Tag: Katja Marek

Turkey Tracks: Katja Marek’s “Quilt-lets”

Turkey Tracks:  March 27, 2016

Katja Marek’s “Quilt-lets”

Here’s my first “Quilt-let.”

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The idea is make these little beauties “on the go” and to sew them together into a completed quilt.

One uses Marek’s designs from her book THE NEW HEXAGON and buys the EPP pieces from paperpieces.com.  You can buy a package of all 52 blocks in the 3-inch size or buy, in increments, the 4-inch block pieces during the year.  Marek is doing the 4-inch size.  I’m doing the 3-inch.  You can also buy templates to cut the batting and backing in the right size.

You can also just make these blocks and hook them together with other pieces that geometrically work, like a triangle.

I’m thinking, though, that I might anchor that central block with one line of stitch-in-the-ditch sewing on the machine.  I hate stitch-in-the-ditch sewing though…  Maybe “peck and stab” by hand with a matching thread???  Maybe just in the middle???

Turkey Tracks: Katja Marek’s EPP: THE NEW HEXAGON

Turkey Tracks:  March 23, 2016

Katja Marek’s EPP:  THE NEW HEXAGON

Katja Marek has designed 52 hexagon blocks, each of which has been split into interesting shapes.

AND, there are many ways to use these blocks.

AND, there are many ways to make these blocks.

First, you can use other shapes to combine the hexagons into a quilt, like the triangles on the cover.

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Like THE FARMER’S WIFE books, each block has a female name.

You can draw your own templates.  Or, you can go to English Paper Piecing LLC and buy the pieces for each block.  I bought the whole package to make all 52 blocks.  AND/OR, you can buy a set of acrylic templates that help you fussy cut and/or make your own paper pieces.  (I’m going to try to make my “fussy cut” pieces by tracing pieces onto template plastic.)

 

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BUT, BUT, BUT, what I discovered in the past few days is that Marek is ALSO making these blocks into finished tiny quilts that you then sew together to make a quilt.  They are SO CUTE!  Each has a neutral low-volume fabric border.

Here are some pics from Instagram:

A single “quilt-let”:

And several in a pile:

I’m going to do this latter project BEFORE doing a project linked by the triangles.

These blocks, without the neutral border, have three-inch sides.

The English Paper Piecing LLC site has materials for BOTH Marek’s projects:  the Millifiore quilt I’m going to do AND these little “quilt-lets.”  The book has the three-inch blocks and the English PP LLC site also has a four-inch project.

Turkey Tracks: Megan Bruns’ English Paper Piecing Projects

Turkey Tracks:  February 6, 2016

Megan Bruns’ English Paper Piecing Projects

Some of us at Coastal Quilters (Maine) have gone quite mad over EPP.

But the projects are so intricate and gorgeous–way more involved than my simple hexie project.

Megan Bruns is an EPP “star” in our quilting group.

And an inspiration!

Just off the top of her head, she started making hexie placemats out of modern fabrics.  As she has colorful fiesta ware, I asked her to take some pics for me for the blog.

A placemat:

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…in use:

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Megan is now trying to decide how to back these little gems.  Or whether to “float” them on a rectangle or larger hexie…

Time will tell…

BUT, Megan has also taken on the VERY challenging “Millefiori” quilts as shown in Willyne Hammerstein’s book Millefiori Quilts.

Here’s the start of her first “rosette”:

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Some progress:

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And the finished first rosette:

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WOW!

Note that the hanging “flags” on the outer ring disappear when those blocks are attached to others–they just go underneath the quilt.

These “rosettes” of various sizes attach to each other to make the “millefiore” look.

Note:  We are using fiber glue pens with refills to put the fabric onto the EPP templates BUT we keep the glue away from the crease edge–as that makes it hard to get your needle through the fabric and the glue.

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Another good source for millefiore projects is Katja Marek’s The New Hexagon Millefiore Quilt Along.

The English Paper Piecing Company carries card stock templates, acrylic templates, and can facilitate delivering monthly block projects–such as this year’s project being designed by Katja Marek.

Marek has a nice web site if you want to take a look at completed projects, etc.