Stitching Success Tracker: December status

December. The last month of the year... and a status update of my 2020 Stitching Success Tracker.

2020 Stitching Success Tracker: December status.

November hexagons
On the EPP [English paper piecing] front, 15 hexagon blocks were (surprisingly) completed in November. Four had a patriotic theme for the 2020 election and one commemorating Thanksgiving. 

I picked up several fat quarters on my travels and am still enjoying "selective cutting" motifs for various shaped pieces. This project is one that was resurrected during the quarantine shut-down—when many of us makers were seeking something soothing, creative and distracting from world events happening around us.

15 hexagons finished in November.

Ten hexies were finished in October.

10 hexagons finished in October.

Make Nine 2020
My Improv Garter Stitch Wrap was finished in November—a project I'm still thrilled about and wear most every day. This project was Finish #8 of 9.

Make Nine 2020 status.

I've started on the ninth item on my Make Nine list—a jacket using a kalamkari fabric from Diamond Textiles.

Pattern piece layout for a kalamkari jacket.

I love this piece of fabric! The colors and design are classic. It's hand block printed with natural dyes and it reflects the culture of this technique and the long, rich history of textiles. After taking a kalamkari workshop offered by Selvedge magazine, I have a new appreciation and admiration for this printing process.

 

A month of hand stitching, a virtual stitch party and social distancing

Another productive month of stitching!

October was all about hand work. My Stitching Success Tracker shows that time was split between English paper piecing [EPP] and progress on my Make Nine 2020 knitting project. 

October Stitching Success Tracker: knitting and English paper piecing.

I've continued adding 6" hexagons to my Glorious Hexagons project. The 10 blocks completed in October puts the count over 130! (No quilt layout in sight... one day I'll decide on a project or three.)

Participating "virtually" in the daily prompts of the Instagram-based I Love EPP Party with @the_makers_stash was also very motivating and inspirational. I picked up a few good tips from world-wide EPPers and there are several new-to-me things I now want to try.

Ten hexagons completed in October.

A recent purchase of two packages of Glorious Hexagons paper pieces has provided me with fresh templates and different shapes to work with—including the kite shape. New block design possibilities! I'm also referencing Katja Marek's latest book, "The New Hexagon 2."

The kite shape is offering new hexagon block designs.

My Make Nine yarn project—a yarn stash buster—has been traveling with me. Progress has been made on my garter stitch wrap. 

Yarn stash buster garter stitch wrap.

Last week, I exercised my 19th Amendment right with Early Voting! We wore our masks, social distanced, and waited in line about 45 minutes.

"I Voted!" 2020

I hope your October was proactive and productive!

Happy Hexie Halloween

EPP hexagons in September

This is one of my favorite hexagon blocks I finished in September. It's something about the graphic, stylized leaf motifs that speaks to my aesthetic. 

English paper pieced hexagon block.

My EPP [English paper pieced] stack of hexies increased by eight last month. I don't have a layout plan for these Glorious Hexagons... I'm just enjoying raiding the stash of scraps, selective cutting the images, and hand piecing each little hexagon gem.

Eight hexagon blocks made in September.

The mint and chartreuse colored boxes of September on the Stitching Success Tracker coincides with the EPP hand piecing activities. 

Stitch Success Tracker: September

However, now that it's October, I decided to revisit a Make Nine 2020 project that was started early this year—a knitted stash buster shawl. The Stitch Success Tracker is changing from green to orange. 

Stitch Success Tracker: early October progress.

It might be something about this cooler fall weather that is making me turn to a yarn project.

Stitching Success Tracker indicates a productive August

As the month comes to a close, the August Stitching Success Tracker indicates another full month of stitching... machine piecing for the 100 Days 100 Blocks project, English paper piecing Glorious Hexagons, a Saturday spent free-motion quilting a charity quilt, and a Make Nine finish.

August 2020 Success Tracker

Fourteen EPP hexagons completed

Hand piecing EPP [English paper piecing] blocks has become addictive! I've found this to be an easy project to pick up for small increments of time... to baste fabric bits around a couple of paper templates is satisfying and productive. It's also proof that by spending a few minutes each day, a lot can be accomplished. Fourteen 6" hexagons were completed this month. 

Fourteen EPP hexagons completed in August.

Two recent favorites...

EPP 6" hexagon block with fussy cut bunnies.

