English Paper Piecing, Oh My!

Last Saturday I went with a group of friends to the Madison Quilt Expo. We had a great time as always. I didn't come home with much but what I did bring home I know I can accomplish. I did pick up several small pattern of paper piecing so I'll need to get started on those soon. While we were walking around checking out the vendors we came across one booth that was strictly English Paper Piecing. I glanced at the booth and thought no way would I ever be doing that. OK, we stopped and watched the demonstration, I was being reeled in slowly. They had these tiny little paper pieces I think they were 1/4 inch and you needed to make 56,000 to have a queen sized quilt. First off there is no way I'd even consider something so small and to think of making thousands of them, NO. We watched and listened and then moved on. Towards the end of the day we were going through the aisles one more time. We stopped at the booth again and the next think you know I was buying 3/4 inch hexagons to give it a try.

I looked at these for a couple of days because I really wasn't feeling well so I couldn't get myself to start on them. I made one and stopped. Last night Jen and Holly came to visit and I started on my hexagons. I'm using the 1930's fabrics and so far it's going along just fine. It's a little addicting. I have one flower going now and hopefully when it's just a tad bigger I'm going to turn it into a table topper for my Mom for her birthday. I've really improved since last night and they don't take me nearly as long to make. I've also improved on my sewing them together. It's a great project for when you're watching TV and it keeps your hands busy.