This is my single best quilting tip for the paper-piecing technique.
There’s a reason I’m sharing my best tip. However you refer to it, paper piecing, foundation piecing, or foundation paper piecing, it gets me every time!
You may find this account a bit meladramatic…it certainly is tongue-in-cheek!
I suppose if I did paper piecing more often, I wouldn’t need to learn this every…single…time. But, I don’t. And, I do!
Let me start by saying that paper piecing is a very precise way to join fabrics. You will actually sew on the lines printed or drawn on paper. It’s quite a fantastic method for designs that call for perfection. I tend to not choose a lot of quilts that require the precision of paper piecing, so I usually need to do a refresher on the method when I do.
Since you sew by numbers, it’s the first and second pieces that are only a bit tricky.
Yes, I always have to start with a reminder of how to place the first piece (easy enough). But that’s not the tip!
Throughout my project (or at least the first ten sections), I have to remind myself of this one simple, yet crucial thing. Even though I try and try to guess the smallest (yet large-enough) piece of fabric to cover the next areas in numerical order, it eludes me.
Over and over, I try to out-think the pattern, certain that my piece of fabric will coverage every bit of the pattern piece, plus seams, all the way to the edge of the design without using a crazy amount of fabric. But alas, again and again, it falls short. It may be tiny, but even a tiny speck of uncovered paper, is obvious when the fabric is missing.
Until I finally GIVE.
One must SUBMIT, I’ve learned, to paper piecing. One must be humbled to the Paper Piecing process and the excruciating fact that…tThere WILL BE wasted fabric! It is the nature of this beautiful beast.
Finally, here is my best tip for Paper Piecing:
Think big.
No, think BIG, really.
Now think really, really BIG!
Karla kiefner
Paper piecing is much more fun when you do!
In conclusion, that’s it! That’s all I’ve got. For me, that’s all it takes to make paper-piecing a fun way to spend an afternoon or MORE!
More Tips HERE
Hmmm, wonder if I should use paper piecing for one of my friend’s Round Robin borders? Read the post about our guild Round Robin Challenge, “It’ll Be Fun,They Said” (click here) and stay tuned for updates on the challenge!
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