EPP 6" hexagon.

And this is a free-motion quilted cuddle quilt to support my guild's community service project.

Free-motion quilted cuddle quilt.

After basting a few paper templates this evening, I will color in the August 31 space on my tracker.

31 days of stitching... 6" blocks by hand and machine

For 2020, I've been tracking daily stitching activities with this fabulous project management calendar for makers. I'm happy to report that July had a full month of stitching! 

Project management Success Tracker for Makers and Creatives.

What's been the projects in July?

Curiously enough, the month of July was filled with making 6-inch blocks—some by machine and others by hand.

• 100 Days 100 Blocks Challenge—This sew-along started July 1. I've kept up with the daily postings and have pieced 40 six-inch patchwork blocks to date.
• English paper piecing [EPP] hexagons—this is a UFO from 2016 called Glorious Hexagons that re-emerged during the pandemic lock down this Spring. It now includes block patterns from both of Katja Marek's The New Hexagon books... and a few I've designed myself with leftover EPP bits.

40 blocks from #100days100blocks project and 12 EPP Glorious Hexagons.

I was surprised to discover 12 EPP hexagons were completed this past month. It just proves that if you do a little stitching each day—even 5 or 10 minutes—it adds up! This project is also very portable. I have paper templates, fabric bits, pins, needles and threads parcelled into sandwich size baggies that can be taken outside, or thrown into a purse or suitcase.

July's success on 6" English paper pieced hexagons.

My hexie collection has amassed to over 100 hexagons so far! I embrace the accomplishment of each small composition and find it very satisfying to give purpose to an accumulation of fabric swatches. 

The need for blenders

I enjoy the challenge of pulling together prints from various fabric collections for each block, but occasionally I realize a "calm coordinate" is needed to complement them or unify the palette. A quick trip to a local quilt shop [YLQS], Chattanooga Sewing Machines, filled this blender gap with a few Canvas and Shimmer Radiance fat quarters. 

Blenders and prints for 100 Days and EPP Glorious Hexagons projects.

Yeah, I picked up two other prints because they were from Paintbrush Studio (Over the Rainbow—for my 100 Days blocks) and Lewis & Irene (the bunnies—that I thought would be fun for EPP fussy cutting). Diversity is good, right?

In the hunt for something in my studio, I also uncovered some fat quarter Suede blenders [P&B Textiles] from a previous project. Aha! Another welcome addition to my EPP blender stash.

Suede blenders from P&B Textiles. 

So now I'm stocked up and ready for a stitching-filled August! What's been satisfying your stitch cravings?

The fruits of small compositions

I connected with two quilting friends this week—one via social media and another in person. 

Block 37: Monette. Center fabric from M&S Textiles Australia.
Coordinates from Forest Fancies by Lisa Kirkbride for P&B Textiles and Meridian [P&B Textiles].

Tari, my quilting friend in Florida, commented on all the fun fabrics in my EPP [English paper pieced] Glorious Hexagon blocks I've been working on since the lockdown. Using scraps and discontinued fabric samples for the blocks, I'm reacquainting myself with fabric collections and taking solace in the hand piecing process.

Variation of Block 3: Sarah.
Fabrics from Art Gallery Fabrics, Lewis & Irene.

Some blocks are from The New Hexagon book. Others are cobbled together from various pieces and unused paper templates.

Block 49: Irene
Fabrics from P&B Textiles.

I don't have a big picture plan, layout, or color scheme for this EPP project. I'm just creating one small composition at a time: choosing fabrics from the scrap basket and coordinating colors and prints as I go. 

There is feeling of success and accomplishment with each completed hexagon.

Improv Star in batiks

I ran into the other quilting friend, Jamie, in a quilt shop. She follows my blog and we're friends on social media. She told me that my blog posts have inspired her to start sewing garments. 

Block 5: Caroline
Fabrics from Lewis & Irene, P&B Textiles.

Jamie was wearing a lovely denim-blue dress she had made using a border print fabric. She did a great job and the dress looked so cute on her. Her pattern hack was the addition of pockets in the side seams.

Block 41: Betty
Fabrics from Lewis & Irene, Art Gallery Fabrics, P&B Textiles.

I commended her for making an outfit to suit her creativity, needs and lifestyle. It's a few of the many perks to sewing one's own wardrobe!

