Hand Piecing – Page 11 – Artquiltmaker Blog

Improving my EPP

I haven’t been happy with the right sides together method of whip stitching my EPP pieces together. I don’t like the stitches showing on the front. No matter how careful I am, I seem to always get a few stitches showing. ERGH!!!

I mentioned recently that I had heard about the Flat back stitch for sewing EPP shapes together. I watched the video thoroughly, eventually, and tried it. I like the technique, although it isn’t without hassle and have modified my stitching accordingly.

One thing the video shows is starting inside a seam. The idea is to slip the needle between the fabric and the paper, catching the knot on the inside. I never thought of that!

I have been using WonderClips to hold my pieces together. It is imperfect at best despite the fabulousness of WonderClips. The video shows using regular transparent tape. Another great idea.

There are a couple of other good things about the flat back stitch. First, you don’t have to bend the paper/card pieces when you insert a piece (Y seam idea). This makes the card last longer. Second, the stitches don’t show at the beginning of the line of stitching, which they can if you are even a tiny smidge not careful. DIY Addict has some info about this after the 2:50 minute mark on her video.

This technique takes me longer, but I like the look and really am not in a rush to get another star attached to this piece.

It is a good day when I learn something new.

Other resources

DIY Addict video: flat back stitch

EPP New Sections

I know the last time I talked about this piece was back in February. I have sort of been working on it, though there have been long stretches where I have not worked on it. I got a little fed up because sewing big sections to the big main piece is really a pain and I didn’t want to do it. It made me think twice about La Passacaglia, but that is a tale for another day.

Finally, I put a new section on and it is looking good. A little boring and staid, but good.

I am going to try to put one or two stars on the main piece instead of larger secondary pieces. It means more handling of the large piece, but perhaps the duration of dealing with the main section will be less.

Improv Again

Michelle-Nicholle's Improv piece before — Michelle-Nicholle’s Improv piece before

Annemarie's Improv Piece before — Annemarie’s Improv Piece before

I got two new-to-me round robins last Friday. I didn’t have enough design wall space, so I took them out and looked at them. Different elements caught my attention – the squares in Annemarie’s and the applique’ on Michelle-Nicholle’s.

My addition to Annemarie's piece - detail — My addition to Annemarie’s piece – detail

I started with Annemarie’s after I finished the Cutting Corners donation top. I decided to add the other corner to the top left. My corner has the same look at the corner on the right side. I wanted the elements to be related, but not to be derivative. I wanted to use more of the Alison Glass fabric, but there wasn’t any left in the packet.

I looked at it after I had finished the squares. They looked too square. I had to make up some space (see the bottom strips where the blueberry fabric is?), so I added some strips and kept adding until my addition was large enough to fill the space. The strips look more improv than the squares. I can’t blame my hand for the cutting as it is much better. Habit, I guess.

Michelle-Nicholle’s was harder, mostly because it had the structure of a very traditional round robin. All the pieces in the round robin are getting quite large and Michelle-Nicholle’s is no exception. It is also, I think, the largest piece on which I have worked. There were also only a few motifs I could use as inspiration, none of which were very exciting to me. More applique’ would have been logical, but I just wasn’t in the mood. It was very difficult to think of an addition. I reached back to my early days of quiltmaking when I learned to do improv curved piecing. I added some of that. It is a simple addition, but effective, I think. I may add something else as my addition does seem like much, nor does it help the next person as a jumping off point.

Michelle-Nicholle's IRR after -detail — Michelle-Nicholle’s IRR after -detail

Michelle-Nicholle's IRR after — Michelle-Nicholle’s IRR after

EPP Progress

I have made a lot of progress on my English Paper Piecing project. I worked on it a bit during my recent trip to the North Coast.

I am now out of papers and basting thread, though I have more to use. I just didn’t have it with me. The papers are a bigger problem as I need to buy more or unbaste some from that big piece and reuse them. I will work on that.

I also tried a different way of stitching the sections together. I used an, supposedly, invisible stitch and I am pretty pleased with the results. The picture with the green star is one of the first tries at this invisible stitch and I can’t see the stitches. I am using Aurifil 50wt in the #2600 color, so I have thinness and a blendy color on my side. It is a bit of a pain to sew the pieces together, because you line them up side by side as they will look when finished. This makes it hard to hold them together while sewing. I can’t use WonderClips to pinch them together. I have resorted to a few stitches at critical points to hold the pieces in place and that seems to be working. I am pleased with the progress.

The back doesn’t look quite as nice. Fortunately, very few people will see the back.

In the photo, you can see my needle (towards the center of the picture by the green rabbit ear). That is how the sections, or stars, get sewn together. For the moment, I have been sticking to this method with big sections only.

I have found that using this method means that I trim more of the excess fabric, frayed threads, etc off the back.

So progress. Next on the list is to lay this on the bed and see how much more I have to make.

More EPP

Half Hexies EPP Section - November 2015 — Half Hexies EPP Section – November 2015

I have been working on the EPP project while watching TV instead of sewing the sleeve on to FOTY 2014.

