The Missing Piece

Today is my stop on a Blog hop is to celebrate the launch of Make Modern, the new Australian Online Modern Quilting magazine.

If you are new to these parts, Hello!
My name is Juliet and I love to design paper pieced patterns.

The thing is, I never forget that once I've designed them I set my patterns loose in the big wide world and at that point its your turn to interpret them.

I am all for encouraging you to use your own creativity, play with the designs and see what you can come up with. I believe that the sum of our talents often produces something far better than I either of us could do on our own.

My contribution to Make Modern Issue one is a table runner called Puzzled.

Sure you can make a table runner exactly like the one that I made (I really really love my one), but there is also a great potential for you guys to get creative and have fun!

I wanted to plant the idea in your heads that puzzled does not have to be used to create a table runner and in so doing to give you some inspiration how you could use the pattern.

So I decided to take this opportunity to whip up a quick cushion using the paper pieced part of the pattern.

The Front

For fairly obvious reasons I called my cushion the Missing Piece.

It really appeals to my sense of humour!

The Back

I used the final scraps of my Oakshott Cotton Lakes fat eight bundle to make the cushion, but I must admit that the fabric choices were dictated by the fabric. I used the four largest pieces of Oakshott cotton that I had. Its good that I did, as I was cutting it pretty fine with a couple of them.

I'm not entirely sold on the scrappy low volume background and think that I may have been better sticking with a solid cream background, but I ain't unpicking so it will have to do!

I pieced and quilted using Aurifil 50 weight thread. I stitched the ditch around the puzzle pieces to make them pop and then did random straight line quilting in the background fabrics.

You might ask why I designed a paper piece puzzle pattern when it could be argued that a jigsaw quilt could be achieved far more easily using appliqué.

To me, designing paper pieced patterns is a kind of a puzzle.

To others, actually sewing paper pieced patterns can seem like an (almost impossible) puzzle.

I had it in the back of my mind to design a puzzle pattern for a while, but it took me a long time to work out exactly how to do it. A few attempts were rejected before I finally came up with this pattern.

I hope that you can see how versatile this pattern is and can appreciate all the potential for fun. 

If you haven't bought a copy of Make Modern already, what's keeping you?

I'm hoping that I've just tempted you to buy a copy or even subscribe, but if you need a bit more persuasion, you can find a free taster here.

Happy reading and don't forget to have fun with my pattern!

 The other steps in the Blog Hop are as follows:

1^st September                   Make Modern
3^rd September                   Kristy @ Quiet Play
5^th September                   Where Jane Creates
7^th September                   Gina @ Party of Eight: Our Story
9^th September                   Molli Sparkles
11^th September                 Juliet @ The Tartankiwi
13^th September                 cat&vee
15^th September                 Ruth @ Ben and Charly’s corner
17^th September                 Kelly @ Kelliotmagic
19^th September                 Alyce @ Blossom Heart Quilts
21^st September                 Serena @ Sew Giving
23^rd September                 Melissa @ Ms Midge
25^th September                 Anne @ Hudson Valley Quilts