eo-5 Willow Quilt

The fifth quilt in the Eastern Oregon series will be based upon the riparian area along the John Day River in the autumn. The twigs and trunk of some of the bushes (willows) growing in the vicinity of the river become a vibrant red. The muted colors of the region also begin to glow as the grasses become completely desiccated and the morning temperature begins to approach freezing.

I want this quilt to focus on the willow stems and the river (rock and just the dark color of the river) and surrounding dried plant material to supply the background. The plan is to use a paper piecing approach.

This will be my first attempt at paper piecing. Paper piecing is a bit like the process of paint by numbers. Instead, small pieces of fabric are sewn to a thin (hopefully transparent) piece of paper.

The paper piecing method is well suited to using irregular shapes and sizes of fabric - often quite small pieces. The challenge is to lay out the block to make the assembly possible (i.e.laying out sections with seams that do not intersect).

I have never done any paper piecing but I really love the quilts made by Ruth McDowell. To get started, I found some freely available paper piecing designs on the internet and practiced a bit.