Paper Quilt Blocks: Geometric & Torn

1. Class Intro: Quilt blocks are made by stitching two pieces of fabric together. And the history can be traced back to ancient Egypt. And despite their purpose of keeping the user warm, they are also an art form. Taking inspiration from the creative side of printmaking, will create quilt blocks entirely from paper. Hi, I'm Daniela Mellen, an author and artist. And in today's class, paper quilt blocks, geometric and torn. We'll base our artwork on the handmade and pistillata qualities. A quilt instead of fabric will use paper. So there's no sewing or stitching. Will use the properties of paper to create two quilt blocks. Making each design with geometric shapes and a more abstract version using torn paper. And I'll show three techniques to tear paper. So you can get a somewhat controlled tear, but with a rustic and fuzzy edge that adds a level of interest to our piece. And we'll even create photo stitching on the finished pieces using either a marker or a gel pen. This is a great opportunity to use paper punches or decorative paper. Or you can use scissors to cut the shapes or even forego the scissors and just tear your paper. This class is a fun paper arts activity designed for all levels of artists. Have fun choosing your paper, and then let's get started. 2. Class Supplies: Now here are the supplies for our paper quilt blocks. There's a download that just reviews the different shapes for quilting that we're going to use today. I have my six by six pieces of white card stock, and this is just for the base. You can use paper or any color card stock you like. You can even use pattern paper if that's something that strikes you. I'm using papers. Now. I'm using the gel prints that I make, painted pages and I have a few classes on these techniques if you're interested. You can also use any paper you have. This is just some interesting gridded notebook paper, some solid colored paper, and of course, some pattern paper from those paper pads for scrapbooking. Use what you have and what you like. Now this is also a great opportunity to use paper punches. If you don't want to cut out your shapes. A paper punch can save you some time, but it's not necessary. You can just use scissors and something to trace your shapes either if they're circular, use caps from various bottles and such. I have a ruler here to make my squares, pair of scissors to cut them out. I have a waterproof permanent marker to make our stitch marks at the end of our project. Pencil in case I want to trace those shapes, I'm using a glue stick just to adhere my paper to my base. And this is one that's kinda neat because it's repositioned bubble for about five minutes before it sticks, but any glue stick will work. And then lastly to make my paper tearing easier when I use that technique, this is just a water brush pen filled with water, but you can use a brush with a little clean water, just any paint brush with some water. And we'll go over that technique as well. In the next chapter we'll talk about are quilt shapes. 3. Quilt Shapes From Paper: Now since we're taking our basis, our inspiration for quilts, there's just some fun ways to make shapes for these paper quilt squares, these blocks. We don't have the constraints we have if we were using fabric with the fabric fraying and needing to match scenes, That's the beauty of paper. But we can still take some of the processes that are used when making quilts shapes, and that is the shape itself. So whether you punch your shapes or you cut them, or you tear them, which I'll show in the next chapter. You can just start with your shape and then you could take that single shape and create additional shapes from it. And it's kind of very simple. A no brainer, whether you're using squares, rectangles, or even circles. So you can start with a basic square and leave it as is. Or you can just cut it in half, either up and down or side to side. And the easiest way I find to do that is to just make that crease mark and then cut it or use a straight edge paper cutter. Doesn't have to be perfect, but it does produce a nice result. So here I took a square and now I have two parts to work with. You can also do that same technique with a square. I'll set that aside. And you can work on the diagonal. So again, just to create your nice edge, you just fold it on a diagonal and then cut across that way. And then you can even go further. So now I have two parts, could fold it in half again, and so on. And I can get different parts. And then if I combine squares of different patterns and colors, I'll get very interesting quote like results. And I can continue this as well. I'll do the same thing with a circle. Again. I can divide it in half and then in half again. And then depending on how you cut your shapes and combine them with other colors and patterns, you get quilt like results. In the next chapter, we'll go over tearing the paper. 