Hello quilting friends! I hope the month of July has been treating you well. We’ve been busy with work and family gatherings, so I haven’t had much time for sewing. During a couple of car trips to see relatives, I was able to work on my EPP hexie flower project: a Jelly Garden quilt (pattern by Sweetwater Cotton Shoppe). On my June 17 blog post, I shared that I had completed 16 of the 32 flowers, round one of the flowers to be precise. In early July I made flower number 17 (the dark navy flower pictured below). I also jumped ahead in the pattern and added a second round to just one of my previously made hexie flowers (also pictured below). It was so satisfying to see a full, finished flower!
The outer ring of this fully complete flower showcases one of my all-time favorite fabrics, which you have seen on many of my projects. It came from Brenda Riddle’s Sweet Liberty collection. I have a few bits of that fabric left, and I will use every last morsel!
On another short drive to visit family, I began working on flowers 18, 19, 20 and 21. I kept my red thread on the needle and sewed the petals to the centers on these four flowers. Next I will sew the petal sides together using various blue threads. My thread of choice has been Aurifil 80 weight thread. It is thinner than typical machine thread, which helps to keep my stitches a little less noticeable, but it is strong enough that it doesn’t break. My thread colors for this project have been red (MK80-2250), light robins egg (MK80-2210), wedgewood (MK80-2725), and steel blue (MK80-2775).
Here is another shot of a few of my hexie flowers, resting on top of my Rectangly quilt in red, white and blue. Summer may be winding down, but I am still enjoying being surrounded by cheerful fabrics. I hope to get all 32 of my round-one hexie flowers done by the end of August, and then I will pick up this project again next summer. I really enjoy sewing in season.
Thanks for stopping by! If I’ve finally convinced you to give English Paper Piecing a whirl, some of my favorite resources are listed below. Take care and have a great weekend!
~Taunja
Great EPP Products:
1” Hexagon Paper Pieces by Sue Daley
Jenna Kimball’s Foxglove Straw Needles #9
Aurifil 80 weight cotton thread
Sue Daley rotating cutting mat
Fabrics Designers I love for my EPP project:
EPP Tutorial I found helpful:
Erica Arndt’s playlist (3 tutorials) for EPP
