April Paper Piecing BoM

It's Here! At last! April.....

Today we have our "In the Garden" Free Block of the Month

and (drumroll......) its a beautiful flower again - well, gardens are full of them....

a 'Sunflower'....

These flowers always facinated me as a child. The neighbours has some in their garden and when we walked past I would be drawn to them. The centres with the seeds and the pattern that it makes - amazing.

So let's get started - here's how I put mine together.

Now, don't get crazy on me, I know there are a few more pieces to this one, but look carefully.... the pattern is NOT hard. Each piece gets done just as all the others before it. And before you know it, BooM, your block is done.....
You can play around with the colours of the petals - Such Fun!!

when you have cut out your pattern pieces, take the time to write onto the segments which colours you would like to use and where. Use the numbering chart to help you to see what goes where. This helps you further down the line - you're not stopping constantly to see which is a petal and which is the background.

The preparation work is just as important.

Make each piece first (and remember - the pieces will be mirrored). I like to lay out the pieces and get a visual of what I need to do next.

Following the instructions, start to piece together the pieces that "go" together.

I get so excited when I can see the 'picture' already emerging as I am putting them together.

I used batik fabrics on the leaf and stems of the plant, but I think I should have gone darker on the area behind the head of the bigger flower. The design shows that it is lighter, but think about this before you make your decision.
I do love my sunflower, but it could have been darker....... next time.

Here are all my pieces laid out and now I can start joining the petal and flower middle.

The design has so many pieces because the petal points cause the flow of the piecing to stop every time. Just keep on - following the numbers and soon it will all be worth it!!

Once all the petals are together, join the large sections together.

And there you have it..

a lovely Sunflower.

This photo was taken with the flash and looks like the fabric is so faded or lighter than in the other photos, but I think this is more accurate because the green for the background I'm using is actually quite light.

Here we have all of the blocks so far ........

 

Have loads of fun with your block this month.

You can link up your photos on our Flickr group Page or you can link photos to the PP BoM page.

Links to the block pattern is on the PP BoM page    or     in my Craftsy Shop.

'Til next time