Remember I talked the other day about changing the way I basted EPP pieces with bunny ears? Well, I used some of those pieces and came up with some interesting results.
EPP basting update results
Some of the pieces don’t meet. Is this problematic? I don’t know yet, but it isn’t ideal.
I tried to stitch the edges of the pentagons together as tightly as I could to minimize the hole.
Basting Update – back
The back shows must the same. I did the pieces (shown in the photo on the right) first and hoped that when I added the second pentagon that they would end up together. No such luck.
We’ll have to see what the effect is later. For now, I think I will try to manage the bunny ears.
I finished the first rosette for month 7 and am pleased with how it came out. The ombre fabric looks good. I’ll be interested to see how it looks in the entire piece.
Now I am frantically working on the second rosette.
The notice came that Month 8 will shortly be in the mail so I need to speed along.
You’d think that basting would be basting. As I mentioned the other day, there are a couple of different kinds of basting. The other day I found that I can improve upon my glue basting.
I have been trying to manage my bunny ears. Until now I have basted so the diamond bunny ears are folded in the same direction. For triangles, I make sure I fold them in all different directions, so all of the bunny ears don’t end up in one location when sewing.
Basting: folding the bunny ears in
Recently, I saw a picture that someone posted of their glue basting and realized I could fold the bunny ears in.
Don’t ask me why I didn’t think of this before. I just didn’t.
I wasn’t quite sure how this would work out and I didn’t realize I could do it until I had only two diamonds and one triangle to fill in.
Basting: bunny ears under control
The overall technique works. There are no bunny ears to manage. (photo right: shows the piece half basted).
The only potential issue I see is that the area where the bunny ears would be are a lot thicker than the other areas. There are also several layers of glue. The triangle points are particularly thick.
We’ll see if that is an issue and I’ll report back.
I finished the first M7 rosette or so I thought. I wanted to weave the outer pentagons and thought I would wait until Month 8 came to see what Pink Door did about the outer ring.
The outer pentagons use an ombre fabric and Pink Door has leveraged the ombre qualities for those pentagons.
I may want to keep the gradation smooth rather than including the weaving motif I have seen. Stay tuned.
I like cutting projects out at Sew Day and really struggled with whether I wanted to cut out a new bag or if I wanted to work on La Pass’ basting.
La Pass M7 basted
I ended up cutting and basting the rest of my La Pass M7 pieces during Sew Day. I had cut enough during a couple of work meetings on Monday to sew a bit in the evenings, but I really needed to finish the rest. Since I didn’t have any more of those types of meetings later in the week, I decided to do it at Sew Day.
I am glad I did. I am getting the first of the month 7 rosettes done, which is good.
As an aside, I put my A Place for Everything bag to use, as intended, and it was admired by a few people, which made me feel really good.
I did notice that the papers feel significantly flimsier than the La Pass pieces. Pink Door cuts their own papers. They must use better paper? I wonder if I would notice if I glue basted this project? I might try it.
Regardless, I am happy that I made a little progress.
Month 7 of my La Passacaglia finally arrived. It seemed like it took forever. After months of being behind, I caught up with month 6 and month 3, which meant that I was completely caught up. During my La Pass break, I also finished two bindings and wrote a bunch of cards. I really missed the stitching of La Pass while I was waiting. What a change from a few months ago when I was feeling like it was overwhelming me!
La Pass M7 BOM bundle
I unpacked the bundle, washed the fabric and started in on basting. Bleah on basting!, but it is part of the process and I have to do it to get to the stitching.
Pink Door has done a masterful job using the ombre in this month. I am really glad I am doing the BOM.
I am one third of the way finished with La Passacaglia! Can you believe it? I can’t. I am amazed that the time has flown by. Towards the end of 2022 I should be finished with the piecing.
I may sew some of the rosettes together where it makes sense, but we’ll see. I have about a week to get some bindings done before Month 7 is shipped.
I thought I was crazy when I committed to this project, but I don’t feel crazy now. I am really happy that I have the group to rely on and also my guild-mate Lindsay. This project is totally doable with these tools.
I can understand why people move on to another Willyne Hammerstein EPP** after they finish La Pass. The Half Hexie EPP I started some time ago seems super boring now.
**I use affiliate links and may be paid for your purchase of an item when you click on an item link in my post. There is no additional cost to you for clicking or purchasing items I recommend. I appreciate your clicks and purchases as it helps support this blog.
After finishing Month 6, I went back to month 3 and finished the last bits over the weekend. I am thrilled to be completely caught up.I didn’t have that much left to sew on Month 3, but in total there was a lot to complete and it seemed to take a long time. Those thin triangles are everywhere!
