Electric Quilt 8English Paper Piecing (EPP) is a hand sewing technique that stabilizes fabric pieces with paper before sewing them together. You can print English paper piecing templates from EQ8 by simply unchecking Print seam allowance in the Print Template window.
One Patch Quilts
Hexagons are a traditional shape to use in EPP. You can make a simple hexagon quilt in EQ8 by using the One Patch layout style. There are other shapes available in the One Patch layouts that are also great for EPP. Read more about One Patch layouts >
You can draw your own EPP designs in EQ8 too. Because of the uneven edges of the interlocking shapes, you may want to use the Pieced > PolyDraw or Applique > Motif worktables so that the design does not have a square/rectangular background.
Drawing EPP Designs on the PolyDraw Worktable
If using PolyDraw, you’ll need to do a little math to figure out the best size for your block/EPP shapes and the corresponding snaps. Snapping is automatic in PolyDraw based on the grid and snaps you have set (you can’t turn off snapping in PolyDraw).
For a basic hexagon shape, you can use the Rectangle Grid and set the Horizontal and Vertical to 32. Set the Block Width to 8.000 and the Block Height to 6.93. These sizes and snaps are for ease of drawing. You can always print the templates at a different size.
Drawing EPP Designs on the Applique > Motif Worktable
If you use the Applique > Motif worktable, the block size and snaps are not as critical. However, you should use the standard rule of setting the snaps to a multiple of the block size (for example, multiply the block size by 4 to have snaps every 1/4”). Turn on all of the Snapping Options in the Precision Bar. This will help your EPP shapes fit together.
The Shapes tool has ready-made shapes for you to use. The example below uses a hexagon, half-hexagon, and a jewel shape. The half-hexagon was created by deleting two nodes of a regular hexagon shape.
Read more about Applique Motif >
If you’d like to set your EPP designs in a quilt layout, you’ll need to use a Custom Set layout. Read more about Custom Set >
