My New Eye Bowl

Pass the Visine! Here's my new Eye Bowl!

The name is inspired by the orange Tula Pink fabric covering the small diamonds. I drove the point home (because too much is never enough for me) by placing glass eye beads on half the outer shapes. 

It's entirely English Paper Pieced. Before embellishment, it looked like this:

Afterwards, along with the beads and buttons on top, I added danglies below.

 Lower.

 The back: 

Pure fun! I showed a different polygon-based bowl in my last blog entry, here. All my techniques and many more ideas (but not this exact project) are in my polyhedron book, "Stitch-a-hedron"; more information is here. 

My New English Paper Pieced Basket, Roof Optional

Here's my new thing! It's English Paper Pieced canopied basket...


....which can keep the dust off your giant, color-coordinated thread cone...

...or help you find your measuring tape...

Or stuff with faux flowers....

With you inside, it's a bulky bangle bracelet!

...which doubles as a wee, insecure handbag (needs a zippered lining)....

The shape is a modified truncated cuboctahedron. Here's what it would have looked like if it were a complete polyhedron (closed up, without the handle):

Can you see the family resemblance to this stuffed and complete truncated cuboctahedron pincushion?

I made the pincushion for my book, Stitch-a-hedron; English Paper Pieced Polyhederon Gifts and Accessories to Sew.  A complete truncated cuboctahedron contains 6 octagons, 12 squares, and 8 hexagons. On the pincushion, I made each shape in a different color.

For the covered basket, I used a different luscious metallic Klimt-themed quilters' cotton for each outside shape. Inside, I used dupioni silks. The outer shapes are basted around stiff fusible interfacing; for the lining, the fabric is basted around flexible medium-weight interfacing. Here's how the outside (left) and lining (right) looked like before insertion:

Here's the handle, with one end attached to the body of the basket. The final step - stitching the square at the top to the dark hexagonal piece on front - was tricky. 

I'm also thinking that without the handle, I could have put a drawstring bag inside the form (with no handle) to make an evening purse. It would look something like this.

 I'm on a roll with English Paper Pieced polyhedron accessories, mainly because I've been working on a difficult large quilt that required many complicated decisions - polyhedrons, by contrast, are rapid gratification. Last week I made a Valentine's hexagon-and-pentagon EPP dish, here. And another one is coming up soon! More info about my approach and my polyhedron book is here.

Impulse English Paper Pieced Heart Dish

I always get in a Valentine's Day mood at the last minutes. Here's the impulse project I made yesterday, an English Paper Pieced dish that can serve as a pincushion:

...or a thimble holder:

...or maybe an embroidery thread basket....

Or, pile it with chocolates for your sweetie. Here's how I constructed it. There's stiff fusible interfacing inside each piece; both sides are covered with fabric. 

The bowl takes shape when you sew up the side seams. 

Last, I did a bit of embellishment with the variegated embroidery thread in the ball above.

If you'd like to make this project, and you have any kind of hexagon and pentagon templates, you just need one hexagon and six pentagons, each with the same size edges - mine were 1". I redrew the top drawing below into the second drawing, altering the pentagons into soft heart shapes. Each piece is made up of two back-to-back EPPed forms, one with stiff fusible interfacing inside.

By the way, you can also cut this out of one piece of cardstock, for a fun paper project. Score and fold on the lines, instead of cutting the pieces apart.
My step-by-step method for English Paper piecing fabric bowls and other 3D forms - though not this exact project - is in my book, "Stitch-a-hedron, English Paper Piecing Polyhedron Gifts and Accessories to Sew," on etsy in digital form for instant download here; and on Amazon as a paperback, here. Wishing you a sweet holiday!

Eat Chocolate, Drink Coffee. English Paper Piece the Trash into Holiday Decor

It is not an exaggeration to say that English Paper Piecing (EPP) is one of the most addictive quilt-related activities I've ever undertaken. It wasn't enough for me to do EPP with fabric, first to make quilts, and then to stitch polyhedra.

But then, a couple of years ago, after my DH caved to supermarket displays (always blame the DH!) and bought a bag of Lindt Truffles (no financial affiliation!) I found myself fascinated by the wrappers.  One thing led to another...at parties, I started following people around to collect their wrappers....and here are tutorials for two projects made from them. Both are sparkly, fun, and therefore perfect holiday decor!  These truffles come in so many colors, you can do Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanza color schemes, and more! 

PROJECT 1 Small Pentagon Bowl

Detailed directions are in my polyhedron book, but you can don't need it to follow this tutorial. You will need a regular pentagon shape. 

