hokieappmom

You need to read your pp books slowly so that I don't see a posted picture of a pieced quilt that you've finished before I finish my one block!
Andii[/quote]

LOL. Don't be offended. He'll be whipping them out in no time I'm sure. Good luck on yours. I love paper-piecing. It's great once you get the hang of it, and so accurate.

Andii

Janice,
That was smart putting the corner as your avatar! You said you're technically challenged but you got around it. It's really pretty. What I love is the accuracy and that it looks really complicated. Good job.
Andii :thumbup:

Andii

Kathy,
I've never been around chickens but when we get a little more land I want one...with long fluffy leg hair! I love to watch birds take puddle baths and dirt baths but I guess I wouldn't if it was in the middle of my flowers. When you see the hen masquerading as a porcupine you'll know it's been bathing!
Andii

Andii

Thanks for this note because I have been making copies of my copies-I'll have to mark a master.
Andii

fireworkslover

Andii,
Boy, I can't believe that you are hand sewing a PP block! I'd say you should try using your sewing machine for this instead. When you use a machine, you set the stitch length at 1.5 so they are very short stitches. The seam basically perforates the paper and it's fairly easy to tear off. I can't imagine hand sewing those stitches small enough to do that. I cut strips of fabric as wide as the widest part of the shape plus 5/8". Then you'll be sure your fabric is wide enough plus enough seam allowance all around. Always place your fabric right sides together and you can't go wrong. So your fabric that's sewn thru the paper will be right side next to the right side of the new strip you'll put on next. One or two pins, sew, press seam to one side, then open piece out and press again, fold back paper on the next sewing line, place ruler so you trim off everything but 1/4", place right sides together with next fabric and repeat. I hope this helps you learn how to paper piece. I learned from a book by Valori Wells. Maybe you should try finding other instructions.

zz-pd

thank you for the tips, I want to learn to do this. But first I have to learn how to cut a straight line of fabric. I am having a heck of a time with that, and I just don't have money to replace fabric I wreck. Penny

GrandmK

OK I have been following all the paper piecing long enough. This last thread has me wanting to give it a try. I am NOT good at math so suppose I will have trouble. Can someone tell me the very easiest pattern I should try??? I plan to just use scraps to learn

Andii

fireworkslover,
Love your avatar-it kind of looks like fireworks.
Your instructions were very good. I haven't really had much trouble pulling the paper off. More with trying to cut my pieces small to save fabric, I guess. It's getting easier. I will try adding the 5/8''.
Thanks for the tips.
Andii

fireworkslover

My avatar is actually a one block wonder and the fabric is parrots, macaws and other tropical birds sitting in foliage.

You can get some really sharp points with PP, so when you have several triangles coming together, getting the paper off that space is picky sometimes. I use a tweezers if my fingernail won't get it off. If you use strips longer than you need, like the width of your fabric, you end up cutting off the excess within one or two seams later. I'd not try to save fabric by cutting each piece before you sew it on. You have to remember that the fabric will flip over in the end and thus be reversed from how you look at it, when sewing on the line. I think this might be the part that gets people confused.

I'm in the middle of my 4th PP fireworks themed quilt, right now. Each circle of color has 216 pieces! Really, I'm not joking. :lol:

DebJ

This link is a great find! thanks