Saturday 2 February 2019

English Paper Piecing Wedding Ring

Have you heard about the Sip Tea and EPP party me and Megan of Dolly Henry are having every Sunday on Instagram? It's a lot of fun and anyone who loves English Paper Piecing can join us using the #sipteaandepp hashtag. The idea is to share the EPP projects you are working on, encourage each other and share tips, tricks and interesting ideas.


I have a few EPP projects that I would like to give a bit more attention to this year. One of them is a Hexagon quilt that I started in July 2017. I needed a project that would be simple enough to just pick up and stitch any time anywhere. A mindless project that would serve as a therapy for my unsettled mind. I started slowly making hexies with my favourite prints and stitching them into small panels. I did not progress far until I came across a picture of a lovely sampler quilt in one of my quilting magazines. It gave me a new idea for my Hexagon quilt and I put together my own version based on it. It will have hexagons, small wedding rings, diamonds - all done using the English Paper Piecing method and some more fun elements, so the Sip Tea and EPP party is a nice chance for me to be more organised and keep working on my projects weekly. Hopefully one day I would have a lovely quilt to snuggle under.


After I shared this project on Instagram two weeks ago, I was asked many questions about how I am making the Wedding Rings using the EPP method. Simple: I found a pattern of the Wedding Ring design in one of the Japanese quilting books, scanned the diagram and reduced the size by 50%. I tried different settings until I got the right size that suited me.


I printed the reduced pattern and cut out only the small pieces for the "petals". These small pieces are my templates. Then, using plain printing paper, I cut the shapes I need and, using a small hole punch, make holes in each shape to help me pull the papers out once I am done stitching.



Then comes the fun part - picking the scraps for the "petals". I lay the scraps in the order that I like and top them with the required papers. Using fabric glue, I baste the shapes and place them in the same order. I like to work on a large board so I can easily move my work in progress if needed. Once I have all the shapes basted, I stitch them together and start working on the next petal.


Personally I prefer to use thread for basting my shapes, but those ones are too small and fiddly so I decided to give a glue basting a go. I am using a Clover glue stick at the moment, but I am expecting a new Sewline glue that might be better for this project. The Clover glue stick is a bit too messy and too sticky.



What I like the most about this project is that I can use the tiniest of scraps that I tend to keep and they make a lovely rainbow when you put them all together, so if you are thinking about giving this method a go, I would love to hear from you.  If you are on Instagram, I am looking forward to seeing you every Sunday between 6pm and 9pm (AEST), but if you are overseas, not a problem - grab your EPP and whenever you have a moment, sip tea and enjoy your EPP, take a picture and share it with us using the #sipteaandepp hashtag. Happy tea sipping and EPP-ing! Larisa xox 


5 comments:

  1. Very pretty. I love EPP and it is fun to see new projects. x

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  2. The wedding ring part I really enjoyed. Love what you have done by reducing the Japanese design size to 50%!

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  3. Wedding ring is the common thing in all the cultures. Nowadays diamond wedding ring is very popular and available for both man and woman. The trending rings are available with high demand as well as traditional and classic design is also nor rare.

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