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!

Through the Hexagonal Window …

No nerdy tutorial today as I’ve had a day of cutting fabric and playing with hexagons, squares and triangles!

I started piecing with gingham for Katy@ ImAGingerMonkey’s Spring Carnival a while ago and I’d decided that I was going to applique them onto individual blocks of some beautiful heavy dark grey linen, to allow me to treat it more like a sampler quilt.

I’d like to do a wholecloth applique, but I’ve read so many posts in the past from people saying in retrospect that they wish they’d pieced in blocks, that I’m as yet undecided.










I thought I’d try using the negative space of the grey a little more …






Then Lynne@Lily'sQuilts just posted about one of her annual summer epp projects – a kind of mutant spring carnival block – The Georgetown Carnival …




So, I just had a little jigsaw play with what I had already basted … I think it’s a wondrous good idea … and with some careful fabric planning could be just delicious!  Yay! I’m thinking a mahusive, many-rowed centre piece could look pretty funky too ...




What is it about the summer that makes us all rush to the EPP?  What have you got planned?

3rd Quarter Finish-Along - ta-da/to-do

Hello if you’re playing along over at Rhonda’s for the 3rd Quarter Finish-Along.  Hello if you’re not.  That’s everyone covered. 

July?  Really?  Summer? Really? 

Due to circs beyond, I missed the deadline for what I managed to finish last quarter, but aside from my Quilt of Good Intentions for Siblings Together, which has been finished and sent off to its new home, there was zilcho action, so this is a ta-da/to-do post …

Frankly, we could save us a heap of time if we just went to my 2nd quarter post - you’ll see the same guiltily unfinished projects.  Sometimes I feel like my Finish-Along journey is akin to visiting a home for unwanted abandoned pets - you love them all but can’t commit to only one so end up leaving empty handed.

Obese Swoon is far too big for my pathetically weedy machine and my sanity, so I’m going to wait until (a) I get a new machine OR b) I have saved enough to have it long-arm quilted.


 So, she has a bye until next quarter.


1.  This one, however is still shivering like a whippet in the cage of shame and is my first entry into the next quarter:



The Not The Wedding Quilt was finally deconstructed back to triangles about half way through last quarter.  It has remained thus for the remaining half of the quarter, so it’s a must do for the summer.


Unfortunately, I am still not even started on piecing the Wedding Quilt Mark II that this is supposed to be replaced by – Hey, Rhonda? Wanna rename this the Start-Along? …



2.  Next up is my FQ Winterkist Designer Challenge, which I need to finish by the end of August.

I’m going to rag quilt a Crimbo Bath Mat …

These are the fabrics Lynne@LilysQuilts sent me … Squeee! I love Monica@HappyZombie’s eye for detail in her prints.  The colours are lovely – not too highly saturated - the red is a lovely Heinz Tomato Soup red …

Hols are beckoning (from next Monday YAY!)  and I’m hoping that a ridiculous amount of time will be filled with lovely languid EPP-ing –

I’m doing a scrappy gingham-centric version of Katy@ ImAGingerMonkey’s Spring Carnival and not putting myself under any finishing pressure for that  …

Peace out.

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).