Wednesday 23 January 2013

snow go go slow

 Moving on from yesterdays silliness.
The snow has all but gone...
unless you count my snowday quilt,
which is slowly growing.
The basic technique for this pattern
can be found here in my fussy cutting tutorial
 My templates for paper piecing have increased in size of late.
I have realised the devil that sits on my shoulder
causing me pain
has a name.
He is called EPP.
(English paper piecing)
As a epp addict,
 the larger my templates, the less fiddly it is
and the best thing is
 I have a quilt in no time.
So remembering my word balance
I am taking things slow...having high hopes and feeling crafty at least twice a day!
There has been a lot of talk lately about how a quilt is born.
How do you choose?
Firstly you need to decide on your style
If you are going to the effort of making a quilt 
you have to love it now but also in the future.
Green may be flavour of the month right now,
but will you like it next year?
I like orange 
I have made quilts which include orange
I have orange fabric..
yet orange decor is not my style.
Flashes of orange yes,
but in general teal will win out every time.
I also like to use objects with great colour schemes,
which shows my colour/pattern inspiration.
If you are still in doubt make a scrap quilt or a hexagon quilt
with no colour restraints,
they seem to fit into any homestyle.
Deciding on the pattern for me evolves mainly in my head
epp projects follow on from each other really.

My next machine project started with a challenge
batik fabrics.
 A number of hours spent perusing my quilt books
and searching online,
a purchase of some charcoal kona cotton 
gives me high hopes
that I will create a thing of beauty
and not something new age hippie
(which is highly probable given the materials!)
ps.
There's nothing wrong with hippie
 I am all hippie.

10 comments:

  1. Love that snowflake in the window! And the idea of BIG epp templates. Must try that. I abandon too many things because I get fed up with fiddly, no matter how good they look.

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  2. I absolutely LOVE snow... as well as EPP ;>) So this beautiful project of yours is a winner to me! Keep going, at your own pace (which is the best way for having FUN).
    Hmmmm.... color ---> this is a troubling part to me. I can spend hours to decide, or then I try to stick to the designer colors. With time, I prefer "me-mwa-quilts", which is the reason why now focusing on scrappy quilts, using a single shape (hexies, etc...)

    THANKS for the inspiration, dear !

    XOXOXOXO
    NADINE

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  3. I have seriously thought about just cutting up all the fabric I have into squares and seeing what happens. By the way - have you seen Southamptons new manager? When we head down to play you next time, we ladies might have to go too! Very tasty geezer! Ooooo young man! xxxxx

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  4. Lol- new age hippie! I love your latest creation Clare! So crisp and clean like freshly fallen snow!

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  5. Wise words young one! Do what makes you happy and the rest will follow.

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  6. I keep telling myself that I love colours randomly selected, but I seem to end up organising them, even if in a sort of 'random' way.

    But green is usually guaranteed to figure in most things I do.

    cheers
    Fi

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  7. So perfect Clare! I am always amazed at you....to me a large EPP seems very intimidating. It isn't difficult to hold all of that fabric in place? I am so glad it works for you as it gives us more Clare EPP projects to look at.

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  8. Ah yes, balance again - between hippy and ethnic modern and vintage and whatever - you seem to strike the balance well! Thanks for your question. Shockingly, I've not been there yet, but I've asked a question on our 'English in Toulouse' FB page (describing you as 'liking culture, landscape, flea-markets, local craft and the unexpected...' hope that was fair!). We should get some informed responses pretty quickly, knowing the English in Toulouse!

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  9. I'm liking this latest big EPP quilt. I've been on an orange kick for a few years now, love it. Hippie is a good thing.

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  10. A thoughtful post. I agree that the all-color quilts seem to go with everything. As yet, I have not been able to make one. Like, I try to make a scrappy quilt and I get stuck. Perhaps I need more faith in the process?

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