4. Tearing Paper: So using a punch or a straight edge, you can get a very nice result, but sometimes you want a different type of result. And so to do this, I tear the paper and this gives me a little bit of a fuzzy edge, somewhat whimsical and somewhat interesting. So the basic way to tear paper is just to hold it in front of you, doesn't matter which hand is dominant or non-dominant in this case, because I'm right-handed. I'll use my right hand to actually do the tearing and I just pull the paper towards me. And that results in a fuzzy edge on one side of the paper with the white core showing. And then the other side is more just a torn edge. So you can decide which piece you want to use in your work if you want the white of the edge or just the fuzzy edge showing. So that's one way to tear paper. Another way to tear paper is to take a water brush or a brush with some just water and create your shape by actually painting it onto your paper. Now here, because I knew I wanted it to be roughly round and roughly the size. I already traced it with some pencil and then I'll go around with it with my water brush, giving it a moment to soak into the paper. And depending on the thickness of the paper, you'd wait longer. And then I can very carefully tear around my shape. Now because I made a circle and I had a guide, I came out with a very nice circle. I can refine it further. If there are any edges that stick out or I can just leave it. It's totally up to you and the application you're using it for. From there. If I want to divide it further, I'll just take my brush again and make that mark down the center. And so then I can just carefully pull my paper. And now I have two halves of a circle similar to the ones above. If I wanted to do a square, I'll do the same technique where I'll create my square with a wet paint brush going around my piece. And this is a good way to make the size and the shape close to what I want. From there, I'll just tear it gently and slowly towards me and I get a really nice result. The edge is still very much torn and very fuzzy, but it's less haphazard and more controlled. And so there I have my square, my rectangle shape. A third technique is to hold the paper down on my work surface and make small little tears, just each little pull an inch or so long. And then I'll just bring that towards me. They're controlled tears and they create a ragged edge. In the next chapter, we'll start our quilt. 5. Quilt Block #1: For my first quilt block here, I'm going to use geometric shapes. So I'm going to use squares, various sizes concentric. Down on my paper. I'm starting with the four and a quarter inch purple square. You can use whatever size you want. But I like the way this looks and it gives a little bit of that white border. And then I have a two and a quarter inch pink square here. And finally a one and three-quarter inch teal square. And I'm going to glue those and attach them on each piece, right on top of each other. Now when I designed it, I saw that I really wanted a little bit of a border. So I took a 4.5 inch piece of black card stock, cut it into a square, and then I'm going to set it right behind my purple piece. And I think it just makes the whole piece pop and it kinda unifies it. Now the thing to remember about working with paper is all these different layers will make it very thick. If that's a problem for you, you can solve that by just scanning it into your computer and printing it out as a single layer. The multiple layers are not a problem for me in this application. But I just wanted to mention that. The next thing I do is I start adding my glue stick to the back of each of the squares and I just put them down in order from largest to smallest. So I cover the back of that black square. And then I'm just going to eyeball it where I want it to go, kind of making it straight. And the beauty of this glue stick is it is somewhat reposition bubble for a few moments after I set it down. After I said it down, I'll just build it up continuing with the next layer, which is the purple square. Then I'll do the pink one and then the teal one until all the squares are down with glue on the back of all the pieces. When I use the glue and make sure to go right up to the edge of the paper and off the edge of the paper. And that's why I work on a fabric work surface. After a makes sure the glue is covering the paper entirely. I can set it down and then I start to burnish it. And you can't burnish it enough. I don't want to burnish it too hard or with anything point dx, I don't want to tear the paper, so I use my fingers a lot and sometimes I'll even flip the paper over and just burnish the back of it. Because I'm trying to create an airtight seal between the glue and the papers that I'm attaching to one another. And I'll continue this with the remaining squares of paper. Once I have only papers down together, I'll burnish it some more. And I'll just use the side of the glue here because I can roll it. And it works is a little barren and really impresses all the paper together. I'll let this dry just for a few minutes, maybe five or 10. And then I'll come back and we'll work on making our faux stitching for our paper quilt blocks. 6. Making Faux Stitching Block #1: So now our quilt block is completely dry and now I want to start adding the faux stitching to do this, take my waterproof marker and I'm just going to go around the perimeter of each of the different shapes and I'm going to make little stitching, I'm going to make little dots. You can make dashes, long lines, you can make solid lines and just outline them. You could also make lines and then make little cross hatches on them to make them look like old type of blanket stitches as well. And this is where you can really personalize this and make it really stand out as your own and get a lot of variations between different quilt blocks. So I'm just going to continue to go around the edge of all the shapes with my little dots here. As I get to the larger shape on the outside, the purple shape, I'm going to go around with thicker dots just to keep it in proportion to the shape size. So now the block is done. I have my stitching, I have all my pieces put down. So it looks like fabric, just kinda reminiscent of fabric. In the next chapter, we're going to make a torn paper version of the same block. 