A Different Kind of Paper Pieiceing - English Paper Pieceing

I'm deep into several paper piecing projects - not foundation paper piecing (see Foundation Paper Piecing ) but rather English Paper Piecing (EPP). 

Paper Piecing / Foundation Piecing? What's the difference? Foundation piecing uses a foundation (usually paper) to sew and flip the pieces, enabling you to get really good points where it would be difficult to piece. English paper piecing uses forms (usually paper or card stock) in different shapes (hexagon, diamonds, squares, or triangles).

So, as is usual, I sort of over did it. One project led to another, then another. Before I knew it I had so many I had to organize them and make sense of what I have. 

It started innocently enough - Grandmother's Flower Garden. My Quilting Bucket List includes making a traditional quilt by hand, so what better choice than a Grandmother's Flower Garden? I even used reproduction 30s fabrics for it. To date, I have 40 out of 54 "flowers" completed. I'm going to put them together with green diamonds - so it will look something like this one. 

The Grandmother's Flower Garden got me hooked and now its a full blown addiction. Enter Katja Marek of Katja's Quilt Shoppe in Kamloops British Columbia. She has this wonderful book - The New Hexagon. In 2015 she facilitated an online Quilt Along to make a gorgeous and challenging quilt called Millefiore. It is constructed of about 14 Rosettes using the hexagons from Katja's book. This was one of the most challenging projects I've ever done. The construction is fairly straight forward, but choosing fabrics so that each round flows smoothly is quite a challenge.  I got two Rosettes done and decided to put it away for a while. Even now when I look at it, I think I might want to redo some of it.

Katja teased me again the next year with Quilts on the Go. For this Quilt Along, I decided to use Asian fabrics from my stash. This lasted through the first hexie and then I figured I'd better buy some more. Now I have 3 good sized totes filled with focus Asian fabrics to fussy cut and a bunch of fillers. This project is mush easier than Millie because each hexie stands alone. Once made, the hexies were appliqued to a backing and they were quilted. So, each one could stand alone as a mug rug; put a few together and you have a table topper; put them all together and you have a quilt.  I progressed a little further on this one, but I still have a few to make and then I'll whip-stitch them together into a quilt.

The next couple of Quilt Alongs that Katja has done are in the "collect and do later" category. We have Hex-Plosion and Perpetually Hexie. Cool projects and I couldn't stand not adding them to my EPP collection.

Katja is not the only designer doing cool EPP stuff. Tonya Owens from HillBilly Quilt Shop designed a mystery EPP with cool fabric from Paula Nadelstern (see my previous post).  Although I didn't keep current with the Quilt Along, the out-of- this-world table runner is ready to be quilted!

Another forerunner in EPP is Australian Sue Daley. I met Sue at the first Missouri Star Academy in Hamilton in May 2017. During her class, she showed (teased) us her new EPP BOM (don't ya just love the acronyms) called Round We Go. They are circles! I love them. Quilting Bits and Pieces in Eudora is hosting the BOM - starting August 2017. Again, these are in the "collect and do later" category. 

In addition to all being EPP, most of these projects have something else in common - they use lazer cut paper pieces available from PaperPieces.com. If EPP is an addiction, PaperPieces is an enabler. They carry all sorts of shapes in multiple sizes. They also have packages with all the pieces for projects. If its EPP you want, look no further.


Join me in my addiction! 

 

Quilt As You Go Hexies

This year, I've done a couple of sew/quilt alongs. Fun, Fun Fun!

One of my favorites is Katja Marek's Blocks on the Go for Quilts of the Grow. There are 52 different EPP (English Paper Piecing) hexies based on Katja's book The New Hexagon.  The year is almost over, but I'm still working on August's hexies. Not too far behind I'd say.

I decided this project would be a perfect use for some of the Asian fabrics I've been collecting - of course I had to purchase some additional fabrics to go with what I had. Since the blocks are hexagons, if I want to fussy cut (which of course I do), I'll need 6 repeats of the fabric.

