Hexagons from Denmark

I got the most wonderful email from Maria and Heidi in Ølstykke, Denmark this week.
They are teachers and have been using Quilting on the Go with a group of 50 students to teach them to sew hexagons.  They used larger templates (looks like 1.5") and made versions of the Tiny Sewing Kit pattern in the book.  Here are some of the photos they sent along of the students working and their projects:

If you have made anything from my book, I'd love to see it!  Feel free to email me at jessunderquilts at gmail dot com.  Be sure to tell me where you're from and if I can share your photos here on the blog. 
Thanks Maria & Heidi!! Your email totally made my day.

Quilting on the Go in Spanish!!

I'm so happy to share that Quilting on the Go has been translated into Spanish~

I'm so excited that it will be accessible to even more quilters in Spain and beyond.  It is published by Editorial Acanto S.A. and currently available at Amazon.es. 

If you're out an about and see a copy in the book store, please comment and let me know~

Monday Morning Star Count 2014/8

The highlight of my quilting week? (after Skyping my way into a Japanese quilting class, of course) Basting hexies in the car as Jack napped, parked at the beach.

We had beautiful weather this weekend and I really wanted to get out and run around with George and Costas, but the little guy was sleeping.  I got a few more in the pile and when he woke up, we went on a beach adventure.    We had to climb over a pile of snow to get there and once we were in the sand,  Jack didn't really know what to make of the place.

We had fun though, and now we're all anxiously awaiting the arrival of spring. 

Even though I basted a nice stack, I didn't manage to add anything to the finished pile this week.  I have several non-epp projects going, including the binding on Travel Quilt #2, which I hope to be able to show off in a few days.  The thing is mammoth though, don't know who I can bribe to help with a decent photo shoot.. 

So, for this week's Star Count, I have nothing new to show.. 3 down and 17 more to go til summer.  We had a great turn out for last week's linky party, so the giveaway will go off as promised.   I'll do a separate post congratulating the winners, hopefully later today.   A big thanks to all who linked up, especially friends of Ailyn (whose post on EPP was amazing!  If you missed it, go check it out!) I was surprised and happy to find so many German speaking quilters into EPP, and I'm excited to share that Quilting on the Go has been translated into German and will be published by Frechverlag this spring.  More details as soon as I get them.  

So now on to this week's link up!  Show us what you've got!

Hokkaido sewing class

I love Skype.
My first quilting mentor, Mrs. Kubota in Hokkaido, teaches patchwork classes out of her home.  She recently got a tablet and we have started skyping once a week.  Tonight she called me during her class and I got to meet two of her students (Hi Noriko! Hi Chiharu!) and see what they are working on.
They both made pincushions from Quilting on the Go with adorable hedgehog buttons (how did I not get a screen shot of that?), and Chiharu is working on a sewing kit (Mrs. K's pattern), with an EPP hexie front.  Isn't it cute?

I made my first sewing kit when I started visiting Mrs. K in 2002  (have I really known her for 12 years?!  Man, I miss Japan.), I should pull that out and blog about it some time.  Anyway, I've been admiring several sewing kits both in real life and on Instagram lately, and I hope to find time to make a new one for myself soon.  If you've made one or have seen a cute one online,  I'd love to see it.  Please send me links.

It would be so fun to join in their sewing group every week, at least for a little show and tell.   I'll try to be more prepared next week, and remember to take more pictures!

Out with the old..

2013, you brought immense joy.
I got a super cute baby:

 

A beautiful vacation with friends:

The elation of finding my book on the shelf at Barnes & Noble (and in the stacks at my local library):

And plenty of time to spend with the ones I love.

Thank you, 2013.

For 2014 I've got some plans, big and small.

The one I'm most excited about is moving my sewing room from a poorly lit upstairs bedroom to the nice and bright first floor laundry room (pictures coming shortly!).  I lose about half the space, but the location should allow me to spend more time creating.. fingers crossed.

I'm also planning to start up the Monday Morning Star Count again (an EPP progress linky party, like we did last summer), from next Monday.  Here's what I've been working on..  

It's going so slowly!  I really need the encouragement of some like-minded EPPing friends.

And if anyone wants to get even more EPPing done, please consider registering for the Greek Island Quilt Retreat.  I'd love to meet up and sew with some of you next June!

I hope 2014 brings all of us just what we need, and the attentiveness to appreciate it when it arrives. 
Happy New Year everybody~

Winner!

Many many thanks to all who entered my Giveaway~
The winner is Laura of Prairie Sewn Studios!  (Laura, I have send you an email.)

It was fun getting people talking about the Greek Island retreat-- there were lots of oohs and aahs, I guess lots of people haven't considered Greece as a retreat destination yet.  I suppose the Greek islands have more of a reputation for romantic getaways (Santorini) or wild partying (Mykonos).  Quilters relaxing and sewing together on Paros?  It may be a first.  But it will be a lovely and refreshing retreat, full of simple pleasures and hopefully stress free.  It will also be quite small-- there is room for a maximum of 16 participants.  We don't want to overrun the island with quilters, do we?

I know it may seem like a dream, but if you are giving it any thought at all, please request a registration packet and read all the details.  It may become more of a reality than you thought..