7. Torn Paper Quilt Block: So now to make another quilt block using the same design, but using torn paper instead of our perfectly cut paper squares. So I'm using my six inch quilt block and I'm using similar color paper to make my blocks. So here I'll set my papers aside and I'm gonna make my first rectangle on this black paper. So I trace squares using a pencil onto all of the different colored papers in the approximate size that I wanted to use. And this is a good guide for me to help me get started. And then I'll take my water brush pen. And I'm just gonna kinda roughly go over those areas that I penciled in so that I get the appropriate size square for my torn paper. After the water absorbs into the paper, I get some very interesting results. When I tear the paper. I let it absorb into the paper and it helps me to create that nice shape that I want. Now, this square came out more rectangular. So I'll just decide what areas I want to refine further. And I'll just shape that square accordingly. Once I have my base square, then black here, I can take my other squares and adjust their size according to the size that I got for the black piece. Next paper is that purple sheet. And my square that I traced a little larger than the square that I actually tore. So I'll just go in there and make that modification with my water brush. Just sprinkle the water so it runs down the brush and then I'll just make my square. And once that water absorbs onto the paper, and then I'll tear the paper. Now the area that I wet on the paper is going to be little delicate. So I treat it gingerly and I can pull the different tears to get that easy square shape by pulling the paper toward me. And I have a good result here. And I can play around with which position I want that square to be. I'll continue this, making this smaller squares, the pink and then the teal with the same exact procedure where I wet the paper, give it a moment to absorb. And in this case I'm going to cut down on the paper just so I have less area to tear and I can control it a little bit better. And then I'll gently create my rectangles again by tearing the paper. Because it's only for tears. It's kind of easy and I tend to rush it, but I have to just remember to take it slow and make those shapes that I like. So with one more square to go, I have my little teal square here. I add my water and then I can refine that paper down further. If that's shaped, doesn't fit. I'll just go and refine it further, tearing off a little bit here and there till I get my shape indicative of a square. I'll adhere these with a glue stick and then we'll come back in the next chapter and do our photo stitching. 8. Making Faux Stitching on Torn Block #1: So this is how the design looks when all the papers are adhered down to our base of the quote block. It's kind of an interesting effect when you contrast it with the original design. So now to make my photo stitching, I'm using my same waterproof marker, but this time I want the stitches to stand out so they're going to be a little longer and a little thicker. And instead of dots, I'm going to make dashes, kinda thick dashes. And I'll start at the purple rectangle, making my dashes around the torn edge with just to like an eighth of an inch border between the paper and where I'm making my stitch marks. And I'll continue doing this around. All three of our squares are pink or teal and this purple one. Now my black marker won't show up on my black card stock. So I'm going to take a white gel pen and do the same thing following the edge of that torn shape. And while it's not going to create a perfect square, it will emphasize the border, emphasize the tear, and create a very interesting design. In the next chapter, we'll start our second quilt block. 9. Quilt Block #2: So now for our second quilt block here, I'm using all round shapes. I have six pink shapes here that I'm going to use as the petals of this flower. So I like to set them up and just design how I want them to look. And if I combine them all together, they look like kinda like a daisy or a rose. I also want a centerpiece and I'm going to use yellow for that, my yellow circle. And I'll stick that there. And I also want to layer it. So I'll put another pink piece, another round shape in a smaller one of the yellow. And these are just brown punches that I had. You can use any shape that you'd like. For my green round, I'm going to use this to make leaves. And instead of just using it as it is, I'm going to fold it in half, cut it in half, and then cut it in half again. So I have quarters here. They make an interesting shape, and I'm just going to use those as the leaves around each corner of my flower. I'll add here this with my glue. And in the next chapter, we'll come back and add our photo stitching. 