Is there anyone else who prefers this method of making patchwork or quilt tops rather than using a machine?
I was taught many moons ago using this method - I think my Mum still has the mat I made out of hexagons backed onto felt. I have tried with the "sewing machine" way of stitching together shapes and I don't like it half as much as doing everything by hand. I know it's much quicker but I don't seem to be able to be accurate enough with my cutting and stitching and everything ends up wonky. Using paper templates gives a much better result.
Once I have finished the quilt top only then do I go to the machine for putting it all together and doing the quilting.
Not weird. I like to have a hand project, although I don't do it over paper, just eyeball a quarter-inch seam. It's faster than machine sewing for pieces
1.5" or less, with set-in seams. (Like the insane bowtie quilt.) But most of my piecing is by machine, otherwise I'd be lucky to finish more than one per year! Roberta in D
"Morag in Scotland" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news: snipped-for-privacy@bt.com...
I've been doing EPP hexagons as my handwork. Last year I made Christmas wreath ornaments for my staff and trustees (six green hexes, white center). I now have two ongoing projects. One is batik "flowers" (six hexes around a yellow center). The other is silk (from my necktie collection). I'm using mostly red/black/silver/gray: a red center, then six black/gray, then a ring of red/black. Don't know what either of these projects will become, but they're pleasant to work on.
I photocopied hex graph paper
formatting link
and fuse it tofreezer paper (3 sheets of freezer paper at a time), then cut out the hexes.(Yes, this is tedious). I fuse the freezer paper hexes to the fabric, thencut out, eyeballing the seam allowance. [I use lightweight fusibleinterfacing to stabilize the wobbly necktie fabric.] Nann
Not weird at all. The thing I like about EPP is that you're not restricted to any shape and the corners are much easier to match up.
The quilt that ended up being for DS was pieced that way and I'm slowly working on another EPP quilt top. It's more likely to get finished than any started by machine as I'm usually using the machine to make clothes. (I've just finished unearthing the sewing table to finish off some stuff started about 6 months ago, both DS and I need some new clothes)
I do everything by hand, and enjoy it very much! I also get extremely good results. One thing I do differently from the usual is that my quilting templates are actually stencils rather than things one draws around. I get gridded plastic template sheets and cut out the "holes", leaving 1/2" space around each hole. I lay the stencil on the back side of the fabric, draw inside each hole with a pencil. The key to precision for me is that the pencil lines drawn are the stitching lines, and not the cutting lines! I cut the pieces by "eyeballing" the 1/2" space between the marked pieces -- very quick and easy! The plastic gridded template sheets have 1/4" grids, so all I have to do is be sure that there are 2 little grid squares between each stencil. The sheets are also 8.5" by 11", so quite a few stencils will fit on each. I have stencils for 2" squares, 1" squares, various triangles, rectangles, and hexagons, and save them from quilt to quilt.
By the way, I do indeed possess and know how to use 2 sewing machines. I simply prefer doing all quilt work by hand --- piecing, basting, quilting, whole-cloth work, etc.
I wouldn't say I prefer it, but I do like it - it is so versatile; and with the shapes you can use, it is quicker than trying to do the same with the machine. Certainly not weird, nor old-fashioned - it's just your preferred way. *Your prerogative! . In message , Morag in Scotland writes
I'm doing a hexagon project too. But not EPP. I am using Inklingo, by Linda Franz. It is a "book on CD" which includes many many pages of shapes, each in 20 different color-weights of ink. You print the shapes, which include cutting and stitching lines (with the corners clearly marked as +'s) on the wrong side of the fabric. (Fabric fused to freezer paper, which can be reused several times before loosing its "stick".) There are also pages of no-seam-allowance shapes to print for use in "fussy cutting". At $29.95 it is well worth it. And using a running stitch instead of a whip stitch is faster, and in my opinion, neater. If you go to Linda Franz.com or Google Inklingo, you should be able to get to her site where there is a video about the product. (NAYY, but I love it and lots of her other stuff too.) Currently there are 2 collections out. The first is 1" and 2" (on a side) hexes, 1" diamonds, squares, a pentagon, star point, both half hexes, quarter and third hexes, elongated hex (2"sides and 1" sides) both half elongated hexes,half star point, equilateral triangle and half. Some of the larger shapes have images in them so that they are ready to do back basting appliqué, if you wish. Collection 2 is half and quarter square triangles. Designed with machine sewists in mind. You can print a page, layer it with an unprinted fabric. Sew on the seam lines, cut on the cutting lines and you have perfect triangle squares. No paper to tear off, no measuring and hoping it is right, no drawing lines on the back of squares, etc. Of course it can be used to hand piece too.
With the hexes, at least one is machine sewing the "rings" together, then setting the center by hand. Easy and fast. I love not having to do all the "extra" prep work to get to the sewing.
I don't think it's wierd at all, there are lots of reasons one might do it, you might not like to be tied to the sewing machine, though I tend to find that bindings, knitting and cross stitch keep this from being a problem for me. The other obvious one is the results, I really haven't got the knack of strip piecing, my hand pieced 4 patches are far better than anything I've acheived with a machine. It it's time consuming, but not massively so, as it's so portable and I've found you don't need to press anywhere near as much, I think I just pressed before cutting then before layering the quilt sandwich. I definitely prefer to do tiny running stitch with a back stich every 3rd-4th stitch along a marked seam line than I do do whip stitch.
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