Learn How to English Paper Piece! (New Book Blog Hop)

There is a new book, Learn How to English Paper Piece by Carolina Moore that teaches you how to English Paper Piece (EPP) exclusively through Nancy's Notions!  I am a self-taught EPP-er and jumped at the chance to review her new book.  I was fortunate enough to meet Carolina at Fall Quilt Market and I really love her book!  The book has 10 projects that are beginner friendly to be made with EPP.  When I first started, I had sewn EPP objects but didn't really know how to use them in projects so I think this is a great thought starter for projects!

I decided to break out my EPP supplies and make one of the projects in the book!  I picked Grandmother’s Flower Patch Quilt: A much simpler alternative to the “Grandmother’s Flower Garden” as my project. 

The one thing that is missing in the book are templates, so I would highly suggest purchasing your templates from stores like Paper Pieces, so you can purchase the papers and the acrylic rotary cutter template.  I already own like 1000 - 1.25" hexagon pieces from a previous project, so I decided to use the 1.25" size instead of the 1.5" size called out in the pattern.  (Side note:  1000 pieces is going to take me my whole life to use up.  I'm not sure why I bought so many and didn't go with a more standard size of 1" or 1.5")

Using scraps of fabric, I glue basted all of my hexagons.  My favorite fabric glue stick is from Sewline, they work really well and each glue stick lasts a long time.   I also find that I like Tulip Piecing Needles (size 9) and Gutermann's thread because it doesn't shred sliding across the papers.

I am a ridiculously slow EPP-er and I dug into my EPP block and found some extra hexie-flowers I created to make up these 9!  I decided on a white and charcoal background and the teal sashing.

My liquid glue fineliner tip was super clogged and I was unable to glue baste on my background pieces.  I improvised and decided to use my 505 Basting Spray to baste my flowers to the background.  I sprayed the edges of the flower on top of a piece of batting to protect my work surface and stuck them to the background.

Since the pattern called for 1.5" hexagons and I used 1.25" hexagons, my flowers looked a bit small on the backgrounds.  What do you think?

I appliqued the hexagon flowers on the background and made an executive decision to cut the pieces down since I used smaller hexagons.  I played with the sizing a little bit to make sure that the relative size looked similar to the pattern in the book.  I added the teal sashing and like the background blocks, I shrank the pieces to match.

I added the final white border and decided on a wavy grid quilting design to finish the quilt!

Hexie flowers are pretty easy to make via EPP and this quilt is definitely a fast finish!

Want a chance at winning a copy of this book?! Check out the Giveaway that is running on Instagram here!

Find out what other quilters on the book tour have to say about Carolina's book and see what they are inspired to create.

 

Join me again on Friday for Friday Foto Fun! Link up and share your progress on your own projects!

 

 

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