10. Making Faux Stitching Quilt Block #2: So I've glued all my papers down in. Everything is nice and secure. So now I want to create my stitching. I'm going to use my same waterproof marker and I'm going to go around creating the shapes here with these long strokes to make lot like long stitches. And I'm choosing these long stitches because the pattern on my paper is kind of large. Both on the green leaves and on the pink. They're just very large shapes. So I needed something to counterbalance that. I'll go around all my leaves and then on my circles with these long strokes, these long stitches. And then when I come to my petals, I have a decision to make. Do I want to outline each individual petal or do I want to outline the piece as a whole? And I think I really want to emphasize that scalloped edge. So I'm just going to outline the piece as a whole. And so there I have my finished flower. In the next chapter, we'll do a torn paper version of this quilt block. 11. Torn Paper Block 2: So now we have the inspiration piece for this torn block quilt. We're going to do the scallops flower. So now I had seen colors of the paper, and now I have to decide if I want to make individual petals or if I want to make a scallop shape, I think I'm going to make a scallop shape. So I have my circle that I traced here. That's the approximate size of the flower that I want. And now I'm just going to add some rough scallops here with my pencil. I can go back in there now with my water brush and really go over the scallops so that when I tear the paper, it really looks scalloped. I found it was hard to do this without wetting the paper. So after I make sure that I have my paper saturated in the shape that I want to tear. I will very gently tear it going around all aspects of all the curves here to make that scallop shape a hold my finger down on areas where I want to really secure it or give a little extra tension. And I just take my time to do this. It results in an attractive edge that scalloped and yet torn. So it's very effective to create that shape. And it's a little bit unusual too. I take my time and go around all those curves. I might have to go back and refine some shapes, but overall, it worked out really well. I'll eyeball the shape that I want. Create that yellow center and gently tear that out. And then I'll go and do the same thing with the pink paper for the center, as well as the yellow very small center. I'm placing all my pieces onto my square before I adhere them as just an audition, a design challenge to see where I want the pieces to go into, make sure that they're the right size. In this case with the little yellow center, I made it too big at first, so I just tear it away a little bit more. And now we want to make those green leaves. I think that contrast was a really nice feature of that first square. So I'm going to create my circle and then I'll tear it down to size. I can do this and tear it into quarters like I did for the first piece. But I think I want to stick with just these larger shapes for these leaves. Once I have that all torn and the design is exactly as I want it, I'll adhere it. And in the next chapter we'll come back and add our photo stitching. 12. Making Faux Stitching on Torn Paper Block #2: So I adhered all the pieces down to the page and now I have my torn flower collage. From here. I want to add the faux stitching. So I have my waterproof marker and I'm going to go around creating a rustic look around the edges of the scalloped shape. Now I can create individual petals if I want to, but I think I just want to go around the scallop shape and really emphasize that because I think that's unique about this picture. I'll make these dashed lines around the scallop flower as well as the round centers and then the leaves. And this is where you can have some fun with it and really personalize the look overall. It kinda ties it all together. In the next chapter, we'll take a look at the pieces we need in class, as well as some variations. 13. Class Wrap Up: So here are our completed quilt blocks today in class, we have the very geometric shapes and then the torn paper shapes. So this is a little more imperfect, but it's certainly has its appeal. The shapes are intriguing and you're, I can't help but be drawn to them and it can make the colors really stand out. Now, they're both takes on quilt blocks, but we have the benefit of not having to use fabric. I'm just using paper to make them complete. I wanted to show a few variations. So we'll start with the geometric ones. So using the same formulas and the same pieces, only different colored papers and different stitch lines. We have a totally different look. Here. We have the same geometric shapes, but instead of black, I used a blue and I use nice thick stitch marks. So that gives another look. And for this flower, I used a purple print for the background. I think that's a very interesting color scheme. And it would look nice combined with our originals. Now for this block as well, you can take it and scan it into your computer and create a card with miniature quilt blocks. So I find that intriguing. Now the next look is a take on those torn paper shapes, again, using different colors. And as you can see, the possibilities are really endless for what you want to create. I hope you'll try your hand at one of these paper quilt blocks, either torn or geometric shapes. Snap a photo of your work and please post it in the project section. Be sure to follow me here on Skillshare or check me out on YouTube and Instagram for additional ideas and some behind the scenes videos. Thanks for joining me today.