sizzix design team 2015 | Night Quilter

Do you remember my post about getting started on this bright bunny English Paper pieced (EPP) mug rug, my Sizzix Design Team debut? I’m sure you have your stack of basted pieces all ready to go, sitting at the edge of your seat patiently awaiting my finishing directions, right? Great! Either way, I’m excited to finally share the finishing directions today on the Sizzix blog.

This is a great project for those of you who want to do more hand stitching in the uber portable form of EPP, but who are not quite ready to hand baste and piece an entire quilt.

In this tutorial, I take you through:

stitching the basted pieces together;
savvily removing the template papers;
attaching the completed EPP to the background fabric;
removing excess fabric to help reduce bulk; and,
using the backing to bind the mug rug.

These are all great techniques for any EPP project.

One little forewarning: making a bright and bold mug rug like this one may draw extra attention to the plate of treats you rest on it. This most likely will result in extra sneaky small hands swiping your snacks.

Now you see it.

Now you don’t!

Hop on over and check out the full tutorial on the Sizzix blog! Here’s a quick link to Part 1: Getting Started and Part 2: Finishing. Enjoy!

I’m linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it up Friday.

A few weeks ago, I received an email inviting me to join the Sizzix Design Team as their English Paper Piecing (EPP) blogger. I was excited at the offer since I love EPP, but I had never used a Sizzix die cutting machine before (affiliate link), though I’ve heard many good things about them. For those of you who don’t know, the Sizzix is a die cutting machine that has the ability to cut fabric (or paper and other materials) quickly, easily, and accurately with the use of stainless steel dies (basically like cookie cutters in a foam protective layer) rolled through a pressing machine. Sizzix sent me a Sizzix Fabi Starter Kit (affiliate link) and a few dies to try out, and I figured if it was as helpful, safe, and time saving as I’d heard, I would happily sign on as a Design Team member.

It didn’t take me long to be convinced at how big of a time saving tool the Sizzix machine was. It cuts eight (8!) perfectly even pieces of fabric at a time, including “fussy cut” shapes–of course I had to try to meticulously cut with the Fabi before agreeing to join as an EPP-focused Design Team member! While the meticulous cutting takes a bit more preparation to get lined up, it surely is faster than hand tracing and scissor-cutting, not to mention perfectly accurate in size and shape.

The biggest selling point for me was the safety of using the Fabi die cutting machine (affiliate link). As a mom of little ones, I can do all of the necessary cutting for a quilt with my kids around, even my very busy three year old son. In fact, my kids can even (eagerly) help turn the crank to cut the dies (with my direct supervision of course). There’s no way I would rotary cut fabric around my son and even scissors disappear off the table if my hawk watch falters, but the Fabi is definitely doable. Not only will I get more accomplished, but perhaps this will inspire my kiddos to try more fabric crafts as well.

A fabric pull for some Sizzix EPP playtime.

So, it’s official: I’m a member of the 2015 Sizzix Design team! I’m excited to be joining the team, and will be sharing posts and projects soon. (Who doesn’t love an excuse to start new projects!?) In the meantime, I’m playing around with my Fabi, starting a few projects, learning the ropes of die cutting, and experimenting with ways to use the Sizzix with EPP. I can’t wait to show you what I’m making! Here’s a tiny little peek to hold you over: