I love a craft that doesn’t ask much of me…
There’s this whole process vs product crafting debate that comes up every know and then in the crafting community. Are you a person who crafts to craft, or are you a person who crafts for the thing you’re making? As with many binary structures, the truth is often “a bit of this and a bit of that,” right? Sure, there are some people who are way over there on one side of any binary, but most of us live in the murky middle somewhere.
When I was a sock knitter, I would make socks mostly because I wanted to use a specific colorway. So what’s that? Process because I wanted to see how the colorway worked up? Product because I wanted to have used that colorway? I would make a pile of single socks, and when that felt overwhelming, I’d make their mates. I had such a ridiculous number of my fave needles, of sock yarn in waiting, of finished socks with no real reason of being. It was majestic.
When I was designing, almost all of my knitting projects were very purposeful, samples for my design life. So, for sure product. And I always had some of those murky sock projects going on, for when my brain needed a rest and I just needed to make (ok, so that feels like it’s leaning more toward process, right?).
And now, I’m teaching a ton, so there is for sure a lot of making that revolves around class development, class samples, getting class step-outs created, refamiliarizing myself with a class that I haven’t taught for a while, and then there is English Paper Piecing. I mean, honestly, have you met my lord and savior, English Paper Piecing, because it’s basically the perfect craft.
My approach to English Paper Piecing, since I first became obsessed with it, has been very chill and low-stakes. Very play-based. Very inspired by curiosity and wonder, instead of whatever finished object I might end up with. And that has been feeling so wonderful and good and bucket-filling.
English Paper Piecing, for those who have yet to be initiated, is a quilting technique that is and can be entirely hand-stitching based. It’s geometric. You use a stiff-ish piece of paper that is in a geometric shape (the most common shape to begin with is a hexagon), and you cut fabric a bit larger than the shape, baste the fabric around the shape using either a needle and thread or (my preferred method) a glue stick, and then you whip stitch those shapes together to create larger shapes. Simple, elegant, and the perfect craft because you can do whatever you have mental capacity for: cut fabric, glue fabric, sew shapes.
For most of my projects, instead of having a huge quilt project I’m working toward, I’m creating things like mini quilts, wall hangings, and, my Intro to English Paper Piecing class project, an entirely hand-sewn Mug Rug. I’ll make a shape in a fabric I like and create a pin cushion. I’ll do one quilt block from a pattern that intrigues me and make a pillow. I’ll applique my shape onto other fabric and do a bit of big-stitch hand-quilting on it and create something magical. I’ll use a sewing machine and fancy stitches to secure a block to the front of a sweatshirt.
I teach English Paper Piecing all over the place, PLUS I’ve just debuted a new EPP Club that will meet once a month at Taborspace in SE Portland on the 2nd Monday of every month. You can sign up through my little shop, and there are oodles of sliding scale options to make it more accessible for anyone who wants to play. In the meantime, I’ll just be over here making EPP shapes out of lovely fabrics, with very little thought to a finished project and very big thought to the joy it’s giving me.
