EPP – No Idle hands here

Basting the quilt

I’ve been trying to find the best way to baste a quilt – preferably using spray glue. I’ve come to the conclusion that whenever a new product appears on the market (basting glue, frixon pens) the naysayers come out and loudly proclaim that ‘we don’t know how this will affect our quilts in the long run!’. To that I say, I have no idea how long my quilts will be around and I’d really like to use these labor saving tools.

There are so many wonderful tutorials on youtube, time to do my research. First of all, starch both front and back – with real starch, not sizing or replacement product.The starch fills in the spaces between the fibers, sounds good to me. I also, ironed the batting, since there are creases and folds.Here they are, ironed, firm and ready to go.

I’ve tried different methods of spray gluing. My first big mistake, working on the floor! That is just too back-braking, I have a large yard, I have folding tables – why was I making my life difficult?

One method that I have been reading about is using two boards to hold the fabric. When we moved into our house I was a little upset at all the garbage leftover in the garage. But now I discover the perfect 3×1 boards and I’m happy.It’s a little hard to see, but I’ve rolled the top and bottom on the boards, I gradually unroll and spray the batting in in small segments.And it’s done, maybe two hours tops, for the ironing, the rolling and the gluing and no aching back! I’m sold. Now on to the actual quilting.

Leah

The quilt back

If you didn’t already know that I am crazy (who hand sews a complete hexagon quilt top??) this will confirm it.

After all that intense hand sewing, it all came to an abrupt end. Now what??? Well of course I need to make the backing and I can’t remember the last time it was one solid piece of fabric. At first I was thinking I’d make up some flowers out of the remaining hexies, but thought better of it, that part was done!

Then I remembered Quilts and More Fall 2014. With my library card I can download and read a number of knitting and quilting magazines. The cover of the fall issue had a scrappy quilt with large hexagons! Perfect, I’ll make a few rows and sandwich them between some larger fabrics.After all that handwork, cutting patches with a rotary cutter and sewing them up on the machine was a breeze.Once started, I just couldn’t stop!So much so that the backing of this quilt is what most normal people would consider to be a lovely quilt top.I did mention I’m crazy didn’t I? Hey, it only took me a few days, not months like the top.

Leah

EPP Hexie, progress report

Slowly but surely, the quilt grows. I didn’t bring the actual quilt on my trip, it is getting large and unwieldily – even though it’s only about the size of a small baby quilt. What I did do was cut up a lot of paper and fabric on my Accuquilt, bagged them up and sewed quite a few of them on the trip.

Once home I went right back to adding them to the quilt.I am being very mindful of color placement. I know quilters who just throw things together, willy nilly and their quilts look amazing. I am trying to balance to the colors, so they are spread out over the quilt. Since I’m only a third of the way done, if that, I still have a lot of room to work with.

One issue I’m having is the size of the fabric hexies. When cutting by hand, I gave myself a lot of extra seam allowances. Although I cut many more of them on the die cutter, they have exactly 1/4″ seam allowances – which to be honest is very tight.Moving into the yellow and blue you can see the seam allowances are much smaller. This does create a problem, less seam allowance means less stability of each patch.Here is a close-up, in some cases it almost looks like 1/8″. No, I am not going back to cutting by hand. My whip stitches are very close together, so that should hold things in place. Also, I am going to do some kind of overall quilting, by machine! I will not be hand quilting this! The quilting will help hold things in place.I am also changing the paper/card stock I use. The colored card stock is lovely but it is slightly thicker than the mail card I cut up. That tiny increment makes a difference when folding over the fabric. So I am saving all magazine inserts, the ones that used to drive me crazy. As well as envelopes and other junk mail. How’s that for really recycling and reusing!

Leah

Addicted to English Paper piecing

Before we left on vacation, I prepared a hand quilting project. I thought it would be good for travel as well as working on in the evenings when I don’t want to knit. (yeah right, like there is ever an evening I don’t want to knit). I quickly sewed up a project bag, put in the box and the beginnings of the project and off we went.

On the trip I knit in the car during the day and worked on the quilt in the evenings.I found myself getting addicted to the process.I also picked up some purple fabrics, since for some reason, I was lacking that color family in my stash.I quickly turned fabric into hexies and into the box they went.By the end of the trip, the quilt was growing. When I got home I decided to square off the edges as I go with partial hexies. The thought of cutting off portions of what I sewed when the quilt is complete was just too depressing. Better to add than subtract.So here it was yesterday. What I discovered is that I am totally addicted. Although I have plans for a machine sewn quilt as well as more garment sewing, I find I am spending many of my daytime hours working on this project. At least at night I am still knitting, but that is the subject of another post.

Linked at Freshly Pieced

Leah

Getting addicted to EPP

After making two small bags using the English Paper piecing method, I wanted to do more. So I decided to start a much larger project – a quilt. I am punching card stock with my handy Fiskers hexagon punch. This gives me 1″ hexies. I found this pen in the paper craft section. I put a dab of glue on the hexie affix about four or five at a time to fabric. Then I do a rough cut out and baste around.

We leave on vacation, of course I will be taking my knitting, but EPP is also a wonderful project for the road. I am very prepared.This box is stuffed full, I haven’t stopped making hexies though – have I mentioned how addictive this is?

My work table is messy, it’s how I work. I had to start the actual quilt, no grandmothers flower garden. I’m hoping to have areas of color merge into one another. There really is no overarching plan.I have no idea how big this will be, this is an open ended project. I fear that with all my fabrics it will be quite large.I have been removing the paper once the hexie is surrounded. Main reason for this is because I will be traveling with this. Paper adds bulk and weight – something I can do without.

This will be a project you will see often as it grows.

Leah

Epp- English Paper Piecing

I learned how to quilt back in the the late 1970’s, we cut templates from cardboard, marked each one on the fabric and cut out the patches with scissors. I recently learned that the Olfa rotary cutters were created about the same time, by the 1980’s they had entered the quilt world. Today we can’t imagine life without them. I also use them for cutting out my sewing patterns. Amazing what a tool will do to change your life.So back in those dark days, I remember EPP, this was how the English traditionally made their quilt tops. Often using newsprint, or other cheap paper, they would cut each patch out of paper, sew a piece of fabric to that backing and then sew the patches together. There are historical quilts where the paper was never removed. Traditionally once the top was finished all the paper came out before the quilt sandwich was created. Quilt tops remain with paper intact – what an interesting way to try and recreate the local history of the day based on snippets of newspaper.

Today this method is used for difficult shapes. most common, the hexagon.Here a basic grandmother’s flower garden patch, I have basted the paper to the fabric and with tiny stitches attach the hexies together. I have seen comparisons of hand and machine sewing – although it is more work, the end result of the hand sewing is much more accurate and the hexies lie flatter.In this case I had ordered precut card stock templates. Following instructions online, I punched a hole – to make it easier to remove later as well as glued the fabric to the base. I don’t like this method. You can clearly see where the glue didn’t hold. On the one hand you don’t want a permanent glue, but having it release too early means the shape may not be accurate. Also, when sewing the hexies together, there is always a Y-join. I had to fold the card stock in order to do so, which can create distortions.The end result is good, but a little too much strain on my hands. So for my next project I’m cutting my paper out of printer paper with a die-cutter. This only affords me the one size. Since this is a sometime project for me, I don’t see myself investing in a large Die-cut machine yet.Quilting with my walking foot. End result? Another Sewtogether Bag. You are not seeing double, there are two of them, I’m in love with this bag and what a wonderful gift it makes. I so enjoyed making this bag with EPP that I am making another one for myself.

Leah