A Warm Hearted Quilt - English Paper Piecing

A Finished Quilt

English Paper Piecing (EPP) has kept my hands busy and my mind at ease during the long and frightful pandemic days that were the month of March 2020. We will surely never forget these days. I really do enjoy EPP and can happily spend hours basting papers and whip stitching. The quilt top - pictured above - was started and completed during the month of March, then quilted and bound in April.

The Warm Hearted Quilt is a pattern by Jodi Godfrey from Tales of Cloth. The pattern is available from Jodi's store as well as the papers and acrylic template. I love this clever design from a single jewel shape and have had this particular pattern on my must-do list for a while.

I spent several days cutting all the fabric pieces, working from my fabric stash with a limited color palette; red, orange, yellow, pink, and later adding a few beige/brown fabrics as well as low volume fabrics (with white/light background) for contrast and interest. Once I had cut all the fabric pieces for my quilt I sat and glue basted the fabrics/papers over several evenings, then got started on whip stitching the pieces together. Three weeks later the quilt top was ready for basting, quilting and binding.

I have quilted the quilt with edge to edge vertical lines. The quilting lines are spaced 5/8" inch apart which creates a texture that I love, even though it can become rather laborious to straight stitch the many lines for several hours on end. But it is always worth it for the texture and lovely drape of the quilt. For the back of the quilt I have used my favorite and often used newsprint fabric (Newsprint from the Story collection by Carrie Bloomston for Windham Fabrics). And yes, I am getting very near to the end of this stashed yardage!

For the binding I have again used my signature black/white stripe binding - this one by Ella Blue Fabrics. I have hand slip-stitched the binding rather than machine stitching it, for it felt necessary to spend that extra time with a quilt that has given me countless hours of peaceful slow sewing in the making.

QUILT DETAILS

Warm Hearted Quilt
Finished quilt measures 55 inches x 70 inches.

Pattern by Jodi Godfrey from Tales of Cloth

Started: March 2020.

Quilt Top Finished: March 2020.

Finished Quilt: April 2020.

English Paper Pieced.

Machine Quilted - domestic sewing machine.

All quilting cotton fabrics.

Low loft cotton batting.

TOOLS AND NOTIONS
 1 ½" Jewel Paper Pieces.
 Acrylic Jewel Template Template with 3/8" seam allowance.
Water Soluble Basting Glue - Sewline.
Straw Needles - Size 11.
The Bottom Line 60wt thread by Superior Threads for EPP
(a neutral color thread - I used color #651 throughout).

I am not selling my quilts at the moment but will make them available again when domestic and international shipping settles into a reliable new normal. 

As always, thank you so much for stopping by and scrolling through the photos.

Rita

RELEVANT LINKS:

Warm Hearted Quilt Pattern (PDF) + Papers + Acrylic Template available from Tales of Cloth.

More RPQ English Paper Pieced Quilts:

Scrappy Hexagon Quilt (August 2019)

Stretched Hexies Quilt (April 2019)

Scrappy Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt (September 2018)

Mandolin Quilt (May 2018) - also by Tales of Cloth! See kits here.

Liberty Stars Quilt (January 2018)

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COPYRIGHT: Do not copy or use any content or photos from my blog without my written permission. This is original content from www.redpepperquilts.com.

Hand Pieced Kansas Dugout Quilt

A Finished Quilt

Finally an update! March 2020 came along and everything changed and this new "normal" is difficult to come to terms with for everyone. I know that here in Australia we are in a very fortunate position with relatively few Corona Virus cases, a health care system that has had a chance to prepare, and now a gradual easing out of restrictions. We are so very aware of how lucky we are and I am practising daily to be that glass half full kind of person.

I have been home. My family have been at home! I have worked at home for the last 10 years, so staying home has not been difficult for me. Having to share my "work" space with my family however has proven to be refreshing! It may even be that my sew-jo has returned. I have stitched, especially in the evenings, and have several finished quilts to share with you. Taking photos is still a huge stumbling block in updating my blog, but yesterday was a good photo day.

This is my finished Kansas Dugout Quilt predominantly made with fabrics from my Japanese fabric stash. The fabric pieces for this quilt were cut at the same time as the fabric pieces for my Japanese Stash Buster Quilt - way back in November 2019. It's not often that I plan ahead and cut fabric for multiple quilts at the same time. The quilt top was hand pieced (running stitch). The last stitch was completed on Christmas Eve 2019. (The next day I started hand piecing my Trip Around the World Quilt).

This quilt is pieced in blocks as pictured above, then blocks are joined into rows by adding additional joining squares. I pieced 120 such individual blocks, then pieced blocks together into rows, and then joined rows. I have previously machine pieced several Kansas Dugout Quilts and have made available a step by step tutorial: here. I hand pieced this quilt rather than machine pieced it for no other reason than the joy of stitching with needle in hand. 

The quilt has been machine quilted with straight edge to edge lines of stitching. Nothing fancy. And for the back of the quilt I have used a hoarded piece of fabric from the Lighhearted collection by Ayumi Mills for Kokka Fabrics (2014) - super fancy - and very satisfying to sew from stash.

Batting. I have again used QuiltLite batting to layer this quilt. Quiltlite is a woven cotton fabric similar to a loosely woven flannel fabric as pictured above; it offers the presence of batting without adding bulk or loft. I have had lots of questions about this batting, especially from overseas quilters, and unfortunately I too cannot find it available online other than here in Australia. Most of my local fabric/patchwork stores carry it where it is known as QuiltLite.

QUILT DETAILS

Hand Pieced Kansas Dugout Quilt.

Finished quilt measures 50 inches x 61 inches.

120 Kansas Dugout Quilt Blocks

Started: November 2019.

Quilt Top Finished: 25 December 2019.

Finished Quilt: March 2020.

Hand Pieced.

Fabrics:

Fabrics from my Japanese fabric stash collated for over more

than a decade, including many

designs by Suzuko Koseki for Yuwa Fabrics.
Fabric for joining squares: Add It Up (Basics) by Cotton + Steel.

Notions:

Acrylic template for cutting fabrics:

1 ½ inch Honeycomb with ¼ inch seam allowance.

 2" fabric squares were cut using a rotary cutter and ruler.

Once cut, all fabric pieces were marked with a ¼ inch seam allowance.

I use a mechanical pencil with a 2B 0.7mm lead

for ease of marking a line on the fabric.

Jeana Kimball's Foxglove Cottage -Sharps Needle - size 10.

Aurfil 50wt thread (the orange spool) for hand piecing.

I am not selling my quilts at the moment but will make them available again when domestic and international shipping settles into a reliable new normal.

As always, thank you so much for stopping by! Another quilty update next week - the photos are ready!

Rita

RELEVANT LINKS:

Kansas Dugout Block Machine Piecing Tutorial and Templates

Kansas Dugout - Gardenvale Quilt 2015

Kansas Dugout Quilt 2014

Kansas Dugout Quilt 2011 - this one is still a quilt top! Oops.

Lila's Quilt 2007 - one of my very early quilts.

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COPYRIGHT: Do not copy or use any content or photos from my blog without my written permission. This is original content from www.redpepperquilts.com.