New X-Plus English Paper Piecing Templates!

Hey y'all! How's everyone doing? Last year I made an X-Plus quilt for my friend Austin when he and his husband adopted a beautiful baby girl; as I was making the quilt I started thinking about how the X-Plus block could really lend itself well to English Paper Piecing. So I did what any self-respecting quilter would do and drafted my own templates.

And, because I couldn't keep the templates to myself once they were all done up, I've posted them to my Craftsy shop (for free) Templates currently unavailable due to Craftsy shakeup! The blocks finish at 10" square (which is another modification I made to the original X-Plus pattern) meaning that if you want to make a 40" square baby quilt, you need to make 16 blocks.

I made two samples (and had some lovely pattern testers make some more - which we'll get to in a later post); the first one I grid quilted and bound just for fun, and this second one... well, I haven't decided what to do with it yet. Maybe the beginnings of a brand new quilt?!

Now, what you can download from Craftsy is not a pattern per se, but is rather all the templates needed to make a block, so you do need to know the basics of EPP as there are no instructions included. The templates are spread across two pages and you need the pieces from both pages to make one block. That means that you can make as few or as many blocks as you want without having to worry about not having the right number of pieces.

If you decide to make a block, and you're on Instagram, please share using the hashtag #xplusepp - if you check it out over on IG you'll see other blocks that have already been posted - fun fun!

I really hope you guys like the templates and can't wait to see what you make!

A Little Piecing Break

Hey y'all! Alex and I recently returned home from taking a much needed vacation (and honeymoon!) in Newfoundland and PEI. We had a lovely time hiking, cod jigging, eating, and just generally relaxing. I also took a little time to start a new quilting project.

This is just the beginning of an entirely hand pieced and hand quilted quilt. It's going to take forever, but I'm in love already!

Hex-cell-ent!

Hey y'all! How's everyone doing? So, the good people over at Makeful asked me to participate in a little challenge they were hosting to decorate cellphone cases. Being that I'm a quilter, I tried to think of a way to use fabric to decorate the case (not very easy once I started thinking of all the ways that wouldn't work very well), and I came up with this wee idea!

Unfortunately, they weren't able to get a hold of a case that would fit my Galaxy, so they sent me one for an iPhone 6. Luckily, it fits my iPod Touch almost exactly. The camera hole is a little off but since I never use the camera on my iPod - not a big deal!

I used some little Liberty scraps from my stash and made the hexies using the English Paper Piecing method I describe in this tutorial; these hexies are 1/2" per side. I was worried about the hexies lifting off the case or the fabric getting dirty and grubby, so I adhered them to the inside of the case rather than the outside.

Can we talk about how hard it is to take a picture of a clear phone case?! So many reflections! I love how the hexies look like they're floating in the case, and it's pretty fun to be able to show off some much-loved fabric prints.

P.S. In case you're wondering where I've been the last few months, I was very busy getting married and stuff! It was a great day and we had so, so, so much fun.

Meet + Make

Hey y'all! So I just wanted to let everyone know that I will be teaching an English Paper Piecing class at the end of the month at Meet + Make.

Meet + Make is a full day creative workshop hosted by The Makers Nation. Participants will be able to choose two workshops from a total of six to participate in throughout the day; these workshops include such awesomeness as Silk Screening and Book Binding (more info below). Breakfast, snacks, lunch, and happy hours drinks are all provided in the registration cost.

Ohhhh now, doesn't that look like fun?! As I mentioned, there are six workshops to choose from, these include: English Paper Piecing, Book Binding, Silk Screening, Wood Carving, 3D Printing, and Instagram 101. I think it's going to be a super-awesome day.

And, as a little something extra, I have a $25 off coupon code that I'm sharing with you guys. If you think this is and event that you'd like to check out then you should definitely use it to register here (there is also a "bring a friend option" that allows to people to participate for a discounted price). The code is: MM_Teach

I cannot wait to meet some new faces and to hang out with such creative individuals for the day - I am so excited!!

Details

Where: MakeWorks at 1139 College St. Toronto, On

When: Sunday September 28, 2014 from 9:15am to 6:30pm

Why: Making awesome things of course!

What: Chicken butt.

Sock Sacks!

Just before Sewing Summit in September, I went into a bit of a sewing frenzy (no doubt aided by the crashing of my computer). I made quite a number of things, including matching a couple of Sock Sacks - one for me and one for my super-awesome Sewing Summit roomie.

The Sock Sack is a pattern available on Craftsy from Ramona Rose and it is awesome! This is the one that I made for DD featuring the cutest bunny fabric from Modern Whimsy and a little Lizzy House. The purple accent fabric on the zippered divider and bands is Kaufman Quilter's Linen (one of my absolute faves!).

