Between the parcel I had to pick up at the sorting office this morning and the envelope through the door that I got when I got home from work, today has been a really nice happy mail day.
In the first parcel was my order from Bagpurseframes on Etsy. I put this order in at the same time as the glue (they kind of go together) but as this was winging its way from China, it took a little longer (was still pretty good timing though!) Look at all the goodies:
I did think about taking these all out of their wee bags, but then I couldn’t face trying to reunite them all again, so you’ll just have to imagine them more clearly ;o) Anywho, that there is 20 purse frames and 10 flex frames, which should keep me going for a while :o)
I also got this:
I just need to brush up on my Chinese now ;o) Actually, it should be okay, the pieces and percentages of pattern sizes are in the Latin alphabet, and there’s plenty of diagrams :o)
For my next bundle of goodness, my Yellow, Grey and Aqua charms arrived, isn’t this a pretty selection?
Nope, not a clue what I’m going to use them for yet! I’m thinking some may be getting united with some of those purse frames though…
Anyway, after I’d finished drooling over this lot, I decided I’d get those circling geese done for the Piece Bee With You block this month. I thought I’d try a little experiment with this paper piecing as it wasn’t hand drawn, and I had multiple copies printed off. I felt that the previous 2 PP blocks I’d done had rather a lot of waste, as I hadn’t really cut the fabric much other than to the nearest square or rectangle size (as advised on a tutorial I read somewhere) I thought I would try combining the 2 types of paper piecing out there in quilt land – the first utilises a solid paper base as a foundation, and the second uses freezer paper cut to the relevant shapes and the fabric trimmed around.
I really like the foundation piecing method, but as I had the multiple copies of the circling geese pattern (found here) I cut one copy up into the relevant pieces and used them as templates to cut the bits out with a 1/2″ allowance all round. I knew for a whole block I needed 4 of each piece, so after cutting out the first one for each piece of the pattern, I used it as a template for the remaining 3, which was a pretty quick solution.
This left a satisfyingly small pile of trimmings:
And a pretty nice block:
This is my very first attempt at geese of any sort, so I’m pretty happy with how they turned out :o)
Love the look of that book! Are you going to make some cure little purses? Ps those bears are super super cute 🙂
I am exceedingly jealous of your mail!!
I have never tried the flex frames…and one of these days I must try that circle of geese block. Yours looks great
Love the circling geese Katy! And it looks like you are going to have some colorful fun with all of those purse frames. Can't wait to see what you create. :o)
I can see one busy girl with 20 frames. When will we see the first purse. Hee Hee
You certainly had a lovely day.
3 cheers for ordering on line.
Hugs
Kay
Great mail. I never get anything this interesting or fun and I'm drooling over the fabrics. I wouldn't have the foggiest notion of what to do with one of those frames but am looking forward to seeing what you're going to do with them. The geese block came out perfect and with so little waste. I love those colors together against the white background. hugs
Lovely geese Katy!! I so want to try that block, and I have to pluck up courage for my beautiful rockets!! Can`t wait to see what your knowledge of Chinese and purse frames brings!
Love the flying geese, really nice. A block that's definitely on my to do list.
What a brilliant bundle of frames, that'll keep you busy. I shall have to check out their shop.
I have never seen that block pattern before. I really like it.
And I am also drooling over your purse book and all the frames and other goodies. I can't wait to see them done.
Lovely geese, and I love the charms squares, great colour combo
Happy Mail Day is right! How fun! I can almost see the gears working in your imagination :O) Have fun!
Hugs, Janice
I'm so envious of your fun mail!
That was a good idea to use the extra template to reduce waste. Did you enjoy doing it that way? I know I've been waffling between wanting to reduce waste and not wanting to struggle to line things up. :}
Beeeautiful Geese block! And I really love those yellow, grey and aqua charms – fab colour scheme 🙂
Wow Katy, you are going to be busy!