Paper Pieced Art Canvases and Looking back at Raw-Edge Applique

First, I finished something! Yay yay yay! I have a few projects sitting around that have just a few more things to do on them, and one was this series of three paper pieced minis, wrapped around stretched art canvases. Of course, these are all rectangular pieces, but the I paper pieced them in order to get some crisp and precise 1/8" gray strips in there. Once I get my act together, I plan on hanging them above my sewing table :)

I'm not entirely happy with the way some of the corners got bulky from the wrapping - I should have trimmed some fabric before hand! But, you live, you learn.

The newspaper started out as my favorite fabric, but I think I ended up loving this yellow the most:

And in general loving the 1/8" strips!

And just thought I would update in regards to the durability of raw-edge applique when using a zig zag:

This is a close up of my baby's Eat, Play, Sleep, Repeat quilt. After a lot of washings (and pretty intense ones, too!) I'd say it's still holding up really well! You can see just a tad bit of fraying, but it's all completely contained by the stitching and no threads are coming off. The gray was the worst (which is still quite good, I think). This yellow looks the best:

I'm very happy! Super durable, I'd say.

Now, you can't tell because it's all still white, but this thing has gotten a TON of nasty spit up stains on it. If you too love the beauty of white for a baby quilt, never fear! You can achieve it. Here is my washing routine for persistent stains:

Prewash, Hot Cold, 2 Rinses, with a Tide stain release packet

That routine - minus the stain packet - is exactly what I use for my cloth diapers. I figured that if it got poo out, it could get anything out. And it pretty much can :). Hope all is well with you!