This one I made for me and it lives in my purse. I keep both my knitting and EPP in it at the same time. For mine I used the transistor fabric from Melody Miller's Ruby Star Rising (gifted to me by the lovely Debbie, who you might all know from the workroom here in Toronto) and Riley Blake's Saddle Up. The Saddle Up fabric is facing the wrong way (the FQ can only be cut a certain way to get the right fabric amounts), but I just got it into my head that I absolutely had to use this fabric for the interior. I used the same Quilter's Linen for the band but swapped it out for some pearl bracelets for the pocket. The only thing I changed from the original pattern was to omit the interior tabs and to make my own drawstrings rather than using ribbon.

The original Sock Sack pattern only has a divider in the middle but Ramona Rose put a tutorial up on her blog for turning this divider into a pocket, which is the addition that just sends this pattern over the edge! Although the pattern is meant for accommodating knitting two-socks-at-a-time (where you have two balls of yarn, one can go on each side of the divider so as not to get tangled), I thought it was fabulous for just knitting in general or for carrying more than one project. I keep my knitting on one side of the divider and my EPP supplies on the other, with all of my notions and tools in the little pocket.

Sock Sack in action! I took this picture on the plane on the way to Sewing Summit; I knit and did a little EPP on that trip. Trust me, I got some weird looks from some of the other passengers! The flight attendant asked me what I was doing and she gave me the blankest look when I tried to explain it.

Even if you don't knit, you could definitely use one of these little sacks to carry around other hand projects!

Introducing... Doughnut Kiss!

Hey y'all! So, it's been a little while since I've been seen around these parts, I'm finding that with work and some other goings on that I don't have quite as much time to sew as I would like. That's not to say I haven't been doing anything though - I'm still working away on my Hermione socks, am writing a new quilt tutorial (yay!) which will hopefully be here soon, and have been finishing up my sample for my Sewing Summit class.

Since, I'm trying to make a fresh start, I decided that I might as well welcome myself back to this space (haha!) with a little something for you! Since my Sewing Summit English Paper Piecing class is less about the pattern I'm sharing, and more about tips and tricks for EPP, I thought that I would share all of the templates and such for my sample here. How does that sound?

So this is the sample I sewed up recently for my class, and I'm hoping that I'll be able to sew up another quilt version that includes interlocking Doughnut Kisses. I don't even know where the name Doughnut Kiss came from for this, but I just thought it was so funny that I'm sticking with it!

Now, I'm not going to go into a whole EPP tutorial here, but I'll give you a couple of tips. Since these pieces are a bit bigger (2"-4" sides) I used the EPP method where you sew through the templates rather than just whipping around the corners like I demonstrated in my QAYG Hexie Coaster tutorial. This helps to keep the 1/4" seams from popping out away from the template.

Even though I included a template page for the 2" squares to download, to be a bit more environmentally friendly, I recommend just cutting the square from a regular piece of paper. You can get 20 2" squares out a regular A4 piece of paper - you will need 21 square for the pillow so just cut the remaining square from the scrap generated by cutting your other templates.

I just wanted to share the back because I love it! I did the standard envelope back that I demonstrated in my Not-You-Traditional-Log-Cabin-Pillow tutorial (it's even the same size so you can use all of the same measurements). This is the first time that I've ever finished the whole way around a pillow with binding and I really love the look!

The templates for the squares and both sizes of the elongated hexagons, as well as a colouring sheet featuring the interlocking design can be found here. Just a note on the templates, all sides should measure 2" except for the long sides are the larger size of elongated hexagons which should measure 4". Be sure to print out the templates at 100% without scaling; if you have any problems, you may need to fiddle with your printer a bit.

Here's just a little example of a coloured in sheet. The sheet contains a finite number of sections so if you want to make it bigger you may need to do some creative taping together. For the crosses you can be super scrappy, or go more tonal with you colour choices. It's really up to you and each different combination of fabrics will create entirely different looks!

I really hope that you enjoy the templates and I'd love to see any example using the Doughnut Kiss templates that you come up with!

Templates Download

Sewing Summit 2013: I'm Teaching!

Hey y'all! Some of you may know about this already if you're following me on Instagram or have been reading the Sewing Summit blog, but I've got some pretty fun and exciting news - I'm teaching this year!!

Yay! I will be teaching English Paper Piecing and the class will be based on my own pattern. Although not available yet, the pattern will also be made available on my blog as a tutorial. I'm very excited to be teaching this class and I think it will be a lot of fun - you should definitely join me! *wink*

Here's a little screenshot of my bio for you! In case you haven't heard of it, Sewing Summit is a modern sewing and blogging conference held in Salt Lake City, Utah. This year the conference will be taking place September 19th - 21st and I think (unlike last year) that there are still a few tickets available.

