Basketman

One of the more obvious ways to save on fabric waste is to use batiks for a lot of the paper pieced projects. If you use regular cottons and there is a left and right to a pattern, if you do not stack your fabrics correctly and then try to precut to a template...you might have wrecked a lot of fabric. If you do not try to devise a generous template and just use larger than needed blocks of fabric to be safe and not have to think as much about what you are doing ( with paper piecing there is a lot of thinking)...then you are likely to have a lot of scraps. The thing about Judy Niemeyer is that she does the templates for you and that does SAVE on waste, but once you do one of her quilts you can apply that approach to any future project. Paper piecing is a different concept entirely...it is like quilting in a mirror. The other thing that "bugs" people about this process is those small stitches ( hard to rip and ripping is almost impossible to avoid) and then tearing away the paper. If you use the flip and sew freezer paper technique, you can apply this technique to any paper pieced pattern and use a glue stick to adhere the new sewn part to the newsprint ( that duplicates the waxy function on freezer paper) and when you are done you simply peal away the newsprint and you still have the original pattern to use again. The big thing about paper piecing is that it allows you to achieve a look that only the best of the best can possibly make without it...so you might waste a little, but look what you have to show for your efforts in the end!

Nona

I have done one of her patterns.You either "get it" or you never do. I'm in the never again section. They are beautiful, but if I wanted that much stress I'd just go back to work. At least I would get paid for the aggrevation!

Stitchnripper

I just took a Judy Niemeyer class yesterday. My first paper piecing adventure. The quilt shop had a Judy certified instructor and she brought a lot of her own quilts for us to see. Since I've never done anything the Carol Doak way, that part wasn't confusing. Actually none of it was confusing, just as a newbie, time consuming to make sure I stitched, pressed, and cut correctly. We worked on the one feather wall hanging and of course I didn't finish it, but, the quilt shop holds a "Judy club" once a month so I plan on working on it there. For me it took mental energy vs. quilting/sewing skill, at this point. The cutting was easy, stacking was easy, sewing easy, once I was sure where to put the sections on. Everything is well labeled. My pattern was reissued with all corrections included. The instructor said once you have the pattern you can buy the tissue sheets for cheap from Judy's website. There were just five of us, so the instructor walked around the room and we all got the help we needed. Two people finished one section of the leaf. Three of us got almost finished. I will finish this wall hanging and when they offer another class if it worked out with my schedule I would take it. I didn't use batiks but didn't have any trouble with right side/wrong side.

hcarpanini

I took a class, then tried one on my own. Lucky for me , 2 friends were also doing, so we did together. They are pretty tricky.

YukonViv

I took a workshop when a certified instructor came up, any time anyone comes to the Yukon to teach I jump at the chance to learn. Honestly I didn't enjoy it. A lot had to do with the instructor, if you weren't at the point she was showing she didn't come back to it later for the other half of the class, just do what I told you to do. Questions about certain aspects were met with because that's how JN teaches it. She couldn't explain beyond what she learned in her training, like why we wouldn't use Moda grunge with batiks in the same quilt (one is stretchier) as well as other points of interest and good to know tips. As several of us attending were quilt instructors, it was a little hard not to jump in and explain things to newer quilters. But all of this is about the certified instructor, regarding the pattern, I kitted it myself and it required a lot of cutting. Hours. The actual paper piecing I found to be quite tedious. I have PP'd before and it was fun. I love having fun with my quilts, life is too short not too. I am sure my experience with the workshop tempered my feelings for the process but that's human nature. My quilt is still in pieces in a tub and who knows if I will ever go back to it. I look at it as a learning experience, I learned this type of quilt is not for me.

Stitchnripper

wow, YukonViv - that doesn't sound fun and my instructor was totally opposite. There were only 5 of us in the class all novices to this technique. Since we are only making a leaf wall hanging, the cutting wasn't arduous. I will see where this takes me as far as doing another one, but I do plan on finishing this one.