Scrap Swap - Friendship Blocks

I joined a scrap swap that Nancy was hosting. This is my yummy pile of scraps,
(please ignore my ugly carpet), that I received from Pam. This was a fun way to add some life to my scrap bucket. I like to make string quilts with my scraps, most of them going to charity. String blocks are relaxing to make, just mindless sewing. I like to be mindless once in awhile. ;~)
My family might say I am mindless more than once in awhile though. But, what do they know!

I joined my local quilt guild this spring. I am liking it so far. Fun to meet fellow quilters, learn some new things and share a few laughs. I signed up to make a couple of Friendship blocks. The person the blocks will be going to, provides a 14 square piece of fabric, then you add your own fabric to it and make a block of your choice. Like a crazy woman I decided to try a new technique, paper piecing. The first one drove me insane!!!


I finally succeeded and I really like the way it turned out. :~)

After reading the directions more carefully, the second one went much smoother.
I love the crisp points you get with paper piecing, I will probably be doing more of it in the future. Now that I have read the instructions! I wonder why I buy all of these books and then try them before reading the instructions. Mmmm, must be that mindless thing again I guess. lol
Anyway, I think that I would like to make an entire quilt with these. The book that I used was Carol Doak's "Simply Sensational Nine Patch Stars". I think it would be fun to make a scrappy sampler quilt with the blocks from this book.

Hugs & Stitches, Julia