Friday, January 29, 2010

January Blocks and a Brief Introduction

Hello Everyone!

I'm coming in under the wire, but have managed to get my blocks done and post, all within the month of January.  First things first, however, a little information about me.  My name is Barb, and I live in Portland, Oregon, where liberals run free and it rains a lot.  Being fairly liberal myself, I  have been authorized to make that joke ;)  I'm a mother of three smart and beautiful Amazon warriors, 5, 3 and (almost) 2 months.  They keep me a little busy.  My sweet husband is an amazing artist/carpenter/master craftsman, who is embroiled in the mayhem of starting his own business.  "In this economy?!" you ask.  "We laugh in the face of recession." we say nervously, with fingers and toes crossed.  I'm also a professional baker at a small french cafe in the north side of PDX.  Currently, though, I'm on maternity leave, and am not sure if I will be going back, at least for some time.  I love to sew, knit, garden, cook, read comics, etc.  I also really like expanding my skill set and learning new things.  That's one of the reasons why I'm so excited about this virtual Bee.  Make new wrinkles on my brain, ladies.  Drop some knowledge bombs on me.

That said, I have to be honest about how intimidated I was when I first read about paper piecing.  Definitely took me out of my comfort zone, particularly when it came to resizing the pattern and making it bigger.  You see, Math and I have had an uneasy relationship for years.  In truth, I find Math to be a jerk.

So, after much procrastinating and mental cursing, I got to it.  And to my surprise, I found it to be much easier than I expected.  An added bonus was how fun I found it to be.  So thanks Katie, for getting me out of my said zone.

This is my first block.  Since I was so unsure about paper piecing, and the expectations of the Bee, in general, I stayed pretty conservative.  After seeing all the creative blocks I think I will be a little more free next time.  Or at least try to be.

The second block is a much more symmetrical.   I just hope it's not too symmetrical.




I had to add a border to bring it up to size (I'm glaring at you, Math), so I used some of my Kona Cotton stash.

So, here they are!  Time to drink a celebration cup of coffee.  Until next month, adieu.

3 comments:

  1. I love both blocks but your first block is definitely my favorite. It is gorgeous! Great job!

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  2. These are awesome! The first one looks like it was executed perfectly. And I love the originality of the second one. Something about the stripes makes the trees look a bit wonky - which is cool. Thanks for building it up with your stash, too. I'm glad you (eventually) liked the paper piecing. The pattern that got me hooked was Circle of Geese. Google it - it's probably a bit easier to make than the tree, but it's very cool.

    Thanks for the intro, too. A professional baker?! That's so cool. What did you bake? I'd love to hear more about this. I love to bake at home - mostly yeast breads/bagels, etc. I suppose if you can extend your maternity leave indefinitely, that's even cooler.

    Thanks again for the blocks!
    Katie

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