Monday Morning Star Count Revival

I keep doing EPP.
I try to stop.
I even got a job and a bunch of other time consuming responsibilities to help break the habit, but...

I can't.

So I'm reviving the Star Count.  Once a month didn't work for me.  I need you guys every week. Like Amanda Jean posted on Friday, the accountability that the link up provides is really strong (and comforting in some ways too)

I've started basting and piecing everyday as part of a meditation practice.  It's really amazing how much clearer my mind gets after just 10 minutes of silent EPP.

Of course if you only sew for 10 minutes a day, progress is slow, but it adds up.  I've been making my way through a few hexi-diamonds and a lot of black sashing strips.

Is anybody out there to play along?  I miss you guys!

Here's the Linky!!

Monday Morning Star Count 11

Welcome to the final Star Count of the summer~
How did you do?  I hope our weekly tallies helped you get a bit more stitching done.  I know I accomplished a lot with this reminder.. I actually found direction for a project that otherwise might have stalled after 2 or 3 stars. 
I'm happy to show that I reached my goal of 7 stars, and I started putting them together with neutral background diamonds in a 7 Sisters pattern.  This pattern was so fun and so easy, that I really hope to continue and see if it can grow into a quilt. 

I may have done more this summer, but I have a confession to make-- my fingers hurt.  Not from quilting, but from playing Super Mario Bros. on Wii.  See, George discovered the game and we've been playing.. first I'd play and he'd watch.  Then we learned how to play with 2 remotes.  I am NOT a big video game player, but it is addictive and I may or may not have played for a while after he went to bed on some nights.  It's fun, but that Wii remote is hell on my thumbs!  After 30 minutes of Mario, I couldn't hand piece for a day! 
This is "balance"though, and in the long run (and now) I value the time spent with George more than having a quilt finished sooner.  As soon as he's back in school though...  I've got great plans to pull out the sewing machine, a big box of strips and strings, and make something!

Thank you to everyone who has participated in the Star Count this summer.  Who's got something to show for the last week?

Moda Honeycombs for EPP

Have you seen the pre-cut hexagons in fabric shops?  Seeing as hexies are all the rage (and have been for some time now it seems), it really isn't surprising that manufacturers have started laser cutting them for our convenience.  Moda makes nice stacks called Honeycombs.  You get 40 per pack and they measure 3" per side.  They come with a piece of template plastic with holes to mark seam allowance, which is great if you plan to stitch them by machine, but I took one look and had other plans..

Moda was nice enough to send me some Honeycombs to play with and today I'm going to share a little tutorial for how to use the Honeycomb pre-cuts for English paper piecing.

A Honeycomb can be cut into the following EPP shapes and sizes:
2" equilateral triangles
2" 60-degree diamonds
1" (short side) kites
2" half hexagons

Depending on the seam allowance you prefer, you can change them up a bit to suit your comfort level.
I happen to be a huge fan of 60 degree diamonds, and if you cut up a Honeycomb, your diamonds come out to exactly 2 5/8" high-- perfect to baste around a 2" template.

So let's cut  some.
First, layer two print Honeycombs.

 Next, place the plastic hexie template (the one that comes with the fabric) so that 1/3 of the hexagon is covered.  Carefully align the corners.

 Here you've got two options-- either draw a line around the template and cut with scissors, or go at it with a rotary cutter (carefully though, a fresh blade can slice through the template plastic)

 

 Your cut may go a bit further than necessary, but that's not really a big deal.  Slide the cut diamonds out of the way, reposition the template, and cut again.

Now you have 6 cute diamonds, ready to baste to your EPP templates.

 The next step is to secure fabric to your templates with paper clips.

Fold in and baste around the edges with 5 backstitches, taking additional bites of fabric along each side.  Do not stitch through the template paper!

Whipstitch your diamonds into a star!

I'm going to turn these into a pillow.  What can you make with Moda Honeycombs and EPP?

Check out my book for more pattern ideas, and get ready to stitch outside this summer!

And so concludes the Quilting on the Go Blog tour.  Thanks to all the great bloggers who participated and thanks to you all for travel stitching with us~  If you haven't already, head over to Lucy's blog to enter the giveaway and don't forget to use the 20% off coupon UNDER20 at Paperpieces.com!

