The Quickstep Quilt

So, I'm planning my next project already ... in my head and on here; I can't work on more than one english paper piecing project at once or I'd never finish anything.

Some years ago I made my Foxtrot Quilt - these are some of the blocks:

I loved that each component was stand-alone and then appliqued onto linen, as I really felt that progress moving along, as opposed to the TulaNova Clashanova Quilt which seems to build much more slowly, even though it's broken down into mini units.

I cut all my own templates and stitch basted for the original (never again) so this time I've decided to give Eppiflex templates a go ... It's quite the initial outlay, but as they are made of mylar, you can use a basting glue pen and are re-usable a bazillion times, I think it's a pretty good investment. I bought mine from Sew Hot Fabrics.

I started with the designer pack which has about 240 templates (it says 200 but there were more).

As you can see they are transparent (really annoying if you drop one) which makes them fantastic for focus cutting.  I also bought a 3/8" ruler to add seam allowances (from Lovely Jubbly Fabrics) cos, you know, gadgets.

I've since added 1 1/2" squares and crowns to the mix.

This is my current moody broody board (it's ever changing)

I still have a ton of gingham fabric in my stash and I'm enjoying this paper piecing lark, as it is a great wind-down from work, so I want to have another go. 

Please welcome to the floor, the Quickstep Quilt

 slooooooow-quick-quick, slooooooow-quick-quick

The Foxtrot Quilt

This year’s summer’s quilt project was, as per uje, English Paper Piecing.  

 
I love EPP. It is the salve to my soul. I love the non-frantic repetitive nerdy geometric vibe.  I also love that my seam ripper can take a holiday too … I don't love that up until now I have never got to the finishing line with any summer EPP project!

I’ll get a better picture of the quilt top when it isn’t so bloomin daydark or pouring with rain, but you get the idea!

Deciding on something larger than a cushion, yet realistically finishable before the next millenium, this year I went with applique blocks. It made the whole process so much more satisfying and undaunting for me. 

This project has been through many incarnations … it started as a random gingham project, mutated into Katy@ ImAGingerMonkey’s Spring Carnival, swerved sharp left at Lynne@ Lily'sQuilts Georgetown Carnival ...

...  But then, after a freak eureka snack moment involving a piece of watermelon and a Poole pottery plate, it finally found its own rhythm … 


SLOW …

SLOW …


 QUICK ...





QUICK ... 

so far this has been an utterly delicious process ...… and now all that remains is basting, cosy evening hand-quilting and binding …


SLOW...



The Watermelon Foxtrot will be backed with the same plain grey linen to let the (possilby nerdy) hand quilting do the talking. 

Isn’t that just the perfect binding fabric? It’s Calypso - Leaf - by Maude Asbury from my LQS - Brighton Sewing Centre


Lap Quilt: roughly 55" square
Blocks: 14" unfinished
Sashing: 4" unfinished  
EPP: centre hexies, triangles & squares 1.5" -  small hexies: 1" - (side length)
Binding:Calypso Leaf in Grey - Maude Asbury
Kona & Klona solids, Heavy charcoal grey Irish linen, Cotton & Polycotton gingham, FussyCut scraps.


Yay!

Go Go Gadget Gorgeous Georgetown Carnival …

Yay!  I’ve made my first Lynne@Lily'sQuilts fab new EPP block - the Georgetown Carnival  … I’d been playing with Katy I’mAGingerMonkey’s Spring Carnival so I already had tons of papers cut … To see if I liked it, I decided not to adapt any of my existing blocks but to start from scratch … (the only proviso being gingham had to be included)



So, I raided my stash for deliciously luscious solids including Kona Aqua (the first time I’ve ever used it! can you believe it?!) and my last scrap of a Kaffe shot cotton in green/pink. 

The background fabric is a wonderful heavy silky grey linen from MLM (MyLinenMan)





I’ve been using my Go! Baby 2.5” strip die to cut my squares … it’s a genius way of accurately cutting stacks at a time. I can cram about 8 layers into this baby.

