the big bandaid

You may remember that I kinda wore myself out

on my first FPP (foundation paper piecing) project

by biting off a little more than I could easily chew.

I persevered,

fought with my supposed-to-be-perfect blocks

(that weren't at all perfect)

and ended up with a perfectly lovely quilt for my very favorite person on the face of the earth.

But I also ended up not liking paper piecing at all.

This gorgeous Flying Parrots quilt though,

it called to me,

pleading with me me to give FPP another try.

source

So I basically begged Sylvia to let me pattern test it ;-)

Things started off well enough.

Sylvia's pattern is very well written.

(she has a real gift for getting the point across succinctly.

I

do not possess this gift)

She used just enough illustrations to clarify,

and everything fit together perfectly.

(everything did not fit together perfectly on my previous FPP adventure. 

I may have mentioned... ;-)

Even the curves,

which are 'supposed' to be scary,

weren't scary at all!

In fact, I didn't even need to pin them as much as she recommended.

I did, however, find that I needed to put a pin on each side of my center pin,

otherwise the fabric shifted a smidge.

Okay.

So the paper piecing part went well.

And the putting them together with the melons part went well.

But then, 

I sorta ruined it.

Well, I didn't ruin it entirely;

it's a perfectly functional

patriotic table runner/topper,

but I did ruin the wow factor

and managed to turn it into 

- what my kids say - 

looks like a band-aid.

And let's face it, they're right.

I took a perfectly stunning piece

and made

a 
giant bandaid.

{{ face-palm }}

Even so, 

I'm proud of myself.

I revisited hard for me things

- foundation paper piecing -

I tried new things

 - curves, pattern testing

(which is tougher than it sounds, for a girl who has a hard time following patterns)

and bias binding -

(I also made continuous bias binding for the first time)

I even tried a new FMQ design

which served as excellent practice for the commissioned quilting I started on last week.

(and really ~ after distancing myself from it for a week,
I've decided that it still is a very fine table runner.
It's just not quite as fine as it could have been...)

binding sewn down on the back by machine. 

I'm still not a huge fan of FPP,

but I am a big, big fan of this pattern.

Obviously, I won't get to it right away,

but I hope to revisit the pattern at some point

and make a whole quilt

that really shines.

I think this pattern would be a  great way to dip your toes into FPP,

as the stars are not very complex.

(plus, combined with the curved piecing

they really pack a punch!)

So
tell me,
are you a paper piecer?

Linking up with 'happie' Amanda Jean :-)