Design Wall Monday

For the last month I've been working on an English Paper Piecing project off and on. At the end of June, I received a package from a swap of mini nine patches in which I participated. Along with my 200 blocks, I received a sample English Paper Piecing kit. The kit (put together by a company called Paper Pieces) included 7 paper hexagons (3/4"), 7 small squares of fabric (2") and a set of instructions. I figured, "what the heck" and gave it a try. The picture below has the original kit and two other blocks that I made reusing the paper pieces.


I really enjoyed doing this and decided that since I have a fair amount of reproduction scraps that I would make a bed size quilt using this technique. Of course that means the entire project will be hand pieced and quilted, and since I'm only working on it while I'm watching TV, waiting at the doctor's office, etc. it probably won't get done until I'm 120 years old. Anyway, below are the nine blocks that I have done so far and the pieces ready to make the next block. (Perhaps I'll work on that when Nikki calls and says that she's gone to the hospital to have the baby! Of course the way things are going, that may take a while! Not really, she goes back to the doctor tomorrow and they will decide their "plan of action.")


I'm really liking these blocks and my husband Jack has enjoyed them as well. Actually, Jack recently reminded my that when we had taken a hand quilting class together at a local quilt shop (about ten years ago) we met a woman who made a Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt entirely by hand. She was a flight attendant and had pieced the blocks while she was on layovers, waiting for flights, etc. Of course Jack remembers that I said that even though I thought it was beautiful, I would NEVER make one. The moral of the story is to never say never!

As I said before, I'm not working on this exclusively, but I since I don't have anything else to show for Design Wall Monday, I decided to post this. I'll probably show progress on this off and on, especially if I don't have anything else to show.

As you can tell from the pictures, I've decided to make this quilt pretty scrappy. I'm not really trying to match fabrics (other than the center hexagons and the connecting or path pieces). It should be interesting to see how this turns out.

Oh, by the way. I'm using 1" hexagons for my blocks. I seriously considered using 3/4" or even 1/2" hexagons, but decided that was just CRAZY!!

How many of you have made one of these quilts? Perhaps a better question would be "How many of you have STARTED one of these quilts?"

Check out what other quilters have on their design walls by going to Judy L.'s Patchwork Times blog.