Georgian Coverlet - 1 English Paper piecing

In the voice of Lady Caroline Farnsworth:

Greetings Dear Ladies of our Amberleigh Village, As our American friends are already well acquainted with the term “A Quilting Bee” It is with a yearning of the spirit within our community that I have devised a swap that will have our fingers busy, and our mind on reflection.
For this my dears, is an English Paper Pieced Hexagon Patchwork delight. NOW, I see those hands flying asunder saying “I can’t quilt! I cannot do Patch-working!” but with this method, even those with glue fingers, can attain a delightful lap quilt by years end. If you are willing to do a simple overcast stitch, that even the lowliest of villagers can execute, then my dear, it CAN be yours. NO, you do not stitch for your partner, only for yourself later.

I beseech you to join in this progressive swap, for a good twelve month. What we will each have at the end of that period will be a coverlet to keep ourselves warm by the fireside. If this warms the cockles of your heart as it does mine, dear friends, then please step forward, and take a pew.

below are photo tutorials to explain further the quick joining methods. I am indeed expecting a flood of notes in my letter box, and please I look forward to helping sort out your queries. The YouTube videos that I have seen do seem to confuse people. But the online blog tutorials here are very basic which is what we are needing.

Essentially this is a FLAT ENVELOPE swap, AND A LETTER with little crafting, but as you must cut out shapes I marked as a Package swap.

Now ladies, I would like us to follow 5 important fun rules. And a final 6th for our own enjoyment.

Step 1. All the 6 or 8 fabric cut hexagons must be the same sized 2 inches for each of our partners so they can add the paper hexagons as the swap progresses. So, may I ask for those who do not have pre-made 2” and 1½” clear templates please subscribe to the following address, however briefly, and she will send an automatic email to download 6 sizes of hexies in one FREE PDF file. http://www.getasquiltingstudio.com/

a free download to cut perfect hexagons, in no time, with no errors in the length of sides. There is no error in Geta’s clever way of cutting your own papers. She gives us GLUE options for those that prefer that way. I can see someone smiling! To download, once the free PDF confirmation email arrives in your mail box, (check spam or Promotions etc) Open the link they provide. Print out both the 1½” and 2” sized hexagons pages as these will be the size we will all adhere to for our further swaps. You my dear reader, will use the paper 1½” for your own piecing at step 6. But for the next step we only need one 1½” hexagon and one 2 inch one as a guide. (Patchwork is nearly always in inches)

Step 2. TEMPLATE . On firm clear plastic sheet place your 2” hexagon on top, draw around the hexagon with fine sharpie. Cut out the hexagon .

Place a 1½” hexagon inside this plastic hexagon centre it in the middle, line it up equally to the sides and draw around this in fine sharpie pen. This is your TEMPLATE for your pattern choice. Take it with you when looking at fabrics. You will lay the 2inch hexagon on top of the fabric and see the pattern on the marked smaller hexigon for placement guide.

Step 3. @Elenamarie & @AnnaM have placed on the forum page - online website guides for colour selection of our period. Georgian dyes were muted, as they were all natural dyes. So we cannot have fluro colours, or vibrant purples or hot pinks and NO SOLID BLACK. But they have lovely soft shades of wheat yellow, green and olive, a kind of turquoise, soft lavenders, salmon & rosey pinks, mauves etc, for dark colours they did have a very deep red, mid-dark green, dark browns, shades of indigo blue or Logwood blue too. These are the shades we send each other. What you do at your end once receiving them is your own choice.

Step 4. Select an 1/8th yard or 10-20cm of your chosen fabric……. A striped old world design for example.
Place the clear template over an area. Ensure the inner hexagon marked is the focus for the design. The idea is to repeat the same direction in each of the 6 or 8 hexagons. So the partner can form a delicious circle or diamond. see image above. When you love the direction, mark around the clear template and cut out 6 or 8 hexagons so each one is exactly the same as the others.
This link below gives amazing advice and visual clues on directional ways to cut the patterned fabric. On Pinterest she features a lot on the pattern forming paper piecing which is lately called fussy cuts. Simply meaning you are taking your time to cut a repetitive pattern to get a fantastic movement in the end results. This style suits our Georgian period perfectly.

http://faeriesandfibres.blogspot.com/

Step 5. Lastly place the 6 or 8 cut hexigons into an envelope. Write a little letter to your partner in your Amberleigh characters voice, about your day etc. Perhaps who you bumped into last week. Just to get the feel of conversing in village life. Do use a DL business envelope please, tape the edges and the seal of the envelope to avoid rips. Send the envelope on to your partner.

Step 6. Is in the forum as a seperate thread. I will also place the instructions above in the same section, for further swaps for newcomers to join in the fun but without having to repeat the long words again and again. UNLESS you wish me to.

please contact us if you have problems.

I Hope my dears you will join me in the making of an “At Home Coverlet”