Island Batik – December – English Paper Piecing!!

As we come to the end of the year, our December Island Batik project was to do something with English Paper Piecing.

Well, if you know me, you know that hand work is not my most favorite thing to do. Thankfully, the requirement was that it could be a fairly small project. Phew!!!

I do also have to say that I forgot to take many pictures along the way, so please excuse the lack of pictures in this post.

I found this English Paper Piecing project on Pinterest, which didn’t require the paper pieces to be sewn together, so that is where I decided to go with this. Do any of you get sucked in to looking things up on Pinterest????

I used a paper punch and made my own hexie English Paper Pieces using index cards. Then I attached a variety of green batik fabrics that I had in my Island Batik stash. Since it had been years since I did something like this, I did watch a tutorial or two on securing the fabric around the hexie shapes.

Once I had the hexies done, I ironed them well, took the papers out and then arranged them on the piece of background fabric I had chosen. This fabric is called Rice.

I did use my Sewline glue pen to glue down the hexies and then marked lines on the fabric so I could do stitching. I layered this with two layers of Hobbs Cotton batting. I then took this to my Handi Quilter Capri and secured the hexies down and quilted it all at the same time. It’s so great when a plan comes together like that!!!

I chose this fabric for the binding, as I felt it did a great job of framing this project!!! I did use my Schmetz needles on my HQ Stitch 510 to secure the binding to the front of the quilt. Even though I am not a handwork type person, I do enjoy hand sewing the binding onto the back of the quilts.

And you know me……I then quilted it as much as possible!!! Here’s the back……

I couldn’t help myself, and I added some metallic thread around the star and added some bling to this with heat-set crystals!!

This is now hanging in my hallway as a new addition to my Christmas decorations!! I am so happy with it. And while the picture doesn’t show it, the bling just shimmers when you walk by!!

I wish everyone a wonderful Holiday season for 2021!!!!

All items for this project were provided by the following: Island Batik, Schmetz Needles, and Hobbs Batting.

NOTE:

Classes – Are you interested in free motion virtual classes? Want to stay at home and work on your own machine? I have just listed new classes for the first few months of 2022. Click here to see the lineup of classes available!!!