TY Jan,
I thought the paper piecing was pretty easy. I printed out the tutorial on Quilter's Cache, printed out the patterns on vellum and followed it step by step. I made some mistakes and had to redo some pieces, but it is kind of fun once you get on to it.
Yes, some of the pieces are embroidered. I embroidered the wreath and the candles. I LOVE MY embroidery machines and actually do a lot of "story" quilts with embroidery...but I havent done much piecing, I embroider the blocks and use simple blocks in between. I also do a lot of raggety quilts...but I have never done REAL quilting/piecing before...so I found the paper piecing helpful.
Thank you for your kind words.
Margie