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