Slow Sunday Stitching Treat

Welcome to Slow Sunday Stitching where we celebrate all the wonderful benefits of the art of hand stitching! I am so glad you can join us because I have an extra special treat for you english paper piecing enthusiasts!
I was at the London Friendship Quilters' Guild quilt show and saw so many amazing quilts, but 4 in particular that I want to share with you today. These quilts are all completely hand pieced, which means every single one of these thousands of tiny pieces of fabric was cut with scissors and hand stitched with a needle and thread. The pattern is called La Passacaglia and is found in Willyne Hammerstein's book called Millefiori. 

Let's start with our very own Cathy Shepherd who blogs over at Eagles' Wings Quilts. She frequently linked up to Slow Sunday Stitching while we watched over her shoulder as she pieced all these tiny shapes into this spectacular Passacaglia quilt. You cannot even appreciate all the amazing fussy cut designs she created, but trust me... you see something different every time you look at this quilt. Cathy edged all the rosettes in white and bordered them on a blue fabric.


And there were 3 more of these quilts hanging in the show!

Here is the second one sewn by Charlene O'Donnell. See how she made two borders (a gold and an orange) and then cut off some of the rosettes, and extended some of them into the border?

Here is the third one sewn by Lorraine Swanson using civil war colours. She edged the rosettes with brown, and added a larger neutral border and more english paper pieced blocks. See on the bottom right corner where she put examples of the tiny design units?!? I am telling you these pieces are TINY! I should have taken a photo with my hand beside it so you could appreciate the scale of these quilts.

And here is the fourth version sewn in brights with black pointed stars around the rosettes. This was made by Lorna Martin and she extended 3 of the rosettes into the border.

I am amazed by how each quilter used the same pattern, and how they each look so different! They were really unbelievable!

Some of the women at my quilt retreat were working on this same quilt last winter. This is Nancy on the left making a super small version, and Maria on the right making the regular size version. They are holding the same block from the pattern. Wow and wow! I sure do hope I don't fall in love with the idea of making this quilt!
Have you tried english paper piecing? What are you hand stitching today? We'd love to see what you're working on, so link up your blog post below and share your progress.

   

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