I took up English Paper Piecing when I found out my third child would be a girl. I had a beautiful, floral, voile collection of fabrics that would be perfect for a soft baby quilt, and I'd always wanted to make a hexie quilt. This would be the perfect occasion! I bought a hexagon hole punch and started keeping cereal boxes to make my hexagon paper pieces.

I fought my whole way through that quilt, only sticking to my plan because the fabric was so beautiful and a baby quilt doesn't need to be big! The cereal box cardboard was thick and painful to fold as I stitched around corners. I didn't really have any clue about constructing a whole quilt and I just added hexagons here and there, slowly growing a large blog that I eventually decided was big enough, and filled out the corners. I vowed never to make another EPP quilt again!

My vow only lasted a year or so when my sewing machine went AWOL for 5 months during a routine service. After a month or so of cutting out quilts I couldn't sew together, I decided to give EPP another try.

This time I bought shapes instead of cutting them myself. I bought a few different needle and thread types to try, rather than just using what I had on hand. I decided to try glue basting to see if I liked it.

I discovered that I really liked stitching during my weekly, 3-hour long staff meeting, and so I started to make sure I had prepared blocks ready to sew for those. And then I discovered that when I had prepared shapes, I actually liked stitching most of the time! EPP allowed me to keep making my lovely little stars when guests came around, when the kids were awake, and it allowed me to stay by the fire and keep stitching after they went to bed, rather than setting off to my cold sewing room down the hall where my sewing machine used to be.

After about my third time ordering more diamonds because I'd run out again, (when I machine pieced, I always just cut fabric from stash as I went, rather than make sure I had enough first) I started to wish there were EPP kits, where all the shapes were counted for you and ready to go. I was sitting by the fire, chatting to my Engineer Hubby, Tim, when a germ of an idea came to me, "Do you think they cut paper pieces with a laser cutter?" Tim's eyes lit up, he started talking, and Tales of Cloth was born!

This lovely shop is almost 10 years worth of EPP stitches, learning, collaboration, and love. On my blog, you'll find tutorials, stories, and honest reflections about sustaining a joyful, creative life. In the shop, you'll find thoughtfully created patterns and EPP kits with all the paper pieces put together for you. And when they arrive in your mailbox, you'll discover our commitment to beautiful, eco-friendly products and packaging.

Thank you so much for being here! It's my hope that you too will discover the joy and peace and satisfaction of English Paper Pieced Quilts.