Mariner's Compass

I mentioned English Paper Piecing in a previous post ... It's a hand-stitching method that I love. 

Recently, I tried a new kind of paper piecing. It's called, not surprisingly, "Paper Piecing". Yeah. Despite the similar names, they're nothing alike. Read on.

Lately, I've been fascinated by pictures of a quilt block design called Mariner's Compass. Really impressive. So, of course, I had to try the paper-piecing technique that's used to make a Mariner's Compass block.

One version of paper piecing instructions involves freezer paper, which was not handy; the other uses tracing paper, of which I have plenty. I found a free pattern online, printed it on my tracing paper, and got out a big piece of multi-colored fabric.

I figured the stripes would give me a wide color-range, and it was a non-favorite piece of fabric, so I could relax about my first try at this. As it turns out, I do not recommend stripes for paper-piecing Mariner's Compass blocks ...

It's taking a while to get used to this paper-piecing process ... and this is not likely to become my favorite method of patchwork-ing anytime soon ... but I got a Mariner's Compass done. 

You can't tell it, but there are 32 pieces in this compass. (Like I said, it's the stripes ...)

So, next time, I'll try something more solid-like. Nifty-looking anyway, and it was a pretty satisfactory first try.