Paper Piecing, WedgeWorks and Classes!

Hi everyone!  Lots to update you on!  Today was so cold and it snowed quite a few inches, I have been frozen solid all day.

Alright, so I've been determined to really get down to brass tacks with paper piecing.  Last year I attempted a 4" block from Carol Doaks "300 Paper Pieced Quilt Blocks" book.  It wasn't anything special, not even a pattern just a crazy patch style block, very easy, 4 pieces.  At the time I was like ok, easy enough... until I volunteered to make a 12" block for a friend for a charity quilt she was putting together.  I decided on the "Star O'er Bethlehem" block from quilterscache.com.  It was a struggle, there were a lot of tears, a lot of cursing and more tears.  I had almost given up, it was tough and all of the piecing and ripping and repiecing was really getting to me.  I finally wound up with this end result: 

The blocks were also voted on, there were many, many very beautiful blocks and I actually won first place!  I was extremely honored and very humbled.  So it all paid off.  I tried to re-make the block a while later and i was not successful.  The end result was completely wonky and unable to be worked with.  

Fast forward to now, yesterday I decided to pick a block make it 8" and work on it.  It took an hour, jeez!  But I am satisfied with the end result:

Today, I worked on this one, love it!  The whole thing reminds me of my boyfriend's mom and her love for florals, coffee and shabby chic design.  I chose the fabric with her in mind.

My goal is to do at least one a month and by December make a nice little wall hanging.  I don't know if I can commit to more than one a month at this point, my time is very limited.

I started taking a class at my LQS today.  It is a 4 week class that is held every Thursday from 10am-12pm.  Those 2 hours fly by so fast!  The class is for Cheryl Phillip's book "WedgeWorks" it's an 'easy' Mariner's Compass with no paper piecing.  Here are 3 photos from the book *please note these are not my work:

Cover of the book:

"Persian Star"
"China Blue Sampler"

At first, I wanted to make the China Blue Sampler.  Then I started leaning towards the Persian Star.  When I got to class, almost everyone was doing the China Blue and it really made me want to deviate and since I wanted to do the Persian Star anyway... then I decided i'd make one Persian Star then mat and frame it and make the sampler.  I pretty much understood the directions for the sampler and since everyone wanted to make it the instructions were being talked about a lot.  Once I got home I was reading over the star instructions and while I don't feel like I can't do it... i'm like hmmm, I wish I had spent more time in class reviewing it.  At this point though, I feel like i'm beyond the technicality of the directions and i'm really faced with a challenge with choosing the fabrics.  I know contrast is everything with a Mariner's Compass and I am keeping that in mind.  I just also feel like I have a big opportunity to learn a lot from this class but with my given time constraints I really feel like I can't do the class justice.  It's a horrible feeling.  Hopefully my shopping trip to Joann tomorrow will relive me and i'll find some incredibly inspiring fabrics.  

This weekend I will be spending with my 8 year old son and we have my nephew's birthday party to go to on Saturday.  Tuesday I start teaching my Crazy Patch Heart class and I'll have my Thursday class going on, then next weekend I'll be in New York with my best friend.  Not to mention I will also have the next round of the CQ RR block to work on, it'll probably arrive tomorrow.  Oh!   And i'm hosting 2 buy ins: silk ribbon and perle 8 cotton.  

Over the past 3 days i've managed to needle tat up 7 or 8 baskets too.  I'll post a picture of them tomorrow.

I always manage to keep myself extremely busy!  I hope to post pictures of more progress on the paper piecing soon!

Cheers all!