...another Hexy MF update

On Friday night I sewed the last (with the exception of a few for the borders) of the flowers. There are 70 there - seven in each of the fabrics.

For those that are mathematically minded interested (I am sure the minded can work it out for themselves) that is 490 basted 1.5" hexies and 8820" of hand sewn seam. 

I spent some time at the inaugural Sew Shells event laying them out on the floor and mixing them up until I was happy with the placement (there were a couple of changes after this picture was taken but it is the one I am working from)

The background is ordered (Robert Kaufman Quilter's Linen in Beige) along with some samples for the stems and leaves.

Better get to adding more columns to these to then!

...how I EPP

So after my post from the other day I thought I should deliver with this one.

Well I didn't get this done for last weekend as I hoped but it's done now and I hope you find it useful!

EPP is not a quick sewing technique. But it can be taken many places. I will sometimes baste and sew when stopped at traffic lights or at a train crossing, a few minutes at a time in the car travelling from meeting to meeting during the day. And yes, on trips away.

I've read a lot of tutorials, seen a lot of people sewing and even gone to a class. Some I found useful, some not. I'd point you in the directions of the ones I had found useful but I honestly couldn't tell you which there were now. Like the technique itself the evolution of my technique has been a slow progression.

So in the interest of sharing the way I do it a little step-by-step. This is by no means the only way, nor even the only way I have done it. But it is the method that has stuck for me for the longest.

Step 1: Gather your papers and your fabric
I use store bought ready cut papers. I tried cutting my own for a time but I had trouble finding a weight I was happy with (150GSM was the best I could find) and consistency in my cut pieces.

Generally I use papers from Paper Pieces and Patchwork with Busy Fingers. They use different weight papers but both measure the shapes by the length of the sides so are pretty interchangeable. Both are of a quality that means I can use each paper 2-3 times. A more recent bonus is that Paper Pieces will no cut a custom shape for you at no extra cost than the normal cost of the papers if you let them use the design for other customers as well (if not you will need to pay the set-up costs as well).

When cutting my fabric I add a seam allowance of 3/8" rather than the 1/4" that is more customary in patchwork. This is so when I am putting the paper in the middle of the fabric it doesn't have to be prefect and if it moves a little I will still have sufficient allowance to wrap around.

Step 2: Prepare you paper and fabric pairs

I pair a number of fabric/paper pairs and then baste them. I like to secure the paper to the fabric by putting a small circle of Sewline basting glue in the middle of the shape. If it is something like a kite I also put  line down towards the tail. In a large diamond I might do a + shape from point to point. Hopefully you get the idea. I find this holds well over time, doesn't discolour the fabric, stops the paper moving around while basting and does not have the unpleasant side effect of distorting the paper that pinning has.

Step 3: Baste the paper to the fabric
This is probably the area I have tried the most different techniques. I wanted for a long to time to have success without needing to baste through the paper but it was just a no go for me.

I baste by putting the needle in from the front, leaving the knot there. I go anti-clockwise around the shape and take a stitch at each corner ( by pulling up through the fabric hat meets at the corner and then taking an overstitch) before reinserting the needle halfway down the next side.

When the shape is basted I leave a little tail when cutting the thread after overcasting  a couple of times but not knotting the thread.

Step 4: Sew the shapes together
When you get up to this step do yourself a favour and get a new needle. I use sharps for both steps but have two tubes, one marked for basting and the other for sewing.

Start by putting two shapes right sides together and inserting a needle with a knotted thread into the corner. Take a couple of stitches, make a knot or two by putting the needle through the loop of a partly sewn stitch.

Continue overstitching across the edge, taking small stitches and catching the fabric at the point it wraps around the paper but avoiding the paper.

At the end ake sure you go through the corner again and take the overstitches and make the knots again. If you are adding another shape on to this corner directly there is no need to cut the thread here.