I had a really great time last year and am so excited to be seeing some friends again, and hopefully I'll be making some new peeps too! Make sure to check out the teachers page on the Sewing Summit website, but take note that all of the teachers haven't been announced yet - there will be more goodness to come!

Tutorial: Quilt-As-You-Go Hexie Coasters!

Y'all ready for this? I've got a new tutorial for you... may I present the Quilt-As-You-Go Hexie Coasters!

Woot! I actually made this coaster and took all of the pictures for this post about two months ago... I think I may have procrastinated in the posting a little bit *blush*. But I think it turned out pretty darned cute, don't you? Okay, now who wants to get started?! Let's go!!

Materials:

For Hexies:
9 fabric squares measuring 2.5x2.5" each
9 one-inch hexagon templates*
Hand sewing needle
Hand sewing thread

For Coasters:
5x5" piece of muslin or scrap fabric for foundation**
5x5" piece of thin batting
5x5" piece of fabric for backing
Scrap of fabric 1.25x22" for binding

* You can make your own hexagon graph paper here (just be sure to select the 1 inch option and measure one side to be sure after you've printed them out) or order some pre-made templates from here. I've done both.
**This piece of fabric is merely used as a foundation for the hexagons and will not be seen, so go ahead and use something truly ugly!!

Now, I'm going to start off by showing you the method that I use to make hexies. This method works especially well for this type of project, but if you make your hexies a different way - go for it! You may need to be a little more careful when you get to the quilt-as-you-go portion of this tutorial, but I think it'll still work out. If you already know how to make hexies, just skip this portion of the tutorial, but make sure that you have 9 completed hexies before moving on to the next portion.

English Paper-Piecing Directions:

Pin one hexagon template to one 2.5x2.5" fabric square and trim the fabric down, leaving 1/4" around all sides of the hexagon template. Have a length of thread in your needle, knotted, and ready to go!

Fold one edge of the fabric down so that it is snug against the edge of the template.

Fold the adjoining edge down so that it too is snug against the template and so that the fabric overlaps at the corner.

Run your needle and thread through the corner of the fabric, being careful not to pick up any of the paper template in the process. Pull the thread all the way through so that the knot if snug to the fabric.

Run your needle and thread through the corner once more to secure it in place. Pull all of the way though.

Fold down the next corner just as did before and bring your needle across. Repeat the above steps to secure the corner. Pull the thread taut, but not so tightly that the template curls - this will ensure that the edges of the fabric all stay in place.

Repeat the above steps all of the way around the hexagon. At the last corner run your needle through a couple of times as above and secure with a knot. Cut your thread.

And there you have a completed hexie! Repeat the steps above until you have 9 completed hexagons for your coaster.

Quilt-As-You-Go Coaster Directions:

Draw a light line in pencil 1/4" away from the edge all around your muslin foundation piece. Layer your muslin, batting, and backing as shown ensuring that the backing is right side down and that the pencil markings on the muslin are facing up.

Pop the templates out of all of your hexagons. If you used the method that I described above to make your hexagons than they will hold their shape when the templates are removed. If you used another method they may not hold their shape so well and should be handled with care.

Begin by placing one hexagon in the top, right corner so that it's corners and top edge are flush with the 1/4" lines you drew on the muslin. Pin in place and, if you wish, use pins to baste around it to keep the three quilt layers from shifting.

Sew 1/16 to 1/8" from the edge all of the way around your first hexagon. Obviously, for this one (and a few others) the hexagon goes over the edge of the foundation so just stop sewing when you reach the edge. Make sure to smooth out your hexagon and to keep the edges of the hexie flat as you sew.

Align your next hexie so that it's top edge is butting against the bottom edge of the one you've just sewn. Sew all the way around.

Repeat the steps above until you have your entire muslin covered. For the smaller areas of blank space left on the left hand side of the coaster, trim some excess off of a hexagon you've already attached - once all of the hexies are sewn on you will see this excess, just use the edge of the muslin as a guide (so sorry that I forgot to take pictures of this step) - sew this excess onto the small blank spaces. Most of these small spaces will be covered by the binding, but it's always best to fill in as much as possible.

Evenly trim your coaster down to 4.5" square - this would mean trimming your coaster down about 1/4" on all four sides, but be careful since the coaster may have shrunk slightly with the quilting.

Use the binding strip that you have set aside and bind as desired. I did it the "traditional" way by machine sewing the front side, then folding over and hand sewing the back, but you could machine sew the whole thing on if you wanted! And see all of the pretty quilting that shows on the back from sewing around the hexagons - ohhh yaaaa!

Grab yourself a drink and enjoy! Anne of Green Gables mug totally optional of course but I would highly recommend it *wink*!

So what do y'all think? I really hope you liked this tutorial and if you have any questions, please feel free to ask. Be sure to send me pictures or add them to the Flickr group if you do make a hexie coaster or two using this tutorial!