wvdek

You have to find what works for you. I'm glad you are not giving up. Keep practicing and as soon as you 'get it', you will either hate it or love it. Ilove PP but have only done small projects.

Lacelady

I'm not a 'pro' at paper piecing, but I have just finished a Jane Stickle quilt, so I've had quite a bit of practice. I agree with all the others that recommend larger than you would think pieces, then trim.
What I wanted to add was that if I wasn't sure whether I was going to get it to flip in the right direction (triangles are confusing sometimes) then I sewed a piece into place with the largest stitch my machine would make. If it was wrong, they came out easily, and if it was right, I just sewed over, with smaller stitches. And when I say smaller, I used smaller than default stitch length, because it's easier to tear and remove the paper afterwards.

fuail

That's a great tip, Leslie. Triangles drive me batty!

RoxanneS

I bought a Carol Doak dvd, it made so much sense. I didn't have a small 1/4 inch ruler, just used my 18x 3 inch ruler with 1/2 inch and 1/4 inch lines. It worked fine. This is the quilt I made from pp and entered in the Western Washington, Puyallup Washington Fair.

SaraSewing

Wow, I hope you win a huge big fat ribbon for this one. Those butterflys are beautiful!

Melanie S.

I hold my paper and fabric up to the light to make sure that I have enough coverage. I also finger press my seam allowance before I hold the fabric up to the light, just to make sure that I don't flip my fabric backwards and end up with a giant mess. The creased line reminds me of where to stitch when I am ready to commit to the design.

Pam in WV

I have one of the add-a-quarter rulers and I really love it. Use it all the time and everything comes out really stright.

RoxanneS

Thank you for the vote of confidence concerning the quilt. I just wanted to exhibit, just to show what can be done. I love this board!

sewhappy30

I just tried my first pp block. I order the Carol Doak dvd from Connecting Threads, although the dvd was defective I was able to watch it, but could barely hear her for the muffled voice, but it was great. I really learned alot from it. I also bought the add a quarter ruler, definately a big help for me.

I've noticed most people say you will either love it or hate it. I loved it.

I'm doing the Farmer's Wife as well. I want to pp as many blocks as I can. I'm having trouble finding the patterns to print out for the 6" foundations though.

Don't give up you will get it.

MzMcKee

My DVD didn't make it yesterday, but I'm going to give it another solo go today. The FWS has a lot of blocks with triangles so that where the tricky is. I understand her DVD has more then just a video of how to do it. I really want to know how to do the fabric calculations too. I'm glad it's working for you. Makes me hopeful! Thanks!