Notes to self: Paper Piecing; The tutorials all failed me.

I’ve been paper piecing a quilt for my future niece (she’s already my niece, but she’s not on the outside yet…) and vowed never to volunteer to make a paper pieced quilt ever again on the first two blocks, but this morning (3 days after starting, to put it in perspective; 2 blocks, 3 days), I think I’ve finally figured it out! So, in case I ever decide to make a paper pieced quilt again, I thought I’d write a few tips to future-me. I hope future-you will find them useful too.

1. First, if you think you’re a pro at quilting, paper piecing will question that belief. It really just feels backward to other quilting methods. It feels like backward math, upside down quilting, and a whole bunch of angles that are scary if you watch tutorials. Because they all make it look so easy, and then you sit down and it’s not and you may … ahem… think about saying a few things you don’t want your toddler to repeat.
2. Secondly, there’s a reason that paper piecing is a major scrap-buster. It leaves a LOT of wasted fabric. It feels like you’re cutting in the middle of the fabric. And if you’re a regular quilter, it makes you cringe. But… It DOES use up scraps. And after a while, you can get the hang of finding the best placement for scraps.
3. If you don’t have a light table, you will wish you did. Windows and holding it up to the light will make it about 5 times harder than a light table. I got mine way cheap back in the day (it’s probably 15 years old. A quick Amazon search proves that mine is WAY out dated and that they have come a long way in design aspects. But hey, it still works. Unless you press too hard. Then it shorts and you have to press hard again to “turn it back on.”
4. If the pieces don’t have a seam allowance added to the outside, add them. And don’t forget to keep them in your calculations for the middle of the semi-blocks.
5. This one is kind of a given, but order is important. Not just in pieces, but in method.
   1. First, line up your first piece. It’s usually the biggest. Most of the time, they’re numbered, but if you’re like me then you can’t be bothered to settle for something that’s not exactly the way you want it, so you either tweaked it or created your own. If it’s not pre-numbered, it’s [usually] pretty easy to figure out which piece to sew first. Find the piece that doesn’t require any other seam in place. I have one of the pieces I designed myself (after looking at pieces online, so it’s not really what I’d call an original) and it’s NOT the way the pieces should be, because there are 2 sections that require seams. Usually, you make the pieces so that doesn’t happen, but it’s not a terrible fix when you know what you’re doing (or figure it out as  you go, as Yours Truly likes to do). It’s just not able to be it’s own little box, really. Still sews the same. I just have to remember there’s no seam allowance on that part.
      

      

   2. Glue it in place (tutorial taught me that. I don’t like glue for anything but the first piece (unless it’s really small, which also seems backward. But when the small pieces slip, it’s much more noticeable. If you’re gluing more than the first piece, sew it, iron it open, and then glue it to the paper), but some tutorials say glue the whole way. It is helpful for keeping the piece in place, but it also gums up your iron, and then you have a brown spot in the middle of your project that won’t come out until you wash it. At least it had BETTER come out… haven’t washed it yet…) WITH THE BACK FACING THE BLOCK (it feels backward. We are taught right-sides-together for most of sewing, but technically, this step is wrong sides together. Tutorials DIDN’T teach me that tidbit. You’re welcome).
   3. Using the light table, take another scrap (or in my case, the background color, that is about the size of a fat quarter. Not the easiest size, which is part of my frustration, but I want all the background colors to be the same, and I only have so much of this scrap so I would rather not waste all of it willy-nilly. FOLD THE PIECE DOWN THE SEAM LINE! Seriously, that is the trick! It changed all my complication and frustration into an, “oh, this isn’t so bad!” Place that folded-glued piece of paper over the other fabric. LINE UP AN EDGE OF THE BACKGROUND FABRIC (Seriously. Saves cutting, guessing, and wasting). Using the light table (and your fingers to feel the seam if you can’t see it well, make sure that piece is all lined up and fits in the square (REMEMBERING 1/4″ SEAM ALLOWANCES ALL THE WAY AROUND, including the folded line). Lay the paper flat (unfold it), pin the 2 layers of fabric and the paper together.
      

