Hi and welcome to this months tutorial :D . This month I am going to try and give an overview of the English Paper Piecing method. This is a big subject so I will only be able to touch briefly on what you can do with it, but hopefully will give you some ideas to get you started.

English Paper Piecing (EPP) like any other method has advantages and disadvantages. I am personally very fond of using this method, it has many nostalgic memories for me as it was how my grandmother first taught me to piece. I also really like that this method requires so little in the way of quilting gears, you don’t even need a sewing machine, so this makes the art of quilting available to people just starting out or for someone who has little in the way of resources. All you need is scissors, paper, needle and thread, a reliable shape and some fabric scraps. I have always been fortunate enough to own a sewing machine but there are many people in the world who are not so lucky.

This is very portable, toss a few pieces in a bag in your purse and you can achieve quite a bit in those times that are often wasted, waiting at the Doctors, commuting to work etc. You don’t need to worry about measuring and cutting accurate seam allowances. Basically if you get your paper shapes accurate, your pieces will fit. The whip stitch is a simple sewing stitch easily taught to the young ones. It’s great for piecing the more complex blocks like Carpenter’s Star and Fannie’s Star, that I would normally balk at piecing on the sewing machine. Y-seams become a non issue (Always a good thing :lol: ) A couple of disadvantages would be the basting required and that it is hand sewing so will be slower.

Probably the worlds best known pattern that EPP is used for would be Grandmothers Flower Garden. Yes that’s right, the ever present hexagon lol. Most of us have or know of someone who has a few of these stashed away some where. So It just wouldn't be right to do a EPP tutorial without covering the Grandmothers Garden pattern :wink:

Making the Grandmother’s Garden Rosette

The Paper Pieces
I have attached a sheet of hexagons for you to print out, please check that these measure 1 1/4” on each side and 2 1/2” from point to point before you use them (See Diagram) If they don’t, buy or make a template that you can use to draw your paper shapes. It’s ok if your template measures a little smaller than this as long as the measurement of each side is equal and the measurement from point to point is double the side measurement. Template can not be any bigger though as your rosette will not fit on a 12” finished block. The paper shapes do not include seam allowances as these are added when you cut your fabrics.

I use ordinary printer paper to make my paper shapes as I find this a good weight. Freezer paper can also be used. I find freezer paper excellent for EPP but don’t use it a lot myself as freezer paper is not as readily available here and a lot more expensive so I tend to save my freezer paper for appliqué work. You can also print directly onto the freezer paper, which is also a big time saver

To make the rosette that I am showing you will need to make 19 paper hexagons.

Cut out your paper shapes as accurately as you can, accuracy with the paper is vital to the success of your block. (Pic 1)

Cutting Your Pieces

Use a small amount of water soluble glue stick to hold your paper in place on the reverse side of your fabrics, (Pic 2) or if using freezer paper simply iron on (the No.1 reason I like freezer paper for this job) . You can use pins to hold the papers in place but these don’t give as good a hold as the other alternatives. Place the papers on the reverse side of the fabric in such a way so that you will be able to cut them out with a seam allowance all the way around the shape. Ie.. At least 1/2” apart. You will need to cut 1 hexagon for your center, 6 hexagons for your 1st round and 12 hexagons for your 2nd round. (Pic 3)

Cut out all you pieces so that there is approx 1/4 seam allowance all the around. You don’t have to 100% accurate here, eyeballing the cut will be fine (pic4)

NB: Be very light handed with the glue stick otherwise you are gonna have to soak those babies out.

