Trying Something New: English Paper Piecing

Here's the thing about quilting. Sometimes after you have been sewing or quilting at your machine for so long your neck and back are killing you and you just want to relax on the couch. 

Or you want to spend time with your family but you have this incessant need to be sewing or doing something with your hands. Well thats where English Paper Piecing comes in handy. (No pun intended.) 

I have been thinking about taking this up for a little while. I have been looking for a project to take with me in October when I will be going back to my home town to prepare for my wedding and I won't have my sewing machine with me. I know that I will go insane going that long without doing any kind of sewing!

This past weekend I was at Joann's and they had issue 9 of Love Patchwork & Quilting magazine. With this issue they gave a free package of some paper pieces. I took this as a sign that I needed to get it! 

So it was finally time to try this out and see if I could teach myself how to do this, with the help of tutorials I have found online. 

I had some left over Jelly Roll Pieces from a quilt I finished this past spring and I thought they would be perfect to try this out on. 

I decided to glue baste my hexagons, I haven't tried to baste them the "normal" way with thread but I think that glue would be much easier for me, and it definitely goes quickly. The package had only about 50 1" hexie's, which is no good for me now because I am addicted! 

I have basted all that I can and have ordered more. I have about 110 other pieces to baste. 

The package also has 1 1/2" and 2" hexagons.

All of my pieces basted, and some made into flowers. 

All my finished 1" hexi flowers. 

After I finished these 1" hexagons I wanted to do more! But with no papers that size left, I decided to make one large flower with the 2" hexagons. You wouldn't think that one more inch on each side was a lot, but let me tell you, it is! I thought the 1" would be small but honestly it is the perfect size, it is so easy to work with. I enjoyed it much better than working with the 2" hexi. 

The one GIANT hexi!

Size comparison.

I can't wait for my other papers to arrive in the mail so I can keep on going with these hexi flowers! I may be done with them by the time I go back home. I foresee many EPP projects in my future!

Until next time, 

--Rachel