      

      

      gosh, my hands look so old in this picture. Dry weather is not my friend, apparently…

   4. Go to your cutting mat, take your acrylic ruler, and make sure you have 1/4″ seam allowances all the way around. Repin, if necessary. (if you have a flat light box, or a small acrylic ruler, this step can be done on the light table – which would be quite helpful – but I’m using my  big ruler and the light table is too awkwardly angled). No real cutting needs to happen at this stage.
   5. sew down the seam line.
   6. Iron the seam open (fold back the not-glued-down piece, iron flat. That’s another part that just seems backward. Normally you have a LOT more liberty as to which way you iron and almost always iron the piece to the darker side. In paper piecing, you don’t have the choice, and if you’re using a light background color, chances are you are ironing toward the background and it’ll show. DON’T CUT UNTIL YOU IRON.
   7. Fold the pattern at the next seam. Go to your cutting mat. Take your acrylic ruler and cut the scraps to 1/4″ from that fold.
   8. Place the next piece of fabric along the fold, making sure that you have enough fabric to handle anything folded over in the piece of paper (seriously, this step! Makes the difference between picking out with a few mutterings (for the 6th time) and getting it right the first time. FOLDING THE PAPER IS THE MOST HELPFUL ADVICE I CAN GIVE (aside from the whole measure-twice-cut-once rule. Because I had a few cut-the-scrap-i-needed-almost-clean-off moments…). It seems silly, but it isn’t. trust me.   Use the light table, if you need. Don’t forget seam allowances. unfold the paper, pin, sew.
   9.  Repeat steps 6-8 as needed.
6. Never sew that seam unless you’ve already cut the seam to 1/4″. Once you’re in the hang of what you’re doing, it’s okay to ignore this rule, just be careful. And for best results, cut it BEFORE you iron it. I tried cutting seam allowances after I sew/iron and have accidentally cut the entire piece off (see above). I’ve also tried cutting the seam allowance before I iron and cut the piece the wrong shape because it’s hard to wrap your brain around what is quilt piece and what is seam allowance. If you already have a flat seam there, there’s no need to cut it and accidentally cut the wrong part until after it’s ironed. Once it’s ironed it’s sooo much easier to tell what should be there. Then, you’re cutting the next seam allowance, not your quilt piece.
7. Got a piece that’s just perfect but doesn’t have flat edge where the seam allowance is? tread with caution. It’s doable. Remember to fold the paper over and make sure it all really does fit nicely. Then sew it, and be VERY careful what you cut. I made a little video of me doing it backward on one square. Just because it’s easier to show than to explain.
8. Sew well into the next piece. Tutorials will say this but they don’t really explain why. I know of at least 2 reasons. 1) you have the seam allowance for those pieces becoming one piece on the next seam (you still need 1/4″ seam allowance. If you haven’t sewn all the way up, your quilt will either pull funny or unravel after it’s sewn. Both are bad. SECONDLY, when you pull the paper off of the pieces to sew the next seam, they tend to unravel. even at a small stitch, the first few stitches will probably come out.
9. Which brings me to another tip: stitch length. The tutorials all say go to 1.0 stitch length. Well, they clearly haven’t had to pick out as many seams as I have over the past few days. I’ve found that 1.8 works just fine and I’m not ruining my fabric (or my ability to see straight) when I have to pick it out. ALSO: if your machine is like mine, it is much easier to tell where I’m going if I center the needle. My machine thinks it should always (ALWAYS) be on the left and that is one of my biggest pet peeves about a machine that I otherwise love (the other is that it does NOT like starting on the edge of the fabric. It can’t figure out how to feed it properly so I have to use pins to guide it through a few stitches. But that’s another story.)
10. If you have a machine that automatically resets itself when you sew, it is worth leaving it on until you’re  done sewing for the day. Because otherwise, you’re guaranteed to forget to turn the stitches down and re-center the needle. This goes against a major rule my mother taught me. But if I leave the presser foot up my machine wont sew, so my toddler won’t accidentally sew her fingers. I think that was one of the main reasons she always made us turn it off the second we stood up.
11. If you don’t have a garbage you can slip right under your table/cutting surface, tape a grocery bag to the edge of the table, then you can slide your scraps and discarded paper right into the trash.
    

    

12. I’ve learned that it helps when tearing the paper out of seam so that you can move on to the next seam (where you sewed past the line on purpose), if you tear it from the side it unravels a little less than if you tear it from the last stitch. And if you’re having trouble removing the paper at the end, spraying it with a FINE mist of water will weaken the paper enough it comes right out.

What do you think, clear as mud, right? Well it’s definitely one of those its-easier-when-you-start kind of projects. And don’t work on the most important one first. Practice on an eaiser/not as prominent piece first.