Adventures in English Paper Piecing

English Paper Piecing by A Little Sew and Sow

My first attempt at English Paper Piecing was in the very early days after I learnt to quilt (c2012) and I started big, an 80-inch square quilt to be precise.  It took around four years, on and off, to complete and was made of 64 hexagon flowers, each mounted onto 10-inch white squares.  Since completing that quilt I have undertaken a number of other EPP projects from hoop quilts, to bags and further large quilts.  But, each project has always featured my beloved hexagons. 

Back last autumn my sister-in-law gave me Sharon Burgess’ Quilting on the go… English Paper Piecing book (AFFILIATE LINK) as a birthday gift and I decided that 2018 would be the year of branching out into other shapes.  The book contains some fab projects and I was really torn where to start but I opted for a mini quilt pattern that contains 8-point stars, squares and rectangles. 

This past weekend I made the top of the quilt and am really pleased with the result.  It was time consuming to make but it felt really good to work with a selection of different shapes to build an interesting pattern.  I will soon finish the quilt but am still thinking about how I will do this, so need to decided where/how I will use it.  I’m thinking wall hanging but am also wondering about making it into a cushion cover.  Watch this space!

As well as raving over Sharon’s book I also wanted to let you know that for the first time I tried glue basting.  I have always used thread to baste my EPP projects but back in January I participated in an EPP Instagram challenge under the hashtag #greatbritishquilter and was intrigued to see how many people use glue to baste.  I thought you might like to know how I got on. 

Glue basting was a little messy and fiddly but was super speedy and I guess that is why it is so popular.  I basted 52 pieces for the quilt in around an hour and a half.  I think it probably would have taken three or four times as long to sew basting stitches.  It felt a little strange putting bright blue glue onto beautiful fabrics but it was easy to apply.  When it came to removing the papers I found it to be more tricky than removing stitching but not impossible.  In conclusion, I think I would definitely use glue to baste again but I will decide on a case-by-case basis.  If speed is an objective of the project I will 100% use glue but if I invest in a long-term slow project I will probably stick with stitch basting as I find the process quite therapeutic. 

The glue I used was a SewlineGlue Pen (AFFILIATE LINK), which costs around £6 for the pen and two glue inserts.  I used a whole insert to glue the 52 pieces of this mini quilt.