Certificate Course workshop: English Paper Piecing

Last Saturday I attended the February workshop for the Embroiderers' Guild Certificate Course, this time on English Paper Piecing with Melissa Walker. 

Melissa provided a choice of projects  - both pincushions: one hexagons, the other mixed shapes. Because I had paper-pieced the bed quilt in hexagons three years ago, I chose to work on the mixed shapes. We began with a sheet of template shapes on heavy paper to be cut out, then cut our fabric and glued the fabric shapes around the paper. This is the first time I have used glue to secure the fabric to the papers.  It was a lot of fun.  

Left to my own devices I'd have tried to glue down the little tails on the diamonds but they fit neatly together under each other.                                                                                     

I was using a couple of small squares of hand-dyed fabric I bought at a market day.  It gave me plenty of scope for mixing colours within a palette. This was a well designed project. The diamonds form the top of the pincushion, rectangles the sides and a hexagon the bottom.

It was, as always, a great group of students, sharing their work and encouraging each other.   Melissa was an attentive and knowledgeable teacher.                                           This was pretty much where I got to when the class finished at 2pm.

At home I added the hexagon and joined up the sides

before removing the papers.

By the time I left home that evening for my first Adelaide Festival of Arts commitment, the pincushion was finished - my idea of a great teaching/learning project.

I had had a great day, learned the skills of glueing papers and managing diamond corners - and ended up with a finished product.

I have given this pincushion to my granddaughter Niamh. She is 8 years old and has joined JEMS - the Junior Embroiderers' group. She has made me two pincushions but does not have one herself.

Niamh's take on this? "If you don't want to be a Nana you have to stick your pins into one of these, otherwise you stick them in lounges and things".

Oh dear, I'm very much guilty as charged I'm afraid! 

More rows on hexagon quilt

In between embroidering the centres of the coloured hexagon 'flowers', I have progressed to four rows.

I tested it on the bed  and made a few decisions.

I had worked on the basis of the hexagons on the top of the bed and a plain border or around 12 inches overhanging. At this point I decided I wanted two more hexagons in the width (from 14 to 16 coloured ones) so there was one row overhanging on each side, then a border of around 12 inches - so there will be good coverage.

I also decided to finish each edge with a row of full black hexagons, rather than the half-rows I had before.

I then made the appropriate additions to the four rows to establish the new scheme.







By testing the 16 row width on the bed as the length, I decided that I would make the length 14 coloured rows, plus the border. I want this to be a working quilt, so I think I now have the dimensions that will work for our bed.

This has enabled me to make more accurate calculations about the number of hexagons I need - and additional black fabric I will need to buy. The numbers of 3/4" hexagons stack up to 2087 black, 128 red centres, 128 purple centres, and 1428 other coloured.

I had already identified and cut nearly enough coloured pieces, so have topped these up to the requirement and organised them in plastic bags for each row. I have bought the black fabric I need, and will gradually cut and add this to the bags, so each bag will allow me to progress one coloured and one black row.

I also figured out that Monica was right in suggesting my 300 papers are not going to be enough. I took on board the suggestion of another friend and managed to find (after quite a bit of searching) a paper punch that will make 3/4 " hexies. I have so far added about 200 papers to my supply and am recycling the 500.

So - all set for production!

Hexagon progress

My hexagon quilt had been on hold while I attended to Christmas projects.Although I have three more Christmas projects to post to the blog, I thought I'd post an update on the quilt first..

I worked out was that there was a better way of working than my original conception of a patterned hexagon 'flower' surrounded by black, which I then joined using either a red or a purple hexagon, into a block. Conceiving it this way makes joining them more complicated than it need be.

If I think of the quilt as rows of patterned motifs joined by a single black hexagon, with in-between rows of black motifs similarly joined, I can join rows rather than blocks - and achieve the same effect more simply.

I dare say any piecer could have told me this had I discussed it with anyone!

I spent a little time evening up the piece I had already joined so it reflected the rows approach. I haven't decided yet what I will do with the edges, so currently have a row of half black hexagons.










I have left the tacking on the back - can't see any reason to remove it at this stage. I have removed the papers as I go - leaving papers in hexagons that will be joined to another but removing any fully surrounded.

I'm feeling organised and enthusiastic about this project.

Patchwork Hexagons At Last!

It all began when visiting a couple of craft shops in Melbourne recently: away from home, looking with fresh eyes, triggering memories. In L'Uccello, a vintage haberdashery store I had read about in a craft magazine, I noticed packs of Moda squares - the tiny ones, just over 2 inches.

Now these are not that hard to come by. In fact, I now notice my local shop, Hetty's Patch, has them. The difference is, I had time, and I SAW them. I remembered that I had wanted to try English paper piecing with the 3/4 inch hexies that Monica wrote about ages ago, and that these could be made using 2" squares of fabric. I have plenty of fabric scraps saved over years, with a view to patchwork, but I don't make the time to cut it and get started. So I bought this packet, thinking it would give me the easy kick-start I needed to try out the method.

I was right.

When I got home, I  reread Monica's post and watched the two embedded videos. I then ordered some three-quarter inch paper hexagons - and got going.

The method of using 2" squares of fabric and the pre-cut paper hexagons is brilliant. Compared to my previous attempt at paper piecing using tissue paper shapes I cut myself, it is a dream. The pre-cut hexies are firm card. As Monica pointed out, they give a great sharp edge, and are reusable.

The tip, from the videos, of a simple tacking stitch in each corner of the fabric square folded over the paper hexagon, was also brilliant. The stitching can stay in place, the card can be removed and, even when the corner  (as in the top right hand corner of this one) has not been pulled accurately to the corner of the card, an inaccuracy can be corrected when joining the hexagons.

I pretty soon decided I wanted to create hexagon "flowers", surround them with black and probably make them into a large quilted bag for my swimming gear. Before I knew it, I was cutting up 2" squares from my stash of scraps from clothes I have made over the last 30 years - and from a larger piece of black cotton.


This is what is emerging. I'm so glad I have inspiring blogging friends and that I am able to remember an idea from more than a year ago!