Dragon Fruit BOM - Month 1

 I just got back from a wonderful week of vacation in Kauai, Hawaii with my sweetheart.   We had such a great time playing in the ocean, hiking, skydiving (kind of crazy) and resting and relaxing.   And wouldn't you know it, when I got home, the first Month of the Dragon Fruit Block of the Month was waiting for me.   So I got busy paper piecing!!!    And here is Month 1 of the  Dragon Fruit  hosted by Fat Quarter Shop and can I just say . . . so much fun!!!  And just fyi . . . It's not to late to join in the Tula Pink Paper Piecing fun ;) 

The Dragon Fruit Block of the Month will run from Oct 24 to June 25.   This month we made 20 Paper Pieced 4" blocks.   And how cute and tiny are those pieces!!  I love that paper piecing makes everything so perfectly precise, because while I love tiny piecing, this would be tricky to piece straight without the foundation :)  And each months pieces are made with Tula Pinks gorgeous fabrics.  This month we were working on the "leaves" so it was all the pretty greens, teals, and citron colors ;)  

Month 1 and I am already in love!!!   I am so grateful that I have become better aquatinted with Paper Piecing.  It is such a wonderful skill to have and it is amazing what you can create with it ;)   If you are new to Paper Piecing, I did a strep by step paper piecing tutorial (for a different block) over here that you might find helpful :)  I am still no expert, but I am enjoying it more and more with each paper piecing project I tackle.   

 

 Thoughts and Tidbits from the First Month . . . 

Just in case you are new to Paper Piecing, here are some thoughts and tidbits that I figured out along the way of Month 1 that I thought would be helpful to share ;) 

First off, this Block of the Month is super easy to follow.   The Pattern is so well illustrated and having the custom Paper Piecing Pads makes it easy.  And I was also pleasantly surprised at the amount of fabric sent in Month 1's package!!  This is the "scrap fabric" that I had after cutting all my pieces.  It is always so nice to know you have plenty of wiggle room for oopsies :)  

And speaking of cutting your fabrics, A lot of the pieces are cut the same sizes.  So I found it helpful to look through the cutting directions first, find the ones that are similar, and then stack up those pieces of fabric and cut them all at the same time.   And cutting 4 of the WOF strips was also a huge time saver as I could sub-cut all the pieces I needed for each of the 4 blocks sets all at once.  

When it came to start paper piecing, chain stitching was key!!!  I chain stitched the 4 Courthouse Steps blocks first, and then went back and chain stitched the 16 Log Cabin Blocks second.   I found doing the four blocks first got me in the groove so I was really flying through the 16 blocks after that.   

And a big help with chain stitching that I didn't realize until I was almost finished . . . change your needle setting to Needle Up.  This way you don't have to hand crank when you need to advance to the next piece of paper piecing clear in the middle of the paper :)  And of course, I am all about a small stitch length (1.5) so tearing the paper will be easier.  And if you have an oopsie and your paper shreds, FQS gave you two extra papers so you can always start over if needed, or you can tape it back up with invisible tape and sew through it again.  

And after the courthouse steps blocks, I realized I needed to be super clean with snipping my threads.  It takes a second longer, but clipping the threads right at the base of the stitching helps keep things nice and tidy and you don't have any threads making their way to the front of the block.   And since I am snipping them so close, I made sure to overstitch my lines at least 1/4" so I didn't have to worry about unravelling ;) 

Once all of my paper piecing was complete, I found trimming the blocks with a 4 1/2" square ruler and a rotating cutting mat to be very precise and quick.  If you haven't tried a rotating cutting mat before, they are just so great for trimming!!  I like the ones with the ball bearings in the middle as they turn super easy.  

And now all that is left is to take out all of the papers from my 20 blocks!!   Good thing I have my handy Pretty Tula Pink Tweezers for getting out those pieces that just don't want to let go ;)   Should be a fun little job to keep my hands busy while watching the World Series Tonight ;)  Go Dodgers!!

And that is it for Dragon Fruit Block of the Month - Month 1    Again, there is still time to join in the fun, but I wouldn't wait long because the other thing I learned with this Month was I better not get behind because this is a lot of Paper Piecing each month!!  

And just for fun . . . here are some snippets my Crazy Adventure from last week!!