Travellin' Pic Stitch Blog Hop...my stop!

Yay! We're in sunny Southern California! It's my stop on the wonderful Travelin' Pic Stitch Blog Hop! There has been so much awesome English Paper piecing that I spent days just being in awe. I really wanted to try a new E.P.P block, and had spent the first week or so gathering inspiration and pinning it here. It was really hard to choose anything.

I chose to use a picture I took during summer 2011, while in San Francisco. I really like the building color against the sky tone with the character on the building adding even more pop. I feel like the building color on the far left is a bit more greenish than blueish but I am still happy with the palette. The cropped portion of the image was just too shadowy and I didn't want any black in this project so out it went.

The next step was to draft the pieces for the pattern I finally settled on, inspiration from Flickr and also pinned to my board here.

I cut out all the pieces (25 total, not too bad) and laid them out. It's really important to be accurate in your cutting, it helps make everything fit right when you go to sew them all together.

Now for my favorite part...pulling the fabrics!

I apologize for the crappy photos here, the colors are almost true, but I had to use my phone since my regular camera was not at hand. I also put in a more green-blue to match the building than the palette suggestion of a steel blue. I was really happy with the choices I made.

It didn't take me long, in fact I did most of the pieces while watching a movie!

To speed things along, I like to pre-cut the fabric close to the size of the pieces as you can see above.

Then I just trim them down as I baste each piece. It is really important to leave more than enough extra fabric around each shape since I don't pin or tack my pieces in place before basting them. This allows for some sliding to happen but covers the corner folds each time with no worries.

And here it is, all the pieces ready to be whip stitched together. Since it is Sunday, I figured I'd enjoy the weather and sit outside to finish it up. Check back for the finished block, I think it might end up on the front of a new messenger bag!

Thank you so much for stopping by!

Please check out the awesome blogger from yesterday, Catherine @ Knotted Cotton and tomorrow a post from Rachael @ Stitched In Color, with many more to follow!

This post is part of the Travelin' Pic Stitch Blog Hop.  From 1st October - 30th November we are hopping all over the world EPP-ing in some fantastic locations.  Check out the full list here and be sure to check out the other participants.

On 30th November it's over to you to link up for a chance to win these fabulous prizes! Sponsored by Paperpieces.com, FabricwormPink Castle Fabrics ,  Marmalade Fabrics, the Fat Quarter Shop, WantItNeedItQuilt, and Aurifil.

Full details for competition entry can be found here.