Curious Fractals - part one

This year I have a few projects I want to work on, and spending my first week of the year over on 52Quilters was a great year to help me sort out my ideas and draw up a proper work list.

I've written a lot about craft as a kind of sustenance for me, something that helps me focus, keep balance, and save time for myself, but I've always been careful to categorise it as play and not "work".... My approach for 2016 is to do the opposite, not categorise it as work in the sense that it's going be to major source of income, but to acknowledge the need to develop myself and just generally do more. It's work in the same way that going to the gym, read a challenging book, or forcing myself to go to the dentist is work: sometimes a pain, but mostly very good for me!

So my first project of 2016 is my Curious Fractals quilt. Quite a few years ago I broke my own stash rules and bought up a good selection of fabrics from David Butler's Curious Nature collection, and I've been sitting on them, failing to get off my stash ever since.

After trying a few different ideas, and building up anxiety over cutting into my stash, I've decided to revisit my fractals pattern from the Mini Rainbow Swap last year. To enlarge my colour rainbow mini that had 8 colours repeating three times, and create a much larger and squared off version using 12 colours of Curious Nature repeating twice.

Last look before its off in the post to my partner - I hope you like it! #rainbowminiswap #rainbowteamYELLOW

A photo posted by Chris Webb (@chrismakesthings) on Mar 31, 2015 at 11:42pm PDT

I'm using paper piecing for this project, the quilter is divided into 24 fragments, each made up of three paper pieced pieces. I haven't decided how I'm going to frame/square off the work, but I've started on the fragments. 

I know per piecing is a fast and straightforward way to piece, but I forgot how much prep there is: cutting out the 72 fragments, numbering fabrics and laying out what fabric corresponds which each piece. I spent most of the first weekend of January planning instead of sewing, but progress is slowly underway.

The first cut is the deepest.... Finally cutting into my stash of #curiousnature to make my #curiousfractals quilt. #menwhoquilt

A photo posted by Chris Webb (@chrismakesthings) on Jan 17, 2016 at 10:02am PST

I've made my first cuts and will be updating on here and Instagram as Curious Fractals comes together!