A block with so much potential. Change the colors and it can work for any season. I envisioned a Christmas Cactus when I put mine together.
Check out this weeks podcast for more adventures in fiber and fabric. This week I visited a fiber festival and brought home just a bit of fleece.
What’s it name? This week’s English Paper Piecing block may be traditionally called The Spool, but in my world the spool of thread and the bobbin of wool compete for dominance. Whatever you choose to call it, this block pattern adds a bit of a spin on the standard block pattern.
Plus more inspiration in this week’s podcast.
English Paper Piecing dominates my days, especially since there are so many seasonal inspirations simply begging to become EPP projects. This week I am sharing two blocks for my ongoing EPP quilt project, plus a quilt pattern I’ve named Ghosts & Lanterns.
In addition to these EPP projects, I share more seasonal projects in this week’s podcast. With autumn breezes finally cooling the air, I have returned to my sewing room with excitement. In fact, that is were I am off to now.
Happy Unwinding with Fiber and Fabric💜
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Important Note: This is an untested set of basic schematics for this quilt rather than instructions.
From my earliest days of quilting, I have been drawn to star blocks. Whether created by using half-square triangles or diamonds, they never fail to entice me. However as far as ease of construction goes, they have caused me frustration. Maintaining each and every point on a star is not the easiest of tasks, especially when in a hurry to see the project finished. Switching to a slower process like English Paper Piecing, much like with foundation piecing, offers a way to get precision with less frustration. In the past, I have dabbled with foundation piecing as a way to get my star blocks precise, but while I did enjoy the process, it never clicked for me like EPP has. Maybe my new found love of EPP has a great deal to do with my current need to slow down just a bit.
During periods of life when the future is more unsure than what we have come to expect, or when we feel like we are standing on shaky ground, slow-crafting has the potential to calm our mind. While finished objects and busy hands often motivate the hand-crafting world, many crafts can be done with speed without the loss of accuracy. EPP, like other hand sewing crafts, requires focus, even when the skill is performed by the hands of a master. Every stitch is placed in just the right spot to create strength, yet small enough to seemingly disappear when the block is finished. Over time, rhythmic precision develops, but focus is still required.
Working with an EPP block offers the crafter a choice –
As hand-crafters, we often choose our patterns and projects with these two choices in mind. It is likely the reason why we keep so many projects going at the same time. We have projects that fit for both of the choices above, so we can easily pick one based of the need of the moment.
Right now, my need has me picking a project that keeps me focused on my hands rather than focused things outside my control. In truth, I’m not at all surprised I have gravitated to so many star blocks as I plan out the EPP quilt. Whether wishing on a star, or simply taking in their sparkling beauty, star gazing, much like slow-crafting can quiet the mind during troubled times.
One of the most iconic quilts of the 20th century is the Granma’s Flower Garden. Made from hexagons combined to create the appearance of flower petals, this design has been created with one unit – the hexagon. The concept and design has also appeared in crochet, with the hexagon replacing the more common Granny Square. Whether sewn or crocheted, the look is memorable and inviting.
Putting a spin on the more common block, the Hexagon Pinwheel adds the twist of piecing together the center hexagon before building the floret. I have added one additional twist and placed the floret into a pieced block. As with other similar designs, it would be easy to simply applique the floret onto a solid background, but I have chosen to challenge myself. It would be perfectly acceptable for others to bypass this challenge. There would be nothing wrong with cutting an 11 inch square of fabric, applying the constructed floret, and then trimming the block to 10.5 inches. Sometimes, one twist in a project is more than enough.
The first block in a series of paper pieced blocks I plan to make (and share) over the next few months. I have a rough plan for a sampler quilt drafted in my quilting software*. For the blocks, I plan to use a combination of vintage fabrics I have collected over the years, hand dyed fabrics I created early in my dyeing exploration, and some unbleached muslin I have in abundance. I will decide on sashing fabric once all the blocks are constructed.
