Paper Piecing

Let me preface this by saying that I would love to write a post about every single project that I do.  However, it's become clear that I don't have that kind of time right now in my schedule.  For a little while anyway, I'm going to focus my posts on the times I try new techniques, and today's blog is a perfect example.


A guild friend, Jo, lives near me and has a wonderful quilt space in her home. When I mentioned my interest in paper piecing to her back in January, she'd given me an open invitation to stop by and practice whenever I had the time.  On Friday, 3/11, I had an early appointment, but otherwise the rest of my day was free. I called Jo, and she printed off several copies of Wombat Quilts' Star String for me to practice on. 

My mother had bundled me off with scraps from the quilt she has on her own bed, but I couldn't get sewing right away, at least, not without some prep work. Jo showed me how to pre-punch my sew-lines so that the paper would be easier to work with.  This preparation wasn't necessarily intuitive, but it did help with clean up later.

The main thing I learned was that paper piecing is time-intensive, but the results are spectacular. I got only one and a half blocks done that day, but the finished block, to use my mother's phrasing, was crisp. To a novice quilter, that word is a five-star review.

I liked making the center star contrast a bit.

I think what I'll do is finish my second block and turn the pair of blocks into a bag.  I have a short tutorial on bag-making that I've been meaning to try. However, I think I'll skip putting a pocket on that satchel. I want to show off the stars!