Several months ago I shared with you that I’m working on an English Paper Piecing project. Now – here’s the thing. I have played around with EPP before and made a small block or two. Nothing at all like the scale of the project I’m working on now. Crazy? probably so – but I’ve learned a lot and am having some fun with it.
I’ve made a (tiny) bit of progress on my English Paper Piecing project. Clearly – this is going to take me some time to complete. I’ve made approximately 25 of the flowers so far. I’m guessing that I will need around 150 of the brightly colored flowers.
I’m going to be setting these brightly colored flowers into a large circle (or wreath). The background will also be hexagons – made up of various light tonal shades. In the pictures below – you can see the shades I have so far. It’s possible I may restrict the palette even further by removing the two darkest fabrics. Still undecided on that.
Here’s what I’ve learned so far
A finer thread works much better. I was using 40wt, to begin with, and found that my stitches were showing much more than I liked. Now I’m using Aurifil 50wt and I’m happier with the stitches being much more hidden.
Glue or basting – I’m still undecided but have been defaulting to using the Sewline fabric glue pens and it’s working pretty well for me.
Stitching density – I am making my stitches too close together – and can’t seem to help myself. I’m working on this, maybe I’ll be a little faster if I don’t stitch so closely.
The papers – As I start to join flowers together – I plan to remove the papers from those hexies that are completely surrounded. We’ll see how that goes when I get that far.
I wasn’t so sure that I was going to enjoy this process, I can be a little impatient sometimes. The truth is – I’m really enjoying it. I can pick it up – or put it away quickly. I can even take it with me when we hit the road with our tiny travel trailer. Completed flowers are being stored in a small tote in my sewing room and I have a handful of prepped flowers clipped together into little bundles – all ready to work in my small travel sewing organizer.