Once you have sewn to the outer corner of this shape you will need to secure the thread and cut it. After some trial and error (and a few loose seams) I found that a combination of overstitches and knots works best for me. Much like a tennis player that has a consistent routine I do two over stitches, three knots (by passing the needle through the loop and another overstitch. Like with the basting leave a little tail when you cut the thread.

 Step 5: Removing the papers
Once all of the sides of a shape have been sewn to you can remove the paper. Because the knot was on the right side of the shape I can cut this off very carefully so as not to cut the fabric and then pull the stitches out.

The paper will just pop out (you may need to pull a little to dislodge the glue)

See how the paper shape is a little bent? That is fine and part of haw it has needed to be bent during the sewing phase. If you spread it out and press it down it fine to reuse.

Repeat, repeat, repeat.

It's not a fast way to get a quilt top, or anything else really but it is a good way to use scraps, have something handy to keep your hand busy and when done it is immensely satisfying.

...EPP kite pillow

In the last few months - actually since the beginning of this year I think - I have been on a bit of an English Paper Piecing bender.

It started about September or October last year I think and took hold in errnest during Stitch in Color's Scrap Attack challenge. 

I surprised myself.

You see several years ago when I was staring to sew more and more I went to a craft show in Homebush. It was the first one I had ever been to, I had downloaded the program from the website and highlighted a number of different activities I wanted to go to during the day. I was obviously a little excited. 

One that was coloured had caught my eye because in the description it spoke of 'take anywhere' sewing. It was one of the short 15 minute presentations at a booth set up down one of the aisles. I don't think I stood there for longer than 5 minutes. There was needle and thread and neither were attached to machine. It looked slow. The first stitches needed to be pulled out after you finished sewing. That just seemed like a fantastic waste of time. I headed off to the next highlighted activity before seeing the next step in the process.

That was my first introduction to English Paper Piecing. It was not an auspicious start.

Since then I dabbled in sewing some hexagons for a week or two but without much conviction. I had no idea what I was going to do with the little paper covered discs when I was done. This little kit is still in the cupboard much the same as the it was years ago.

Fast forward to last September/October. I went interstate for two night to attend a conference. I bought some fabric and a pack of paper pieces. I had grand plans that I would whip up the majority of a quilt top in those two nights. I had obviously forgotten the 5 minutes of the presentation I attended years before. I remembered pretty quickly but obviously forgot just as quickly because come January I decided that was the go to technique for the Quilt-Along.

Clearly I remembered a little more because I bought larger shapes.

It seems to have stuck - not only did I finish the quilt top (and the quilting is coming along) but I have started and even finished a few more since then.

This pillow was made to co-ordinate with N's Cog + Wheel quilt.

There are 72 kites shapes in here and it is then appliqued to the background.

I bound the edges like this one and lapped the zip using this tutorial.

Given the EPP bug seems to have bitten a number of others I have been planning a post on how I EPP, hopefully I will have that done by the weekend!

...paper pieced octagons

I can't remember if I have blogged about this quilt before so please forgive me if I am repeating myself.

Some time ago I decided that I would use exclusively Heather Ross prints (with a preference for Munki Munki, West Hill and other early or whimsical cotton base cloth collections) to paper piece a quilt of a size that is still to be determined.

I wanted to use 2" Octagon papers with 2" squares in the filling gaps. In addition to the HR prints I planned (and am using) scraps of various white and grey solids.

This is where I got a little stumped. I wanted to use some 'solid' octagons and piece some. I went looking for co-ordinating shapes, first from Patchwork with Busy Fingers where I got my first lot of papers from and then Paper Pieces where I got extras. Unlike for hexagons there seemed to be very few - in fact I used this and this shape from Busy Fingers and could find no more that would work without me cutting some shapes of my own.

So a few weeks ago I emailed Paper Pieces on on the strength of their reply took to a piece of paper with a ruler and a pencil.

These arrived in my mailbox one morning early last week, eight different pieced octagon options finishing with 2" sides and available to order from them should you also want to paper piece 2" octagons from smaller shapes.

