I’ve made lots of progress on my once stalled project in 2025. I was very moved by Kate Jackson’s (The Last Homely House) story – a big thanks to Elizabeth for suggesting it! Watching Kate’s videos really helped me find joy in hand sewing again. She inspired me to switch to thread-basting my hexies and Tula EPP part2 video introduced better tools, and techniques, which improved my piecing tremendously.
My go to piecing supplies: Aurifil thread #6724 50wt – blends into any fabric; Tulip Appliqué needles #10 are so fine and make my stitches invisible. Kai 4″ curved scissors are a must! For piecing neutral sashing hexies I’m using Aurifill 2000 thread.
For basting I love Bohin #7 Embroidery needles and any old cotton thread in a contrasting color. I found thru much trial and error that glue baiting just doesn’t work for me – too time consuming and messy. Not to mention, it takes time and lots of patience with tweezer to removed papers from completed blocks.
In September, I planned 15 more EPP blocks to enlarge my EPP quilt, and promptly set about cutting, basting, and sewing them over the following couple of months. My broken little toe in early September was a blessing in disguise, as my recovery allowed for hours of stitching. By Thanksgiving, with all of my blocks completed, 2/3 of my quilt was sewn together! Now I’m on track to have the main top done by the end of January. Then I will decide on borders. My hope is to have a completed top and start hand-quilting it by summer 2026.
Update 2025 – this is what my quilt layout looked like in September. I finished all the blocks by the end of the month and started sewing them together.
It’s amazing how this long-suffering project, which I keep pulling out and thinking about every couple of month over the past 3 years, suddenly came to life! I was truly inspired and loved every stitch I made this summer & fall!
Update – it is now 2023 and there has been no progress on the last block. But I have decided that I will machine appliqué these blocks on scrappy light backgrounds and even pulled some fabric out, but, a better idea came along and so it’s been shelved again.
Originally, this was going to be a Flower Garden quilt, but I’ve run out of steam, and trying to decide on the best way to finish…
I’m stuck on my last EPP block – this has been a very long project! I took some blocks on my trip Down Under, and haven’t really worked much on this project. It’s on my list to complete for this year.
October 2020 – Something really amazing happened this week – I find myself “stuck” in my family vacation home in Bethany beach.
I came to spend a few days with my Mom and help her out. It’s now been a week and I have a couple more to go before I can go home. I’ve been coming here for 20+ years and always overpack, except this trip… at least I have my Featherweight and some scraps! I also brought my EPP project with hopes to finish the last block!
This was a free pattern from AllPeopleQuilt, link to the file below:
BrightPatchQuilts 