Adventures in Paper Piecing, Studio, tierneycreates

Adventures in English Paper Piecing (Part I)

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Check out Sassy the Highly Opinionated Miniature Schnauzer’s latest musings in her Schnauzer Snips page.

In my 09/23/16 post The Library Stack (and a little EPP) I mentioned that I was learning English Paper Piecing (EPP) using the book All Points Patchwork by Diane Gilleland.

So here is an update:

After purchasing a hexagon paper punch, I punched our a huge stack of hexagons using old cardstock from my handmade card making days.

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This past Spring, Terry the Quilting Husband and I went to the Central Oregon Quilt Shop Hop. During the Shop Hop we each received a “fat 1/8th quarter” of coordinated fabric. I stuck this fabric away for a future project and it seems perfect for my EPP experimentation!

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I put together a plastic tote for my EPP supplies:

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And here is my beginning stack of EPP hexagons:

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So why EPP?

Well I had become addicted to playing games on my iPad in the evening as we watch evening TV shows (like NCIS on Tuesdays).

Playing these games were actually making me kind of frustrated and anxious as I moved into higher and higher levels. I had lost the sense of initial enjoyment that I experience when I first played. It became as if I had to keep playing and get to higher and higher levels  (but why, for what purpose?).

Although the games were a complete meaningless waste of time and no longer fun, I did not seem to be able to stop. I even tried deleting them from my iPad but in a moment of weakness the following evening, I would reinstall the app for evening TV watching.

I do not seem to be able to just sit and watch TV, I have to be doing something else. It was clear that I needed a productive alternative to playing these games and EPP seemed like the perfect solution.

So now I can do something productive with my hands in the evening while watching TV instead of playing iPad game apps! I am starting to find EPP kind of addicting – I like to keep cranking out EPP completed hexagons and it is becoming a game of how many hexagons I can rack up in an evening! (Oh no soon I will be strung out on hexagons!)

Next time I update you on my Adventures in EPP, hopefully I will have enough hexagons to start planning a small piece. Perhaps I will have even started assembling the hexagons into a piece!

POSTSCRIPT

If you are not familiar with English Paper Piecing (EPP), the online craft class site Craftsy has a nice little overview called Exploring English Paper Piecing.

Oh (random info) I recent reorganized my Gallery page into Art Quilts, Quilts, and Small Projects. I have a lot of old photos on this page and there are many old quilts I do not have digital photos on. Going forward I hope to only have high quality images of my work (but then I am taking the photos, so I am not promising – ha!)

Published by tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Quilter, crafter, obsessive tea drinker and lover of all furry creatures (especially dogs and cats) - join me on my tierneycreates blog as I share stories from "A Crafter's Life".

18 thoughts on “Adventures in English Paper Piecing (Part I)”

  1. EPP seems a great TV watching occupation. (I had a similar addiction to candy crush–one more till I win; I win; one more to see if I can do it again; etc.) So far I have stayed away from EPP, fearing its addicting nature. 🙂

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    1. Oh yes Candy Crush. Then it was Words with Friends. Then it was Toy Blast. Then Genies and Gems. As they are social media games, they were bringing out some dark competitive side and obsession! Making hexigons can at least lead to a textile project 🙂

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  2. Candy crush is the worst! I was so addicted to it and time goes by really quickly when you are at it doesn’t it? EPP is certainly the best way to still keep your creative juice flowing even when you are just chilling. I like to have an EPP project handy when I have to catch up on several episodes of TV series. That way it doesn’t feel like a huge waste of time 😁. I love your fabric choices.

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  3. I love the punch! When I was taking a quilting class our teacher made us cut out the pieces although we did paper piecing. I’m not sure if it was EPP or her own version. It just never occurred to me that you could use a punch on material (the teacher probably wanted it that way!) Tierney, I think you could be a bad influence! 😉

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    1. Well I bought it with a 50% off coupon at JoAnn Fabrics and it is very fun! I like to see how many hexagons I can get out of a sheet of card stock (see I created a game, ha) 😀 thanks for your comments!

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  4. Love the EPPs! Love the tote! I usually fall asleep watching TV so EPP helps me stay awake! Nice to step away from all those addictive electronics and channel addictive behavior into a quilting project(s)…guilty as charged!

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  5. Love hexies! Best on the go project out there. I used to baste with thread but now I glue them down with apliquick on cardstock, hand stitch them together and then they peel right off! Sadly, I’m still a slave to candy crush Soda. Maybe we should make hexies out of candy printed fabric…think we’d get the same joy?

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    1. That is awesome – Candy Crush hexies! Thanks for the tip on the glue. Maybe I will advance to that someday. I am using a little glue stick to stick the paper template to the fabric so I do not need to pin but I better stick with basting them for now as it is kind of meditative and I work each corner to make such they are crisp😀

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