Originally Posted by
ibex94
You all are making such beautiful blocks! I have been struggling with mine. The paper piecing is not going as well as I would have liked. I look at what you all have done and your points are coming together so beautifully! Ok. enough inspiration from looking at what you are creating. Back to my sewing table. My son is moving back into my sewing room. I suspect that a trip to the fabric store will have to happen as I won't be able to access my wall of neatly organized boxes full of fabric. (They are so "well" organized that I can't figure out what happened to some fabrics I bought and washed specifically for BOOM, lol.) Quilt hugs to all of you.
I don't know if this will help or not, it is a post I made in the boom 16 swap
This series of pics is about how I pin and sew PP sections together. I haven't seen anyone do it like I do, but there might be some tuts out there I haven't looked extensively.
I pin straight through both sections, leading edge is pinned point down, all following pins are point up. I make sure the pins are straight from both sides. When they are lined up I pinch the leading edge w/ my fingers to keep it from slipping and remove the leading pin only.
This shows where I place the pin, exactly through the center of the seam point I am matching, this is on both pieces.
Once the leading edge is down AND the needle down holding it in place, I use the next point up pins as a handle keeping them straight up and making sure my line stays true top and bottom. This is a short piece so only on point up pin longer seams need more pins. I stop sewing before the pin while I still have space to remove it and then keep the spot pinched w/ my fingers.
These two pics show the top and bottom sew line mark and my actual sew thread line and how they match up both top and bottom.
And I agree TOTALLY w/ whoever said they over cut and trim instead of risking having it to small and ripping. FPP is for perfect impossible points to get that you have to be willing to give something up, that something is extreme fabric frugility!!!!!!! As you get better you learn some fabric saving ways, but in the beginning don't get bogged down in that it will suck every bit of joy out of it having to rip seams, just go in knowing you will use extra fabric and make your peace w/ it.