Hi Everyone,

I have been working on a post about whether (and how) we can create Abstract works using EPP, as opposed to traditional ways of making patterns but I don’t have enough sample pieces finished to show you yet. I want to do a few different ones and hope to have them finished by the next post.

In the meantime I have been working on several other pieces these past weeks and making good progress. One is ‘Over the Hills and Far Away’ which has been spread out on my dining table for most of this year.

I now have the binding to do, (which will cover that running stitch around the edge), a label to add to the back and a sleeve to hang the quilt on the wall – then a good press and it is done. Hurrah! I will be glad to have my dining table back, at least until the next large project.

Here is the binding, all ready to sew on.

It will be only the second quilt I have made large enough to attach binding. On the tiny 8-12″ mini quilts that I usually make, I simply fold the backing fabric over the front edge to create a narrow frame that doubles as binding. Larger quilts get more wear and need a proper sewn-on binding to protect the edges.

My ‘Building Blocks’ quilt top is almost done. The unattached piece of grey fabric sitting at one end is for the border I want to add to the top and bottom – a narrow one at the bottom and a wider one at the top.

I hope to appliqué something onto the top piece; perhaps a hare, picking out one of the colours in the quilt. Maybe the turquoise blue? What do you think? It is intended for a trendy baby’s Moses basket.

My ‘Criss Cross’ quilt top has just a few more spaces to fill in the centre and down the edge before I add a gingham border at the top and bottom (I am experimenting with borders solely on tops and bottoms – you may have noticed that… ). I’m not sure what this one will become; perhaps a table topper. It has been made from left over 5″ squares from a Moda Charm Pack (‘One for You and One for Me’).

One thing I want to say about this one is that I made it hard on myself sewing in a fairly zig zag manner. I did lines of crosses and squares and then joined them to lines of beige squares. However, if you tilt your head to the left you can see that it could have been stitched in straight lines, one long strip at a time, especially if you were to use all squares, rather than the single rectangle I have used in the crosses. Hmmm.

The last one is a departure from my usual ‘thing’. I call it ‘Evening in Japan’ It is going to be a wall hanging, using a Japanese traditional navy and white Shibori (a manual resist dyeing technique) patterned fabric, with a landscape of a sort in the centre – a moon shining down on two rows of houses. I plan that the eventual quilting stitches will radiate from the moon out over the rest of the quilt. Maybe. The piece of fabric on the left of the picture is Moda Boro Sodenaski in Indigo, which will be on the back. I can’t decide whether to remove the side strips to the left and right so that the white landscape area in the centre doesn’t feel enclosed. What do you think?

This post is mainly about what I have been working on lately, in addition to the abstracts I am planning for the next post and the projects set by the Stitch Club I have joined online. The Stitch Club is varied and interesting. Last week we were making charms. This week we are making a sketch book for textile pieces and samples and for recording ideas. If you are interested in that sort of thing, please check out Textileartist.org where you will find a huge textile community to join, courses to complete and oodles of information about individual textile artists and their work.

And those 5 EPP things to remember? Here they are:

1. When joining a light fabric piece to a dark one, choose thread that matches the dark one (which is not what you would expect).

2. Keep paper pieces that you use in your project, consistent. All the pieces should be the same weight of paper. Don’t mix shop bought templates with ones you have made yourself even if they look the same. I did this once and they wouldn’t join up evenly.

3. Fabric wrapped around shapes adds bulk, so sometimes small adjustments are needed as your work progresses. This is not unusual so don’t panic if it happens.

4. Make sure that the fabric ‘dog ears’ that appear on the corners of your wrapped paper pieces all face the same direction. This means that they will nest comfortably with other dog ears when the shapes are pieced.

5. Don’t be tempted to cut off the dog ears. They are needed to keep the corners sharp and stop fraying later.

I will post more of these tips now and then. There is always so much said about the big stuff when what we really want to know are all the little tips and strategies that can help so much. Does anyone have any questions or things they wonder about? If I don’t know I will try and find out, or add a link to information that will help.

It’s gone very quiet lately. Not as many people are posting and seem to be writing fewer posts. Perhaps not as many people are reading them either. It’s as if we are all holding our breaths, treading water, conserving energy. We all need to do what we need to do. Let’s hope better days are just around the corner.

Sending kind and caring wishes out to every one of you, till next time…..