Addictive Quilty 365, EPP, Crewel Embroidery

As you know my journey with FWSQ involves English Paper Piecing.  I've been enjoying the sewing and learning to check twice and three times before stitching pieces together. That old carpenter's rule of measuring twice and cutting once is so true especially for quilting.
There are still little mistakes that bothered me in the beginning.  Now that I see the blocks en masse I can tell those errors won't be at all noticeable unless you are some kind of FWQ trained police. lol

I love how frugal EPP is. And the simplicity of it.  You do not need any fancy tools...just a pencil and ruler to trace your templates onto freezer paper.  I glue baste with the regular Elmers glue stick.  Then your needle and thread to stitch the pieces together.  But fussy cutting in certain blocks has been encouraged by the group.  The blocks in the book itself do not.

  I don't know how you feel about fussy cutting.  I've read varying opinions and some, like me, don't like the idea of wasting fabric even though it can give stunning results.  I came across this tutorial that makes just that point (no pun intended).

                                       

This star has been made using EPP and fussy cutting the fabric to great effect.  The tutorial is on the Temecula Quilt Company site and was used to start the first of what they call Fussy Cut Friday where they invite readers to send photos of their fussy cut stars.  Some of these are stunning.  Isn't that pretty fabric?

Have you heard the phrase fabric crumbs?  There are numerous examples of Crumb Quilts around the net.  People save every little piece of leftover fabric and sew them together to form block or circles and eventually a quilt.

I told you about the Quilty 365 project at the Quilty Folk Blogspot.  I have been making some circles and they are rather like Crumb quilts too.   But nobody mentioned how addictive this little process is.  I love it.  I guess it is the frugal me that enjoys the idea of using every bit of fabric.  I put them together on the Design Tablecloth on the weekend to give you a look.  You can see I'm making use of very small pieces, some from my recent projects.  The white background for each circle is a 4 inch square.
It's looking a lot like moons or planets to me.  Never thought I'd ever make a Space Quilt.

Perhaps I'm enjoying it so much because it is so much easier than the Farmer's Wife, thus, a real break.

And a little close up of my Acorn crewel work.  It has been a few years since I last worked in wool for embroidery.  I feel out of practice but I'm doing better, I can see. There are a few spots I know I will redo and the rather heavy canvas material will hold up to that, I can tell.

In this project, the stitched areas are treated similarly to an applique picture with the back portions filled in first.

Winter Storm Warning in effect here today.  Another day with a good excuse to stay inside and stitch and sip hot chocolate.
  Hope you are staying warm or cool where you are just as your weather dictates.