interested. i know a few people who will be joining in, so i will open up a flickr group to post your pictures in as well. i will post how i make the block(s) for each month. if you are curious about free piecing, i will also be showing how i free piece. i know some of you are intimidated by the whole process, and i hope that this study will help you.

you are welcome to do some or all of the blocks or just check in on how to make each block. i'm not taking signups, but i would love to hear if you are joining, and i would love to see your blocks in the flickr group. i will keep a list of posts in the side bar for easy reference. if you are joining, you can make double the blocks or pair up with a friend and make them together. molly and i are making 10.5" blocks (seam allowances included). you can make your blocks any size you want. i will suggest not going smaller, because i think some of the blocks will be hard to do in a smaller size.

disclaimer - i did not "invent" free piecing. i have been greatly inspired by gwen marston and tonya ricucci. gwen has many books that i highly recommend. some are out of print so check your local libary. some are in print so check amazon or another book seller. tonya has a great website including tutorials and has just published a book on how to make free pieced letters. i got started free piecing by following their techniques. but you will find, that once you start free piecing, your brain takes over, and you develop your own way of doing things. techniques that i show here on this blog are how i do things, but know that i originally started with gwen and tonya's techniques.

we will get started next week!

10 comments:

Tine said...

FUN!!! Can't wait to see the blocks!

LJ said...

I already have my free piecing block study buddy! I'm excited for this!

Hope said...

This is exciting! I am not very good at free piecing so I can't wait to learn from a master!

l said...

that sounds good! I think I could manage that, just for myself, but to try new blocks ;)

Tamera said...

Cool! I need to find a buddy!

mathea said...

I'll be looking forward to this. I have always found free piecing hard to do, but maybe some inspiration might help me try again :-)

Marit said...

How exiting! Thank you for sharing your techniques with us. Your colorful creations always makes me happy.
I loved to read your first post, and share your views of blog etiquette. So it's time to let the fun begin...
; )

Heidi said...

I signed up as well. I have not done free, improv, piecing in a while. This is going to be fun. Thanks for organizing it for us :)

duckyhouse said...

Count me in on this quilt along, but I won't be able to start until end of February or early march as most of my stuff is in storage while we make my future studio. I'll be following along though. Love this idea

jmb_craftypickle said...

This is so funny... I haven't been reading blogs much the past few months (have to sew and take care of kids so computer time has been scarce) but I have been seeing all of these cool bird blocks on flickr. It seemed like EVERYONE was making these cool blocks and I was so jealous about not knowing what was going on. I finally figured it out today. What a cool idea and I am glad that it is so inclusive. I am definitely going to tagalong with you all, it seems like so much fun. Thanks!