The Basting

Use a thread colour that shows up easily against your fabric, (makes it easier to take out basting later.) Make a reasonably large knot in your thread so that it won’t pull thru the paper when you are basting. Fold the fabric over the paper so that it is firm against the edge of the paper (Pic 4a)

Start basting about half way down one of the sides, ensuring that your knot is on the front of your work (Pic 4b)

Baste to the corner. Turn and fold the next side of the fabric over the paper, forming a nice tidy hospital fold at the corner (Pic 4c)

Bring the needle up thru your work rear the outside corner of the hexagon (Pic 4d) and then back down again near the bottom of the fold, to anchor the fold (Pic 4e)

Continue basting and folding the corners in this manner until you get back round to the start. Bring the needle thru to the right side of your work and make 3 - 4 large stitches to anchor the thread. (For ease of removal later on ). Cut you thread (Pic 4f)

The finished Basting, front and back. (Pic5a,b)

Baste the rest of your hexagons in the same way

Joining Your Pieces

I prefer to use a good quality poly thread for the piecing as I find a regular cotton thread frays very quickly with constantly being pulled through the fabric, but the choice as always is up to you.

To avoid tangling don’t cut your threads too long and occasionally during piecing hold your work up and let the needle hang to unwind the thread. I choose a thread that matches one of the fabrics I am piecing together and take reasonably small stitches (Pic 6) but don’t worry too much your stitches will show a little and after all if you go to the trouble of hand piecing something it’s not such a bad thing that people know it
:wink:

First Join

Make a small knot and anchor it with a couple of small stitches in the seam allowance of your center hexagon, bring the needle up through the corner of the hexagon (Pic 7a)

Place one of your hexagons from the 1st round against the center hexagon (right sides together) Pic 7b)

Whip stitch the two pieces together, taking only small bites of the fabric, holding the two hexagons together so they keep a good match Ie. Don’t let the action of sewing distort the placement of the hexagons. (Pic 7c,d)

When you reach the end of the seam fasten off the thread in the seam allowance, being careful not to catch the basting thread.

Finished first join, front & back (Pic 8a,b)

First Round

Start another thread in the corner of a floral hexagon. Place this against the previous floral hexagon, whip stitch this seam together (Pic 9a)

Open the work out and fold the floral hexagon over onto the center hexagon, folding work where necessary for ease of handling, whip stitch this seam (Pic9b,c) then fasten off thread as previously

You should now have a piece of work that looks like this (Pic 10a,b)

Continue adding hexagons in this manner until you have completed the first round (Pic 11a,b) final hexagon will require three seams to be sewn to complete the round

Final Round

Start a thread in the corner of a hexagon for the final Round. Place against a hexagon in the previous round, right sides together, as shown (Pic 12a) Whip stitch this seam.

Fold hexagon over until it meets the next seam to be sewn, folding work as necessary (Pic 12b) Whip stitch seam, fasten off thread
First hexagon of round attached (Pic 12c)

Continue adding hexagons to the final round in this manner until you have attached all the hexagons (Pic 13a,b)

Completed Rosette

I will appliqué this rosette to a background square, I haven’t done this yet so am leaving the basting stitches and papers in until this is done (Pic 14)

This will keep the seam allowances tidy and in good shape until the edge of the rosette is stabilized in some way, either by appliquéing as I plan or by being whipped stitched to another rosette to make an allover pattern.

Wow, Shelly - this is a great tutorial! I definitely want to try this.
I'd love to see another paper piecing tutorial for machine pieced blocks.

THANKS!!!

Layouts

The hexagon has been used in many designs and layouts, it is a very versatile shape and you can discover your own designs by colouring in graph sheets . Here is a great site for downloading free graph paper in PDF format to colour in, it was listed in Links and Resources on here I while back. I’m sorry I forget who by, but thank you to that thoughtful person
http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/

Below are just a few examples of possible uses

Now that we've covered the basics of English Paper Piecing (EPP) I’d like to show you how to use this method to make more complicated blocks. I am going to make a Carpenters Star using EPP. This block is not a beginners block, but using this method, makes these type of block less tricky. I for one, wouldn’t dream of making this block by machine. I just know what would happen lol, another addition to the scrap bin. I know there are people out there who are able to make these type of blocks by machine, but I'm not one of them :?

