I have many fond memories of sitting in draughty, old Forge Cottage making things. Mum taught us English Paper Piecing many moons ago. As children we rummaged through scraps of fabric left over from clothes or curtains she made. Making, what seemed like then, enormous scatter cushions, covered in tesselating hexagons.
The process started with cutting templates, from card recycled from her work. My favourite the bright blue with grid lines. The tacking stitches a release from the tiny controlled stitches joining the shapes together, as the project grew and grew in rounds.
Recently I was looking for a project I could immerse myself in, whilst at the same time, enjoying the hubbub of family life. My EPP Ferris Wheel has been the perfect solution. Always nearby in a basket I can pick it up and sew for a whisker or an hour…or two. Whilst still being on hand to referee disputes and be shot with sticks!
I love the Ferris Wheel, hexagons, squares and triangles. Enough variation to keep me, wanting to sew more. I am using light value fabrics for the hexagons (fussy cut Heavenly Pixies from Michael Miller). Plus raiding the scrappy bin; warms for squares and colds for triangles. This is so relaxing. I am intending to have made a finished article with it for New Years Eve 2013 (if I can wait that long)……a year exactly! What should it become, any ideas?
So lovely you’ve included our humble patchwork beginnings at Forge Cottage on here, Sis! It’s lovely that we all three of us are still quilting in our own ways. I’ve always used hand made paper piecing as a form of therapy, preferring it over any more whizzy methods as, like you said, it can be picked up and put down in a moment. In my periods of ill-health I loved still feeling like I was achieving something whilst ‘resting’. Though I have now fully embraced sewing machines after your birthday present and am secretly addicted to the speed at which you can run something up (!), I’ll be getting right back to hand sewing just as soon as your baby niece has graduated from my lap and it’s safe to hold a needle once more!
P.S. I’d forgotten that bright blue card with gridlines on, did Dad bring it home from work?!
Feel very priviledged to have been given Sophie’s first finished lap quilt. It has been keeping me warm on these cold winter evenings and the colours are lovely’