Last month, I had the honor of having two of my quilts on display at QuiltCon 2023, the annual juried quilt show of the Modern Quilt Guild, in Atlanta, Georgia. Today, I want to share a behind the scenes look at the designing and making of one of the quilts, Journeys Aren’t Straight Lines.
While the majority of the quilts I make are machine pieced, this quilt was hand pieced, using a technique called English Paper Piecing (EPP). Not familiar with this technique or want to learn more? I’ve got you covered—I’m including some EPP links and resources.
When I first started designing this quilt, I didn’t have a clear idea of what I wanted it to look like or how big it would be. I just knew I wanted to create something inspired by the twists and turns of life. My only design parameter going into the project was that it had to be pieced by hand. Normally, I use a machine for most of my quilts, but I wanted a project that was more portable for when I was traveling in the spring and summer of 2022.
After sketching out my initial design, I took to the computer and drafted a few blocks. To test out the initial placement of the blocks, I printed them out on basic paper and cut them out with scissors. Playing around with different arrangements was a lot of fun and informative. I loved seeing how the pieces fit together and how each little change impacted the overall look of the quilt. Here’s an early arrangement that I came up with:
After finalizing which block designs I’d be moving forward with and size, I decided to keep the color palette pretty simple. I wanted a single curvy line with lots of contrast, navigating around the circles, to be the star of the quilt. I did most of my fabric cutting and block basting in the Studio and much of the hand stitching while on the couch, sitting outdoors, or while traveling. That’s the beauty of handwork, specifically EPP, it’s SUPER portable and you don’t need a lot of supplies.
Blocks accumulated over time, as I stitched them in the margins between workingon Whole Circle Studio quilt projects and other commitments. I started piecing blocks in early March 2022 and completed the last one and stitching them all together in mid August 2022.
In the end, I made 272 hexagon blocks to piece the quilt, measuring 62″ x 57″ and then used my walking foot and a variety of Aurifil thread weights (12wt, 40wt, and 50wt) and colors to achieve the quilting.
Want to give English Paper Piecing (EPP) a try?
It’s a really fun technique where you wrap fabric around a sturdy template (usually made of a lightweight cardstock), and then stitch the pieces together by hand. EPP is great for beginners, and it’s perfect for tackling tricky Y-seams and even curves!
Want to know the best part (other than it being portable)? Since you’re working with small pieces of fabric, EPP is an excellent way to use your scrap fabric stash .Once you’ve sewn all the pieces together, you simply remove the template and admire your beautiful quilt top. I hope you’ll give it a try!
To get you inspired, I have a section on my website dedicated to some FREE English Paper Piecing resources.
If you’re a member of the Modern Quilt Guild, you can watch a replay of my free Getting Started with English Paper Piecing webinar.
EPP is super popular right now with lots of modern quilters. You can purchase standard shapes, like hexagons or diamonds, to use as templates and design your own quilt. There are also EPP patterns and template paper packs that you can purchase like the EPP version of my alphabet blocks, Typecast.
Express Yourself with the Typecast English Paper Piecing (EPP) Complete Paper Pack + Pattern Guide!
This paper pack gives you everything you need to piece the entire English alphabet and any word orphrase you want. Paper templates can be reused over and over to make multiple quilt projects. Customize your own words and phrases to design your own quilted projects! Also included is the TypecastBlocks EPP Guide, walking you through making your own English Paper Pieced(hand-pieced) Typecast letters. 
1 Comment
Whoa!!! “Journeys Aren’t Straight Lines”! Occasionally– among the beautiful works of art I see, whether researching, wandering around at a museum, or looking out the window at our natural world, occasionally, something hits me in a visceral way, bringing tears. Your quilt is one of those. It’s as though I’ve been looking for something important, and “there it is!” It does not get by me that so much expertise is put to work here- the design, the colors, the flow!, the work!- and naturally a lot more that I’m not aware of. Usually when something hits viscerally in this way, I’m not only admiring the piece, but am also imagining the years of work the artist did to get here- the learning, the frustrations, the perseverance, the time, the joy, camaraderie with others who inspire, teachers, the love of the work and, again, all the personal things I’m not aware of. That may seem dramatic, but it’s what happens. And I LOVE when that happens! Though I’m 62 and experience has told me again and again to keep going with my projects, whatever they may be…I still often need this kind of inspiration to remind me and calm my anxious heart. Also, I just saw your Double Friendship Knots workshop and am going to click and see what that’s about! I’ve only made one quilt, but love working in other ways with fabric, fibers…all the stuff. So thank you, Sheri! Very impressive, and very well done!!!