Wednesday 27 July 2011

tools of the trade

 There seems to be a wave of paper piecing in blogland..
a fair few of the big hexagonal nature.
I wonder..
That said, I thought I would share my
homemade templates,
as I am often asked where I get my papers from.
These are made from card, and yes I even have templates for squares!
 I keep them here.
(zipped bag that some pillow cases were wrapped in
makes me wonder how the world got in such a financial mess with such waste)
Really!
I mean really how could I throw away something with a zip!
I use computer paper for the templates or used envelopes etc.
I am up to my eyeballs often surrounded by
paper templates!
I reuse them until the corners get squashed.

Paper piecing tip: use a bright coloured thread for tacking pieces.
So when it comes to cutting out the papers it is eay to see which knots to cut,
and not your whip stitch patchwork knots.

Of course some help with cutting out the fabrics
would be handy!
You cannot have missed the baby go
it's been everywhere!
If you haven't
then GO and take a look*

*yes this is an unashamed plug to catch the eye of the people at
Accuquilt

10 comments:

Lynne (Lily's Quilts) said...

Great post - let me know if you fancy dropping this into my blog as a guest post on the Hexalong!

Mary said...

I love seeing your templates. I too use mine over and over...but I often use freezer paper and press them onto my fabric so they don't shift as I baste. I absolutely love English Paper Piecing...I wonder if you have a good book on EPP that you would recommend?

VivJM said...

I reuse my paper templates too, until there are more holes than paper ;-0

Great tip re the brightly coloured thread - wish I'd thought of that before I basted 300 hexies in cream thread lol

Simone said...

You are so organised and resourceful. Have you finished painting that bannister yet?! x

~Molly~ said...

Eleven years ago I traced a child's hexagon puzzle piece onto a sheet of paper in a honeycomb of over a dozen. My sweet husband took them to work and made probably 60 copies for me. He even changed the size and made many pages of the other sizes. I'm still using most of them!

Rachel at Stitched in Color said...

Cheers for the anti-waste! As if we need things to come packaged in plastic anyways. Probably costs more than a ribbon! Good luck with the Go! You had me laughing ;0)

Pomona said...

Come and join in my giveaway - if you're in luck, the people at Accuquilt might just be posting you a parcel! I still have cardboard hexagons from our youthful patchworking days.

Pomona x

potterjotter said...

Eeeek! It looks like some demented kind of geometry lesson from back in the day. I hated maths!

Janine @ Rainbow Hare said...

Good Luck with the plug - I hope they send you a baby go! In the meantime, one thing I love about your blog is that it isn't overly commercial. It's lovely to see a quilter with a concern for the environment, recycling and upcycling :-)

BendingPins.com said...

I've been trying to win a GO! Baby fabric cutter for over a month, to no avail. I've asked hubby to get me one for my b-day in November. A week ago I made a ton of hexies using a cardboard template, enjoyed every moment.