1. Cut out six cardstock pentagons. Mine are 1.75" high, from the middle of the base to the tip, a good size for this particular chocolate brand.

2. I'll break it to you gently: You must eat six chocolates: One for the base, five for the sides. It's your creative duty. (OK, you can share the burden with someone you love.) I was at Costco yesterday and one of the generous ladies was handing everybody 3 Lindt truffles! Pass her twice! 

3. Wrap each cardstock pentagon with a candy wrapper.

As you fold to the back, figure out where you can trim away extra.

Cut same-size pieces from more foil - I used a holiday coffee pouch and glue-sticked the pentagons to the backs. They don't wrap around.

Lay everything out. 

Zigzag the pieces together on the sewing machine. As my book explains in detail, I first go around the central piece,  attaching the sides; then sew up the seams between all side pieces. I used silver metallic thread in the top.... 

...and the bottom....

I put the inside of the foil coffee bag on the outside, on one panel. I think it creates a sort of spaceship effect. 

Wasn't that fun? If you're still have leftover wrappers, you can make....

BOWL II: Hand-sewn Hexagon & Pentagon Bowl

This bowl's a little bigger. This time, you have to drink a lot of coffee as well as consuming six chocolate truffles
The first step is to cut six cardstock pentagons, same size as the project above, 1.75" in height. Wrap each with a truffle wrapper. 

The back. Cut away excess. 

Instead of covering each of the backs with another foil piece,  I tried mashing down some of the backs neatly. (Don't iron, for gosh sakes, the wrapper will melt and attack you with toxic fumes!) Then I stitched a star in silver metallic thread, from the front, to hold everything down.

The smushed backs looked pretty good! 

For the center, you need a hexagon whose sides are the same length as the pentagon's sides, 1.25" in this case. Cut it from cardstock. 

I wrapped one side with a coffee bag piece cut a little larger than the hexagon, so I could bring the edges to the reverse side. 

And in the opening, I slid another coffee bag piece the same size as the hexagon. 

Laid out the pentagon pieces around the hexagon base, good side up. 

Unthread the sewing machine. Use an old needle. Set the machine for a long stitch, even a basting stitch. Send the central piece through the sewing machine, poking more-or-less equidistant holes all the way around. Do the same with the side pieces. 

Hand lace everything together with sturdy thread. I used upholstery thread. 

Hand stitching is a bit awkward. I tried lots of different stitches to see what I liked best. They all worked fine, a whipstitch, a lacing stitch, whatever you like. 

And it's done!

Backside. 

Side view.

But wait! There's more! More chocolate wrapper - and broccoli bag - projects are posted  here. My favorite of all is this hand and machine sewn dish on that page and in the photo below.  

It cuts the sweetness with nutritional information! The base and square pieces are from the bag that holds the candies. The shape is a partial truncated cuboctahedron, and it's another project from my polyhedron book, available on etsy, here, for immediate digital download, or in paperback from Amazon, here. 

Zip Up the Pyramids! Combine Triangles to Make a Purse

Last week, I showed off a triangular bipyramid ornament, made from a wildly freemotion-quilted, felt-backed scrap. Here's another triangular bipyramid - but it's more of a wristlet/purse than an ornament. The 6 triangles were joined into 3 diamonds; there's a zipper on top; a bangle bracelet; and it was constructed using the stiff interfacing and English Paper Piecing techniques described in too-loving detail in my new polyhedron book. 

This specific project is not in the book, so below, I'll show how I made it. First, I cut the skirt off this vintage baby (or doll?) dress, opened it and pressed it flat. (I forgot to take a picture while it was intact, so here's the top.)

I welded six equilateral triangle templates (from my book's icosahedron pattern) into three diamonds. I cut those from fusible interfacing, and covered them, front and back, with fabric. For the inside fabric, I used a new print that looks like jellyfish - the color went perfectly with the blue on the outside:

Sew three panels together as shown below. Cover one end of a 6" zipper with a tab. Sew the zipper along one long edge of a diamond. (You could do this sewing by machine, but I did it by hand for consistency with the next seam.) It's much easier to sew if the zipper is open.

To attach the zipper to the opposite side, it quickly becomes obvious that you must open it to sew. 

 Here's the zipper and tab in position, with the bag upside down.  

Sew up the remaining edges.

Add a button and, if you like, a bangle (this one is part of a set from Target that cost bupkes.) I was a little indecisive about the button - I loved the vintage leather button in the photo on top of this page, but I also loved the yellow button below. You can sew on the button and bangle at the same time, or separately if your giftee might prefer a zip-up case to a wristlet. 

For more information about my polyhedron-sewing book, see this page, or more examples on this page!