Actually I’m not too sure of the name for this traditional block, it probably has several, so if someone could help me out there, it would be much appreciated :thumbup:

Below I have included a down load of the templates for Carpenter’s Star, please check the accuracy of your printout. Here is a measurement guide for your templates, there are no seam allowances included in the templates.

Pieces B & C are the same square, so I only included one of these. EQ does some funny things sometimes. Also below is a download of four pages with all the shapes you need for this star, again please check measurements

If you make templates for drawing around to make your paper shapes, please remember to cut your paper shapes just inside the drawn line. That width of a pencil line can add quite a bit to the finished size of your block. I forgot to do this and my block measures 12 1/8” (finished size) :lol: , It’s not a big deal I can easily ease that amount in, but it’s not a very good example, is it :?: Ok it’s a good example of how not to do things :lol:

Anyway you should have three different shapes, a square, diamond and a trapezoid, choice word aye, I had to look it up on Wikipedia to find out what to call that shape :lol: (Pic 1a) you will need to cut 8 of each shape out of your chosen paper

Because I am going to be using this block with other blocks that I want to machine piece together, I don’t want to be basting the outside edge of the block so I make a mark on this edge of the papers just to remind myself not to baste this edge (Pic 1b)

Glue stick or iron your paper to your fabric (depending on your paper choice) leaving at least a half inch gap between your paper shapes as previously described for hexagon piecing. Allow for a larger seam allowance around the outside edge of your block. Ie. The marked edge of your trapezoid.

You will need to cut 4 each of two different colours for your diamond shape (Pic 2) Cut out your fabric shapes, eyeballing a 1/4” seam. Leave a little bigger seam allowance for trimming on the pieces that go around the outside edge of your block

Basting: The Trapezoid

Baste the fabric over the paper as we did for the hexagon, remembering not to baste the marked edge (Pic 3a - f)

The Diamond

You will get dog ears on the sharp points of these, don’t worry about them and don’t trim them yet, the dog ears need to be folded out of the way while piecing and are easier to handle if not trimmed. These can be trimmed after you’ve finished piecing your block. Anchor the folds firmly at the points with a basting stitch so fabric doesn’t shift (Pic 4a - f)

The Square

When basting the folds at the corners on this piece ensure you do not place your basing stitch too close to the edge of the piece as this fold may need to be tucked out of the way during piecing (Pic 5a - e)

As before I select some threads that I think will blend well with the fabric being used

Piecing the Block

Start a thread in the oblique angle of a diamond, match this diamond with one in the alternate colour, right sides together (Pic 6a)

Whip stitch this seam folding the dog ear out of the way as you get towards the end (Pic 6b) Fasten off thread into seam allowance, being careful to catch neither dog ears nor basting stitches

You should have a pair of diamonds sewn together like this (Pic 6c,d) Make four of these pairs

Adding the Square

Start a thread in the corner of one of your squares, line this up against your diamond unit, right sides together as shown (Pic 7a) Start whip stitching at the ceter of the diamond and work towards the outside edge, fasten off thread

Restart thread at center of unit. Open out work (Pic 7b) and fold diamond over sguare, linning up the next seam to be sewn (Pic 7c) Whip stitch this seam, folding dog ears out of the way as needed.

Add a square in the same manner to the rest of the paired diamonds. You should now have four quarter star units that look like this (Pic 7d,e)

Whip stitch two quarter star units together to form halves (Pic 8a) adding more squares in where appropriate (Pic 8b)

Whip stitch the two halves together, this is the trickiest part of this block as you are sewing where all eight star points meet. Just take your time, get as good as a match in the center as possible, you may have to ease a little to achieve this. Fold all the dog ears out of the way and put some extra stitches in the center to hold everything (Pic 9)

Your two halves joined (Pic 10a) Add the last two squares to your block (Pic 10b

Layout you remaining pieces as shown (Pic 11) This is how these will be added to the block

