janedennis

I have never paper pieced and would like to try it, what is an easy pattern to get started with and is it free and where would I find it? lots of questions huh LOL thanks for your suggestions.

Chele

Carol Doak is a wonderful paper piecing instructor. This is a good beginner pattern: http://www.caroldoak.com/pdfs/IntrotoPaperPiece2.pdf

She has lots of other free patterns as well: http://www.caroldoak.com/free-quilt-patterns.php

Also try Googling "Paper Piecing." A video sure would have helped me when I first learned. It's a little tricky at first. It's a lot of fun though.

sharon b

Carol Doaks has a lot of patterns and we have a tute already here on the board to get you started :wink:

http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-25541-1.htm

walen

Thanks for all of the good resources. I haven't ever paper pieced either. Maybe today's the day to start! LOL...

KellyPA

Jane,

I love paper piecing, it is mostly what I do! I taught myself and it was a little tricky at first, but once you get going, you won't be able to stop! It is really fun!

I teach people to paper piece using this pattern....http://www.quilterscache.com/L/LogCabinBlock.html

Good Luck!

BKrenning

I taught myself with butterflies for a swap that was due in 6 weeks! Talk about in way over my head! I did it and I learned a lot. A lot of what not to do!

Square in a square is a good one to start with. Not many pieces and you learn a little about dealing with angles. Also, Hole in the Barn Door or Kansas Dugout. I have a paper pieced log cabin & a bag full of blue & white strips that I take on vacations & overnight business trips with me along with my old mechanical machine. Pineapples are a little more complicated than log cabin if you're up for a challenge.

Definitely poke around on the quilter's cache website. That's where I got a lot of my self-training patterns. The butterflies in case you're curious are here: http://yvonnes.dk/ Click on small blocks. I don't recommend this for a beginner, though. It will drive you crazy. I ended up making a bunch of these for the swap that I crazily jumped into: http://www.quilterscache.com/E/EasyP...rflyBlock.html and a few of these: http://www.quilterscache.com/B/ButterflyBlock.html

Once you get the hang of "flip & sew", it is addictive. Oh, and a tip that I still use is to use a glue stick to help hold the fabric on. Just a little dab. It will save you a lot of aggravation.

Another thing I used to do was trace the lines on both sides of the paper if I couldn't see through it easily. Now I crease all the seam lines before I sew. That makes it easier to remove the paper later. Oh, and cheap paper works better--the cheaper the paper--the easier it is to remove. Vellum (though that isn't cheap) is the easiest to remove but you can find cheap paper that's similar to vellum. I had a bit of old fashioned typewriter paper that I started with. Now I have a stash of newsprint cut in 8.5 x 11" sheets so it will easily run through a printer.

earthwalker

Yes, thanks for the good resources....Now I am getting better with my "machine skills" for quiltmaking and seeing all the fabulous paper pieced quilts people have been posting I am quite eager to try. More things for the to do list!

Midwestmary

The biggest mistake I made when first learning was not cutting my fabric pieces big enough to cover the entire area after sewing. ipping out those tiny stitches is not fun! I found Carol Doak's web site to be very helpful - I also like the paper she sells.

KellyPA

I was just about to add what Midwestmary pointed out.....make sure when you first start that you cut the pieces big enough and then some!

KarenSimon

I started by doing the candy corn paper piecing. Super easy.