Blogger's Quilt Festival (and Quilt Retreat Invitation)

I was racking my brain (and sewing room) for something to enter in this fall's Bloggers' Quilt Festival.  My Lime String quilt isn't finished yet and I haven't had time to work on much else.  Then it occurred to me that I never did a real blog post on Travel Quilt #3, the one that is featured in my book.  So, here it is:

I started this quilt in July 2010, stitched the last diamonds by hand in February 2012, and had the entire thing finished in October 2012.  I took a few detail shots of my own, but then it went straight on to my publisher for photography for the book.  (And I wasn't supposed to blog about it til the book was released!) It ended up on the back cover, which I was really pleased about.  This is the third in my Travel Quilt series and the first time I actually wrote on the stars as I pieced them.  The full pattern and instructions, including step-by-step photography, is available in the book. 

Long arm quilted by the brilliant Shannon Couvillion in Georgia, this is a very personal quilt, a fabric scrap book of where I went and how I spent my  time. 
Of course this isn't the first time many of you are seeing this quilt.  I heavily blogged my progress as I carried my EPP sewing kit back and forth across the globe, completing a few stars at a time.  Here's a quick recap of my favorite in-progress photos:

Have you ever quilted on the beach?  Would you like to?
I'm organizing an English paper piecing retreat that will be held on the Greek island of Paros in June, 2014.  Come enjoy amazing food, perfect weather, relaxing atmosphere and good company as we stitch together in the middle of the Aegean.  Check out my "Greek Island Retreat" tab above, or just click here.  Registration is open through February 1st, but space is limited.  I'd love to have you join me and start a Travel Quilt of your own~

Going to Market?

Me?  Sadly, no.  But this mini quilt from my book will be there, in the Paperpieces.com booth!

The patterns in the back of the book were all just done as samples (except for p. 109, Ayane's star.  There's a photo of the quilt on p. 48), so I quickly added borders and quilted it up in time for Market.
I took a few photos of the process, and while it's far from a full tutorial, I thought I'd post them to show how I did it..

* First I cut border strips 4" wide and lined one up with the lines on my cutting mat.  Then I carefully placed the freshly-pressed EPP patchwork on top, overlapping the bottom edge of the border. (When you press your EPP, remember to tuck in any seam tails).

* Next I took my ruler and lined up the top of the border strip with the 4" mark on the ruler.  I gently pulled the EPP down until the inner points of the edge were aligned with the ruler's 1/2" mark. (Look at the 9 at the center of the ruler).

* Then I carefully pinned the EPP part to the border strip.

* And machine topstitched it into place.  This is a view from the back so you can see that 1/2" of the border is underneath the innermost points of the EPP.  I do not cut away the excess at the top points.

For this piece, I cut my border strips extra long and mitered the corners.  I would have taken photos except I bribed George for quilting time by letting him play Bad Piggies on my phone and he was getting tired of pausing the game so I could take step-by-step shots.  I was too lazy (and in a hurry) to find the real camera, so this is as far as the tutorial goes.  Hope it makes sense.  If anyone has questions, just ask.

I am very happy that a little part of me will be at Market this month, and happy too that I have a small finish to link up this week at Crazymomquilts.  If you are lucky enough to be going to Houston, enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!!  And please post often to Instagram so I can follow along from home!

Mark your calendars-- Book Signing!

What are you doing on Monday, August 19th at 7:30 p.m.?
If you're free, why not come out to my first book signing?

 

I'll be doing an EPP demo (hands on fun!) and book signing at the East Meadow Public Library.  Directions can be found here.  

You can see all of the projects and samples from the book in person!  Ask any question that's been on your mind, and have a nice chat with a room full of quilters.  I'll have copies of Quilting on the Go for sale, as well as some EPP templates and small/medium bags of fabric scraps.  The first 75 guests will receive sample template packs from Paperpieces.com.  Hope to see you there~~

When:         Monday, August 19th, 7:30 pm

Where:        East Meadow Public Library, lower level

                    1886 Front Street

                    East Meadow, NY

Pin Cushion Tutorial at Timeless Treasures Blog

We've had a busy week and I almost missed it, but I just need to share that I've got a tutorial up over at Sew Timeless, the Timeless Treasures blog.
Come on over and learn how to make the English paper pieced pin cushion pattern from Quilting on the Go!

It's quick, it's easy, and you can try out EPP (or new fabric combos) without committing to a whole quilt!  If you make one, let me know~

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~)

Fitting EPP into a life with kids

Last week Christina asked how I manage to get sewing done when the kids are awake. Yesterday was a perfect example.

I set the kids about coloring stained glass pictures (markers on vellum) and once they were set, they barely noticed that I was stitching next to them.  We were able to chat and comment on each other's artwork and everyone was happy and occupied for a while.

I think the key here is to be prepared.  Not only do I keep my travel sewing kit in my bag, but I usually have a project or game for George to occupy himself with should we find ourselves with time to kill.  If I don't plan ahead and bring something for him, he usually gets to play Angry Birds on my phone, but it's much nicer if we can do something separately but still be together.  (Give him that phone and he zones out pretty bad).

The blog tour continues with Ara Jane today, make sure you pop in and tell her what you've been stitching~