Drama and Paper-Piecing

Daughter's Drama T-shirt quilt is now underway!

Actual piecing started with a bang: a monster of a paper-pieced block.  (And I made 2 of them.)
 

Yellow brick road, anyone?

The design is called Dorothy's Cabin, and it came from the book 101 Log Cabin Blocks by Linda Causee. 

I don't have too much experience with paper piecing, so I didn't know enough to be intimidated by a block that has 44 pieces in it.

Fortunately, I only wanted a 6" finished block instead of the 7" pattern, so I was able to cut off 4 of the outer pieces!

Needless to say, it took me hours of tedious going to make just two of these blocks, but I think it was all worth it.  I chose this block to represent the musical The Wizard of Oz, which my daughter was in during high school.

Since this particular production didn't have a t-shirt to advertise it, I am going to pair the two pieced blocks with a generic drama t-shirt...

I thought that I might have to retire from making paper-pieced blocks after that adventure, but I hopped back into the fray with a much simpler design

This is my smaller version of a design available as a free pattern, called Dream Machines by Barbara Weiland Talbert.  I first saw the pattern being made by Barbara at Cat Patches.  I think the full-sized blocks are 12" each, but I used EQ to draft a paper-pieced version that is only 7.5".

In this case, 2 of these pieced blocks will be used to accent a t-shirt from The Pajama Game (another musical); the play is set in a sewing factory.  I have a special fondness for that production; my brother and I worked backstage on it when we were both in high school, too.

I feel good about actually starting this quilt.  It has been in the works for so long.

I am linking up with WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced Quilts.  We'll see what others are up to mid-week!