Island Batik October Challenge! {Paper Pieced Projects}

Most of the products featured in this post were given to me by Island Batik.

For the month of October, Island Batik Ambassadors are challenged to complete a paper piecing project. We could choose either foundation paper piecing (FPP) or English paper piecing (EPP). I love the precision of FPP and the sound of sewing paper, so I decided that was the way to go. 

I purchased Electric Quilt 8 earlier this year because I've been thinking about writing and possibly selling my own patterns. (For the record, writing patterns is difficult. It takes a ton of time and effort for even the most basic pattern. Please respect pattern designers by purchasing their patterns and not sharing/photocopying for friends/etc. Ok...off my soap box now!) I'm still having a lot of fun playing around with EQ8, and one of my favorite things to do in EQ8 is make foundation paper piecing patterns. It's awesome. You draw out a block design and EQ8 magically transforms it into a FPP pattern! I enjoy working with basic, geometric designs that can be used to make a variety of different projects. After some experimenting, I decided to make 9 blocks with each block having varying numbers and widths of wedges. 

I enlisted the help of pattern testers to make sure this was a usable pattern. If you search the hashtag #randomburstquilt on Instagram, you can see some examples using this pattern. I was debating on whether or not this pattern was too simple to sell. It wasn't until I saw the amazing baby quilt top made by Sew Surprising that I realized I should list my pattern for sale and let quilters decide if they wanted to purchase it.

View this post on Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/p/Bn7q8xPHyQd/?tagged=randomburstquilt

In between enjoying Mr Surprisings holiday time, Ive managed to empty a few more bags of solid scraps. This will be a center that another SCLinus member can add too when its delivered next week. This is a pattern, Random Burst by Steph @stephjacobsondesigns, there are 9 blocks to her pattern, you can have a lot of fun with this, the centers can be bulky, you can just watch that when your orientating the blocks, it is a paper pieced pattern. Now I think we need to encourage Steph to publish her very creative pattern 😊 #randomburstquilt #paperpiecing #sewmystash#quiltblocks #scrapquilting #workingmystashoff #craftastherapy #modernquilting #quilt #foundationpaperpiecing

A post shared by SewSurprising (@sewsurprising) on Sep 19, 2018 at 8:11pm PDT

I was a little blown away when I saw what she had created with what I thought was an overly-simplistic pattern.  To me, it looked like a piece of modern art. Created with fabric scraps. Using a pattern I made. So, without further ado, my Random Burst FPP Quilt Blocks pattern is now available on Craftsy!

To me, these blocks look like a sunburst, so I picked out some bright yellow batiks and four of the block patterns to make a paper pieced sun.

When you arrange the blocks so all they rays meet in the center, there can be quite a bit of bulk in the seam allowance. I decided to make a center for my sun and embroider "hello sunshine" on it. I used PicMonkey to type out the phrase in a fancy font, printed it, then traced it onto a piece of fabric so I could embroider over it.

I cut around the embroidery in a circle shape and sitched it to the center of my mini quilt.

On the back, I added triangles to the top of the mini quilt so I can easily hang it on the wall of my sewing room. It will certainly add a little sunshine to my space!