I do. I am currently working on a queen size bed quilt made up of 36, count them…36 paper pieced kimonos. The pattern is called – Kimonos – by Betty Blais and is distributed by Embellishment Village. The original pattern is a 9 kimono piece but when Bill saw a completed sample at Knights Quilt Shop in Cape Neddick, Maine he had to have one of his own and he wanted it to fit the bed. He loves Asian fabrics, has two quilts already and was very excited when I said…ok. Not sure what I was thinking, maybe it was a caffeine high or something. That was several months ago and I finally got one of the kimonos finished.
The finished square measures approximately 12×11. Each kimono has four sections and requires 3 fabrics plus the background fabric. I cut one of the patterns into separate pieces and color coded them but still managed to mix the fabrics up in one of the sections. The pattern says it is designed for intermediate to advanced quilters. Maybe I have over estimated my piecing abilities. This pattern kicked my butt for a couple of nights. I must have ripped out one section 4 or 5 times. First, I sewed the wrong fabrics together. Next, because the piece is on the diagonal, it doesn’t come together the way one would expect and the darn piece of fabric was not covering the appropriate section the way it was supposed to. To make matters worse, the fabric was directional. ARGH!!! I actually put it down one night and found something else to do because I was so frustrated and the paper was coming apart. However, I did persevere and I’m really satisfied with the finished product. Only 35 more. **sigh**
I think I would have more completed but Bill purchased the fabrics for Wendy’s wallhanging and I started that instead. The binding is nearly finished. That will be one of the fastest pieces I have ever done. It pays to have a deadline even when you miss the deadline.
I have been wanting to make cookies for several weeks now and today was the day. The temp today was 61 so I had to go for a walk first and then run to the corner store for shortening. However, 2 hours later I had 4 1/2 dozen chocolate chip cookies made using my daughter’s secret ingredient.
If you are a regular visitor, you know I hardly ever post anything about food. Bill does most of the cooking, I do most of the eating. It seems to work for both of us.
Thanks for stopping by…
;o)
The first one looks great! The rest should go much, much faster, at least one would hope. : )
So what is the secret ingredient?
Hi ~ I bought a kit for the ‘Kimonos’ pattern yesterday and did not realize it was paper pieced & I’ve never done that! Yikes! Do you know of any websites that tell how to do it or that tell how to do ‘Kimonos’ specifically? Thank you so much! I did email Embellishment Village, so maybe they’ll come through! 🙂
I’m in the same boat. The pattern doesn’t tell you exactly how to paper piece. Did you find any help?
[…] After ripping those pieces out half a dozen times on the first kimono (you can see that one here), I knew there had to be a better way. I’m in the process of packing all the fabrics and […]
I also bought that pattern at Knight’s Quilt Shop and was extremely disappointed to see that it didn’t have any cutting instructions. I have paper-pieced before but the patterns have always included directions about what sizes to cut each fabric. Can anyone help with this?
I saw a kimono quilt at a quilt show and felt the urge to make one for myself. I had never paper pieced before, but just typed ‘Paper piecing’ into You Tube and watched several of the videos on there. I bought myself an ‘Add a quarter’ ruler and after a couple of little practice pieces, I was off and running. I have also just finished doing the Advent Nativity from Paper Panache, which certainly was a challenge. I am sure you’ll be able to teach yourself if you just watch and rewatch the videos like I did.