No lie, when I first hear about paper piecing or English Paper piecing, I thought it was putting paper together to make a picture, like a puzzle. Which sounds neat in itself (and I may still try that out as an idea), but when I learned that it was actually a quilting method, I was intrigued and put off a little.
This month’s challenge was a heavy craft. However, I wasn’t really inspired by anything I found. And, I didn’t really have the proper supplies on hand and I’m still sticking with my resolution to use supplies I already have on hand. I opted to try out a project I’ve been researching for a couple of summers now: paper piecing.
Paper piecing is a method of quilting where small or complex pieces of paper are used to form a quilt block. You take a printed copy of the design you are making and working in numerical order, sew each piece together. This post is in no way going to be a tutorial, I have much more to learn about the process.
Most people print out the pattern with a printer, however, we don’t have a home printer. I used my Silhouette to draw out the pattern for me!
The best part of paper piecing is that you use up all those fabric scraps saved from previous projects. I’m sure I used more fabric that necessary when sewing my block together. As I learn, I’m sure I’ll become a better judge of what sized fabric pieces to use.
I chose the easiest pattern (that was still cute) to make for this project. I found a spool of thread. This block also happened to be all one square rather than done in sections (I’ll try one of those next). I’m also quite proud that I only had to rip out one seam!
Once you finish sewing all the pieces together, they will be sewn to your pattern paper. This means you get to start the best part, pulling the paper off. It was very satisfying to pull all those pieces off.
While I enjoyed that paper piecing, I think I need some practice on the actual quilting of the block. I certainly need to work on the binding. Overall, I am pleased with the project and can’t wait to try out more paper pieced blocks.
To check out other projects submitted for this month, check here: TSNEM June
To join in for July, check out the suggested project here: TSNEM Projects
sixtyfourcolorbox 
Actually, English paper piecing is different than this and is kind of like the puzzle thing. It’s very confusing why they have two similar crafts that are so completely different. EPP is all done by hand and you fit shapes together.
Anyways, you did an amazing job with your first time paper piecing! I had such a hard time wrapping my head around how the whole thing worked and had to start over a lot, but it finally just clicked and I’ve loved it ever since!
Well, that explains why I found multiple ways to complete such a project. Thanks, I found it really fun.
Yes, this is foundation paper piecing! It is SO confusing, and I didn’t figure it out until last year’s TSNEM when I spent lots of time googling. It looks great though – and your binding is way better than mine :P
Thanks, I still want to work on my binding skills. The corners need help.