Monday's Report on English Paper Piecing

On my Very Tiny English Paper Piecing ...

I'm pleased to have a very tiny bit of progress to report!

Here's how it looks:

 

 

This week's picture is very similar to last week's picture (below), only the bottom row is now finished, and there are 8 more hexagons along the left side, and 7 more on the right.

 

I'm still working out the details as to how to prep this for going into a frame ... but I'm getting closer.

Linking this post to this week's Monday Morning Star Count at Life Under Quilts ...

Monday Morning Star Count (Wednesday Edition!)

Even though most of my sewing happens at the sewing machine, I love the chance to sew from a comfy spot on the couch or rocking chair. So I keep a handsewing project or two in the works ...

 

 

Here's my very tiny English Paper Piecing project. It's going to be a wall-hanging ... hopefully soon. I mentioned a tiny bit of progress in a November post, but that was not much progress since the September milestone post ...

 

Since the pieces for this are so small, I keep a very tiny sewing kit so that it's a portable project. This way, I can toss in my purse or tote bag, or keep it in the car for when I need some sewing to fill a bit of "waiting" time ... Small. Simple. Portable.

 

The assembled hexagons don't fit in the tin any more, but the tin has plenty of room for fabric circles, hexagon papers, thimble, needles, thread, and tiny scissors.

 

 

Sometimes, just a little extra motivation makes the difference in keeping consistent progress happening ... so I'm excited that Jessica's Life Under Quilts blog is hosting a Monday Morning Star Counts weekly link-up.

 

Even though it's no longer Monday Morning, I'm linking this post to this week's Monday Morning Star Count, and looking forward to seeing what some other quilters are working on this week.

 

This is going to be framed in an 8½" x 11" frame, so I just have some white background pieces to finish. Haven't counted the number of hexagons still needed, so let's just say, I need about another inch of height, and another inch of width, all in white ...

Very Tiny English Paper Piecing (that will someday be a wall-hanging)

So, ever since summertime (when I had the motivation of Monday Morning Star Counts), I haven't worked on my Very Tiny English Paper Piecing. Until a couple of weeks ago. I guess I got re-inspired. For one thing, I really want to make this into a framed wall-hanging. For another thing, I noticed that at least one blogger has kept up the Monday Morning Star Counts tradition that Jessica started. (And why not, even without the central spot to link posts like this? Thanks for the inspiration, Pamela!) And also - it's such a satisfying thing to make some progress while sitting and relaxing.

I got out the tiny EPP, and worked on it (with my Christmas Hexagon Quilt on my lap!

As it turns out, the kitty liked the Christmas Quilt idea, too, so she sat on part of the quilt near my feet.

I got busy and made a bunch of tiny hexagons, and put a whole row of white hexagons along one side of the soon-to-be wall-hanging. (All those white ones on the right-hand-side of the picture above are new.)

These are very tiny, as you may recall. Last time I posted about this one was this blog post. I think the first time I blogged about this particular tiny hexagon project was here, although I've posted about other tiny hexagon projects in the past (such as here and here).

 Anyhoo, I've got a little progress happening here and there, and that's been nice.

Since I like the chance to share and see quilty progress on quilty blogs, I'm linking this post to this week's Work In Progress Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

Mini English Paper Piecing milestone

I've finally reached a milestone in my very tiny English Paper Piecing!

I'm still loving the scrappiness, the colorfulness, and the tinyness!

I still need to add a few dozen white hexagons to fill in around the edges. All the black background area will be white. Right now, the widest point (couldn't resist the smiley face in the corner!) is 9 inches. Eventually, the whole thing will fit in a document-sized frame that's 8-and-a-half by 11 inches.

This has been a fun take-along project, since it's so tiny ... 

I'm linking up (days late!) with Jessica's last-of-the-summer Monday Morning Star Count at Life Under Quilts. (Better late than never!) But actually, I DID take this picture on Monday, since I got a lot of sewing done over the long Labor Day weekend. And also, the Monday link parties have been a great motivation to get even a little progress happening. Thanks again, Jessica!

Monday Report on English Paper Piecing

This past week, I got a little EPP done while I was listening to some unrelated training videos on the computer. Just a bit of progress, but it's twice as much as last week!

A couple of people have asked exactly what size my hexagons are. I printed and cut out card stock templates that are 5/16" (about 8mm) - so, pretty small.

Since I'm making these into a framed wall hanging, and since my templates are just plain, white card stock, I'm probably going to just leave the templates in when I frame this. Good thing, too, since this is what the flowers look like from the back. 

In the past, when I've made individual hexagon flowers this small to embellish projects, taking the templates out required tweezers!

I'm linking this post to this week's Monday Morning Star Count at Life Under Quilts.

Here's how progress is looking:

6 hexagon+background sets

9 colored hexagons

2 white hexagons

A Little Bit of Little EPP

So ... I've been trying the Blogger app on my phone, and it keeps doing weird things. This post was published, but then disappeared, so I'm updating/redoing ... 

This past week, I did just a little bit of English Paper Piecing. Just a little, but it's more progress than I had last week. Just enough to link up with this week's Monday Morning Star Count at Life Under Quilts ...

Here are the pieces I've got partially assembled for my little wallhanging.

I've had several other sewing projects in the works, and I'm hoping to blog about some of them later this week, so stay tuned!

English Paper Piecing, Tiny Style

This past week, I didn't make any new tiny flowers. (Nor did I sew any vintage diamonds!) But I did stitch some tiny flowers into usable "groups" of two flowers plus two white hexagons. 

