I LOVE English Paper Piecing!

G'Morning! Nothing more relaxing on a Saturday morning than sipping coffee and doing a little stitching!
This is my latest little English Paper Piecing project. I LOVE to work with this technique! You can take it with you very easily (Notice my little gold carry case-I've been dying to use it for something!), prep is easy and stitching the pieces together is easy! You may have seen my big fancy Anniversary Quilt to celebrate 25 years with my Hubs on my website. Hallbrookdesigns.com and on my blog profile page. Be sure to take a look at the website and read the description on both the Pattern page and the My Favorite Things page. The center hexies were done with the English Paper Piecing technique and that's how my obsession started...I am hooked!

You can see in this close up pic the basting stitches on two pieces...top left dark blue and top right dark purple. Using traditional basting stitches is the way most folks do this, but not me! I only used basting stitches on a few pieces because I was stitching in the car and needed a few more pieces and was in a bind without my trusty glue stick.
When I started on the hexies, I found I was just to lazy to baste those seams around the paper pieces! Yep...just too lazy! Actually, I couldn't do a good job on the basting.  I have taken several appliqué classes from many famous artists who use washable glues of all kinds on their quilts. I decided to try out glue sticks with my hexie pieces. LOVED how quick it was! I could prepare dozens of pieces in only a few minutes! This was for me! The other trick was that I accidentally printed the hexie pieces on photo paper instead of card stock. The photo paper worked perfect with the glue stick! The fabric pops right off when you are ready to remove the paper due to the slick paper finish. But it is important to wash out the glue before finishing the quilt. Sometimes we want to wash a quilt, but other times we like to leave the fabric unwashed...

For this project I am experimenting with purchased Paper Pieces (to save me cutting time) shown above as well as 404 Spray and Fix Repositional Adhesive (spray on repositional glue). This glue works like a sticky note glue. I am spraying it on in two thin coats and so far, it is working wonderfully! All you have to do is spray the paper, wait 45 seconds, repeat, and then place the unsticky side onto the back of your fabric piece. Fold the edges over onto the sticky paper and Voila!, the basting is done! I am having to spray again when I want to reuse the papers, but it is so easy, it is still quicker than the gluestick or basting with thread. The advantage of the spray glue over the glue stick is that it comes off the paper much easier and leaves no residue to wash out of the fabric... It's an option for some who want to use a different technique. 

***UPDATE- This has become a sticky mess and I have now developed a technique for Starch Basting EPP!  See the tab at the top of the page!!

I am just about done with the piecing on this project. This will be the center of the small quilt and then I will appliqué the borders...most likely a pineapple theme...will show you more soon! The finished project will be available as a pattern.

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