I don’t have a lot of room in the camper to work so I am cutting and working just one of these hexagons at a time. You have to be really careful in placement as the pieces are slanted a certain way and can not be turned to fit any which way.
The F on the papers indicate to me which side goes up next to the fabric – I put a dot of glue on the F and then press it to the back side of the fabric and cut around it allowing for seam allowance.
I am using jelly roll strips and yes there is a tiny waste of fabric but not a lot.
I glue baste these as I don’t want to put the needle through the paper which is like card stock – I got them from Paper Pieces. I don’t know how easy (or not ) it will be to take the papers out but I guess I will find out – I might have to dampen them for all I know. I don’t mind thread basting for the most part if the pieces are like one inch hexies or less but more than that I need to go through the paper and I find it harder to do.
I eyeball a quarter inch around – it might be more.
The dark fabric is a water color batik I have had sitting in the sewing room on the shelf for about 5 years or more – I had 5 yards of it, I only brought about a 1/2 yard with me – it should keep me busy for a little bit – if I have the time I could make one of these a day. You can see by the gray color pieces how I say they have to be facing a certain way – I made a mistake on my very first one when I started these about 3 or 4 months ago and learned that for me it is best to mark the paper so I know which side is “up.”
I sew with a little whip stitch for EPP and I am using black YLI hand quilting thread – the black is working out well – the dark fabric is actually a very dark gray not black. The print fabrics are from a jelly roll of 1930’s prints. The pattern is not called Daisy Chain that is my name for it – the pattern is actually called “Valse Brillant” and it is by Willyne Hammerstein. Her pattern is in this book. Her pattern looks totally different than mine – it is amazing how different a pattern can look with fabric choices – mine is 1930s simple – hers is more elegant – the book, or templates can be purchased at Paper Pieces.
I like the colors you are working with. How big is Daisy Chain going to be? I can see one could really mix up the pieces if not marking and being careful! Have you made your Apple pie or have you been having fun adventures, lol! I have still been working in the yard and stitching on my Herfordshire quilt. I’ll take it with me to work on when I go visit my brothers and sister, who live in Lubbock, TX next week. Have a good time today whatever you do today.
Not sure on size for daisy chain will decide as I go have fun with your family visit – good things apples last awhile hadn’t worked out to make pie yet
I am glad you got your hand pieced borders on Round we go quilt… that seems time intensive to me…. but when you learn to sew by hand it can go fast I guess… arthritis limits my fine hand coordination so I rarely hand piece… I love this EPP tutorial you did… I will be glue basting my rooster.. will see how I like the poly bottom line thread I bought to hide my large whip stitches… otherwise I may use my Aurifil 50 wt if it is too slick to deal with as it is a longer term project that I guessed. I bought an organizer box at a big box discount store for cheap so that should help me keep the parts away from the puppy 🙂 Glad having such small spaces to live in on your vaca doesn’t bother you.. I am glad you enjoy making your daisy chain blocks… looking forward to seeing it laid out when you get back home… I LOVE the batik you are using! Kathi
Just plain seams for round We Go so didn’t take long for me. Hope the EPP tutorial will help many ways to do it – don’t use long pieces of thread they tend to shred or break so stick with short pieces. Being in the small camper drives me crazy I like my space and do not like to sit still but I put up with it knowing I’ll be home in a couple weeks 4 weeks I would prefer – I don’t t like doing this for 8 weeks!!
I used a single paper punch to punch a hole in the EPP pieces I made myself, it made getting them out easier with a wooden stiletto.
The problem I find with glue basting the seam down is not popping the paper out as you do with thread basting no problem with that — the problem is the fabric seams stick to the paper because of the glue so you have to carefully loosen each seam if they stick to the paper so they dont rip or unravel
Thank you so much for sharing the name of the pattern you are following. Your Daisy Chain blocks are so appealing to me both because they are beautiful and because they seem like a paper piecing pattern I might be able to handle. Before I knew the name I thought it might be the Spinning Wheel pattern by Piece O Cake patterns — both designs appear to work from a divided hexagon base. Anyway, I love to see your work.
Glad I posted the info so you have have fun with it
I’ve been glue basting my hexies and don’t have any trouble getting the paper pieces pulled out. I just pull gently on the folds of the fabric and they come up pretty easily. Once in awhile some tweezers are helpful, too!
I hadn’t thought to tug at the seam area – great idea thanks
When I started EPP, I too used card stock. Then whip stitched around the edges, not through the paper. Recently watched you-tube on a better way to hand stitch the pieces to each other than I had been doing. She used a good tape on the front to hold the fabric pieces flat, and stitched from the back, less chance of the stitches showing on the front. I need to get back to that project!
There are a lot of different ways to do EPP for sure and all of us have favorite methods if I make the templates myself I use freezer paper a new method I recently heard of was to use wash away appliqué sheets you do it the same as you do with other papers except these stay in your project and when washed it softens and becomes part of the quilt – I wonder how that would work for hand quilting though?