I'm still not sure what order the flowers will go in, or exactly how many more I'll make, so putting the flowers into groups is a step in the right direction, while still giving me the flexibility to rearrange.

When I was sitting with these flowers in my lap, I asked one of the kids for my tape measure. Apparently, Dad's tape measures were easier to find than Mom's, since this is the tape measure I promptly got. :-) So - this layout is about 8 inches wide already! With a few white hexagons around the sides, and another row or two of hexagon flowers, I should have an 8" x 10" frame full of tiny hexagons soon! 

I'll be linking this post to this week's Monday Morning Star Count at Life Under Quilts, which is one of the blogs that continually inspires my English Paper Piecing. 

I tried writing this post with the Blogger app on my phone ... but it wouldn't publish. And then it disappeared. Now, as I type this (on the computer), it's showing up on my phone's blogger app. So ... if a similar post (or three) turns up later on, that's why.

This past week's English Paper Piecing

I love the speed and ease of quilt-piecing on the sewing machine. But I love the portability of hand-sewing, and I love the chance to keep my hands busy making something pretty.

This past week, I snapped a few pictures with my phone while I was sitting and stitching in random spots ...

I spent a little time working on my tiny English-Paper-Pieced flowers when I was outside watching the kids swimming at Grandma's ...

As of Wednesday afternoon, this is how many tiny flowers I had. (For the eventual layout, imagine all the black background space filled with white ...)

I also made a couple flowers when I took one of the kids to a scout meeting ...

And I got out the diamond EPP to pass the time in a waiting room ...

It's nice to have some supplies in a compact format, for convenient handstitching.

The single row of diamonds around the border is coming along great!

Always plenty to do ...

Vintage-Inspired Diamonds ...

Here's where the Diamonds EPP is looking ... 38 new colorful diamonds around the edge, new since last week.

And the Very Tiny EPP flower count is up to 20 - up from 16 three weeks ago.

I'm linking this post to this week's Monday Morning Star Count at Life Under Quilts. And I'll be checking the links there for pictures of some other handsewing projects that quilters have been working on during the past week.

Pink Ferris Wheel Dolly Quilt

So, this was one of the intro pics on Monday's post ...

Here's the rest of the story ...

I made this dolly quilt for a little girl who's about to be a big sister - since I was giving her mom a quilt for her new baby, I figured big sister might need something for her babies.

I'd been wanting to try my hand at incorporating some hearts into my free-motion quilting, and this tiny quilt (around 18" square) was just the project for hearts.

Actually, I was just going to add occasional hearts to the loopy free motion on the background (which I did), but I was impressed at how well the ferris wheel lent itself to a hearts & loops design.

The quilting was fun, and this tiny project was satisfyingly quick (and adorable!)

The back of the mini-quilt is made from some of the oxford-cloth fabrics I mentioned in a post last week.

(Speaking of which, I'm planning to post some more about my next oxford-cloth quilty project soon, so stay tuned!)

And if this design looks familiar, the little bit of English Paper Piecing is like the (bigger) piece I blogged about here and made into another friend's baby quilt here.

A Mini Window Quilt

I've been meaning to make a mini window quilt for the other window in the girls' room ...
Since this one was little (about 30" x 30"), it went quickly.

I used the same flowers as the big floral window quilt - I just used a little bit of floral on a background of white-and-off-white squares cut from sheets. I quilted this one with a bigger-than-usual loopy free-motion design.

Actually, I used the same snowball-corner technique as on the shirts-and-sheets window quilt - but for the corners on this one, I used bits of the same floral as the girls' big window quilt. So it's all nice and coordinated. :-)

More Mini Hexagon Embellishments

So, a while back, I told you about my new favorite pot holders. And also my new favorite kitchen towels.

Since I love them, I decided to embellish a couple more pot holders I've had laying around.

Again, brown is not usually my thing, but these were left over from something else. I think the set was $2 at Wal-Mart, but they're sturdy and thick. And, when they've got some quilty bits attached, I love them!

Cute mini hexagons. I love reaching for a favorite pot holder and smiling at quilty hexagons. 

As you may recall, these hexagons are really tiny ... and really cute. I blogged about them here and here and at the end of this post.

Since these are really little quilty bits, 

I'm linking this post

to this week's Little Quilt Monday

at Pieceful Life ~

(even though it's Tuesday!)

I'm also linking to
this week's Fabric Tuesday
at Quilt Story.

Embellished Towels

I've been finding some fun things to do with my Very Tiny Hexagons (see previous posts here and here. You might also remember this post, where I embellished my now-favorite pot holders.)

Recently, I found another spot where I didn't realize I needed tiny hexagons: cotton towels. The kind of towels I use to line a bread basket, or to cover rising bread dough.

These towels started life as a tablecloth. I found the tablecloth for a couple dollars, and loved it: Plain white cotton with simple blue stripes in a big round tablecloth that I have no use for. But for a couple dollars, I knew I could find a use for it!

I cut four towels in my favorite size & serged the edges. (The remainder of the tablecloth is waiting to see if the rest of the towels need to be that size, or another size.) 

The addition of a very tiny hexagon was just what each towel needed.

So, now I have adorable towels with tiny hexagon flowers that make me smile.

And, oddly, with my new favorite towels and my new favorite pot holders, I've been getting more inspired to bake awesome things.

In fact, I think I've baked more in the past couple weeks than in the previous few months combined! Haven't heard any complaints about that, though, so it must be a good thing!

 

The fun thing about these tiny hexagons, is that when I wash the towels, the tiny hexagons crinkle up like real quilts do, which I think is adorable. (It's the little things ...)