Radiance

I’ve been fascinated by tessellating shapes and patterns since I was young, and let’s face it, is there anything more satisfying than interlocking shapes just coming together perfectly?! Well yes actually, there is – adding fabric to the mix!

Like most people’s introductions to English Paper Piecing, my mum was the one who taught me to cover hexagons in scraps of fabric and sew them together. As the years have passed and my skills have become ever so slightly more refined (lol) I’ve progressed to piecing different and more intricate shapes.

When Danni, the mastermind creator behind Eppiflex, reached out to me last year to see if I was interested in putting together one of her new designs, I jumped at the chance!

What I immediately loved about Radiance was how versatile the pattern was. You can just imagine so many different versions of the medallion design in different colours, different patterns, fussy cut fabrics…. PLUS you can incorporate it into soooo many different types of projects – quilts, cushions, wallhangings… You’re only limited by your imagination!

Making Radiance

Danni’s pattern includes easy-to-follow piecing images and instructions. I actually photocopied the final page of the piecing guide and used it as a colouring in page to plan my project before I started.

All up, Radiance has a total of 9 different shapes, each of which is used for a different round of the medallion.

I played around with a few different fabrics for a while, a combination of Liberty Tana Lawns on natural linen was almost my pick, but then I remembered I had this gorgeous stash of solid colours that I’d been keeping hidden at the back of the cupboard. I really wanted to make sure that the Radiance design was the hero, rather than my fabric choice. I think (hope!) that sticking with the solid colours has really highlighted the piece work here.

If I can, I like to cut and prep all of my fabric for a project first. I can’t think of anything worse than sitting down to work on a project and then find out you haven’t got everything you need – aargh! Over one particularly hot day during the holidays, I took the time to sit inside in the air-con and cut all of my fabric and glue them over the templates. From then on, Radiance pretty much came with me everywhere I went over the holiday break, and I watched her grow, and grow, and grow!

Presenting Radiance

As I watched Radiance grow, the colours I had chosen together with the template shapes continually reminded of a Dahlia. You may not see the resemblance at all, but that’s okay!

After to-ing and fro-ing with a few different ideas on how to present Radiance, I decided on a wallhanging.

I used approximately 80cms of a low volume grey fabric, and centred it before appliquéing it in place with my Invisafil Thread.

From different points around the perimeter of the medallion, I used my Sewline Styla to draw vine-like lines.

To add leaves, I used 2″ and 3″ Orange Peel Eppiflex Templates with green fabrics, and again appliquéd them in place.

I also used the 2″, 3″ and 4″ Orange Peel Eppiflex Templates to mark my quilting lines with my Sewline Styla within the medallion itself.

After creating my quilt sandwich with some Parlan Fusible Wadding and some more backing fabric, I used a selection of Perle threads from the Eleganza Pastels Box Set to quilt the vine lines and the medallion in a running stitch.

I finished by binding the wallhanging with the same low volume grey fabric I used for the background.

The Radiance pattern and template set is now available HERE!

For more inspiration and ideas on using the Radiance templates and design, be sure to search the Radiance hashtag – #eppiflexradiance