Lisa's UFO Report: January 2016

My January goal for the #APQResolution UFO Challenge was to make progress on the Little Bits paper piecing kits that I purchased a few years ago & have been sitting in my closet ever since. I've never paper pieced before, so I had thought that these would be a good way to learn & get some practice.

Fish Block

I knew my friends Mary & Amanda were going to give me some pointers later in the month at our quilt guild winter retreat, but I was eager to get started earlier in January to see what I was in for. After watching a Paper Piecing Made Easy video on YouTube, I tackled one of the fish blocks. This was a fairly simple block, with only nine sections, and it went together easily. I used some scraps that happened to be sitting on my cutting table from a recent project & this was the result. I did not make any other fish blocks in January, but have picked out some additional scraps from Mary's stash to make some more at a later date.

I decided to move on to picking out & cutting fabrics needed for the haunted house kit in preparation for retreat. I was able to pick out & make up most of the kits for the individual sections from my fabric stash & supplemented the rest from 'stash shopping' at Mary's (thank you Mary!). I arrived at retreat all ready to go. Mary & Amanda use a different method of paper piecing than I used on the fish called the Carol Doak method. After a quick lesson & some questions along the way, I found this method to be much more efficient.

Prepping Haunted House Kits

Making Progress

I was able to complete the quilt top for the haunted house & was very happy with how it turned out - the shingle fabric that Mary had was perfect for the house. Next steps will be to finish removing the paper backing, quilt, bind, and maybe add some bling-y embellishments. But I am considering my goal for January a success! 

'Completed' Haunted House