Monday (Thursday?) Morning (Evening?) Star Count

 Hi Everyone!

Before you start really wondering about me--yes, I realize this is not Monday.  And at almost 9:00 p.m. as I write this I don't think anyone would refer to it as morning either.  But you see, this all started because Jessica over at Life Under Quilts decided to start up a Monday Morning Star Count--where quilters who are doing English Paper Piecing quilting could share their projects and report back each week how many stars (or hexagons) they had stitched together that week.  Sort of like a show and tell, and everyone could encourage you in your quilting endeavors because quilters as a whole are really nice people and that is just how we are.  So it sounded innocent enough.  And then she made it even easier, by just suggesting that we show our sewing kits the first week.  Even "I" felt like I could do THAT--so I did.  And I was shocked by how many people actually seemed interested in peaking into my sewing kit!  I even had a suggestion of something really great that I should add to my sewing kit (chocolate!).  And some people saw glimpses of the fabrics I am using as they were stacked up in my little kit, so they asked about them and said how much they would really like to see more of my little project.  And they all sounded SO sincere. . . so I hate to disappoint people.
   
There's only one little problem.  I didn't sew any this past week.  There.  I've confessed, and I feel SO much better for it!  I actually have been working just a little bit on a different project--not as much as I would have liked, but some, anyway.  But I can't show you that one because it's a secret.

SO.  Feeling like I should share SOMETHING from my English Paper Piecing project, I decided to at least show a little bit more about what I am doing.  Only I didn't have time to sit down and write anything up in time for Monday Morning.  So can we just pretend that it's Monday Morning SOMEWHERE in the world about now, o.k.?

So now I have another little confession to make (good thing confession is supposed to be good for us!).  I am not using paper for my paper piecing.  Shocking, I realize.  And I really think that before this project is done (make that an IF it ever gets done) I will probably be using a combination of my current method as well as paper, but I divert.  When I first learned about English Paper Piecing, the thought of tracing around a shape and then cutting it out and repeating that a million times BEFORE I actually started being able to play with pretty fabric just didn't sound fun to me.  Then I read about using plastic templates instead of paper templates, and that just sounded like it had several advantages to me.  So I went to my JoAnn's store and found one plastic template shape that I could use for English Paper Piecing, so that narrowed down my choices a bit and I finally made a decision and picked the little hexagon shape.  They came in packages of I think 25, and I used a coupon to buy them so they weren't TOO expensive.  The picture above shows a couple of these little plastic shapes sitting out in front of my sewing kit, as well as the little plastic pokey thing that came with them.  

This project absolutely has to be easy for me to do.  I just do NOT have hardly any time at all for playing in the first place, so when I do I want to be able to spend those minutes actually PLAYING, not preparing to play.  So I decided that in addition to buying the little plastic templates (to avoid cutting out the shapes myself), I would also buy fabric cut as close to the size that I needed it as I could.  I had been looking for an excuse to buy a "jelly roll" of fabric, and this project was it!  Again, back to JoAnns.  My JoAnn's store had jelly rolls of batik fabrics.  That was it.  Guess what fabric I chose?  After some deliberation about my numerous options, I decided to settle on choosing some batiks. ;)  I was able to get several different colors, which was fun.  This picture show a roll of blues, but I also was able to get a roll of pinks, oranges, greens, and purples.  The colors all made me happy!  

Using the jelly roll fabrics, all I have to do is snip off a square.  O.K., so I do use my ruler and rotary cutter to make sure my cutting is straight.  But it is pretty simple and fast--perfect for me!

 After cutting my fabric into a little square, I lay my plastic template on top of the fabric and fasten two sides of it with small binder clips.  The handles on these do sort of stick up and catch on my thread, so I keep telling myself I am going to change to paper clips.  But the paper clips are upstairs, and my sewing kit is downstairs.  And it just hasn't happened yet!

Next, I start folding down one corner at a time, just using my thumb to hold down the corner until I can get it sewn.  At this point, I am just basting.  As I move to the next corner and hold it down, I just keep basting my way around the little hexagon, not bothering to cut my thread off until I am at the end.  I do not even tie knots, just take two or three stitches at the beginning and the end.  If I was using paper templates, my understanding is that I would be sewing directly through the card-stock paper template. But using the plastic ones, you just push your needle in until it hits the hard plastic, and then bend your needle to make a little stitch.

Once I am all around and finished basting, I trim off the extra fabric points.  And this one tiny hexagon is ALL I accomplished on this project this week!  Not much to show for myself, I realize.  But remember how I said last week that this project was my "take to daughter's swim club" project?  Well, Swim Club stopped for the holidays, and the next semester of it does not start up until next week.  So I haven't had my three hours of doing nothing but sitting by the pool time since last November!  So there is still hope!  Next week, I will try and show the next steps, about what I am sewing these little hexagons into.  :)

Hope your week has gone well!  And thanks for stopping by my little blog!

~Susan

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If you want to check out Jessica's blog Life Under Quilts, to read about people who actually make time in their weeks to quilt--AND not only that, but they get their Monday Morning Star Counts actually posted on (gasp!) Monday Morning, you can find her here:  http://lifeunderquilts.blogspot.com/2014/01/monday-morning-star-count-20142.html