Tag: EPP

Plodding On

eli # # # #

Well, I’ve been plodding on with my EPP for the Doll Quilt Swap and I love it more and more. I’ve appliquéd the flower onto the linen background and I think it really makes the colours pop. I had thought about adding a border but have decided not to as I really love the simplicity of it now. It’s going to be so hard to send it off at the end of the month.

EPP Flower

The colours are a lot brighter than those I usually have in my house but, oh my word, I love them.

 

PS I’ve already started another one…

Edited to add: The pattern can be found here.

Categories: Doll Quilt Swap 133 Comments

Bright Piecing

eli # # # #

I have been busy cutting out shapes and choosing fabrics for the Doll Quilt Swap 13 which I’m part of. After seeing all the talent on flickr I went back to the drawing board. The sketches I had made didn’t really sing to me so I tried again and again to come up with something original that would make an impact. I failed. In the end I went on the internet and found this design:

EPP Flower for DQS13

It really spoke to me and after printing it out I went to the post office to get it enlarged to A3. They couldn’t do it quite as large as I wanted it so I went home and drew the design on some paper. This might be an easy job for most people but not for me. I drew, discarded and used many a swear word before I finally finished a drawing in the right size. I’m incredibly proud of this achievement and have decided that I’m going to make at least one other mini for myself, probably in slightly more subdued colours.

EPP Progress

Anyway, here’s how far I’ve come. I’ve used some fabrics that I bought on Instagram before Christmas and some Kona solids, Lakehouse Dry Goods black labels and linen from Simply Solids. My partner likes bright colours, text prints and linen and I’ve tried to accommodate all of those. The flower / star is going to be appliquéd onto a linen background. What do you think?

PS I’m having some real problems with my photos at the moment. They look in focus with nice bright colours in iPhoto but as soon as I upload them to the blog they become fuzzy and bland. Master won’t be home till the weekend but I hope he will be able to help me then. I do apologise for the bad quality of my pictures.

Edited to add: Although I searched for the origin of this picture at the time I couldn’t find who had designed it and where I could find the templates (hence the drawing and swearing). I have since found and purchased the pattern on Craftsy. If you would like to make this beautiful design you can buy it here.

Categories: Doll Quilt Swap 13, English Paper Piecing2 Comments

Lets Finish This

eli # # # # #

I have numerous WIPs (works in progress) I would like to finish before I start on something new. So what better way to get me to actually deal with them than the Finish-A-Long organised by Leanne from “She Can Quilt“? Most of them were on my list of UFOs and WIPs last year and although I finished a couple the others are still there in bits and pieces.

So what am I going to put in this first Quarter’s Finish-A-Long?

she can quilt

 

1. My Flying Geese Cushion. This was started at the Fat Quarterly Retreat 2012. I finished one quarter of it but the rest is still in pieces. I enjoyed the paper piecing although I at times felt like my head was going to explode from all the concentrating. I love the colours, the geese are all from Kate Spain’s line Good Fortune, the green is a solid I got from a friend.

Double Flying Geese

2. Little Miss Bossy-Boots’ Log Cabin Quilt. She loves the flannel quilt I gave her for Christmas and it’s in use every day but she really wants a pink one and the log cabins have quite a bit of pink in them. They are quite fun to make although I do feel at times that they were a bit too busy. I might combine them with some big solid squares to calm the whole quilt down.

Pink Log Cabins

3. The Heart Hexagon Cushion. This was started as a fundraiser for our local cancer treatment centre and I feel really bad that I haven’t finished it. They don’t know I’m making it so it’s not like I have any pressure from them but I still would like to get it done so that I can start selling raffle tickets. Due to my guilty conscience I think I might make something else in addition but that won’t be on this list as I haven’t started it yet!

Heart Hexagon

You might have noticed that I started quilting around the heart. Sadly, I didn’t like it and unpicked it again. I’m still wondering how to quilt it which is a real shame as I know that I could finish this cushion very quickly if only I got a move on.

4. A Sewing Kit for my sister. I can’t show you any pictures as she reads this blog and I want it to be a surprise. It’s been sitting on my sewing table for a while now. I’ve cut out the pieces but just need some uninterrupted sewing time to finish it. Now that school has started again I’m hoping to get exactly that.

5. Turn this trial block into something. Another cushion? How many cushions do I need? Any suggestions? Or even any takers?

Spin me round

There we go. That’s quite a lot to get on with and I’m not sure if I can do it but I’ll try my hardest to get all of the above projects finished before the end of Q1.

Categories: Finish-A-Long5 Comments

Doll Quilt Swap

eli # # #

I hope you had a wonderful and relaxing Christmas. We had a very quiet Christmas Day which was just what I needed after recovering from the flu. It’s obvious though that I’m not quite back to normal as I didn’t take a single picture!

In other news, I believe I might have mentioned before that I signed up for another swap, namely the Doll Quilt Swap 13. I tried to get into this swap earlier and wasn’t picked; this time, however, I was. I’ve got my partner and she’s basically given me free reins. Not as easy as you might think. When your partner gives you lots of pointers it’s easier to pick colours and shapes. Having checked her favourites on flickr and mulled over it a bit I’ve decided to go for some English Paper Piecing.

I’ve come up with two patterns I like but simply can’t decide. Which one do you prefer?

Number one.

EPP Spider's WebOr Number two?

