How to Prepare Your Red Sky at Night English Paper Pieced (EPP) Blocks
When I designed the Red Sky at Night quilt, I just knew I wanted some of my favourite traditional blocks set aside for English Paper Piecing. I just love the designs that are created when you're not trying to whittle a design down to the basic building blocks of squares and half square triangles. I love the different angles and the variety of shapes. Red Sky at Night is a little different to the other EPP quilts I've designed, so I've written a blog post and made a video to help you get started. Read on for my best tips for getting your pieces prepared and ready for stitching!
The Red Sky at Night EPP Checklist
I designed the machine pieced portion of Red Sky at Night for easy flow and progress. The English Paper Pieced (EPP) blocks require a completely different headspace and process, but once you get into a groove and prepare all your shapes, you'll enjoy easy stitching in all the little gaps. You can make the blocks at a pace and process that suits you, but I highly recommend setting up for one or two cutting and basting sessions and preparing all of your blocks first. I loved having mine ready for when I take my youngest to swimming, or when I sit with my cuppa and some TV in the evening. And the set up is the same whether you do it once or 13 times over the quilt.
You'll need:
- The Red Sky at Night PDF pattern (I printed the EPP section so that I could colour in the blank blocks as a guide for my cutting)
- Paper Pieces (purchased in the shop or cut from the printable templates in the Red Sky at Night pattern)
- Fabric
- Fabric scissors
- Glue, or needle and thread for basting
- Zip lock bag
If you're using the acrylic template set, I recommend also grabbing some:
- washi tape for making the size you'll use on the template
- a fine-tip marker or pacer pencil (the ones where you can adjust the length of the lead)
Because you're not making the same block over and over, and because some of the blocks have shapes that MUST lie in a certain direction, I recommend laying your block's paper pieces out first. Because it's easier than constantly going back and counting if I've cut the right amount of navy, I wrote an initial on the papers to mark which ones need to be basted in navy, green, or white. Then I put them into piles per colour. There aren't any unusual or directional shapes that I need to take care of in this block, but if there are, I always make sure I sit my paper piece, marked side up, on the fabric, right side up, and then cut around it.
Cutting Fabric for EPP
If you're cutting the same shape from the same fabric over and over like I am with this navy, you could sit the diamond on the yardage first and cut a strip with rotary cutter and ruler that gives the diamond a 3/8" seam allowance, and then use scissors to cut the diamonds from the strip. Even if I don't use all of the strip for this block, I know that I'll use this fabric again, and can keep the scrap for further pieces.
If I'm just cutting from stash or scraps, I always just place the paper piece in the corner and cut an approximate 3/8" seam allowance around it.
Cutting Fabric with Acrylic Templates
Even though I rarely use them, acrylic templates are very popular for cutting your fabric. They make fussy cutting easy, and they give you an accurate seam allowance. They are also used by hand-piecers who mark the seam lines on the fabric and stitch along them without the aid of the papers.
Most of the acrylic templates in the Red Sky at Night set have multiple sizes on one shape. The set comes with a printed guide to show you which size is for which block, but for easily keeping track while cutting, I worked out this simple trick!
Place the matching template shape over the paper piece and line it up so that one end is in the corner, and the other lines up with the correct markings on the template. Then take a little bit of washi tape (I really like washi because it's easy to remove) and place it so that the inside edge lines up with the paper piece. Don't use long pieces, because you still want access to those fabric marking holes! Just use enough to mark the right size.
Rather than using a rotary cutter around the template, I find it easiest to mark the fabric around the template, and then cut with scissors. If I'm marking and cutting a lot, I like to set up at my table for marking, and then take my marked fabric somewhere comfy with my scissors, and cut them all out next.
I recommend marking your fabric on the wrong side, so that all your marking is on the back. Line the template up with the part of the design you want in the shape and mark inside the holes at the points. The draw your cutting line around the top of the template.
Next, flip your template around and line up the holes with the markings you made. Draw around the bottom of the template.
Then, cut around the marked line with scissors.
If you're using a template with multiple shapes, like the octagon, rather than multiple sizes like the diamond or square, mark inside the holes still, and then draw around the outside portion of the shape that you can.
For this partial octagon above, moving the template around won't help my draw the flat base, so I grabbed my square template, lined up the marked dots with the etched seam line, and drew along the edge below for an accurate seam allowance.
After all your fabric shapes are cut, you can baste them to the paper pieces. I always baste using glue. Once you're done, you can stitch it if you like, but I like to move on to preparing my next block while I'm all set up with fabric and scissors and glue. So that it's ready for my next EPP-filled down time or waiting time, I put the prepared pieces in a zip lock bag. I add the envelope from the kit, or the printed pattern page, or the label from the label pages in the pattern to the bag too, so that I can tell quickly what the shapes are for, and how to put them together.
How to Prepare Your EPP Shapes - Video Tutorial
I've made a video of the above steps if you prefer watching it in motion. Enjoy!
Start Your Own Red Sky at Night Quilt
Red Sky at Night Quilt is easy on the decision front, but fun and interesting in the variety of blocks. It's one of my favourite ways to make a quilt! Dive in with the pattern and EPP kit below!
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