I am thrilled to say that my large (about 20" x 34") paper pieced semi is now complete!! Yippee Skippee!!! And, I am happy to say that I am quite pleased with the way it turned out. (And that is always a bonus :) So I thought this morning I would share the little saga of how this block came to be.
This is my Dad's semi. The last time he stopped by (My mom and I use him as our personal delivery guy :) I snapped a quick picture of his truck through our front window. So I took this picture and brought it into my EQ 7 program.
From there I drew the lines in with the picture as reference. Once I had the basic outline of the truck I imported the image into excel and went to print it off and decided it needed color. So I went back, added some color and then printed it of to use as a paper pieced pattern. (I made it rather large so there was a lot of cutting and taping going on to make 1 large pattern.)
Then I sat and stared at this and tried to figure out how in the world I was going to turn that drawing into a paper pieced pattern. I started by breaking it into 4 sections and then adding some connecting lines :) And I figured from there just go at it and make the best of it. So I pieced the first section which went all right and then upon starting the second section I dedided that I could probally put it together just as fast doing normal piecing as it was mostly squares and such. So I did that. And this is what came from it.
Ya, silly me didn't think about the fact that when you paper piece the image is reversed. So when I regular pieced it wasn't reversed. Needless to say, piece 1 was not matching up with piece 2 as the front of the truck was facing the rear :) So I got frustrated, scribbled on the piece I had done wrong and wen't back to all paper piecing.
It was slow going at first but the more I practiced (this is only my second time paper piecing and my first time attempting to make a pattern:) the more the technique started to make sense and the easier it got to adjust my little "pattern" to reflect more of a standard paper pieced pattern. (not that I am saying it is anything to write home about :) So all in all, it was a learning process. I can't tell you how many times I changed things but in the end, after tons of new drawn lines and lots of scribble lines, I came up with this as is the final paper pieced verision :) And I figured since I had spent so much time to put it together I might as well share it, right :) So if you ever need a large paper pieced semi truck you can find this image in Google Documents here :)
You can download the image and then put it in any program you wish. You can change the size to the size you need and then get paper piecing (I stretched this image quite a bit to make it longer :) Oh, and like I said, this isn't a fabulous paper piecing pattern as you will have to add the 1/4" seam allowance around each of the sections on your own since I didn't make the sections separate. (Also, I found out that you have to piece the frame of the door regular as I couldn't figure out how to paper piece it once you had cut out the center, but it is symmetrical so you don't have to worry about piecing it regular because it won't mess it up :) Basically, if you ever use this and have questions just email me, I would be happy to explain my crazy way of doing it :)
And so after all was said and done, I had one pretty awesome Semi, if I do say my self ;) It was a rather large challenge, but I learned so much along the way and that makes me so happy!!
I actually sewed all of the blocks together yesterday and basted the quilt. So now I just have to get it quilted and then I will share the full reveal :) I am just so excited, it is going to be such an awesome Father's Day gift :)
And since it is Tuesday and I actually posted a finish (well part of the finish) I might as well link on up :)