How I Learned to Paper Piece with a Circle of Geese Quilt

I learned paper-piecing, and I love it! AND, it’s not hard!! You should give it a try, too.

Last month, the folks at Soak Wash put together a quilter’s photo-a-day challenge on Instagram. I thought I would join in because I really like the motivation that a challenge offers, and while I don’t do a ton of quilting, I’ve really been enjoying it lately. (For tons of inspiration, check out all of the photos that were shared during the challenge by searching #soakphotochallenge on Instagram.)

A photo posted by Bonnie Ferguson (@fishsticksdesigns) on Oct 10, 2014 at 6:12pm PDT

The theme for Day 18 of the challenge was Paper Piecing, and since I’ve never tried paper piecing before, I thought I’d just search out a tutorial and try it. I happened to land on an amazing series at The Littlest Thistle called Foundation Paper Piecing for the Terrified.

The first lesson teaches you how to sew a traditional courthouse steps block using basic paper piecing, and I was able to finish it really quickly. You can see my sweet little block above. Once I felt like I had a grasp on what paper piecing involved, I cheated a little and jumped ahead to lesson #4, and I made this!

A photo posted by Bonnie Ferguson (@fishsticksdesigns) on Oct 10, 2014 at 12:08pm PDT

And then I was hooked! I made another clockwise Circle of Geese block.

A photo posted by Bonnie Ferguson (@fishsticksdesigns) on Oct 10, 2014 at 4:27am PDT

Then I made two counterclockwise blocks.

A photo posted by Bonnie Ferguson (@fishsticksdesigns) on Oct 10, 2014 at 8:39am PDT

Then, I hung them all up on the wall in my diningroom with washi tape to see how they looked. I had been looking for something go under this clock for ages, and I loved this!

A photo posted by Bonnie Ferguson (@fishsticksdesigns) on Oct 10, 2014 at 7:35pm PDT

From there, I pieced it all together, backed it and did some straight line quilting using my regular sewing machine.
I finished it with navy blue binding to match the clock above it and hung it up on the dining room wall.

I am so happy with how this turned out … but I realized after it was up that I have a WHITE quilt on my dining room wall! Eek! Now I’m on the hunt for a cabinet of some sort to go under it and hopefully protect it from little spaghetti-sauce-covered hands.

9 thoughts on “How I Learned to Paper Piece with a Circle of Geese Quilt”

Beautiful quilt – but you’re right! White in a dining room is asking for trouble. 🙂

Bonnie says:

November 11, 2014 at 10:53 am

LOL! I know! What was I thinking?! So far it’s been fine, though … maybe I could just make a no-tomato-sauce-in-this-house rule.

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I love your circle of geese. I used the same pattern as the center of a guild round robin I recently participated in. Here’s a link to my blog post that has a picture of my completed quilt. I think you’ll like what everyone added to it.
http://robingallagher.blogspot.com/2014/10/design-wall-mondayoctober-20-2014.html

Bonnie says:

November 13, 2014 at 8:18 am

Thank you, Robin! And, Wow! Your round robin quilt is AMAZING!!

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Your circle of geese is gorgeous! I also need to try paper piecing, such great things can be made 🙂

Bonnie says:

November 13, 2014 at 8:19 am

Thank you, Christine! You should try it! It’s one of those things that looks really intimidating, but it’s not hard at all.

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