I have sewed some together already

Variation 1

Variation 3

Variation 5

Variation 6

Variation 8

There is one more still just basted...

Variation 7

And a couple more cut at and waiting for some stitchable moments...

Variation 2

Variation 4

... A Hexy MF update

There isn't really a lot to say except that I have based all of the centre hexagons and am doing the 'petals' as I   go. My aim to to get 10 done a week. So far I have done that twice in he four weeks I've been working on it so I am only two weeks behind!

I lay them out tonight to have a better look at the mix of the patterns/colours together. Obviously there are a few I would around when I sew them together.

Looking forward to working on this some more.

...Hexy M(ini)F

It is Mini because there is only 2 so far!

I've finally started, what feels like weeks after everyone else.

I got my fabric chosen just after the papers arrived in the mail. In the end I went back and bought the fabrics from this post that I really liked, rather than those I thought I needed to co-ordinate, and then took this bundle to Amitie during the sale to add the extra 4 prints (or more if it turned out one I chose wouldn't work but that didn't happen).

Somewhere in between the first fabric purchase and the visit to Amitie I came across this series of posts - I found the one about bundles interesting but it wasn't so helpful in the store as I looked at shelves of fabric with a feel rather than a picture of what I wanted in mind. I also chose the chartreuse from Dear Stella for the flower centres, I didn't catch the name of the colour on the end of the bolt.

I made a start at the Sit and Sew evening on Friday night and now I have a couple of flowers sewn, all the centres basted and all the petals cut.

I have cut my strips at 3.5"and then cross cut at 4" to give me a 3.5"x4" rectangle - and then cut this into hexies with a template Lisa made me with the 3/8" seam allowance I like for EPP. Cutting this way I was able to get all the centres cut from just over 3/4 yard of fabric.

Katy has given a couple of different basting methods. My preference is to secure the fabric to the paper with a circle of glue to hold it steady (I find pins move or fold the papers) and then baste through the paper with a stitch at each corner and one in the centre of each side. Leaving the knot at the front when I start makes it easier to remove the basting threads later.

There are 74 of these flowers to make - I'm labelling them as I go.

...a finished top - entierly by hand!

I almost can't believe that I had the patience and persistance to finish this quilt top - and that I still am enjoying it so much that I am already planning the quilting to be done soon - and by hand as well.

There are 32 'star' units in the quilt as well as 6 half 'stars' at the edges, 62 hexagons, 16 half hexagons and 10 half diamonds to form the edges. Each one was basted by hand and hand sewn into the top and then all 304 paper shapes removed. Well almost all, I have left the edge ones in for now and remove them at basting time.

All that adds up to 1592.5" of whip stitched seam. I was glad of a thimble.

The top measures 45" x 56" so it it pretty firmly a baby-lap sized quilt - and leaves me with nothing but admiration for people that can made a full sized quilt in this way - and using much smaller shapes!

I've started on the backing - ready for basting soon. There are 'spare' hexies (basted when I was going to make a multicoloured bacground) joined and then hand appliqued to the backing to hide the seam joining the two backing pieces together. There is a random spare star to be appliqued on the back as well - but I need to wait for after basting for placement. Confused - I'll explain in pictures later!

 

The next job will be to prepare the batting - as this quilt is part of the Scrap Attack Quilt Along I thought I would continue with the scrap theme. I have an (overflowing) box of reasonably decent sized batting scraps and will piece two of these together to get the batting for this quilt!

...more scrappy stars

In fact I have finished basting all of the shapes and sewing all of the whole star units together. I do still have to go and re-raid the scrap boxes for the half stars but it has been just too hot and stuffy to do anything like that this weekend.

I have worked out the placement of them all - there is one leftover that will make its way onto the backing in some way when I get to that.

For now all these ones are sewn down - more than half. I'm surprising myself at still enjoying the process of this one. I thought the slow and steady nature of it would have done my head in by now.

Just love it - I'm glad I went with hexagon spacers rather than the diamonds - I love the way it makes each of the stars stand out.