eight days a week epp block // cutting and basting

Last night I started cutting and basting the pieces for my Eight Days a Week EPP design. I can tell this will take me far more than eight days to make this whole thing, but then, that's part of the charm of slow sewing.

The octagons have 1-inch sides. In All-Points Patchwork Diane Gilleland says that you can tack the corners if the pieces have 1-inch sides or less. I tried that with a few, but wasn't thrilled with the snugness of the basting. So for the rest I basted through the fabric and paper. I'm much happier now.

When I set up the block, I made it two ways. One way is to make an eight-inch single block, and the other way is to lay it out in repeat. For the pillow I'm making, I'll do a 2x2 layout (which is more like 1-3/4 x 1-3/4) that will look like this:



...sort of. After I basted the octagons and arranged them like my plan, I didn't like the placement. So I've already switched some pieces around. And I may do more of that as I go. Of course, now I'm faced with a dilemma. Do I start joining pieces, or wait until I have every piece basted so I can play with the arrangement more? We'll see how I feel.

I'm blogging this block in near-realtime, so what you see is as far as I've gotten. The block isn't officially tested yet, but if you'd like to get a jump on it (or maybe even pass me by!), you can download the template.

DOWNLOAD THE EIGHT DAYS A WEEK TEMPLATE PDF

The PDF shows a single block and a chunk of repeat (like my color plan above), then it has the pieces for a single block, plus the square needed for the repeat.

The partial octagons you see at the center of the four edges would be full octagons that lead into the next repeat. Similarly, if you're repeating, you wouldn't make triangles, but they would be the "kite" shapes that lead into the next repeat.

Now, I think I had better get some more basting stitches in place!