EPP = Rest

The February Aurifil Artisan Challenge was English Paper Piecing. I love stitching with Aurifil 80wt because I feel like my stitches almost disappear, and I love the range of colors! I was excited to work with Paper Pieces as well, because they have so many shapes and acrylic templates to go with them (I always choose the 3/8″ seam allowance so I don’t have to be quite as careful when basting).

For my project (that I’m still working on), I’m using 2″ Half Hexagons and 2″ 6 Point Diamonds. The color contrast is supposed to make the blocks look like cubes, we’ll see how that works out when there are more of them (I dreamed of making a whole cushion, but hand sewing is so slow!) But, I also wanted to share a little story with you about my newfound love of EPP as a hobby and rest.

I didn’t chose a word of the year for 2020, I was too busy and felt too frantic to nail one down. But over the month of February, which flew by just as fast as January, I’ve settled on Rest as my word for this year. Rest is something I don’t do well. My personality style is go, go, go, work, work, work, and goals, goals, goals. And I’ve been ok with that until recently. As my life has gotten busier I find myself wasting time (looking at my phone!) instead of accomplishing tasks. Then, I feel frustrated that I’ve wasted said time, and waste some more time in my frustration.

So, what I’ve realized from all this is, I need to learn to rest. Enter English Paper Piecing! I’ve actually loved EPP for years (if you want to learn, I posted a roundup here in 2015), and to me it’s been the perfect thing to do when I need a rest. I gather my supplies, play with fabric scraps, and slowly work on my stitching. Today I worked on it while my kids drew pictures and listened to The Secret Garden audio-book.

For a long time sewing has been a business for me, one that I deeply love, but everything is either a pattern or a blog hop or a gift. But, EPP, it’s just for fun. I won’t be making any patterns, selling any shapes, or anything like that. Just sewing, and since it is slow, it can’t be rushed. And that’s what I love about it. Maybe none of these projects (my new hexagon project I’m calling Garden Pathway, the Smitten Quilt, or the Yarrow Quilt) will ever be quilts; but I’ll have enjoyed the slow process. What do you do to rest?