A week or so ago, I was in desperate need of some dots on white, so I spent quite a bit of time cutting fabrics to make some stars for the alternate rows. I can’t reap the rewards without papers.

Mostly I have been making stars, but I needed to free up some of the EPP papers so I sewed a section together and will sew it to the main piece next. Once I sew the section shown to the main piece, I can pull out some of the papers. yes, I could buy more, but it seems ridiculous to do so until the papers I have fall apart. I could make more papers from the subscription cards in magazines, but I am too lazy.

I don’t like doing this. I wanted to make all the stars and then sew them all together. I know there were some times where I just couldn’t help myself and sewing sections together is sensible, but still.

EPP Details

Half Hexie Stars - Late April 2015 — Half Hexie Stars – Late April 2015

I have made my half hexie star project larger. I like making the stars and, as I have said in the past, they are great for a traveling project. However, I seem to be obsessed with making the ‘top’ piece larger. I don’t know why, but when I sit on the couch to watch TV with DH, I add a star or a row of stars to the larger piece. It wasn’t in my plan to do that, but I can’t seem to help myself. Even the sleeve from the Russian Rubix is languishing, because of this new obsession.

I really need to keep this project going through 2017, so that I have something on which to work when I travel with DH on his rounds to the various parlors. I can’t just zoom through it.

The other night I sewed a row of dot-stars (I decided to make the piece have a stripey effect with stars made from dots on white alternating with the other scrappy stars) together and then added them on to whole piece (see top of picture). Yesterday, I laid the piece on the bed to see how big it needs to be. I estimate that it needs to be 2.5 -3 times as wide as it is now to be a bed quilt with a bit of drape over the sides.

Friday night I pulled out a lot of the center papers, because I was running out, so now there is just a row of papers left around the outside. I got a little over enthusiastic with that process and pulled out half of one on the edge. I didn’t want the stitching to come out, so I sewed the blue batik star to the purple star to keep the purple seam from being lost. That is why you see the blue batik star sticking up, seemingly at random, on mid-bottom right. I didn’t really mean to add another row to the top.

The lavender dot in the lower right hand corner is just clipped to the piece so I remember to place that star in that location. I need to sew it to a white dot star before I sew it to the whole piece. It isn’t hard to inset the stars, but it is less work to sew two together and then add them at once.

What I really wanted to talk about was thread. I have a hand sewing kit I use when I sew on the couch that has random bits of thread and everything I need to do almost any kind of hand sewing. I don’t always have the exact color, but usually I can find one in there that will work for whatever my project is.

At some point I ran out of Aurifil #2600 and never replaced it. I could just walk upstairs, wind a bobbin and voila. Sadly once I have parked myself on the couch there will be very few steps added to my FitBit. As a result I haven’t replaced that thread.

I am using an Oliver Twist thread that came with a pack of those threads when I bought them several years ago. It is quilting thread, I think, so fairly thick. I don’t think it is ideal, but it doesn’t fray like some others, though it is hard to thread.

I am curious to know what thread you use for EPP?

Seeing EPP Progress

I added two stars to my larger piece.

I feel like adding only two stars to the larger piece is major progress. I like the symmetry of the [kind of] rectangle. Somehow this looks like I am making something.

My plan is to make the piece big enough to cover a bed. I will slowly make the stars as I travel with the Grand President (HA! DH) then add them to the piece when I am at home.

I know it seems like I should be able to take this piece with me. It is, however, 1.5′ x ~1 foot and I want to keep it as flat as possible because of the cardboard EPP templates still inside. Making one at a time is better for travel.

I have a bin of stars that I have been making. I pulled out my bin of stars and picked some to add to the piece later. I made the stars and stored them in the bin thinking that I would just make the stars and put them together eventually. I couldn’t wait, thus I started putting the piece together into what you see above.

Some EPP Progress

I finally took a little time to finish the larger piece.

I had sewn two sides of the yellow and red star segment onto the larger piece, but I hadn’t finished sewing the rest of the sides of the two piece segment onto the larger piece.

The folded over bits waiting to be sewn finally started to bug me. I took some time on Friday night to stitch the last remaining sides.

EPP Growing

My English Paper Piecing half hexie stars are growing into a giant cluster.

I forgot to rotate the photo. What I think of as the bottom is the line of stars with the dark green and Philip Jacobs flower print on the diagonal on the left.

I have some diamonds that will make the border straight. I don’t know what color I will make them, but I would like to decide and make a few to get the feel of how the piece will look. There will be no black stars, so, perhaps, black? I hoping for a look like those 1930s quilts which just have a spark of black. I’ll have to try it out and see how it will look.

I recently finished adding a whole big section, or what I thought was a whole big section and it really turned out to be about four blocks. I thought it was a larger section when I was doing it, because of the twisting of the stars that needs to take place to get them together. I think I will add one star at a time from now on.

My biggest problem is the background stars. I need to make more and keep forgetting to cut the bright white dot fabrics until I am sitting and doing it.

