English Paper Piecing Tutorial - with cheating!

 

A few weeks ago, I showed you my new Liberty stash and told you about a quilt I really wanted to make with it. 

I hadn't been able to get permission to show the photo in time for that post, but since then Clare 'Summerfete' has returned from her holiday and has kindly allowed me to share her beautiful (and now finished, check out her blogpost) 'Summer of Love' quilt with you.

Isn't it just stunning?!

I really want to make one of these and suggested some of you might want to join me, and lo and behold, some of you did!

Well I am a bit rubbish at organising 'joining' type things on this blog, but I really thought about it and was just about to start designing a blog button (honest, I was just about to...), when Lynne at Lily's Quilt came to the rescue with this...

Lynne had been one of the people showing interest after my blog post, as she wants something portable to take on holiday with her. Well she obviously wasn't going to hang around while I dithered, and as her holiday is probably looming now, she has just launched an English Paper Piecing QAL on her blog.

So why don't we all gather together and do this with Lynne!

And all I need to do now is share the promised EPP tutorial. 

First of all I must point out that this tutorial is not going to be my version of Clare's amazing quilt above. It looks like the same quilt but the scale is much smaller. The Quilt I am making here and in the top photo, is a miniature version for the latest Doll Quilt Swap (round 11). We are making actual doll quilts this time! I thought I could try the pattern out by making a tiny version (because I am insane), so the following tutorial was made with 1 and a quarter inch tall diamonds (I know, I know!).

First of all I got my lovely husband to find his compass in the barn, and then persuaded him to draw me a 60 degree diamond template (or you could do this bit yourself unless, like me, you are very bad at angles etc...). As I said my diamond was 1 and a quarter inches long but I would suggest you make yours a bit bigger for a full sized quilt!

Edit: Thanks to Jan and Lynne I now know about a much easier method of making templates - head over to this website and also to this post on Lilty's Quilt where she will guide you through the whole process! Thanks girls!

I stuck the little paper diamond Jonathan drew for me on to template plastic and then cut the shape out to make my template. I then lost it a few times because it was SO SMALL.
Eventually I got my act together, and sitting outside in the bright July sunshine, I drew around the template over and over again on to the cover of the Radio Times (other publications will work just as well). I then carefully cut these out.

I put them all in a little tin to stop them blowing away, and started to cut out the fabric I had previously chosen using a paper template I had made with a quarter inch seam allowance all the way round (in fact as my pieces are so small my template has a slightly smaller seam allowance, but I would use a quarter inch seam allowance with more normal sized templates).

To make one hexagon you will need 12 diamonds, because I want the star shape to stand out in the middle I am using 2 contrasting colours, 6 diamonds of each. You do not have to be as precise cutting fabric for EPP as you would with machine piecing projects. I cut all these using scissors, but you could rotary cut strips and slice up the diamonds that way if you wanted to be quick. But I wanted to sit in the sun and was happy to take my time.
 
Pin one of your paper templates on to the middle of the wrong side of your fabric diamond (I could do with slightly smaller pins for this tiny quilt!)

Fold the sides round and tack (baste).
Now, this is how I have always done this, and when I am making my full sized quilt I am sure I will still do it this way. You see I like the fact that EPP means you are SLOW quilting. There's no hurry Mr Rabbit, take your time and enjoy a bit of slow sewing. Yes it takes a long time to tack all these pieces, sew them together, and then take the papers out, but it is also very soothing and calming and that is part of it's charm.
However, I am on a tight deadline for this DQS11 and so I heeded to some great advice from Dolores at Deeroo Designs. Dolores is always keen on a glue stick (as anyone who followed her Tickertape QAL can vouch for) and her suggestion was that you glue the fabric to the paper template. I wasn't so sure at first, but these tiny little pieces were taking so long...
 
...so I tried it, and it is great! So much quicker! You just put the glue (I used Pritt Stick) along the 4 edges of the fabric diamond and then fold it over the paper. It doesn't need to be glued all the way along, just adhered a little on each edge. It is a bit harder to sew the diamonds together, and as I say, I probably wouldn't do it if I wasn't in a hurry, but it does work! And the fabric just peels away from the paper when you are ready to take them out. Thanks Dee!

So now, which ever basting method you have used, take 2 diamonds and squeeze them right sides together and start over-stitching them along one edge .

Your stitches don't have to be too small but you should try to make them as invisible as possible. Using matching thread helps a lot.

 Here we are, all 6 diamonds sewn together. Now for the contrasting diamonds...

Once you have finished a hexagon you can remove the papers from the diamonds that make up the inner star and re-use them. And once you have a few hexagons you can sew them together using the same method.

Of course you can just make hexagons with one piece of fabric and one paper template and sew these together (much quicker!). Or you could mix everything up like this fabulous quilt that Lynne introduced me to. 

As I mentioned before, EPP makes a great portable project. Once you have a few papers and fabric cut you can pop them in a tin with matching thread, scissors, a needle and a pin (and glue stick!), like I've done in the tin above. Now I can go anywhere and at the first sign of a lull in the conversation, a car journey, or time spent in a waiting room, I can whip out my little tin and get busy!
I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial, and I would love to see all your projects (though don't forget take your time), and don't forget to pop over to Lily's Quilts and join her QAL!