… ssshhh don’t tell anyone at Accuquilt, but I cut my hexagon papers with it too! I think the trick to tools like the Go! Baby is to get them to work for you, rather than have them sit gathering dust. 




I use the Go cutting mat as a ruler to precut my strips. 
I really don’t mind losing the little side strips of fabric you get as wastage.  I use em for tying tomato plants or parcels.


If I’ve got something accurate to work with at the start of the process I’m less likely to waste time trimming and faffing later …

TOP TIP Roll a bit of scrap wadding into a ball and rub to get all the threads out of the blade part of the cutter and the grooves in the cutting mat. Works a treat.

token cat snuggling fabric pic

As I’m going to be appliqueing the blocks onto linen, I thought it might be fun to try adding some hexies to the original ferris wheel … might cut them into halves.

I think the sharp triangles of negative space are cool, but not sure if I like it that much … I need to see it with fabric …

I’m away for a few days this week, so it’s nice to have an on-the-go project to pack!  And such bright cheery colours too … yumtastic!  Thanks for the inspiration Lynne …

I’ll be posting a couple of new Master Your GIMP tutes at the end of next week – including how to create a blog header from scratch… In the meantime, it’s off with the puter and on with the bikini thimble  … may your week be sunny ...

Doodling with Gingham and EPP *sigh

Hello chaps … it’s been a month since I pretty much did anything other than go to work or go up to hospital to have unspeakable things done …





… things that kinky peeps would pay good money for. Upshot is I’ve been doing a lot of sleeping or reading or twigging around on the internet with my phone, but I haven’t felt much like blogging or taking photos, or sewing. 





I have quite a lot more of the kinky stuff planned throughout the summer, so I prepared some EPP in advance for waiting room/lounging malarkey, using ImAGingerMonkey’s fab paper template files for Spring Carnival. I used scissors for everything, no rotary cutting just long bladed scissors from the pound shop for fabric and paper. They’re my special EPP scissors.  I don’t cut other fabric or paper with them, and they’re easy enough to sharpen.  I like when all stages of the process are pretty much portable.


I’ve had a stash of gingham for about 10 years that I just couldn’t bring myself to cut into, but I was really inspired by all the Gingham Love going on over at Project Gingham hosted by Krista @KristaStitched Elizabeth @OccasionalPiece and Cindy@LiveAColorfulLife and I just dived in …



Some of these ginghams are polycotton and some are cotton but they sew together perfectly and I love the lightness in weight compared to the weightier solids and timeless treasure sketch crosshatches somewhere in the middle. I want my EPP to have a lot of texture, so I’m going to embroider some of the gingham hexies too.   Pezzy Print may or may not make an appearance …

I found a sewing glue stick in the back of a drawer on my travels, so I’ve glue basted most of the triangles and squares – I’m a convert, especially for those pesky triangles, you can get really stable pointy points when you glue baste.  Strangely I still love to hand baste hexagons, they are so calming …

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Oooh, and here’s a sneak peek at what arrived today from Lynne@LilysQuilts for the @FatQuarterly Winterkist Challenge!  WooHoo! True colours are warmer and softer – it really is gorgeous in the hand.  Another hit from Monica@HappyZombie …

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These are instagram pics. I’m dipping a toe into microblogging over there for a while (I’m @pingsandneedles, same as on twitter.)

It makes sense while I’m not spending so much time on the computer. I can use my fabandroidphone to do the whole kaboodle - but it can be a bit temperamental, introducing all these bloomin social networks to each other!

So, if it’s quiet over here, chances are I may be sharing something over there. Or trying to. It took about 20 mins to upload a snap today, negating the insta part of the equation somewhat!

 
I’m not taking a break from the blog as much as having a bit of a disco nap … summer hols are coming and that will mean time and energy for sewing!

In the meantime, some things like this post, evidently, can’t be micro-anythinged - They will be rambled on about here as per uje.

Finishalong 2nd quarter is coming up … eek! (might be a short post, that one).