Delectable Mountains is one of my favorite quilt blocks. Have you ever seen Bonnie Hunter’s Scrappy Mountain Majesties? I sure do love that
quilt! Bonnie has excellent instructions on how to make it by slicing up half square triangles. She also gives a few intriguing layouts for the blocks.
A very sweet friend gifted me with a jelly roll of Paisley Park by Kansas Troubles. I decided I wanted to use it to make a border and frame a beautiful cross stitch piece that was waiting for the perfect fabrics. To do this I planned to make Delectable Mountains blocks in miniature.
For my first attempt at a mini DM block, I did it the usual way: slicing up HSTs, rearranging them and sewing them back together. Uh Oh! Trouble.
For my first attempt at a mini DM block, I did it the usual way: slicing up HSTs, rearranging them and sewing them back together. Uh Oh! Trouble.
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| My 1st failed attempt |
Ugh! Here is the thing: No matter how careful I am, I'm no Sally Collins, aka the Queen of Precision Piecing. On a miniature quilt block, my small mistakes show up a whole lot more. You can see how wonky my block is: It tilts to the left, the strips don't stay the same width and those points are not 1/4" away from the edge. Plus the size is too tall for my project. I wanted smaller mountains. Maybe I want Delectable Foothills.
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| BOING!!! Almost another inch long when stretched. |
To make matters worse, I cut out my HSTs from two jelly roll strips, sewn together lengthwise. This gave me an HST cut on the bias grain. Well, I know not to do that again - my little block has a lot of stretch. There would be Dueling Accordions playing in those mountains. Paddle faster Burt!
At this point, I decided to paper piece these blocks. As far as I could tell, after googling like crazy, paper piecing is not a normal way to sew a Delectable Mountains quilt block. At least, I could not find a pattern. So, I puzzled over it and finally figured it out. I made my own paper piecing patterns for miniature Delectable Mountains. I'm pretty excited about it because it worked out really well! Sometime before the end of the week I hope to get the project finished and will soon be posting the patterns with a tutorial.
I hope you all come back soon to see it!
Lara
I hope you all come back soon to see it!
Lara
I know you must've been soooo frustrated when your first block didn't come out as accurately as you wanted it to be. But I am not at all surprised that you "climbed over that li'l old mountain top and conquered it!! " I can't wait to see your Delectable Foothills paper pieced pattern! That is a beautiful jelly roll. That's going to make your feature cross stitch really special!
ReplyDeleteSusie
"Paddle faster, Burt!" Bahaha! That so cracked me up! Delectable foothills . . . another good one!! I like the quote someone said about failures only being failures if they kept you from trying again. So there ya' go!! :)
ReplyDeleteLara, I love what you are doing with your border! You do such wonderful work I know it's going to turn out great. I love that pattern too. I am glad you are much smarter than I am that you could make your own pattern for it. Please let us see the results.
ReplyDeleteEven your "fail" looks fabulous from here! I think paper-piecing will fix this for you, though - can't wait to see the final project.
ReplyDeleteI had some bowing in a strip block too and figured it was the order of sewing the strips together - I then realised I needed a foundation to hold it in place like scrappy string blocks. Live and learn!
ReplyDeleteAh - a foundation! Light bulb moment for me too - Thanks Ruth!
DeleteGreat idea to paper piece your "foothills".... I would not have thought of that! The fabrics your are using are gorgeous. Looking forward to seeing your cross stitch with this border.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Amy even your "fail" looks awesome.
ReplyDeleteYou are so resourceful. I can't wait to see your finished project.
Paper-piecing to the rescue! I think you were being too hard on yourself as far as precision goes. Fabric is very pliable ;-) However, I know from experience, minis demand incredible precision, so you are very smart to think of paper-piecing, but then to actually figure out how, and THEN to be sharing it--! Wonderful. I love combining stitching and quilting. Looking forward to seeing this.
ReplyDeleteLara, this block certainly looks tricky! I'll stay tuned to see your tutorial. I would never try to make such a block without clear instructions. Those mountains would look great with my paper-pieced houses. I've been wondering what to do with them and I think you gave me the perfect idea. :-)
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you found a way to tackle this project ;) Well done!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea to paper piece this block! I think I have one or two of those blocks in my orphan box too :)
ReplyDelete"Delectable Foothills" hehe :D The idea of mini mountains really tickles my fancy.
ReplyDeleteIt can be so frustrating when you try something that doesn't work out, but credit to you for sticking with it and figuring out a solution!
ReplyDeleteIt's good to know I'm not the only one who has fails! Looking forward to seeing what you figured out!
ReplyDeleteI am not seeing too much mistake! I have never worked with little pieces yet. I did try paper piecing the other day. On about a simple block as you could get. 3 pieces. And I screwed up the 3rd piece, it went the opposite way it was supposed to! I was so careful, but obviously not enough lol. I will try again because paper piecing makes the most beautiful quilts. Paisley Park is wonderful isn't it? ;)
ReplyDeleteOh my are those itsy bitsy blocks!! So adorable though - and I read forward and found the pattern. What a great little quilt!
ReplyDelete