Hello EPP People,

Here is my latest completed EPP project, finished just days before Christmas (whew!)

Ok, so my last post was not really an EPP project but I would like to share small hand sewn projects that I have found quick and easy to make from time to time, too, in case you find them useful.

In the post before last, I mentioned the gift I was planning to make for my daughter for Christmas, another log cabin mini quilt but a wonky log cabin this time. Here is the pattern I followed.

I followed the same process as I did with the first Log Cabin mini quilt. I numbered the pieces, cut out fabric to fit the pieces and wrapped the pieces with the fabric.  However, when I came to stitch the pieces together I found that my brain kept wanting to straighten the pattern.  I had to unpick what I had done a number of pieces and keep a closer eye on the pattern.

A problem that crops up with this pattern and method, is that sometimes when your pieces are wrapped they end up fractionally larger and don’t always fit together as accurately as you need them to, and you need to make small adjustments. This isn’t difficult if you have left a half  inch or so of fabric folded around each piece (3/4″ in larger pieced projects) ; there is plenty to borrow from. Unlike many quilting projects where a scant 1/4 inch is used for seam allowances, EPP benefits from a little more.

I made sure that the way in which I folded and basted the fabric around the shapes was the same at both ends of each piece. For example, in this sample I made earlier, this is how EPP is often basted:

You will see that the folds in the fabric at the  bottom right and left corners do not match and most often that doesn’t matter.

For this project I basted the ends of each piece to look the same like this:

This is because it allowed adjustments to be made easily along a line of stitches without having to unpick too many stitches going up or down from that line, or to alter the fold of the fabric at a corner.

It allowed me to ease that top strip of fabric outwards to borrow fabric from the folded over seam allowance and enlarge the piece slightly. Alternatively, you can cut away a narrow straight line of the paper to make a piece smaller. I’m not saying it’s great to do this: Avoid it happening if you can; it’s a chore you can do without. All I am saying is, if it happens, you haven’t ruined your project. You can make adjustments and no-one will know the difference.

I’d love to hear how you get around problems like these in your EPP projects.

Most of the fabric used is from Janet Clare’s ‘More Hearty Good Wishes’ range from Moda. I live close to the coast and there are often seagulls here, following the farmer’s tractor.

The cat is fussy cut from a tossed cats pattern by Timeless Treasures.  I toyed with using an orange cat to represent my daughter’s own cat but eventually I used a brown one because it suited the colours of her favourite coloured fabrics better.

There are two bits of fabric with text. The black and white one at the bottom and to the right of the quilt is ‘Cottage Garden Newspaper’, a Riley Blake fabric but, unfortunately, I don’t seem to have recorded the other one in my notes.

The quilt is ‘big stitch’ quilted with Pearle Cotton 8, in variegated yellow and  variegated blue, to suggest shades of light.

I felt very nervous about quilting this little quilt because I didn’t want to stitch around the ‘logs’ in the way I had done, previously. I wanted to do something more creative. I wanted to suggest beams of sunlight shining down on a sleeping cat in the window of a cabin, the movement of a breeze, dust motes rising, that sort of thing. It was hard to get the stitches even, and they can certainly be improved, but I’m happy enough with it for now.

And talking of being happy… Happy New Year! I hope it’s going to be a good one.