Adventures with EPP
For those of you who don’t know, EPP stands for English Paper Piecing. This is a classic crafting project using scraps of fabric tacked to paper to create intricate designs. I had heard of this but it looked way too involved and time consuming for me to seriously consider making anything. That is until I watched a fascinating video series on the Fat Quarter Shop YouTube channel! (they get me everytime!). Tula Pink (love her!) did a three-part series on everything you need to know to start EPP. There are a lot of new techniques, such as gluing the fabric to the paper and acrylic templates to fussy cut your fabic, that made it seem more approachable for me. And it being 2020 and being locked in my house for who knows how long, I thought, “What the hell! Let’s do this!”
In typical Heather fashion, I logged right onto the Fat Quarter Shop website and bought all the supplies I needed and found a few cute EPP kits on Etsy. I figured, let’s be smart about this and start small. So I planned out two table runners. The first I thought would be easier because it didn’t involve applique. For the first table runner I would need 14 of the finished flower shapes. I planned out all the fabrics and placements (and made a map for myself). Then I cut out all the shapes for the first flower. Then I glued them all to the paper and put together a cute little EPP basket for myself (let’s be real here - it was always about the cute basket!). Then I tried sewing them together…by hand! For some reason I hadn’t really considered that this was going to all have to be done by hand!
After tediously sewing the first few paper shapes together I quickly realized how long this was going to take and started researching videos on how to machine stitch these. There are several interesting techniques out there but it’s just not going to work for me. I’m going to have to hand-sew these. I’ve found it really difficult to get my eyes to focus on the very small seams. I tried using a light that wraps around your neck but I think it’s a focus thing. Of course, I haven’t gone for my eye exam (plague times) so that could be part of it. Or I need to buy one of those magnifier things that goes over my glasses.
So after over six months (let’s be real…it’s March…it’s been a year now) I’ve managed to piece together two complete flowers and most of a third one. Could I devote more time to working on this? Yes. It’s really about me carving out the time to do the work (as always). So I’m asking you to hold me accountable for this!
