Paper Piecing tutorial pt 2

Part 2 Paper Piecing

Today I am sharing a video tutorial on how I measure my fabric for paper piecing and the steps I follow for piecing with them.  There are a couple things I failed to note in the video, it wasn’t a blonde moment just beginner nerves.

• If you are using a 40 weight thread I recommend adding a 1/4″ to the strip width. So if your measurement is 2″, cut your strip for that section at 2 1/4″. Better to be safe than sorry.
• Adjust your stitch length. On my Juki and Bernina I set my stitch length to 1.5.
•  

It’s best if you cut your strips as you need them instead of cutting too many at once. As you measure the patches on the templates you can write the width needed for each patch right on the template.

Remember how we organized the templates into stacks of large geese, medium geese, small geese, right and left border? Decide which stack you will work on first and cut 2 strips of each fabric for the section you are working on. You can view Post 1 here.

Fabric organizing

For my quilt I am using one fabric for each large, medium and small geese. Let’s say you are using 4 different fabrics for each geese section and you want a repeating color scheme:

• decide the fabric order for your geese and first stack of templates.
• organize your templates to match your color scheme. You may need to lay the templates out in front of you
• begin piecing by pulling the top strip from geese stack, apply a dot of glue stick to template and secure geese strips for patch 1 on template.
• place that strip on the bottom of your stack
• stitch your sky fabrics
• pull the next strip from the top of your geese stack and stitch to template
• place on the bottom of your stack and so on

Suggested cutting. Cut one strip to test your comfort. You can always cut narrower or wider strips.

Circling geese

Large geese- From geese and sky fabric cut strips to 2 1/4″.

Medium geese- From geese and sky fabric cut strips 1 3/4″.

Small geese- From geese and sky fabric cut strips to 1 1/2″.

Center medallion

Large section of medallion- From geese fabric cut strips 1 3/8″. From sky fabric cut strips 1 3/8″ and for largest patch 2 1/4″.

Small section (very center)- Start with your scraps from trimming.

Border

Geese and sky fabric cut strips 2″

Additionally, if you begin with the large geese, next medium then small you can use some of the larger trimmings from strips in the smaller patches.

Part 1 here

Part 3 coming next Monday

Share my progress