My EPP quilt progress

quilting

Jun 7

Ice Cream Soda sew-along

I've been working on an English Paper Piecing project this year. I purchased the pattern and paper pieces through Jodi at Tales of Cloth. I have only ever done EPP using hexagons, and while they can be versatile for design, I was getting bored with them. I found Jodi through a collaboration she did in mid 2023, which got me on her email list. When she advertised the ice cream soda quilt pattern as a sew-along for the new year in 2024, I jumped on it. I'm a sucker for a sew-along.

Jodi does an incredible job with her blog posts, helping you with the basics of EPP and even how to choose your fabrics.

I chose to make the small block size for this quilt and use fat quarters in mostly AGF designs. Progress has been slow, but that's the beauty of it. As I type this, I have 15 blocks done. There are 68 blocks needed. 😮 Not to mention the half blocks, edge pieces and joining pieces.

I like to glue baste a bunch of pieces, then lay out a couple color combos. When I’m happy with it, I stick it in a ziplock sandwich bag to keep it all together. I do that until I have 3-4 baggies of blocks prepared then I slide them into a pocket of my organizer pouch. (the Flora Supply Case by Clover & Violet)

This is what I work on during movie nights with the kids, at baseball practice, next to the swimming pool, or waiting at the tire shop. I even worked on a couple blocks as my daughter won the blue ribbon at the regional spelling bee.

I had one lady, at the baseball field, walk by and ask what I was making. I replied, “a quilt”, as I joined two 1½“ diamonds together. She scoffed and said, “yea ok”, and quickly walked away. That might discourage some people, but it made me smile. It may take me years (hopefully not) to finish stitching this quilt together, but that lady’s remark will be what fuels me to keep stitching.