Book Review :: Flossie Teacakes’ Guide to English Paper Piecing: Exploring the Fussy-Cut World of Precision Patchwork

I have been following Florence Knapp’s blog for many many years. Have you come across it before? Florence writes a really lovely blog and shares pictures of all of her lovely makes.

Over the years Florence has developed a love of English Paper Piecing and has an amazing talent for fussy cutting and combining fabrics. It came as no surprise to me and an absolute delight to hear that Florence had written a book!

Flossie Teacakes’ Guide to English Paper Piecing: Exploring the Fussy-Cut World of Precision Patchwork is a beautiful book that not only gives you a thorough grounding in the craft of English Paper Piecing it talk about the history and the psychology behind and our attraction to this rather addictive hobby.

There is a wonderful section near the beginning of the book that looks at the work of some influential paper piecers both in the past and those that are still stitching. There are some wonderful pictures and some fabulous insight into their work.

As you would expect with a book about EPP there’s a great section about tips and techniques surrounding the basic of getting started with the craft. If you are new to EPP you will discover that there can be more to it than the humble hexie. Florence has a knack of creating such beautiful pieces of work and she achieves this through not only her amazing use of colour and print but also through the shapes she uses in her designs. Supported by a great range of illustrations and clear photographs she shares her methods for wrapping and basting curved shapes and how to stitch them together.

If you have followed Florence on instagram or read her blog you will know that she is a Fussy Cutting champion! Thankfully she shares some of her wisdom in her book. There are tips for selecting fabrics and what to look out for, ideas on how you can use prints in different ways. She also takes you through her methods for accurately cutting and basting shapes when working with fussy cuts.

This picture I have shared here is from Florence’s instagram. It’s a perfect illustration of how you can create something new and striking from other fabrics.

The projects in this book are not your average run of the mill projects, they are there to push your skills and allow you to practice fussy cutting and curved piecing techniques that you’ll have learned from the book. All of the projects are based around some really beautiful rosette designs that can be used in any number of ways.

I really hope that you’ll consider buying Florence’s book. I am in now way being paid for this review, I just think it’s a fabulous book!

Flossie Teacakes’ Guide to English Paper Piecing is available to buy now from Amazon and I am sure leading bookstores.

Make sure you also drop by Florence’s blog for a look at her work and an opportunity to buy some of her pdf patterns

If you use instagram you can also keep up to date with her work, including a rather interesting piece of work using solids rather than prints. I am totally in love with it. She is also sharing pictures from a project where the pieces are so small it will astound you!