The blocks were easier than I thought they would be when I finally made myself get to it.  I paper pieced the center section and then pieced the background and center half circle. Piecing the background and center half circle was kind of like setting in sleeves in the old days when I made clothes for myself and family.   I’m not good at paper piecing and had to do some frogging on the first attempt since I put the fabric upside down a...

That is two for me. They really aren’t as hard as they...

I gave this beautiful block a go last night. All was well until I tried to sew on the background and it just didn’t seem right. I re-measured everything and discovered that the printout was not in proportion. In a panic I measured the paper-pieced section (phew, it was okay). I printed from 2 different PCs and even though I checked the settings to make sure it didn’t re-size the 8-1/2 x 11 to A4, it obviously did. So a new...

Two blocks were mailed to Debbie yesterday. Congrats

Here’s the latest of my sunrise blocks–I hand-pieced while watching a little television Sunday and Monday evening. The photo suffers a little from poor light; I woke up very early this morning and even after enjoying my morning latté on the roof deck while the sun was rising and the cats played around on the roof, there wasn’t yet enough good natural light for a photo in the studio.  The background is a white-on-white fabric. I...

The size of the arc which is part of this month’s Sunrise block was determined by the size of a sheet of US letter-sized paper to make it easy to print the foundation pattern. I intended to put together a tutorial this month, describing how to draw your own pattern, so that you could make a sun, half-sun or quarter sun (AKA New York Beauty block) in any size you needed for other projects.  And then, while I was looking for an old photo in...

These are the first two sunrise blocks that I made.  I thought they would be a good place to start sharing suggestions for techniques and tips for making the blocks.  I am starting the conversation with my experience, but I hope that, if you decide to make the block, you’ll also share yours.  I’ll use this post to gather our collective experiences as encouragement and help for those that may be feeling a little intimidated. For the...

Are you ready for a challenge? I truly believe this 7 by 14-inch (finished size) Sunrise block is SO much easier than it looks, but it might look a little scary to you.  Peggy made this one. Because of the larger size, you make make a maximum of SIX blocks to enter into the drawing. If you make multiple blocks, depending on the total number of blocks made (and number of winners we have), I may be asking you to mail a maximum of TWO to each of...