The
Dreamtime aboriginal designs from
M&S Textiles are full of graphic symbols, geometric textures and organic shapes. I was recently discussing the possibilities for these Australian fabrics with Jennifer, the owner of
Busy Lady Quilt Shop, and she reminded me that they would be ideal for fussy cutting English paper piecing [EPP] shapes. She is so right!
A few years ago, some rep friends and I were on the EPP bandwagon when
Paper Pieces launched the
Glorious Hexagons stitch-along using
Katja Marek’s "
The New Hexagon" book. I’m not sure why I didn’t think of the EPP technique for these fabrics sooner... because it's perfect.
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| English paper pieced hexagon blocks. |
So, I’m rekindling my relationship with this slow stitching technique—English paper piecing—using fabrics with aboriginal designs. The acrylic templates from
Paper Pieces make fussy cutting motifs easy and accurate.
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| Fussy cutting swirl motifs using an acrylic template and rotary cutter. |
Paper Pieces now offers the acrylics with
3/8" or 1/4" seam allowances built in. (My preference is still the 3/8" inch.)
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| English paper piecing with aboriginal fabrics from M&S Textiles. |
The diamond shaped papers I'm using here are 1-3/4 inch card stock papers (also from Paper Pieces.) This shape can be combined to make hexagons, stars, the Tumbling Block and other designs. My
8 must-have tools for English paper piecing are detailed in
this blog post.
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| Shapes ready for hand piecing. |
If you need a portable, take-along project, EPP is the answer.
Thanks for the insight and reminder, Jennifer! Can't wait to see what you make with the Australian fabrics that are coming to your shop.
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| English paper piecing [EPP] is very portable. |
