Hey Quilt Gang.
We've been busy here at the Cabin releasing new products for all your quilting needs in 2017. The latest of the new releases is part of a hot new trend… or more resurgence if you will. English Paper Piecing (EPP). Our new template EPP sets are the cats meow.
With the release of books like Millefiori Quilts by Willyne Hammerstein and The New Hexagon by Katja Marek, English Paper Piecing and hand piecing is seeing a heightening of popularity. We have been quite well known over on Etsy for supplying EPP templates for all the Millefiori Quilts patterns in both books. We have fielded tons of inquiries about making the templates for many of the other most popular EPP projects on the internet today including The New Hexagon and Lucy Boston's Patchwork of the Crosses.
We have answered the challenge and have packaged as many sets as we could to help you complete all the quilts that your heart desires. We are now offering Small Sets and Large Sets templates for all the major shapes in EPP and we are working on new shapes everyday. Each set contains 4 sizes of each shape. The LARGE Set contains sizes: 1 3/4″, 2″, 2 1/2″ and 3″ sizes. The SMALL Set contains sizes: 3/4″, 1″, 1 1/4″ and 1 1/2″ sizes. Pictured below are some of the 3″ templates placed together.
Here is a great view of some of the shapes we currently have available and how they work with one another. We currently (as of the date of this post) have 10 different shapes available online including: 5 pointed stars, 6 pointed start (60˚ diamonds), 10 pointed stars, 60˚ Triangles, Hexagons, Half Hexagons, kites, jewels, pentagons and honeycombs. We started with the most popular shapes first and will add new as soon as possible. As you can see from the photo, there is no more guessing which template fits with which block. Each of these templates are 3 inches which means that if you would like your shapes to fit together just use the corresponding size from each set.
To show just how easily the templates work together, I have decided to participate in a The New Hexagon quilt along. Each week I will post pics of the blocks and templates that work together to make the quilt. While there may be a block or two that are not sized exactly to a common size, most of the blocks are very easily created using our most common size templates. Each template comes with the center finished size and the 3/8″ halo piece around the outside. The halo will be used for creating the fabric cutting with seam allowance. The center will be used to cut the papers for the inside. The templates are clear with a paper backing that can be removed.
I will be happy to share my tips, tricks and methods for making your way through the book and managing the blocks that are slightly uncommon. Feel free to share your tips and methods as well in the comments below.
So to begin the Quilt Along I chose some adorable fabrics from ADORNit. The fabrics chosen are from two different lines: Crazy for Daisies and Nested Owls. The color ways were very similar and I thought they would blend together to make a great quilt. The blocks in the quilt are all based on 3″ hexagons (each side of the block measures 3″) and happen to be the largest of the sizes in our EPP LARGE set. This is important to note as I have some focus prints in each of the lines that I wanted to fussy cut and add to the quilt. I was able to use the 3″ hexagon template to create fussy cut blocks from the fabrics to mix in with the EPP blocks to make the quilt a little larger or perhaps replace a block or two that didn't really strike my fancy.
I made a few extra blocks from fussy cutting the fabrics and started off making my pieces for the quilt starting at the beginning of the book.
Block 1: Marie is easily created by using templates from the SMALL sets: 1 1/2″ hexagon and 1 1/2″ 6 pointed star.
Block 2: Carol was created using the 3″ 60˚ Triangle from the LARGE set.
Block 3: Sarah was created using templates from the SMALL sets: 1″ hexagon, 1″ 60˚ triangle and 1″ jewel templates.
Block 4: Lorraine was created using templates from the SMALL sets: 1 1/2″ 60˚ triangle and the 1 1/2″ half hexagon.
Block 5: Caroline was created using templates from the SMALL sets: 1″ hexagon and 1″ half hexagon. I put mine together slightly differently than the photo indicated. It was late at night.
As you can see, owning the sets makes creating the shapes really easy. For instance, once you own the SMALL set of hexagons you can make quite a few of the blocks. Some will be used over and over again throughout the entire book. For those rare instances where the templates just can't possibly make the block (because the author thought 7/8″ was a good idea) I have a solution to help. Stay tuned.
Also, please share pics of your blocks to help inspire others and show them how easy it is. If you have a set of templates from us, comment and let us know how you like them.
Good lucking and happy stitching.
~Penni