I’m not sure why, but I’m going through a non-sewing phase right now. I haven’t really touched my sewing machine too much recently even though there is a pile up of projects I’d like to do – new Birdie Sling with Far Far Away II fabric, new dress from Built by Wendy Dresses, tea towels and napkins. Of course, let’s not talk about the pile of unfinished projects.
The one thing I’m really enjoying right now is English Paper Piecing. About six months ago, I embarked on a mini hexagon project (.75″) made up of all shades of grey and bits of persimmon pink. I had so much fun finding all my bits of grey fabric. Johanna even scoured her collection for some lovely grey prints for me. I filled a tin up with my hexies, but when it came to sewing them together I hit a bit of a stumbling block. My stitches seemed to be really visible. I kept trying different stitches, each one worse than the last. Discouraged that it wasn’t turning out very well, I put the project down.
It wasn’t until a couple weeks ago when I was watching Johanna work on her own hexagons that I realized she was stitching them good sides together where I had been stitching them wrong sides together. WHAT?!! I don’t have a clue why I thought they were sewn together wrong sides together. It is standard sewing practice to put ‘good sides together’ for everything. Feeling extremely silly, I revisited my tin of hexagons and now I’m finally sewing all 200-ish of them together. Lesson : even someone who’s been sewing for a heck of a long time can get stumped on the simplest little detail.
I’m sewing them together randomly and organically. I thought this might end up being a pillow, but now I’m wondering about making some type of wall hanging. I think it would be cool to keep the organic shape, mount it and hang it on the wall. What do you think?
