Never in my life did I think I would take on a hand-piecing project of this scope. If you haven’t yet been following along – here’s the concept of this English Paper Piecing project. For years (many years) I manufactured a line of sewn products (Tea Cozies, French Press Cozies, Tea Travel Wallets, and Appliance Covers). I got to shop for (so fun) and work with fabrics that complimented these items.
I would purchase bolt after bolt of the same fabrics (hundreds of different choices over the years). These fabrics became like old friends, each one held so many memories. When they were almost gone or there wasn’t enough left to work with for their intended use – I stashed a little bit away for some future project.
In 2019, I discontinued that business as well as the retail quilt shop in Beaverton, and refocused my business toward pattern design and this online shop. The cherished scraps came home with me where they sat in totes for several years while I pondered what to do with them.
Trying something (old) new to me – English Paper Piecing
I wanted to create a project using these scraps that was unlike anything I had tried doing before. I played around with a lot of ideas but the tiny size of many of the scraps limited my options. One idea after another was examined and then discarded for one reason or another. Finally – I hit upon the idea of creating a memory quilt made entirely of 1-inch hexagons.
So … definitely a new skill for me to learn. I started by getting advice from friends who love to do hand piecing. In the beginning, I watched YouTube videos, read blog posts and I practiced with other scraps. It seems that everyone has their preferred technique for using the precut paper shapes (or making their own, with or without punched holes). The same is true for basting with needle and thread – or glue. Needle size and thread weight have become subjects of discussion. Who knew?
Eventually, I settled on my own combination of tools and techniques that seem to be working for me.
Over the past few months, I have fussy-cut hundreds of hexagons from those scraps. Ideally, the process of getting them basted shouldn’t have taken me as long as it has but … life. Unlike a few of my more EPP-experienced friends – I am not basting the hexagons for a flower and then moving on to stitching it together. Nope – I need to baste every single, solitary one of those little guys – and then, move on to stitching them into flowers.
One goal met! I have officially thread-basted 112 English Paper Pieced hexagon flowers (a total of 784 individual hexagons). Each little bundle that makes a single flower is held together with a small quilting clip. They barely fit into the gallon-sized zip bag.
Even better, I have also completely stitched 23 of them into flowers. This project is going to take me a while – but it’s important to celebrate the “wins” along the way.