Tag: EPP

Two Down, Two to Go

by Kay, posted in English Paper Piecing, Quilting from Little things, slow sunday stitching

I have appliqued the centre of two of the fans and have two more plus the centre to finish. I hope I will finish in time for One Monthly Goal for October.

Fanfare applique

The lefthand semicircle looks almost black but all the background pieces are shades of purple.

I would get on faster if I didn’t get sidetracked by other projects, both quilting and drawing

More hexie lozenges

Hexagon Lozenge BlueHexagon Lozenge Pink

Not sure about the blue one, it looks a bit dull, maybe it will improve with the third round of hexagons

A coyote jaw bone for a free course run by Newcastle University, Australia in natural history illustration

Sketch Coyote jaw

Now to check out the rest of the projects for Slow Sunday Stitching on Kathy’s Quilts

Round Three

by Kay, posted in City and Guilds, English Paper Piecing, slow sunday stitching

I am continuing to work on the hexagon lozenges and have added a third row to one of them. I love the blue and red together

Hexie lozenge EPP

This is the maximum size and as you can see from the ruler it is quite large. I only need to make 29 more

I have completed a lot of hand stitched projects this year for the City and Guilds in Patchwork and Quilting and now have my certificate!

I thought I would share a few of the samples; some I liked and some I will never do again! Folded patchwork and cathedral windows take up far to much fabric and although they do look good, I shan’t be making any more

Hawaiian Quilting
Hawaiian Quilting
Folded Patchwork
Folded Patchwork Star
Cathedral windows
Cathedral Windows
Bias binding applique
Bias Binding Applique

I will post more another day including the two main pieces – the quilt and the wall hanging, but now I am going to view the work for Slow Sunday Stitching on Kathy’s Quilts. Why not take a look too

Miniature Quilt Finish!

by Kay, posted in English Paper Piecing, Uncategorized

 

Miniature Quilt

Oh so slow, you would think a miniature quilt would be quicker to make than a full size quilt but this seems to have taken ages. At only six by twelve inches it would hardly keep Barbie warm.  My next hexagon qult is going to be for the bed!

It isn’t as wobbly as in the photograph, I must work on my photography skills.

I used Liberty Tana Lawn and started off piecing with Auril but ended up using invisible nylon thread. I found the nylon very hard to work with as it formed loops and knots very easily which were hard to find and undo – it is invisible afterall! I used glue to make the 1/4″ hexies which was very quick and simple to do – and quick to remove at the end.

Still it has been packed off to the Isle of Wight ready to go with four other quilts from Region 8 of the Quilters’ Guild up to Birmingham for the Festival of Quilts in August. It’s not a competition entry but for a display by the specialist group ‘Miniature Quilts’ within the Guild. It is the first one I have ever made and probably the last; I don’t think my eyes can take the strain even with a magnifying glass

I shall have to start a new project for Slow Sunday Stitching over at Kathy’s Quilts. Now I am off to see what everyone else has been up to.

Hexagon Go-Slow Sunday Stitching

by Kay, posted in WIPs

DSCF5869

I think I have taken Slow Sunday Stitching to the extreme with these flower pots, but I have an excuse as the last picture will reveal!

They are to be appliqued to a background rather than finish the quilt entirely in hexagons

 

…and the reason they have taken so long? See below!

DSCF5874

The flower on the left is made from ‘normal’ sized hexagons  of 1 1/2 inches. Can you guess the size of the others?

If you would like to see more slow stitching posts why not pop over to Kathy’s Quilts where you can see what more sensible people make on Sunday. You can find the link here

Happy stitching everyone!

Grandmother’s Flower Garden

by Kay, posted in Quilt-a-Longs

These two flowers have travelled round a bit – in and out of a zip lock bag getting a bit wrinkled on the way but now they are finished

Two flowers

They are larger than the previously completed flowers; adding the diamonds gives more design possibilities the idea for which came from ‘Quilting on the Go!’ by Jessica Alexandrakis. This is a very good book for people new to EPP (English paper piecing) or if you have experience, full of good ideas and design projects big and small.

Pink with leaves

I particularly like the leaves. The stripy material is one that I had doubts about when I bought it; was the colour too acidic? But I love it as the leaves because they set the pink off so well

What are you up to this Sunday? Pop over to Kathy’s quilts if you need some inspiration  http://www.kathysquilts.blogspot.ca/ and see what everyone else is up to

 

 

 

 

Mini Design Board Tutorial

by Kay, posted in Uncategorized

I had to make this when I was trying to decide the layout of the little fans for ‘Fanfare’. The pieces are so small that a design wall would be ridiculous. Putting them on my drawing board was ok until a breeze blew half of them on the floor, so I had to come up with an alternative and a lightweight mini design board was the answer

  1. Take a piece of polystyrene around 60 x 40 x 2 or 3 cms (or whatever size you want) to use as the core of the board. I was lucky as I had a piece of polystyrene packing in the garage measuring 59cms x 39cms x 2cms.
  2. Draw round it on a piece of scrap cardboard box twice and make a sandwich for extra strength using PVA or white craft glue, as shown in the photo. Weigh it down with heavy books mini design board construction
  3. Once the glue has dried cover with batting which will need to be bigger than the board by about 12cms so that it can wrap around to the back. Use PVA or white craft glue again and spread out evenly. I made a spreader with an offcut of cardboard – it went soggy with use but lasted long enough to finish the board.
  4. You could use different size scraps of polystyrene as long as they are the same thickness as they will be held together by the cardboard. The same applies to the batting, any scraps can be stuck to the cardboard so all those strips cut off after basting can be put to good use – Re-use is better than recycling!

It works fine with EPP projects too when you can’t decide which way round your fussy cut hexagons look best, or which centre to use in your flowers. Looking at the orange flower I decided I need more fabric to make them both!

I also find it useful when I am pressing multiple sections of more than one block when chain piecing. Sometimes they can get mixed up but using the board you can press and replace in the appropriate block with no problems

Slow Stitching Sunday

by Kay, posted in Uncategorized

 

The Slow Stitching Movement has been steadily gaining ground recently and is a reaction against the tendency to rush the creative process; to produce something, anything, rather than enjoy the process itself. Formally launched by Mark Lipinski and modelled after the Slow Food Movement they believe that;

” … speed can kill creativity and the enjoyment of our creative pursuits.  Maybe what we really need to do is slow down, enjoy the process, and create fiber art that we’re really proud of.”

They are not the only advocates slow stitching, there are many others with a quiet passion for this way of working.  At the moment Kathy is hosting a link up for Slow Sunday Stitching which you can find  here. Why not grab her button like I did and join in.

My contribution at the moment is a grandmother’s flower garden. Started before I heard of The Slow Stitching Movement or Kathy’s’ blog, it is good to know that there is a growing appreciation, once again, for hand-stitched work. That doesn’t mean that machined quilts, chain piecing and easy blocks don’t have a place any more -they do, and I enjoy these too but in a different way.

The sewing machine ties us to the workbench, the noise inhibits conversation and drowns out music from the radio. Slow stitching is more sociable. I can sit and stitch with my other half while he relaxes watching a film,  or I can join a group to stitch in park, pub or home.

Slowness is the important part here, not that it is by hand as Lucie Dutton writes in her piece as a guest blogger for slowstitching.com. I recommend this as a cautionary tale about losing sight of what the movement means and what happens when you don’t slow down