English Paper Piecing

Have you tried it?  I think it's really fun!  And I have to have hand work now, all the time! 

What I WANT to do, am lured to, hear the siren call of, is La Passacaglia, an incredible, beautiful piece, with interlocking cogs, absolutely amazing!  Here is a picture from Sharon at Lilabelle Lane Creations.  I follow her on Instagram and LOVE everything she does!

You can go to Pinterest and see lots of photos of  La Passacaglia (pronounced lah passa cahl ya).  But if you look at it closely, there are many tinier pieces, like those little connecting diamonds.  So far I have resisted it's siren call.  Even when Massdrop persists in occasionally listing a kit of the papers & templates to make it!

But wanting to do something similar, I found a pattern by Sue Daley called Fruit Tingles.  I found Sue's kit for it, which includes the pattern, all the paper pieces required & acrylic templates, for cutting out your fabric.   I think this will satisfy the urge to have an EPP pattern, and what I thought would be great about is that it doesn't interlock like La Passacaglia, each unit is appliqued onto it's own block.  The quilt has 16.  But if I want to stop sooner, I could. I'd have that option whereas with La Passacaglia you couldn't really stop til the entire top was done.

Here's what I have so far:

Here they all are, just hanging out together in the snow

It's very fun to take the time to fussy cut them, although that does take a little while.  I usually do two at a time, so far.   They are great TV work, or I take them out with me when I have a chance to sit and stitch.

The pattern shows one background fabric, but I am thinking about using two, in alternating blocks.  I'm a bit antsy to pick those out soon, but it may take a bit of time to decide what I want.  I'd love to start seeing these stitched onto their background!

Oh!  So in my 'look there's a squirrel' kind of way---it just occurred to me---both Sharon and Sue are Australians, as are many other talented quilters I follow on Instagram.  Jen Kingwell, for example.  Sarah Filke.  I've wondered if there's something in the water there?  Just a thought.....  But if so, I want some of that water!!  The work coming out of Australia is amazing--the patterns, the colors, the fabrics!