English paper piecing - cheats way!

I love English paper piecing, always have done, always will.  My first two quilts were made using this method, not particularly successfully looking at them now.  My first ever quilt was made for my sister, I did everything you could possibly think wrong with this quilt but it is still around even now.  It certainly doesn't have pride of place, I think it is tucked away in the cupboard somewhere but it's still there and a lasting memory of how I started.  It was made using the honeycomb shape, a shape I decided I would come back to again this summer.

English paper piecing is the perfect project takeaway with you on any trip. I was a little worried about getting the necessary implements i.e. pins and needles through customs but as it turned out I had no problem at all, I sailed through, unlike my youngest son who was stopped and searched and also had a bottle of water in his luggage!  I didn't even try to take scissors though and decided I would get some when we got to Italy.

I used a new method for me this time. Traditionally I have always pinned the shapes to the fabric and then tacked round as we all used to do. This time I took a glue pen with me.  These are special fabric glue sticks and they are washable after you have finished.  You just put some glue along the paper,  fold the fabric over, work your way around the shape and you're done in half the time.  Gets my vote!

This is my first layout and I have stitched this together.  Then I started adding in squares…

I would do eventually but you'll have to use your imagination with the gaps on the table for now.  Love the look of this one, the centre fabric in particularly as it creates the lines as it goes round.

Used Aurifil thread to see these together with a small whipstitch.  It works really well and seemed to disappear nicely.  I know some people don't like seeing the stitches but I actually love seeing those little bits of thread anchoring it all together firmly for me.