I do feel slightly bereft at not having anything to work on for La Pass. I gave myself a little shake, however and started working on Gelato’s binding, which has been waiting for months.
I finished the rosettes for Month 6!!! I can’t tell you how excited I am to report that completion. It really makes a difference sewing every evening for an hour or so.
I also notice that I am more in tune with the project. I am more aware of strategies to line things up and I don’t feel stressed about stitching fast, so I am making fewer errors.
Of course, the giant puzzle will come back at some point, but it won’t be before April, so I have more time.
Month 6 – center of one rosette
First, I finished the center of one rosette and I was thrilled.
The colors aren’t really my style, but I was too exhausted to make any changes.
I do kind of like the fussy cut parrots. I know I have been saying that I am not using many of the animals, but I like the colorful quality of these parrots, so I used them. They don’t scream “this is a Tula quilt” to me. I may be deluding myself.
Lindsay pointed out that she didn’t like the alternating fabrics (pentagons). I realized it is not a favorite either. My go-to response is that in the grand scheme of the whole quilt, it won’t be that noticeable. Also, as I have said before, I bought the fabric option and I need to use it.
Now I am back to finishing up Month 3. I might be able to finish it tonight.
We are now 1/3 of the way finished with this project. Can you believe it? Time has flown by.
My idea was to finish months as they come, then go back to M3 to finish those rosettes. I am happy to say I am making progress. Not finished, but making progress.
I am working on the last rosette. Somehow I forgot that I had waited to baste fabric for some of M3 pieces until I was downstairs piecing away and started to run into the lack of pieces problem. I know I waited because I wasn’t sure when I would get to M3 and didn’t want the glue to fail.
I don’t want to use the hat fabric that came with the BOM. I need to find some fabric and baste those 60 degree diamonds before I can make much more progress.
La Pass triangle fabric
I am thinking of using the Carrie Bloomston fabric with the pink triangles again. It will create some continuity with other pieces and is far enough away from the M5 piece where I used it to not look bad. Even though most of the fabrics for these rosettes are in the lavender range, I think it could work. I could also use the zebras I cut and didn’t use, or more Dripping Roses. I think I need to look through my fabrics and decide. I bought a Marti Michell Magic Mirror**, as mentioned yesterday, that I will try.
**I use affiliate links and may be paid for your purchase of an item when you click on an item link in my post. There is no additional cost to you for clicking or purchasing items I recommend. I appreciate your clicks and purchases as it helps support this blog.
As mentioned, I have been working steadily after dinner on La Pass. As a result I am making progress.
This rosette is half of the work I need to do for month five. It is the smaller of the two rosettes.
I like the way this one turned out. The center is outstanding.There is an unexpected interaction between the very center and the black & white stripes. I really like it.
Where the pink triangles are placed should have been orange. The pink goes well with the pink triangles in the center. Oh well, design choice!
Part of M3 included Tula’s Skunk fabric. As cute as those skunks are, I am determined not to have animal faces looking at me from La Pass. Still, I want to use the fabric that comes with the Block of the Month since I am paying for it.
One person used the tails, which looked fantastic. I didn’t think of that before I cut my pieces. I decided to use all of the flowers and arrange them in kind of a rainbow. The colors are subtle., so it doesn’t scream rainbow.
I still have some other pieces to sew on to this rosette, but will finish M5 first.
As you saw from the other post, I was able to get this rosette together, but I did really struggle. I couldn’t get the points of the various sections to line up. I am not sure what the problem was.
Yes, I know if someone can’t see it from a galloping horse, I shouldn’t worry about it and, ultimately, I accepted my fate and just did the best I could.
The whole point of EPP, however, is that it is possible to line up complicated designs because all the fabric is stabilized and there is no bias stretch to worry about.
Sections of M5 Yellow/Grey Rosette
The papers are die cut. I am using quilt shop quality fabric and I wash and press all of the fabric. Still, when I put the first section of the yellow and grey rosette together, the points were off.
I wasn’t as worried about the center point (yellow meets stripes) as I was about the edges (see orange and blue arrows). If there are gaps there, there will be a gap between yellow pentagons.
Sections of M5 Yellow/Grey Rosette round 2
In order to try to get the pieces in better alignment, I unpicked what I had sewn and tried again.
I was able to re-center them a little bit so the future gap on the side would be more evenly distributed, but I wasn’t able to get them lined up as perfectly as I would have liked.
Still, I think the Rosette looks good and adding other pieces doesn’t seem to be a problem.
