I often hear from quilting friends who have started English Paper Piecing (EPP) a Grandmother’s Flower Garden (GFG) which is not finished, and which is likely to remain an unfinished object (UFO).

We call these EPP GFG UFOs.

(This situation also arises with octagons and other polygons, but Monkey says, “EPP GFG UFOs are the most ubiquitous.” Someone must have given him a dictionary, a library card, or the link to wikipedia.)

Quilters tell me they wish they had known about Inklingo before they started EPP. They love a portable project but would rather sew with a running stich than use a whip-stitch, for many good reasons.

If you enjoy EPP, and finish your projects, that’s great. Stop here. Enjoy your favorite technique and feel happy about it.

However, if you are looking for a more precise, simpler, faster way to finish your quilt, Inklingo is the answer. You can add Inklingo hexagons and flowers on to your EPP GFG UFO. Print the shapes on fabric and sew with a running stitch instead of whip-stitching. You can even do some machine stitching in a hybrid. 

There is a new PDF called English Paper Piecing Rescue under the Hand Piecing tab on the web site. It describes why EPP appeals to so many of us, the ubiquitousness of unfinished GFGs, and instructions for adding Inklingo hexagons to an existing EPP UFO.

It is amazingly simple, but you will want to see the photos. There are too many to include here.

Advantages of a Running Stitch with Inklingo

•  More portable and relaxing than whip-stitching with templates
•  Efficient use of fabric (especially with layouts to cut with scissors)
•  Cut with scissors or a rotary cutter—your choice
•  Stitching lines, matching marks, and crosshairs on each piece
•  No basting
•  No templates
•  No matter how closely you look, the running stitches are hidden
•  Combine hand and machine piecing in the same quilt (hybrid)
• Compatible with fussy cutting
•  Seams are pressed to the side, not open

Try it now!

If you haven’t tried printing Inklingo shapes on fabric yet, see the Quick Start and order the free shape collection ($20 value). You will be able to print your first shapes in the next few minutes, and sew them by hand or by machine.

We hope you will enjoy finishing your EPP quilts, with or without Inklingo.

Linda & Monkey

PS From Mirriam-Webster online: Main Entry: ubiq·ui·tous
Pronunciation: \yü-ˈbi-kwə-təs\  Function: adjective  Date: 1830
: existing or being everywhere at the same time : constantly encountered : widespread <a ubiquitous fashion>

The dozens of Patchwork of the Crosses (POTC) blocks in the photo albums of the Inklingo Yahoo group have prompted some discussion about Lucy Boston’s wonderful Green Knowe books.

The Children of Green Knowe is the first in the series. They are stories of a boy, his great-grandmother, and the children who lived in the house at Green Knowe hundreds of years ago. They were classified as children’s books because Lucy Boston asked her publisher to include illustrations by her son, Peter, but these stories have appeal for all ages.

The great-grandmother in the books is a quilter who learned patchwork when she was mending old quilts that she had bought to use as curtains, just like Lucy Boston. 

From The Chimneys of Green Knowe:
“His great-grandmother was sitting by the fire mending one of the old patchwork quilts. Tolly had long been familiar with the quilts, some of which were used as curtains in the living room, hanging from ceiling to floor in bulgy folds against the stone walls. . . Mrs. Oldknow had a basket beside her full of pieces of paper all cut the same size and shape, over which she had neatly tacked bright cotton materials. These she was trying on over torn pieces in the quilt to see which looked best.”

The great-grandmother is Lucy Boston, and the old house is her ancient Manor at Hemingford Grey. The boy Tolly is her son (not her grandson in real life), Peter. Peter was a very talented artist and grew up to be an architect. This was an interest he shared with his mother, and he helped her in the restoration of her ancient Norman house near Cambridge, where she lived for over fifty years.

Peter married Diana, and Diana wrote her wonderful book The Patchworks of Lucy Boston before he died. This beautiful book includes photographs and descriptions of all 22 of Lucy Boston’s quilts.

Diana Boston (Peter’s widow, Lucy’s daughter-in-law) still lives in the Manor at Hemingford Grey. Her book is written with love for Lucy Boston and includes wonderful stories about the inspiration for her patchworks, her fabric purchases in wartime England, references to the patchworks in her letters, historical background, and her life story. Diana’s descriptions of the patchworks are insightful and poetic. It is one of my all-time favorite quilt books, even though it does not include patterns.

Since all of Lucy Boston’s quilts were made with the method we call English Paper Piecing (EPP), most quilters do not need a pattern. A photograph and a few measurements (length of the side of a hexagon, etc.) are all they need. Diana’s book was first published in 1995, and was out of print for a long time. It is available again now.

The BBC adapted the books for television in the 1980s. All of Lucy Boston’s books are still in print, and Diana has shared some other exciting news with me which I will save for the appropriate time (at her request).

Lucy Boston lived to be 98 years old (1892-1990). She published her first novels and children’s books when she was in her sixties. She continued to write, and sewed some of her most impressive patchworks when she was in her eighties. She sewed and worked in her famous garden in her nineties. She was an extraordinary person, who still inspires affection and admiration.

I think you will want to visit Diana’s web site for more about this fascinating quilter, her house and garden, her quilts, and her children’s books!

Since I have very little energy, I am tempted to prop myself up against the pillows and re-read The Chimneys of Green Knowe in bed. (I have not developed a fever, so I just have an annoying cold, not H1N1.)

Linda & Monkey

Monkey and I stitched our first five Inklingo flowers for the World’s Biggest Hexagon Quilt a few weeks ago, but we want to have more ready to mail to Australia by November 15th. Russ will be watching the World Series tonight, so I need to be prepared for a cosy Saturday evening at home. PBS is showing an old Sherlock Holmes mystery (love Jeremy Brett) and an old Poirot. Since I have seen them both before, this is an ideal Inklingo stitching opportunity. If baseball is your choice, you will probably have even more time to stitch. “Baseball is six minutes of action crammed into two-and-one-half hours.” (Dusty old quote) There is plenty of time to stitch a few flowers between pitches, eh?

Will you join us? 

Print 6 hexagons on a scrap 5.75 x 7.5 inches

There are instructions for printing hexagons with Inklingo in this earlier blog post, and you could print a page of 6 green hexagons (for centers) and six more pages of 6 hexagons in other fabrics in only a few minutes. You still have time before the action starts. We could hand piece together.

I am not printing any more hexagons yet because I have dozens of sets of six pretty one-inch hexagons from Inklingo swaps, including several good greens for the centers. All of the details about the World’s Biggest Hexagon Quilt are on this page. After the big event, your Inklingo flowers will be a comfort to someone in a nursing home.

Inklingo flowers are much faster and easier than ones that are English Paper Pieced, so Inklingo quilters should be able to contribute a significant number of flowers, don’t you think? 

I hope you are stitching to be part of this fun project too. Please let me know if you are. 

Linda & Monkey