Piecework – Volume I-C – a leather stamping study in quilt blocks and seams

From the Practice Log – an ongoing series of original leather stamping studies.

A September study. Volume I-C.

Piecework is a small collection for people who make things from pieces. We took the logic of the quilt block and pressed it into leather, from luggage tags down to a journal's corner.

First, we pieced an eight-point star the way scrap quilts have always been pieced – every patch a different print, and all of them holding – and set the oldest boast in quilting underneath: MADE WITH WHAT I HAD.

Black-and-white SCRAP STAR die art for the Piecework leather collection, with an open-line quilt star and the words MADE WITH WHAT I HAD.

Looks absolutely gorgeous when stamped onto the leather.

A blueberry leather luggage tag stamped with the SCRAP STAR design from the Piecework quilt-making collection.

A Parisian-blossom leather luggage tag stamped with the SCRAP STAR design from the Piecework quilt-making collection.

A caramel leather luggage tag stamped with the SCRAP STAR design from the Piecework quilt-making collection.

The same star rides the lower corner of the toiletry bags, warm mid-gray stacked over chestnut – the retreat bag.

Country-gray and Sicilian leather toiletry bags stamped with the SCRAP STAR quilt design from the Piecework collection.

Next, the tool every maker reaches for and nobody thanks. We drew the seam ripper with one unpicked thread still curling off its point, and titled it THE UNDO BUTTON.

Black-and-white seam-ripper die art for THE UNDO BUTTON design in the Piecework leather collection.

Keychains with it look just awesome – in warm red and in deep green.

A poppy-red leather keychain stamped with THE UNDO BUTTON seam-ripper design from the Piecework collection.

A forest-green leather keychain stamped with THE UNDO BUTTON seam-ripper design from the Piecework collection.

And finally, the one we liked the most. A nine-patch with eight squares sewn and the ninth still an open outline, over the words FINISHED IS BETTER THAN PERFECT – the proverb makers actually say to one another, with the evidence left showing.

Black-and-white nine-patch die art for the Piecework leather collection, with the words FINISHED IS BETTER THAN PERFECT.

We put it in the corner of the journals where the next project gets planned, in navy and in pale warm greige – and across the golden tan catchall tray that holds the day's pins at night.

A blueberry leather journal stamped with the unfinished nine-patch design from the Piecework collection.

A gray-sand leather journal stamped with the unfinished nine-patch design from the Piecework collection.

An Arizona leather catchall tray stamped with the unfinished nine-patch design from the Piecework quilt-making collection.

We made this out of love. Leatherius Woodman is on a mission to create and share artifacts of beauty, craft and love – this study is one of them, and we hope the feeling is mutual. Every image is a render – how we prototype before cutting a die.

If you'd like any of these made real, or anything here changed – say hello through our contact page.