My friend Kim is doing this project too, so we combined orders for the papers from Paper Pieces. The papers are sized to make a 4 inch block.

As the title of the quilt along implies, the hexagon blocks are quilted as they're made. So after doing the fussy cutting, glue basting, whip stitching the pieces together, and finally removing the papers, I appliqued the blocks onto a batting-filled background. A little stitch in the ditch quilting and the blocks are ready for some big stitch quilting around the edges with perl cotton.

I love doing these blocks. Picking the fabric, paper piecing, and working to get my big stitch quilting stitches nice and even. I haven't started putting them together yet - I want to get them all done and then lay them out to see how they look together. So far, I am stoked!

Here is a little sample of some of my hexies.
I'm ready to go cut some more fabric so I can baste and whip stitch the hexies during TV time.

Thanks to Katja. Can't wait to see next year's quilt along!



 

Tula Pink Update

Tula Pink is a fabric and pattern designer I have been following for a couple of years now. Her patterns have a simplistic, modern sensibility to them and I would describe her fabric as whimsical with juicy colors. When I saw her book 100 Modern Quilt Blocks, I knew I wanted to made them. Every. One. Of. Them.

So I asked members of my quilt guild - Kaw Valley Quilters' Guild - to participate in a sew along. Best thing ever! We started in January (see my earlier post from February 3, 2015) and have taken off like crazy. We just met last month and I am amazed at the beautiful blocks that people are making. So I though I would update everyone with some pictures and descriptions of ideas and tips folks have shared.

I think three of our group - Kathy, Sandy, and Barb, have all 100 blocks done. 







The rest of us are either racing or crawling along as our schedules allow. I have to admit I am one of those who are crawling. I think I only have 13 done. But I do have my stuff organized - I've made stickers for each block and have a list to keep track of all the I have finished.


Joyce is using the blocks as a background for her original applique designs. Taking her experience one step further, she made 4 of a block and sewed them together into something totally new.


Cindy is using Asian-inspired fabrics and antique kimono fabrics.

Shari is using black, white and gray fabrics.

Kim R. has focused on blue, green and red fabrics.




Joy T. is following Tula's color choices. 



It is so cool to see the blocks in such different colors and prints.

A couple of months ago, we decided to make extra black, white, and gray blocks so that we could make an opportunity quilt in the future. We are really coming along. We have 46 blocks committed to!  

It is so fun to watch everyone share their blocks and see how the same block is transformed by different fabrics. Next meeting I hope to take pics of everyone's block 1 - more if I can. 

So this week, I am going to get going on MY Tula blocks. I'll shoot for at least 8 of them.

Our little group has a FB page. Check out Kaw Valley Tula Pink 100 Modern Block Sew Along.

Staying Curious about Tula!

Foundation Paper Piecing - An Enchanted Forest by Janeen Van Niekerk

I love foundation paper piecing! It is the best way (IMHO) to get accurate points and seams especially when working with small pieces. What is it? Sometimes called sew and flip, it is the technique of sewing fabric directly onto a printed pattern and the flipping it over and sewing another piece to cover the raw edges. Usually you can just follow the lines on the printed side so it is really easy. The hardest parts are getting your fabric pieces the right size and shape to cover the shape you are working on, figuring out in which order to sew the pieces, and working upside down and backwards. For a more comprehensive description and instructions check out this YouTube tutorial from Connecting Threads.

I do foundation piecing almost exactly the way Karen (from the video) does with a few exceptions. Instead of pinning I use either a dab of glue stick or a piece of blue painters' tape. 

Additionally, instead of paper or vellum, I have recently been using a foundation product that doesn't need to be taken out - Ricky Tims' Stable Stuff Poly. I think both foundations (lightweight paper or Stable Stuff) are good it just depends on the final product. I really don't like removing papers, so this works for me. 


