Brit Quilt Swap- Summer Medallion

I have finished and sent my quilt and it is on its way to its new and lovely owner!  Here are some pics.   A hint on where it might be going and a glimpse at the backing fabric- a vintage print which I picked for the colour, the motifs are crazy clocks and timepieces.

This quilt was based on 'Mrs Vigor's Medallion' by Brigitte Giblin, from her beautiful and inspiring book, 'Feathering the Nest'.  It is a scaled down version of the centre motif. It was a journey of construction, starting with English paper piecing the centre star- tricky with its subtle curves, I will do a separate post on how I managed that and some tips in case you fancy doing the same.

The scallop style edge is also English paper pieced and added to the centre star.  This whole motif is appliquéd onto the background.

The outer triangle ring was foundation pieced and then appliquéd around the medallion.  The solid background fabric is Verdigris from Connecting Threads.  Penny sent me this along with some of their other solids.  They have a lovely feel, a smoother than Kona and their colours are incredible.  They don't ship internationally, but USA and Canadian quilters and no doubt familiar with their fabrics.

I hand quilted- do not look closely, this is not my best skill.   I tried machine quilting but it was not going to sit well on such a lot of hand piecing.  I bound it with a lovely scrap that Marit sent me, perfect colours and print and added a scrap of Chloe's closet check to make up the length.

I loved making this,  It was a struggle at times but a new way of working.  I can't do sustained handwork as it is hard on the hands and arms but enjoy spells of it.  I was sewing this off and on all through the summer and it has been a summer of change.  I love it but I don't tend to cling to what I have make for swaps as I make them with the recipient clearly in my mind.  The selfish part was choosing this pattern- I was desperate to make this from Feathering the Nest from the moment I  saw it.  I think I have ticked enough boxes with colours and prints to tickle my partner's fancy.   It has been sent with a pile of goodies, I wish it safe transit.  And I wonder what I will receive in this swap too, hmm, curious...

English Paper Piecing: Prepping

In between dizziness and watching the Olympics I have been working on a couple of English paper piecing projects whilst cheering on gymnasts, cyclists, rowers and the like.  A huge thankyou to all the supportive emails I got about labyrinthitis. I am not as spinny as last week but still hopeless on transport so I think recovery will be a gradual progress, and an extra big thankyou to Fiona for her very helpful email.  EPP is the perfect holiday project, easy to transport, compact and good to do sitting anywhere.  Graph  paper and custom shapes are available for free here but despite my often thrifty ways I would recommend Paper Pieces over that, great quality paper, reusable and mine arrived from USA in under a week.  Check out the discount code at Katy's blog- still useable until the end of August.

Buying Brigitte Giblin's book changed the way I view EPP.  I am working on a Medallion for my Brit Quilt partner and Tessellations II for me.  I thought I would share some of my prep for cutting and sticking- I use glue rather than basting to get my shapes ready and the only glue I would recommend is Sewline- fantastic stuff!  Brigitte captivated me with her fussy cuts.  I love fussy cutting, even though it is wasteful is is waste worth having!  To fussy cut the squares I used washi tape to create a viewing window on my quilt ruler.

For the triangles, diamonds and hexagons, I drew cutting templates on template plastic the size of the shapes plus 1/2" seam allowance.  I know this is generous but Brigitte recommends increasing seam allowance as the side lengths increase.  These shapes have 2 1/2" finished side length and a larger SA makes them easier to work with.  I use a Sewline fabric pencil to draw round the template, it is softer with a lot less drag than a standard pencil and can be removed from the fabric too.  Then I rotary or scissor cut the shapes.  The clear grid templates allow for fussy cutting too.

For the gluing stage, I work my way anti clockwise around the shapes and stick to that on all the shapes which makes them fit together better as the dog ears snuggle up and behave.   It doesn't matter if you go clockwise or anticlockwise but once you pick a direction, stay the same for all your shapes.  I start with a mini cross in the centre of the paper just to hold it in place on the fabric.

Then, I run the glue pen along about 2/3rds of the way along one side,

 And using a long pin to tuck the fabric over and allow for a bit of room for the stitches, I press the fabric down.  If you fold the fabric round the paper too tightly you will end up stitching through the paper itself which will blunt your needle, that pin adds a little ease.

The next stripe of glue goes right along an edge including over the fabric at one corner.  Use the pin again to get a neat corner and fold.

And repeat until the shape is complete. The dog ears are flapping away and I find the other shapes interlock and sit on them so they act like little shelves and are rather helpful!

I bought a new cutting mat for this project as my previous one was shredded and blunting my rotary cutters.  Following a recommendation on Instagram from Christina I plumped for an Omnigrid and was amazed at the difference in cutting- marks actually healed and my blades don't immediately loose their sharpness.

I am going for a change in colours with the Tessellation's Quilt away from my usual colour palettes.

 So far the centre rosette is complete and I have cut out the fabric for the next stage.  It is a slow grower, but very satisfying.

You can find more English paper piecing help here with Katy in her Hexy MF quilt-a-long for Fat Quarterly, here with Lynne and here with Florence.  All are well worth a visit for help, tips and inspiration.