I found another sewing hobby: English Paper Piecing. When I first heard of EPP I thought, “ooohhh, Never!” It sounded so tedious, so boring. basting tiny paper shapes with fabric and sewing an entire quilt by hand did not sound appealing….. Then it happened. Everywhere I looked I started to see EPP examples. Little by little by resistance was chipped away. Then I found Millefiori Quilts – Las Passacaglia, which look like a kaleidoscope in quilt form. The DIY Addict has a site with information, photos, great directions for getting started and supplies to purchase through her Etsy shop.

Las Passacaglia quilts designs b(y Willyne Hammerstein) can be a lot of fun. I only have 2 rosettes so far, but each shape is “fussy cut” by choosing what part of the design works for that area and can be repeated.

EPP_la_passacaglia_rosette_2
English Paper Piecing: Rosette 2

To start EPP the shapes can be basted or glued, then sewed together. I’ll add more on another post about which works for me, but I really like the technique shown by CraftyPod in her YouTube tutorial about getting started with EPP. I started with glue basting, went back and forth thread basting and glueing, and have ended up thread basting for the moment. I read a few blogs about women sewing on their commutes and figured I would try the same. The commute to Seattle can take over an hour and gets more frustrating when traffic is stalled, so I started basting EPP shapes on my bus ride. Problem solved! My shapes get done and I come home refreshed and relaxed after work!

la_passacaglia_rosette_1
English Paper Piecing: Rosette 1

There are 4 large rosettes and 31 rosettes in all for the quilt. So far I have one large rosette complete and one half done. This project is about the journey….a long, long journey. I’ll post progress, but am expecting this to be a 3-5 year term.