About two years ago, my dear friend Jodi and I were chatting about writing our quilting books while our kids were mucking around outside in the garden, wondering how we were going to get it all done with families and businesses to take care of too. And now here we are, with our books are about to be released at the same time – mine being Mini Masterpieces, and her’s being The Seedling Quilts!
The Seedling Quilts is packed full with 11 English paper pieced (EPP) panels and quilts, all beautifully photographed in the Australian bush. I love a book with gorgeous photographs, and this book meets my high expectations!
The Seedling Quilts is a beautifully curated collection of EPP and Applique quilt designs inspired by medicinal herbs. The quilts range from intricate and completely hand pieced to simple, machine pieced quilts with a little hand stitched flourish.
You can choose to make each block as a quilt on its own, or make various-sized panels and put them together as the Seedlings sampler quilt – so named for and inspired by rows of seedlings in a garden!
When Jodi asked me to join her book tour, it was a no-brainer to say yes and support a fellow Aussie. Besides, with stunning EPP quilt designs like these… how could I resist?! I almost chose Peppermint, as I adore the shapes (that actually remind me a little of paper boats!).
But in the end, it was the Elderberry block that caught my eye, with the pentagon shape as it’s base – a shape I haven’t yet played with. Here’s the full quilt version you can make:
Instead, I followed the instructions for the panel and used assorted Alison Glass fabric charms to create a basic rainbow for the pentagons, and used some of her black and white prints for the half-decagon.
I had planned on appliqueing them to a dark grey fabric for a short table runner, but just this past weekend, I found two of the black and white prints as larger chunks of fabric in my stash, so now I’m thinking I’ll incorporate those too somehow… Perhaps a cushion? I need to let it sit for a while and let the inspiration marinade.
For English paper piecing, I glue baste my shapes. With the papers from Jodi, they’re cut from recycled brown paper with no gloss and I can use a small, regular kids’ glue stick with no problem whatsoever getting the papers out after. For the white papers with a slightly glossier finish/feel, I find the glue stick doesn’t work as well, so I use a Sewline fabric glue pen. As for stitching it all together, I use 50wt Aurifil thread in either 2600 (pale grey) or 2310 (pale cream) depending on whether the fabrics are warmer or cooler… or whichever thread is currently in my EPP tin 😉
You can find all things The Seedling Quilts over here at Tales of Cloth – purchase the book, the papers for each quilt, and see blog posts for each quilt as she share’s about each one each day. There’s a QAL starting next month, so it’s time to get prepared!
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