Thursday 11 October 2012

Travellin' Pic Stitch Blog Hop- Saaremaa Star

Welcome to my stop on the Travellin' Pic Stitch Blog Hop.




Katy and Laura are, hopefully, in full Sewing Summit mode now and I am looking forward to reading all about the Summit and their trip over the next couple of weeks. To keep them busy on their road trip they came up with the idea of creating English Paper Pieced blocks using fabrics inspired by their travel photos.

I was especially delighted when Katy asked if I would like to take part in the Blog Hop as I had two long road trips planned and was casting around looking for projects to take with me. English Paper Piecing fitted the bill perfectly. The Blog Hop carries on until the end of November, you can check out the full schedule here  On November 30th everyone will have an opportunity to link up their projects to be in the running for these fabulous prizes, so don't miss it!

Sponsored by Paperpieces.comFabricwormPink Castle Fabrics  Marmalade Fabrics, the Fat Quarter ShopWantItNeedItQuilt, and Aurifil.
Full details for competition entry can be found here.


I have been living in Riga, Latvia for four years and in that time we have done our best to explore as much of the Baltic States as possible. Our favourite trip to date was to the island of Saaremaa, off the coast of Estonia. We visited in September last year when the weather was glorious and the island really looked its best. Being an island, fishing naturally plays a big part in community life, but I don't think many of the fisherfolk look like the statue we found a few yards from our hotel in the island capital Kuressaare :)
They do look very happy though, don't they? This photo always makes me smile, it seems to me that the poor man at the back of the boat is really taking the strain, whilst his lady companion is having a great, high-stepping time:)

I used Play Crafts palette builder to generate a colour palette for my EPP block and then ordered these fabrics from Backstitch, well it was a perfect excuse to indulge in a little bit of retail therapy! I had never used a palette builder before but it was so easy I shall definitely be tempted to use it again.


Flying Geese Marine in Quilt Blocks by Ellen Luckett Baker, Redig - Grey Plank in Bella by Lotta Jansdotter and Pearl Bracelet - Green in Hello Pilgrim by Lizzy House.

The block I came up with for these fabrics was inspired by a pattern in a book of Islamic Geometric Designs by Eric Broug. These designs, which are frequently based upon hexagons or pentagons really lend themselves to this type of piecing, so I will be hunting through the book to create more blocks I am sure. I have no idea if this block has a name already, so I have christened it the Saaremaa Star!



If you would like to recreate this block you will need these templates.

They are a 2" hexagon, 3 x 1" hexagons and 6 x 1" tumbling diamond blocks. I downloaded all of the templates from here

Once you have cut out the 1" hexagons you will need to cut them in half from point-to-point.

I cut from the three fabrics 1 x 2.5" hexagon for the centre of the block, 3x 2" hexagons for the 6 half hexagon shapes and 6 x 1.5" diamond shapes. Again you will need to cut the 2" hexagon fabric pieces in half point-to-point. Baste the fabric pieces around the shapes. Then the block goes together like this


Of course once you have started EPP you may find, like I did, that one block is not enough and basting pieces is just so easy to do on the move, so you might end up with something like this!

And this!




Then once you have joined all these together you might end up with something like this!

I haven't decided exactly what to do with these yet, but with another road trip from Riga to Amsterdam in the offing, I suspect there will be a few more of them before too long :)

If you end up having a go at these blocks or any of the blocks from the Blog Hop, don't forget to link them up on November 30th!




If you haven't already, check out yesterday's post from Jessica at Life under quilts, her palette is the essence of New York and if you are new to EPP, definitely have a look at her video. Tomorrow's stop on the Blog Hop is with Catherine at Knotted Cotton

26 comments:

  1. Fab block Fiona! The colours match the picture beautifully (very funny photo too!). You make EPP look so easy!

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  2. What a great EPP block! Love the mosaic look

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  3. That is such a cool design! Thanks for including the tutorial Fiona!

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  4. OMG Fiona, I am just catching up on reading blogs this evening, you never let on that you were doing EPP!!! Your block is gorgeous and I love hte colour combination you chose, I have not come across Play Crafts so will have to check it out.

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  5. Thank you so much for sharing the templates! That block is amazing! : )

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  6. Awesome block Fiona. Loving the blue and green. Can't wait to see where you go with it. :)

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  7. wow, what a beautiful block and what a wonderful play of prints you have!!!! i can't pair together busy prints very well; i'm always in awe when i see others do it!

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  8. Beautiful colors and fabrics you chose, Fiona. What an interesting blog hop. I'm off to take some photos and join up!

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  9. What a lovely block, the fabrics are gorgeous

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  10. Very interesting process, going from the photo to the block. I'll have to investigate the palette builder. Beautiful fabrics you've purchased!!!

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  11. What a great block. And I'm a big fan of blue, green and white together. Very fresh!

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  12. This is fabulous and what I have been waiting for, I am using the Kona Modern Fabric and didnt want flowers. thanks for the inspiration, looks like you live in a gorgeous area. Cant wait to see what you make from this on the 30th. Are you striving for a quilt?

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  13. This is such a cool design! Thank you for the tutorial Fiona. I love the color palette and the fabrics you chose. I can't wait to see your finished project. It is looking beautiful.

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  14. This looks gorgeous, I love the colours that you've chosen

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  15. Love, love your block, Fiona! I really must attempt EPP someday!

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  16. Wow, I love the block you designed! I have wanted to learn EPP but have been putting it off, but I think this was the impetus I needed. :D Thanks for trying out our palette builder, I really love the palette you made with it!

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  17. I love using Playcrafts Palette Builder and it's worked so well for you in your choice of colours, looking good :)

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  18. I love your inspiration photo and palette and your block - especially the way the star becomes mega hexy. Looking forward to seeing the finished article!

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  19. Love it, those fabrics and colours look stunning together!

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  20. Fantastic block, in beautiful fabrics. A pleasure to read about it.

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  21. What a wonderful statue and your blocks look great :)

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  22. Love your pics, they are always so interesting and then matching your colors- way cool! Your colors and blocks are great! Can't wait to see what you do with them! And your Ms Maven bag is beautiful - funny I bought a bag with the same fabric!! Love it!

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  23. Beautiful, I always love blue and green with some white. Your blocks look great.

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  24. Such a funny pic! And those fabrics go beautifully! Thanks for posting :)

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  25. Hee hee, love the pic, and the block is very cool, thanks for playing :o)

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  26. Hi! I'm so happy to visit your wonderful blog and to see that you are also joining this blog hop! Because I'm from Finland I feel like you are almost my neighbour! Your photo and those fabrics are so great and made beautiful blocks! x Teje

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