Paper Piecing Blocks - Starting the Quilt

Turning my first paper pieced blocks into a quilt - Part 1

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about trying paper piecing for the first time. I made five little practice blocks from scraps using a Carol Doak template. They were not perfect but they were so colourful and fun that I decided to hang on to them and turn them into a quilt.  

Two of the five paper pieced blocks, framed in white and purple solids (Aug 2013)

Because the paper pieced blocks are so colourful and contain so many different patterns, I decided to frame them with 1'' off-white strips (Kona solid in snow, my go-to colour for this kind of thing) to make a cleaner edge. I used the white strips to correct little mistakes in the blocks where the fabric did not go quite to the edge, so each block is a slightly irregular shape. This also gives the blocks a nice improvised look. I then added triangles in purple to make a bigger square block. Here you can see two of the five blocks (not yet squared up).

Triangle blocks made from scraps (Aug 2013)

I only had five paper pieced blocks, each measuring 4'' x 4'', so I needed to make some additional blocks for the quilt. I decided to make triangles from the same scraps used in the paper pieced blocks and add a white border to each.

Here are six of the triangles. I made 15 in total. At this stage I am planning on using 12 triangles in the quilt so having a few extra will give me a bit of flexibility when choosing the pattern / colour combinations.

The paper pieced blocks were made entirely from scraps. The Kona snow fabric was from a bundle of Kona bolt end cuts I bought at eQuilter  and the purple solid is fabric from my stash. I have a pretty clear idea of the design I want to sew and have decided that this quilt will be made entirely from stash and scrap fabric. Stay tuned to find out how the quilt progresses!

Adventures in Paper Piecing

Paper piecing and my experiences when trying it for the first time

Until recently I had given paper piecing a very wide berth. It always seemed too complicated and something used more in traditional quilting. I was also confused about the terminology - foundation? English?? So first off:

• English paper piecing  - a traditional method in which the quilt is sewn entirely by hand, usually using one shape (for example, hexagons) and pre-cut pieces of paper of that shape to create intricate quilt designs with precisely matched points. Because English paper piecing is done by hand, it is portable and can be done on the plane, in the doctor's waiting room or anywhere else where you might otherwise pass the time by knitting or crocheting.
  
• Foundation paper piecing - a block design is printed or drawn onto a piece of paper and the fabric segments of the block are sewn by machine onto the paper, along the marked lines. Blocks can be made up of a few or many different smaller shapes. As with English paper piecing, this method allows you to sew perfectly matched points, whether you are following a traditional pattern such as Mariner's Compass or creating your own modern designs.
  

I wanted to enter a quilt competition for which I had to design and sew a relatively small quilt (24'' x 24''). The design I came up with was quite intricate and so I decided I would try and get it more accurate by using foundation paper piecing. Before I could start creating my own paper templates, I needed to get a basic grasp of the technique. I found a brilliant Crafty Gemini tutorial which you can watch here.

The next step was to practice. I'd say that Carol Doak is one of the quilting world's foundation paper piecing gurus and in addition to a wealth of information, she has lots of free patterns on her website. I used one of Carol's patterns and it took me about five attempts just to get started with the pieces facing in the right direction and the correct coverage of the template! Turning the paper around, trying to figure out which direction is which because you work in reverse, ending up with things facing the wrong way, it is the map reading of quilting! 

My failed attempts at paper piecing (June 2013) 

I decided to raid my scrap box and do as many practice runs as it took for me to feel comfortable with the method. For someone who is usually a control freak quilter, random scrap quilting was quite liberating. Once I had completed several practice pieces, foundation paper piecing and I had become friends (not exactly close, but maybe the kind who see each other every few years). This is what I learnt:

• When you cut the individual pieces for each block, give yourself a lot of seam allowance (at least 1/2") so you don't have to worry about the exact position of each piece. You can cut off the excess fabric once you have sewn the seam.
  
• Sewing the first two pieces was the most challenging part. Once I had worked that out, the rest was easier so take your time, hold the fabric in place and flip it open to make sure it fits properly etc., before you start sewing.
  
• Use really small stitches. I set my machine to 1.5. This perforates the paper, making it easier to remove from the back once you are done.  
• End each line you sew about 1/4'' beyond the edge of the block. This makes it easier to start the tearing off process once you are done.
• Trim threads as you go. I am usually lazy about this, but because the individual block segments are so small, you have a lot of thread ends floating about on one block and they get in the way.
• Trim the seams as you go. The Quilt Police may insist on 1/4'' seams, but because noone will see these seams, I don't think this is really necessary. Just make them tidy and make sure darker fabric seams don't overlap lighter fabrics on the back of the quilt so that you don't have dark shadows on your lighter fabric on the quilt top.
  
• Iron as you go. WIth paper piecing, you have to iron the seams in one direction. I am a die hard iron seams open quilter because I like the flatness it gives to the quilt top so this took some getting used to.
  
• When you remove the paper from the back of the block, tear it off slowly to protect the seams and use tweezers to remove any last little pieces of paper left in the seams.  
• Paper dulls blades and needles so you may need to replace your cutting blades and sewing machine needles more often than usual.
• If you print your blocks using your home printer, do a test run with the iron to see if the heat transfers the ink. I used a laser printer and had no problems, but inkjet printouts may react differently. 
• You can buy special paper on which to print or draw block patterns, but if you cannot find this or don't want the extra expense, light weight copy paper works just as well.  
• Above all, practice, practice, practice. Once you get the hang of it, paper piecing is not that difficult and you can use it to create your own designs.

I made five small blocks in total and only the fifth had no mistakes. I will turn them into a quilt soon!

The final five practice paper pieced blocks (June 2013)