Friday, June 5, 2015

Hexdens and English Paper Piecing

If you follow me on Instagram you have maybe seen these pink English Paper Piecing flowers that I’ve been working on here and there.  I’ve been getting questions about them so I thought I’d do a blog post about this project.

  Hexden EPP flowers

A few months ago I was in a quilt shop in Spokane Washington and spotted a little EPP (English Paper Piecing) display that was the sweetest little flower, and I instantly fell in love!  But the shop was sold out of the templates.  I finally tracked down the pieces at paperpieces.com – they have EVERYTHING there!  If you’re into EPP, that’s a fun place to shop.  

EPP pieces for Hexden blocks

The shape is called Hexden (hexagon + dresden) and paperpieces.com has two variations and several sizes.  You can see in the photo above that I went with the 1” size.  That 1” refers to the length of the side that forms the base of each flower petal, which is also the length of one side of the hexagon that forms the flower center.

  laser_hexden100var02

Want to see the difference between the two Hexden variations?  Check out the two flowers below.  The difference is subtle, but in the bottom flower, the petals are a little taller and rounder.  That’s variation 2.  And that’s the one that I preferred for this project.  For both variations (in the 1” size) you can cut all pieces from a 2.5” scrap, including the hexagon center.  That's pretty handy since 2.5" scraps are easy to come by around here!

Hexden variations

Here’s what’s in the package of paper pieces – enough pieces to make 36 blocks.

EPP templates

I dug through my scrap bin and pulled out most of the pinks.  Then they were stacked into  similar piles and pinned together in groups of 6. 

Pink squares

Ready for basting!  I’ll be back in a later blog post to show you how I keep everything organized, and how I glue baste the curves of the petals. 

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great weekend!

Hexden flowers

13 comments:

  1. I totally need to learn EPP! These are so cute!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. No instagram,so thanks you to post here.Your hexies are awesome!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I don't Instagram either, so I'm glad you posted these beauties. I love EPP and I love these! Thanks for the links.

    ReplyDelete
  4. So cute! I look forward to more epp tips

    ReplyDelete
  5. These are adorable! Now I really want to make some with the Version 1 template.

    ReplyDelete
  6. These are beautiful. When Grandmother's Garden quilt was finished I was worried what I would have to do. now I know! Thanks for keeping me EPP. :^)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Headiness must be the cutest things ever! I am just getting ready to learn hexies, but I think I like these better! Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I'm eager to see the continuing tutorial on this adorable dresden plate-so clever.

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...