Small compositions.

We chatted briefly about our current fabric passions—mine was rayon and hers was linen. As we parted, we encouraged each other to keep sewing and looked forward to each other's next makes. 

A gallery of small compositions. 

Enjoy the successes of small compositions

The world today is overshadowed with severe health threats, political chaos, physical and emotional trauma... it's stressful, draining and so tiresome. It's a relief that our crafts and hobbies can deviate and distract from the news of the day—providing stability and calmness, if only for a short time. With each project or composition, we get to learn or see something new. We can make choices to modify a pattern—add pockets, change the sleeve length, omit a collar, rearrange the pieces in the patchwork. 

I am enjoying the creation and success of my small hexie compositions. It's refreshing to have choices, make decisions, express a personal vision, and have control over the process and outcome. 

Hexagons.

Slow stitching EPP hexies, progress on a UFO

I'm not sure why, but over the last few weeks of this quarantine period, I've turned to slow stitching processes: English paper piecing and hand embroidery. Maybe hand processes are more soothing, maybe I was inspired by re-discovered UFOs [unfinished objects], maybe a shake-up was needed in my making... maybe a little of all these.

75 English paper pieced hexies from Glorious Hexagons project.
From the book: The New Hexagon by Katja Marek.

I do know that two events reignited my interest in English paper piecing [EPP]. In mid-April, I uncovered a big pile of 1-1/4" EPP hexagons. Not sure if there was an original plan for these...

A stack of 1-1/4" English paper pieced hexagons [hexies].

A few days later, I was tagged by Katja Marek on one of her Instagram posts. Katja so generously named Block #16 the Veronica block, after me. What an honor! The Veronica block is in her latest book, The New Hexagon 2. Get yourself a copy! (This time there are patterns for 12" as well as 6" hexie blocks.)

Block # 16, Veronica, from The New Hexagon 2 book.

You can bet her book is already part of my personal fiber arts library!

My copy of The New Hexagon 2 book.

Realizing this was a message from the fabric goddesses, I went in search of my previously pieced 6" hexies from my Glorious Hexagon project that coincided with Katja's first book, The New Hexagon.

My Glorious Hexagons project was started in January of 2016. Through a search of my 2016 blog posts, it appears I stuck with it for about 8 months. With renewed excitement, these are ten 2020 additions to the collection.

Six completed hexies made with stash fabrics.

Three 6" hexagons made with Art Gallery Fabrics.

Dawn block #23. Made with Art Gallery Fabrics.

As of today, the pile is up to 75 finished hexagons...

75 hexagons.

and counting...

EPP hexies with tails!

Fussy cutting Australian aboriginal prints for EPP

The Dreamtime aboriginal designs from M&S Textiles are full of graphic symbols, geometric textures and organic shapes. I was recently discussing the possibilities for these Australian fabrics with Jennifer, the owner of  Busy Lady Quilt Shop, and she reminded me that they would be ideal for fussy cutting English paper piecing [EPP] shapes. She is so right!

M&S Textiles aboriginal Australian fabric designs.

A few years ago, some rep friends and I were on the EPP bandwagon when Paper Pieces launched the Glorious Hexagons stitch-along using Katja Marek’s "The New Hexagon" book. I’m not sure why I didn’t think of the EPP technique for these fabrics sooner... because it's perfect.

English paper pieced hexagon blocks.

So, I’m rekindling my relationship with this slow stitching technique—English paper piecing—using fabrics with aboriginal designs. The acrylic templates from Paper Pieces make fussy cutting motifs easy and accurate.

Fussy cutting swirl motifs using an acrylic template and rotary cutter.

Paper Pieces now offers the acrylics with 3/8" or 1/4" seam allowances built in. (My preference is still the 3/8" inch.)

English paper piecing with aboriginal fabrics from M&S Textiles.

The diamond shaped papers I'm using here are 1-3/4 inch card stock papers (also from Paper Pieces.) This shape can be combined to make hexagons, stars, the Tumbling Block and other designs. My 8 must-have tools for English paper piecing are detailed in this blog post.

Shapes ready for hand piecing.

If you need a portable, take-along project, EPP is the answer. Thanks for the insight and reminder, Jennifer! Can't wait to see what you make with the Australian fabrics that are coming to your shop.

English paper piecing [EPP] is very portable.