I’ve pulled some texty fabrics, some small florals and bright solids for this. I’m really looking forward to starting on it, if only I knew which version to pick.

 

 

Categories: Doll Quilt Swap 13, Quilts1 Comment

Progress Report

eli # # # # #

I don’t watch much tv but with the start of Strictly Come Dancing and I’m Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here I do sit down and watch a bit every night. Luckily I have my Spring Carnival, as well as Charlie and Aron, to keep me company.

You can’t see Charlie in the picture but he’s there, half hidden by my sewing. This is how far I got a couple of days ago.

It’s so much fun for me to look at the different rings with all their different coloured scraps. Lots of memories are already attached to this quilt and I’m sure there will be even more by the time it’s finished.

 

Categories: English Paper Piecing2 Comments

Key Fob

eli # # # #

Hi there, I know I said I was going to show you more of the scarf today but have decided to wait until tomorrow. Psst! The scarf is a gift and I’m hoping to give it to the recipient tomorrow. I don’t think she reads my blog but just in case….

Instead I’m going to show you the key fob I made for the Mouthy Stitches swap.

The swap mamas said from the start that we were ‘only’ supposed to make the tote and a key fob for the swap. No additional gifts should be added as they wanted to make sure that there was no pressure to buy chocolates and sweets or fabrics.

Anyway, the key fob was a lot of fun to make. I decided on English paper pieced hexagons because my partner had a hexagon cushion in her mosaic and I enjoy making them. I kept with the rainbow theme because I thought it would look nice with the tote. For the back I used the purple polka dot fabric I used for the lining.

I’ve sent everything off this morning so my little parcel is on it’s way to…. Sorry, I can’t tell as I don’t want to spoil the surprise. I’ll tell you once my partner receives it.

Categories: Blogtoberfest, English Paper Piecing, Mouthy StitchesLeave a comment

Generosity

eli # # # #

Look what I received in the post yesterday:

Scraps for my Spring Carnival quilt sent by the lovely, wonderful and very talented Helen from runquiltknitwrite. I tentatively asked for a scrap swap in my last post and Helen offered to send me some straightaway. As I had told her I didn’t have many yellow and green scraps she sent me these.

I love them, they are going to look great in my Spring Carnival. Thank you so much, Helen!

Categories: English Paper Piecing2 Comments

Spring Carnival

eli # # # # #

Do you remember the project I started before I tackled any of my UFOs?

My scrappy Spring Carnival quilt is progressing nicely. I took it with me to Denmark and worked on it while chatting, watching the kids play, in the evening. Basically whenever I had a little time.

I have now started sewing the ‘wheels’ together and I’m so happy with the way they look so far. I still have a bit to go before it’s quilt size but my aim is to finish it for next summer.

14 ‘wheels’ down about 85 to go.

 

BTW, loved the Aurifil thread for hand sewing around the leaves on my mini quilt. Will write a bit more about my experience with Aurifil when I show you the finished quilt but it definitely gets a thumbs up from me.

Categories: English Paper Piecing, Uncategorized1 Comment

Forgive me…

eli # # # # #

…Father, for I have sinned.

Yep, I started a new project before finishing any of my UFOs. The beautiful weather we had last week (wow, a whole week of summer!) meant that I was stuck in the garden, lounging under the gazebo while watching Little Miss Bossy-Boots playing in her paddling pool. I know it’s a hard life.

My hands were itching to do something so I started cutting out paper templates for my next English Paper Piecing (EPP) project using Katy’s Spring Carnival Templates. Once I finished cutting out millions of templates I was, of course, tempted to start covering them in fabric and sewing them together. This is how far I got before the weather changed:

Iffy picture again, sorry. This weather is driving me crazy.

I’ve decided to add more colours and have cut out some yellow, purple and green triangles and squares but I just don’t have enough different fabrics. Would anyone like to swap some scraps?

Categories: English Paper Piecing3 Comments

Growing Tulips

eli # # #

After finishing my Tumbling Blocks cushion I decided I wanted another English Paper Piecing project to take with me when we go on holiday to Ireland next month. I know what I’m going to make but I have to order some fabric before I can start cutting. It’s going to be very colourful and involve some octagons. Once my delivery arrives I’ll show you a sneak peak.

When thinking about which shape to choose next I started wondering about curves. Was it possible to do curves? Then I remembered that I had seen an apple core pillow in the last issue of Fat Quarterly. However, being me I didn’t go for apple cores but a tulip. Tulips are one of my favourite flowers and I had them in my wedding bouquet. I knew it would be a challenge but I had a great time looking for some inspiration and fell in love with a stained glass window (silly me didn’t write down the link but if I find it again I will – it’s gorgeous). Out came the sketch pad, pencil and eraser and off I went. I had to make sure the curves weren’t too round and the corners too narrow. A couple of sketches ended up in the bin but I got there in the end.

Now that I look at it all finished I’m not sure it really looks like a tulip. What do you think? I had a few problems on the way and the biggest one was the Essex linen I chose for the background. It’s a bit thicker than the quilting cotton which meant that the corners didn’t always meet and I had to jiggle things about a bit. Next time I will use the same fabric for the piecing and maybe use some linen to sash the piece.

It’s still pretty and I’m going to turn it into a zippered pouch for my future EPP projects. First, however I have to finish an apron for a little girl. I can’t show it to you yet, as I’m not sure whether her mother reads this blog or not.

Categories: English Paper Piecing3 Comments