Each of my blocks will finish as 10″ blocks (including the cream borders). I am hand sewing each of the blocks, but will likely construct the quilt top by machine once I reach that point of the process. Many of the blocks are variations of traditional blocks. In most cases, the major modification was to set them into the block borders.
While most of these blocks could be constructed using other methods than English Paper Piecing (EPP), the scale of the blocks makes EPP the best choice. I will provide a pdf with fabric recommendations and template sheets. The template sheets have been arranged for ease of printing directly onto cardstock.
I share the Evening Star block in the second half of today’s podcast.
Inspired by an younger generation of quilters and an ever-growing scrap fabric stash, I decided to give English Paper Piecing (EPP) a try. I quickly fell in love with the rhythmic quality of sewing small pieces of fabric together. The secret to my success has been to use thick cardboard rather than paper for my template pieces. Since I am glue basting the fabric to the templates, the thickness is not a problem but instead provides me with something more substantial on which to hold. I will admit, having the ability to laser cut out all my templates is a huge help. While I certainly could have just purchased pre-cut shapes and worked on patterns from those shapes, I decided to give myself the challenge of designing blocks in computer software so that I could share what I was doing with others.
Harvest Berries is the first of the EPP blocks I plan to share over the next year. I chose it to be first because it is built on one of the most beloved EPP shapes – the hexagon. I chose to applique this block onto a solid background rather than to combine it with many others to make a hexagon quilt. While I used 1.5″ (side measurement) hexagons although any size hexagon could work for this pattern. I have provided a pdf with the templates, but precut hexagons can be purchased from many sites.
Harvest Berries was a fun block to make, and it is a great pattern to introduce a beginner to the world of EPP.
After three months of spinning and knitting, I not only have a finished shawl, but I also have a pattern. I love how this worked out and I will be making another just as soon as I spin up another fleece.
Check out my latest video where I show-n-tell this capelette and share some of my unwinding with fiber and fabric.
If you you are on Ravelry, consider sharing photos of your finished capelette in your projects and link to the pattern. I would love to see this knit up with all the individual flair others can bring to it.
https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/chilly-breeze-capelette
Time slips by, often without our notice. Goals made in January tend to be forgotten until we find ourselves contemplating the end of another year. In the crafting world, the chant of Keep Calm and Finish by Christmas may not always be heard, but it is seldom not running through the mind of the crafter. Fortunately, most crafters understand that if it is not finished by Christmas, it will still be finished by the following one.
This year I set a personal goal of making some simple, beginner-friendly patchwork projects available for family and friends. While it was not my first set of patterns to make available, it was the first set that I would highlight in video form and share with the world.
One particular pattern would have to wait until the end of the year since I so very much wanted to make it Christmas themed.
Leaving any bigger project until the end of the year is flirting with danger in this particular crafter’s home. Ideas for holiday projects flood my mind the moment the temperatures begin to chill and the leaves on the trees begin to fall. This year was no different but with great determination, I managed to get this project wrapped up despite the unexpected hurdle of having a minor injury to my right arm (It is hard to hand quilt when your hand is not cooperating).
The journey of bringing this project from conception to fruition has been a joy. Soon this tree skirt will be in the mail, traveling thousands of miles away to its destination, and providing joy to its recipient. With a bit of luck Christmas Logs Under the Tree will arrive just in time.
As the big crafting season begins, I have been thinking about one of the most important lessons life and aging teaches. Be Kind to Yourself – it is such an important thing to do all year long, but as crafters, it is something we often neglect to do as we scramble to make just one more item before the holiday deadline.
In my latest video, I talk a bit about how bad I am with this lesson life keeps teaching me. After showing of few of my latest projects, I change gears (around the 20:57 mark). Even when I am trying to be kind to myself and not over-do it, the unexpected can happen and force me to slow down even more. Learning to find peace and joy when the brain and body war against each other is not always an easy lesson to learn. It is, however, a worthy lesson to learn.
I hope you enjoy my video – pieces or the whole – I have enjoyed sharing it.
The free pdf pattern for the placemat I share in the video is here for your enjoyment if you wish to download it.
Pithy Ponderings 