It’s been eight months since I posted the first of thirty blocks designed for an English Paper Piecing sampler quilt. Today I share the final four blocks in the set. I will begin assembling them into a quilt top, possibly resembling this rendering, in the next few weeks. Then the hand quilting will begin.
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A classic block can shine in both vintage and modern fabrics. The Octagon Star is a great example of a classic eight pointed star set into a square for ease of piecing.
Remove the corners, and like the hexagon, the octagon opens up a world of possibilities.
Or keep it simple by setting the blocks in either a standard layout or on-point.
Every so often a crafter will undertake a project that makes them ask, “What was I thinking?” In this week’s video, I share three of these projects – one of which is my English Paper Piecing block.
This is a block worth making, but it is also one that required a determination to get it to work rather than an expectation of perfection. I’m pretty sure that I was doomed from the moment the pieces were cut. This block required clear labels from start to finish – a step I neglected to do. I’m pretty sure a piece or two was flipped or mislabeled. However, despite being doomed from the beginning, I made it work. True, there was some tweaking and fudging during the construction, but the end result will still work for my project. The final quilt’s sashing should help hide any visible imperfections.
With all that being said, I still love the look of this star block and am glad I pressed on with it despite the foreboding I felt when I realized how finicky its construction would be. For more details on where I went wrong and how I made it work, I recommend watching this week’s vlog. It contains three “What was I thinking” projects and a good deal of me laughing at how much these projects spice up my life.
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Every year crafters work endless hours making the special items they hope will bring joy to others. On their own, they may not seem like such investments in time, but when added together into a collection, the magnitude of effort is revealed.
This year, I have decided to designate a decorated box for each of my children as a place to collect the items I am making with them in mind. It not only works as a way to stay organized, but it has the added advantage of becoming a treasure chest of sorts. Each item added, while on its own might seem simple or small, will become part of a collection representing the love I have for the recipient, and a reflection of the joy I experienced in the making of gifts.
There will be an added gift in the treasure box – a gift that I will receive. If fatigue or doubt threaten to dampen my seasonal joy, I can simply open the boxes one by one and see the result of my efforts. It will be a reminder that my fatigue is the price I have chosen to pay in order to make gifts, gifts crafted from love, for my children.
I discuss this treasure box idea in this week’s video. Plus I will share how I have used patchwork and printables to create ornaments for my Christmas tree. You will find below three downloadable files with patterns/templates for a few of the projects I share this week. I hope they bring you as much joy as they did me.
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.
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.
Pithy Ponderings 