If you haven’t tried English Paper Piecing, you probably see masterpieces like La Passacaglia and question the sanity of anyone who would put THAT much time into putting a quilt together by hand, when there’s a perfectly good sewing machine (or 3) in your home! That was certainly my first instinct!
The fun thing about EPP is that the projects are super portable. I used to enjoy pulling a knitting project out of my purse whenever I had a few spare minutes, before fabric took over my life, and a small EPP project can scratch that same itch.
If you’re curious about EPP but not sure where to start, how about Carolina Moore‘s new book Learn How to English Paper Piece! It includes enough tips to get you started on a number of quick, low-commitment projects that you can complete while sitting on the sidelines at a sports tournament, watching Netflix, or on the subway.
One trouble area in my first EPP project was the mushy center where a number of diamonds met, so I decided to tackle the Fussy Cut Coasters to see if Carolina could help me sort it out.
In addition to learning how to get the centers nice and crisp (stitch the diamonds together to make halves, then connect the halves starting from the center and working outward! Much better than adding diamonds on one at a time! Or stitching the halves from one end to the other!) her tips for making a fussy cutting template made it so easy to get the cool interference pattern effect I was looking for with the Ripple print from Libs Elliott’s upcoming Tattooed North fabric collection.
But here’s an even cooler fussy cutting EPP tip that I figured out while I was cutting: if you cut from the wrong side of the fabric, you can slip the paper piece right in the window, and save yourself from having to center the fabric over the paper piece.
Line up the window template and cut out the shape 
Place the paper piece in the window. 
Carefully remove the window template, and you’re ready to glue baste!
I’m pretty happy with what I managed to pull together during an afternoon of listening to podcasts, and it was nice to flex my fussy cutting muscles again!
If you’d like to learn more about the book, over the next 2 weeks some of our quilty friends are sharing their thoughts! You can check out their thoughts on the book, what they plan to make, and even some finished projects made from the book!
I love the secondary patterns that appeared when you put the diamonds together. Very cool!
Great fussy cutting tip!