(p.s. this tutorial is cross posted at Moda's Cutting Table and Potter Craft's Crafternews, make sure to pop over there too and say hi~)

Beach sewing.

Finally!  the stars aligned, the baby was sleeping, and I got to relax and sew on the beach!  Now my vacation is perfect~
(the white thread is me holding the needle and the phone as I took the picture.  Had to act fast, it was windy..)

The blog tour is over at Katy's today, I hear she's got some music recommendations for us..

Hoping you get to do something that makes you happy today.

Cover Girl

Nicole sent me this photo earlier this week and gave me permission to share it.  This is the quilt Nicole is stitching on the cover of my book, and here it is all completed and it looks like it gets a lot of use too!  (I know, hard to focus on the quilt when there's such an adorable little girl sitting on it)

Is there anything better than seeing a picture of a quilt you made being used?  Actually becoming a part of someone else's daily life?  I once got a Christmas card with an entire family sitting on the couch and one of my quilts peaking out from beneath them at the corner.  Best. Card. Ever.

The Blog Tour continues over at Crazymomquilts today.  Hope you are enjoying all this talk about EPP, I know I am.

Hexie Pillow

I'm so happy to share a finish today~
This is the first sizeable project that I started and finished in 2013. 

(I have been working on a bunch of long-term big quilts in my poorly lit sewing room that I'd love to post about, but the window of opportunity to get good photos is so small... I'll keep trying)
This is the Hexagon pillow project from my book (see below) and I made this one to be raffled off at a promo event my publisher is going to next week.  The pattern is amazingly simple and a great one to start with if you want to give EPP a try.  I also think pillows are a good option when you want to try out a new EPP shape or pattern but you're not ready to commit to a whole quilt (or just end up with another UFO).  I'm itching to test out some other pattern ideas myself..

For this pillow I chose a color palette and then pulled fabric from my stash.  It may seem a little "patriotic", but you've got to forgive me, I was watching West Wing on Netflix at the time..
 There's a mix of new and old-- Salt Air, Laura Gunn, old Japanese import whales, a blue floral I bought at Joann's in college, and some vintage florals (the white hexie in the bottom right of the above pic must have been a shirt or something-- silky cotton but a really tight weave-- hell to stitch through!). 
I quilted intersecting diagonal lines in blue perle cotton, with 1/4" tape as a guide.

And in related news,


it's here!!

My advanced copies have arrived and I'm in the process of packaging them up and shipping them off to the lovely quilters who contributed to the project.  (Earamichia, Bernadette, Clare, Lesly-- check your mailboxes soon~~).  I've also been showing it off to anyone who will listen, isn't that terrible!?  But I piece at the local library while George is at StoryTime, and the librarians are always asking me about what I'm making so... it's great to finally be able to show them.
(The receptionists and nurses at my OB's office were happy to see it too, they'd heard quite a lot about it during my pregnancy..)

The book cover has hexies, and there's a hexie pillow project inside (along with a couple other hexie projects), but I want to reassure you-- the book is not just about hexagons!  I know it's just a tease, but the quilt the book is lying on-- my Travel Quilt #3, that's in there too, as well as some combo-shape projects.  Can't believe it will be on shelves next month already (and sooner in the UK!).  If you see it out there, please let me know~

Nothing too small

I used to see projects in Japanese quilt magazines where you'd first have to piece together tiny tiny little shapes, quilt it, then cut the little patchwork into another shape to fashion into some other part of a larger project.  I used to just flip right past those fussy, time consuming little projects, too small to be worth the trouble.  But not anymore..

Hexie pin cushion, top measures 4" x 4 5/8"

Having all of those basted hexagons ready to sew whenever the creativity strikes is a really empowering feeling.. (quilting can be empowering, right?) My work was cut in half.  Making the whole damn thing was practically mindless (until the assembly part, which kicked my butt, but I'm guessing that's 'cause I'm still going on less sleep than I should be..), but most of all, VERY enjoyable.

And isn't it cute?!  Hope my friend likes it. 

p.s. I have some news to share in the coming week... make sure to stop back and see what I've been hiding. ;)