Stitching Times serves up stories, examples and tutorials about needlework related crafts, especially quilting and crochet. Almost all of the projects shown have been designed by Kay Stephenson

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Paper Pieced Ornaments


Am I crazy to be thinking about Christmas ornaments in January? Considering how this project is progressing, I might be.
This past year I worked on a block of the month club with Amy Gibson and one of our blocks was paper pieced. That’s not English paper pieced which is a whole different thing resulting in the hex quilt I was talking about earlier this week.
For paper piecing, you start out with a square of paper that might look something like this
Following the instructions, fabric is sewn directly onto the paper using the lines to indicate where seams go. Four of these pieces are then sewn together ending up with something that might look like this.
At least that’s what my twelve inch finished block looked like for the quilt.
All good so far. The problem started when I decided to take the designs I had come up with for a tree,
a star,

and a bow,
and make them all three inches square.
The tree wasn't all that bad if you can ignore the sloppy top stitching. But it took over two hours to sew one and I didn't think repetition was going to knock off much time.

Then I tried the star. Disaster.
I didn’t even bother to finish the star. Granted I could have managed the seams better, but with these designs and sizing, I’m always going to be trying to manage too many tiny little seams that are on top of each other.
No wonder I never liked making doll clothes.
So I’m going back to the drawing board. I think I might even need to study up on paper piecing tips and tricks. I’m sure someone has solved this problem before. Probably more than a few times.
I’ll keep you posted.

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