Start a thread in the corner of a trapezoid as shown. Lay this along the edge of a square right sides together as shown (Pic12a)

Whip stitch this seam, starting at the star point and working outwards along the square (Pic 12b) Fasten off. I have chosen to stitch in this direction as we have to do a little finishing off on the outside edges and this is easier to do if you don’t have to start a new thread for just a couple of stitches

Restart thread back in the same corner of the trapezoid that you just started the previous thread. Turn work and fold, so that the pieces needing to be stitched, line up. Square will be facing you. Whipstitch this seam and fasten off

Add the next trapezoid in a similar manner (Pic 12c) working so that the last seam that you stitch will bring your thread to the center of the outside edge of the bock, (Pic 12d) where the overlapping trapezoids need to be joined

Bring your needle and thread through to the front of your work and make 3 - 4 small applique stitches to hold the pieces (Pic 13a)

This is to prevent a hole at the seamline, which will be where your paper finishes. You need to stitch far enough so that the work will hold but not so far that your hand sewing will get chomped by the rotary cutter when you trim your block (Pic 13b)

Add in your next trapezoid in such a manner so that again on your final seam you are heading towards the outside edge of your block, the corner this time. (Pic 14a)

Whip stitch a little beyond the edge of the paper, about an 1/8th of an inch (Pic 14b) Fasten off

Continue adding trapezoids until you have finished (Pic 15)

Give your block a press and lay it right side down on your cutting mat. Lay the 1/4” line on your ruler along the edge of the paper, linig up the side edge of the paper against a vertical line on your ruler (Pic 16a)

Trim along the edge of your ruler with a rotary cutter to make a nice tidy 1/4” seam allowance (Pic 16b

Repeat for all four sides of your block. You can also tidy up the dog ears at this stage too. You now have a hand pieced block with a nice tidy 1/4” seam allowance ready to be machine sewn. (Pic 17)

I like to leave the papers and basting in until I am ready to use the block, no particular reason for this just preference lol.

Any way that’s me for this month. Hope you have found it useful and informative. Will see you next month and in the mean time Happy Sewing :D

Next time, Drunkards Path for cheats :wink:

Great Tutes as per usual Shellyq - this is how I started out and most of my blocks in my first sampler quilt were created this way, it definitely eased me into quilting without tooo much anxiety as there is a certain amount of 'allowance' in this method for the beginner - so I discovered and its a great way to design your own blocks too Just draw out a square whatever size and design you want cut on the lines and away you go :D

Fantastic tutorial, ShellyQ--- I will try to paper piece the second pattern.
I did the hexagon years ago and loved the process, but when I used other shapes, I didn't know how to properly handle those points with all the extra fabric (dog ears). You technique makes so much sense.

You obviously took time and effort for the entire tutorial for us. I can't thank you enough!!!!!! :) :) :thumbup:

Piecefully yours,
Kay Susan

Thank you so much Shelly!!!! I took a quilting class years ago that included English Paper Piecing. I didn't know what it was called. I love doing that. Reminds me of embroyering.
Thanks again!!!!

I am so glad you did this!!! Now I think I can actually finish my Grandma's Grandmothers flower Garden quilt!!!!!!Thank You! Thank You!!

shellyq, thanks so much for the great tutorial on english paper piecing. i am not really into hand sewing that much, but since i, like everyone else, find myself spendiing quite a few hours just waiting, this is a great way to pass the time. i will probably have a king size before i know it, lol.

you did a fantastic job showing and explaining the method.
again, thanks. i know you spent a lot of time on this one.

Thankyou so much everyone for your kind words:D

Your comments bring back such fond memories Izzy, I pieced my first quilt in much the same way I used an old maths quad book to draw up my patterns, It didn,t go together perfectly but I did manage to fudge it together :lol:

Kinkajou: I was planning to include one on foundation piecing as part of this series. My idea was just to cover some of the basics on some of the widely used techniques.