EPP Stars Go Together

I have been working on my Half Hexie English Paper Pieced Stars since August of 2012. I really wanted to see if I could actually take out the paper templates and use them again. I sewed four stars together and went from there.

I would have felt a lot better if TFQ were sitting with me supporting me (egging me on). She wasn’t and I needed a stiff upper lip.

I did it. I took out the papers and the piece is fine. I was kind of shocked at how easy it was and how well it worked. It is tempting to take them all out, but I know I can only take out those that are surrounded on all sides by another piece.

I should have been, but I was a little surprised by how well the ‘free’ pieces kept their shape.

I don’t know how many stars I have completed, but I may pull out the box in which I keep them and start sewing them together. I would at least get an idea of how many more I need. I could also start putting a border on, once I decide what fabric to use for a border.

Car Trips Require EPP

I got all of these stars finished over the weekend. I spent several hours in the car on the way to and from Fortuna/Ferndale.

As an aside, if you haven’t visited Ferndale, it has a lovely Victorian main street (I posted some photos a few years ago) with lots of nice shops. Fortuna is more modern, but there are some great shops and a wonderful Mexican restaurant called La Costa where they make their own tortillas.

Both directions are about a 5 hour drive and DH drove on this trip. It rained and I am not a very good passenger. Having my focus on something else is a good thing.

One thing I did differently was I sewed a couple of the stars together to start a line of them. I want to start putting the piece together. I also have to put some of the stars together, so I can start to take the papers out. I may need to buy another pack of papers.

I don’t have the background nailed down, though I am still thinking of dots on white. I am pretty sure I will use dots on white since they worked so well on Scrapitude. I loved the look. I just need to cut some pieces.

EPP Stars Again

EPP Stars - January 2014 — EPP Stars – January 2014

The last time I posted about these stars was September 9, 2013. I can’t believe how time has flown. I have worked on them, but a couple of bindings and the Christmas stockings as well as the Christmas and Birthday thank you notes got in the way.

I’ll need some more of these to work on in the car during an upcoming car trip, so I will need to cut some more fabric. I like the way Scrapitude is coming out and think I will use dots on white background for the alternating rows of this project.

I am surprised at how many of these stars are in the blue range and am wondering if I decided to concentrate on these colors and have forgotten?

Ribbon Star Redux #2

This is the block that would not die.

I made the Ribbon Star back in the midst of the Star Sampler quilt project. You might remember that I went back and forth and resewed, had trouble, unsewed and resewed again. I finally ended up with a block with which I could live and put it in the quilt. I also, however, had a second block laying around which was not up to par.

I finally decided to do something about it. First, I looked at the block a lot. I had it hanging on my design wall for a long time.

As an aside, my design wall is completely crammed. That was part of the reason I wanted to work on this. If I could save it (for a pillow? or the start of a different project?), I could get it off my design wall.

Someone pointed out to me that one piece (blue upper left hand corner immediately next to the background square) is sewed in wrong. Someone else said that it looked like the piece you grab to unroll or unravel the Ribbon Star. I really tried to think that was true, but it bugged me nonetheless.

The other thing that bugged me was the placement of some of the fabrics. I thought I read somewhere that this would look more dimensional, if light and darks were alternated. I messed that up and wanted to fix it.

I unsewed.

First, I unsewed a little bit to see if I could make it work with unsewing as little as possible.

I pretty much had to unsew all of the major seams. One survived. I didn’t unsew the units, except one, which was great.

Then I rearranged. I moved all of the pieces and parts around until I had an arrangement with which I could live.

Press. Resew. Voila!

It isn’t perfect, but it is better and all I can do is learn from this and do better next time. I don’t know what I will do with this block, but it will be a good start to something.

More EPP Stars

English Paper Pieced Stars - August 2013 — English Paper Pieced Stars – August 2013

In between bindings and hemming pants, I made some more English Paper Pieced Stars. I still haven’t decided on a layout, but I am running out of papers, so I will need to do so soon, so I can reuse the papers.

More EPP Stars

Thursday, as you may know, was the Fourth of July in the US. We celebrate our independence by barbequing, watching fireworks, etc. We went over to my BIL’s house for a BBQ. It was last minute and very small. We picked up MIL, a friend from the Natives came and an old friend of BIL’s came. That was it. The Young Man was disappointed that his cousins didn’t attend. Since BIL got sick, he is not up for a large event. He said he misses the larger BBQ, especially seeing friends, they used to host, but it just wasn’t possible.

Since the event was small, I had a bit of space to spread out. I finished one EPP star and started and finished another. I was pleased to be able to do a little sewing even though I was away from the machine. It was nice, because I could participate in the conversation. I also made a bit of a sensation. People were really interested in my project. The Natives friend, Dave, brought his girlfriend, Teri. She asked a lot of questions about the process and what I did with the quilts, etc. I encouraged her to look into a class. I doubt she will do it, but I always try and encourage people to learn to quilt.

This group of stars also makes me wonder if I should continue with my plan to have alternate rows be dots on white or if I should make alternate rows warm and cool colors.

You can see the last stars I worked on in a May post.

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
			1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28	29	30	31