Swan in flight

It may have been mentioned before but this year I am trying to do new things, and one of those is paper pieced quilting.  I can't remember whose blog featured or provided the link, but somehow I came across the In Flight Quilt Along with the pattern designed by Juliet from The Tartan Kiwi.

Copyright The Tartan Kiwi Source

I was literally blown away by the design. I think it just looks amazing, and the challenge to create something like that couldn't be resisted so I bought the pattern straight away!

Juliet has lots of tutorials on her blog for paper piecing so I devoured them all, and then got stuck in to the cutting and sewing and pressing and trimming....

There was a fair amount of swearing and unpicking going on - mainly when I was being stingy and using bits of fabric that ended up being too small, or getting my brain confused with back to front mirroring of the image.  I even had to unpick one of the seams that join the four main sections as the swan wasn't lining up perfectly (trying to perfect the perfectionist approach rather than the usual 'its good enough approach).

Eventually, I got to this:

I am very proud of myself (big smiley happy face!).  Although I probably should have pressed it again before taking the photo.... Oh well.