I'm working on a couple of foundation pieced projects at the moment. Sedona Star, a BOM from Sarah Vedeler, and Enchanted Forest, a BOW by Janeen Van Niekerk of Quilt Art Designs.  I'm loving the Enchanted Forest (I added the adjective enchanted - it fits), I keep thinking about painter Bob Ross every time I piece a little critter (remember? "its your world, you can put little squirrels and rabbits anywhere you like").


Janeen is the QUEEN of foundation piecing. She has patterns for animals, cars, dresses, traditional blocks and anything else you can think of. Check out her Pattern Shop at Craftsy. She also has BOM and Quilt Alongs on her website every year. Enchanted Forest is the Art Quilt Along for 2015. 

To make Enchanted Forest, I've needed green fabrics - lots of different greens! Lime, Avocado, Olive, Kelly, Moss, Forest, Spring, Hunter, Spruce, and Blue-Green. And lots of different prints - Solids, Tone on Tone, Textures, Dots, Stripes, Foliage, Swirls and more. It's been fun looking over the green Fat Quarters in the shops I've visited. Of course I also needed blues, reds, yellows, browns, grays, and oranges for the critters.

So, I've finished week 5 of 12 - some sky, sun, flying geese, 3 trees, 3 birds, and 1 lizard.  I hope to catch up  - Janeen has been sending out a pattern a week and I am 4 weeks behind.  

Janeen lives in Pretoria South Africa. I wonder how many people from different countries are participating in her Quilt Along.

So, if you are at all curious about foundation piecing, check out Janeen and Quilt Art Designs. They are terrific!

  

Tula Pink 100 Block City Sampler Sew Along

I'm about to start another BOM (shocking, right?)  - Tula Pink's 100 Modern Block City Sampler. About 30 quilters from the Kaw Valley Quilter's Guild are starting a Sew Along to work through her 100 Modern Quilt Blocks book. Oh what fun this will be!

We had our organizational meeting after January's guild meeting and made a couple of decisions. Easy Peasy -we are going to do as many or as few blocks as we want, whichever blocks we want, in whatever colors we like. We'll get together before the night time meeting, and after the daytime meeting to share our blocks, and then also gather occasionally during the month to sew together. We want to make an opportunity quilt out of some extra blocks, but we postponed deciding about the details until next month. I set up a FB group for us so we can post pictures of our blocks. So we're ready to rock and roll!

A couple members - Joy T. and Sammie M. already had some blocks made. In fact Joy wowed us with her binder and organization. I think she had 6 or so blocks already made! She inspired me to get going.

I found a fabric to use as an inspiration fabric and then realized that all the colors were in PB&J by Basic Grey for Moda. I used fabric from this line for Toes in the Sand by JayBird Quilts and I just loved it. So I found a FQ packet on Etsy and I was ready to go. 

Since we were getting ready to visit my Mom in Arizona for a bit, I only got one block done before we left. I loved how it turned out, although Cleo does not seem to be impressed.
As folks started posting their blocks on the FB group, I was getting a bit jealous because I didn't bring any Tula stuff with me to Arizona and I was really itching to make some more blocks. Here are some of the blocks that inspired me (CJ, Kathy, Shari, Maggie, Sandra and Tonya). They're great, aren't they?

 

Since I didn't bring my book or any of my fabrics, I asked some of my sewing friends to send pics of the blocks so I could make them here. A trip to a couple of quilt shops and I was set. I set up my Mom's 58 year old Singer and had the first AZ block done.  Over the next couple of days I made a few more and so now I feel like I am not behind! I have made my goal of 6 blocks for January!


Here's what I have learned so far:
1) Some quilts are more fun when done as a group. 
2) I could easily get fabric envy - meaning I love others' blocks so much that I want to do them again in different fabrics.
3) This could get addictive.
4) I can get a simple 6 inch block done in about 20 minutes.
5) I love the simple yet unique style that Tula captures in these blocks.


I'm looking forward to our next meeting, I can feel the excitement of my FB friends who are part of this Sew Along - every day there are new pictures of their beautiful blocks.
It's All About Tula!