(IM)Perfectly pieced
It was in the midst of our July heatwave- all blinds were drawn, the whole house was blacked out all day, fans were running, and we were moving as little as possible… there was no way a quilt could enter into the equation, yet my hands always like to be busy making things…
enter EPP, or English Paper Piecing, if you don’t know the lingo.
(up until July I didn’t know the lingo either)
A thing I’d never even considered before suddenly felt like exactly the cool glass of water my overheated self was craving. Tiny pieces, tiny papers, tiny stitches, handwork that felt satisfying and fulfilling and added up to something special. I did a lot of YouTube scouring to get tips on the basics.
I could have (should have) started with one of the recommended first projects or designs in the EPP world, but somehow the creation I was dreaming of was 3D EPP (is that even a thing? I didn’t know, but I decided to try it anyway).
I found the perfect use for the washi tape that was included in my Aurifil welcome box, and I used it to draft and adjust pieces to make the little house in my brainstormed blueprint.
I stitched a quick mockup and it mostly worked! But before I could work on the ‘real’ version, the weather turned, life got busy, and other projects pushed their way ahead.
Fast forward to this month’s Aurifil challenge, Stitch it Your Way, which invites us to step out of our comfort zones and try something new. This seemed to describe exactly what I was doing and give me the perfect excuse to dig out my little pieces and try to stitch them together.
There were some times along the way when things looked a bit ragged, and I wasn’t sure if this experiment would work out. I felt more comfortable with thread basting (for which I used 12-weight thread in 2460), and things felt a bit rickety at times.
The 80-weight thread which often accompanies EPP is so incredibly fine and shiny, it really does feel like something which would delight Rumpelstiltskin. Thread this tiny would normally totally intimidate me, but one of my favorite parts of being an Artisan this year is forcing myself to use threads/weights I normally would shy away from, and discover the worlds and opportunities that open up that way.
Magically, the strength of that 80-weight thread (I used 2260 in red for contrast) built the stable foundation my little house needed so that I could remove the papers and turn it inside out.
And isn’t she delightful? She is decidedly not perfect, but she chronicles a tiny bit of bravery, and that is just right in my book.
I so enjoyed this tiny project, this foray into a new way of creating, and the strength and sheen of this tiny 80-weight thread. Plus, stitching text with this wool thread (in my favorite color 8735) always has my heart.
And now I have this lovely little house on my desk to store all my thread ends- like these wool beauties.
These are just two in what I imagine will be a new neighborhood of experiments- I already have a different EPP project in the works.
Have you tried English Paper Piecing? Or challenged yourself to a new type of making lately? I’d love to hear about it.