Hi, this is an old thread, I don't know if you are still working on this or looking at the posts -- I am working on the same JB quilt and would like to trade notes. I am desperately busy with home repair, long work hours, and kids, but somehow quilting even just a little every day keeps me (more or less) sane.
This is my first experience with paper piecing. The huge roll of freezer paper was cheap and I like the nostalgic aspect but for the more intricate paper pieced blocks I may awitch to foundation piecing. Traced all of those little pattern slivers and cut the whole thing out a few weeks ago.
I won't be able to get to the machine enough -- there is always some mending or more urgent project that grabs me if I go near the sewing machine -- but I have the odd moment for hand sewing, so I am piecing at least the first blocks entirely by hand.
Not too happy with paper method so far: I checked my pieces very carefully and though I was painstaking some of my cutting was not accurate enough. The freezer paper starts to peel off as I sew, so I wind up marking the allowances anyway. I guess the lesson is that template plastic was a good invention! So much for nostalgia! Maybe freezer paper is better for applique? If I had it to do over, I would make plastic templates.
I have finished only one and a half blocks thus far; ripped out and resewed two seams because they weren't quite right. I can't decide whether I am enjoying the extremely careful sewing enough to justify all of the extra attention every detail of this quilt requires.
I spent the only full free day I have had in several years cutting this quilt out! How crazy is that? But I watched half of the episodes of "Intelligence" -- that great Canadian tv series -- while I cut and ironed, and it all felt like a real vacation. :)
What I am really worried about it is how I am going to do the quilting, after the piecing is finished. The completed quilt top is a masterpiece; I don't want to detract from it with poor or excessive quilting. I am thinking a lot about how to quilt it as I go.
Anyone else working on this gorgeous and monstrous project and needing tea and sympathy? :)