And Then There Were Three ...

OK.  I admit it.  I am beginning to understand the addictive quality of English Paper Piecing and all those hexie projects I see in blogland.

By the time I had finished stitching the third star flower, I was already thinking about how I was going to go through my scrap bins and cut up all the smaller pieces of fabric into petals and hexie shapes to make a much larger project ... I have wanted to find a project to use up the too-small-for-most-project scraps in there. Maybe this is it.

When I uploaded the photo of the first flower to Flickr yesterday, within minutes, Amy was asking for a peek at the back.  

I'm sure there are neater ways to do it, but here's a look at the insides of my blocks.   Please remember this is my FIRST adventure in English Paper Piecing and don't judge my sloppy first efforts too harshly ... I'm sure I'll get better/neater with practice ;-)  

I printed Regina's template sheets on card stock and used a rotary cutter and ruler to cut them out. I punched a pair of holes near the center. Using one of the paper templates as a guide and an add-a-quarter ruler, I stacked the fabrics and rotary cut them with a 1/4 inch allowance around the template.

As you might guess, I cut and prepared everything for only one star flower at a time–it's just the way my design mind works, focusing on the elements of one flower/block/section at a time. But, I think this isn't the way I've seen most hexie/EPP projects progress and I need to figure out if I can shift to a way of cutting everything (or at least hundreds) of units, preparing them and having them ready to assemble. It's that kind of preparatory step that often slows/stops progress for me.  I'm focusing on that personal challenge this month and I think the blogiverse sent me this prize of an EPP project as a way to overcome it ... or at least make some strides in that direction.

Here is what my hexie center looked like after I attached the fabric. I deviated from Regina's directions a bit, but using the heavier card stock and not stitching through the paper.

I simply tacked the fabric at the corners and skipped to the next corner.

You can see how I pinned the fabric in place by going through my two punched holes.  It distorts the shape less and the pin is just going through fabric, not paper/card stock.

And here is the finished star flower, from the  back.

In theory it seems that once the surrounding pieces are sewn in place, I should be able to clip the basting/tacking stitches, remove the paper templates, and reuse them. 

This weekend on the Block Lotto's Weekend Update, I asked quilters to share their process.  I have found when I share mine here, I learn so much from the comments and discussions that follow.  Since I am just beginning my adventure in EPP, I know I have a lot to learn and would love to read your comments, suggestions and tips.   And if you'd like to share a blog post about YOUR process, please jump over to the Block Lotto and join me at the Linky party.

I'm also joining Billie Bee's Hexie Friday.