What is paper piecing? Is it easy? Should I use?

Question

Im an intermediate quilter. Ive never really seen paper piecing. Ive heard about it and not really sure what it is. Any links you may have please send to me thanks.

Answer 1

I have always found paper-piecing to be easy. It can be used for simple items for for more complex ones. It's been called "foundation piecing" also because the base can be either paper or light fabric.

The simplest paper-piecing involves crazy-patching or strip-piecing onto foundation squares. When all you want to do is get a variety of fabric pieces stitched together and *stable*, paper-piecing is ideal. You can hand out 8.5" paper squares to a group and specify the fabric must go all the way to the edges and the participants can piece or appliqué onto a fabric foundation or any combination and be assured of squares that *will* match.

You can purchase special paper that tears away more easily or dissolves in water or you can use commoner paper. Tracing paper may already be on hand. With that, iron at cotton setting and the paper will become brittle and easy to pick-away, if you desire to do so.

I'd mentioned plain strips, like log-cabin or rail fence onto paper foundations. You can also put a nice segment of a print in the middle of a square and piece triangles onto the corners and stash the wee treasures away until you have enough for something. This can be a project for a beginning sewer, designed to start with first running stitches and to be assembled years later.

Answer 2

Only a little to add - did you mean English paper-piecing, over paper or card? Or did you mean the type where the picture is drawn and you gradually build up the picture by sewing and flipping over? (I have to admit to no tolerance for it!) English-style is very easy, and can be done in front of the tv! The others all have good advice. Happy p&q

Answer 3

to respond to your question, no. A re-pulping mill will take the two shredded or finished sheet paper. The pricing to day is the comparable for the two at maximum generators. until at the instant merchandising a recycling employer we recycled over 10,000 tons a month of the two varieties of paper. That being reported, shredded paper is extra cumbersome and so this is extra high priced to transport in keeping with pound. as a effect many recycling companies do no longer prefer to handle a small volumes of shredded paper.

Answer 4

ukquilter has a point... the term "paper piecing" when used *alone* generally refers to something different than "foundation piecing" which may use paper (or a base fabric that's not seen when finished) at some point. I believe most of the info above is for foundation piecing, not paper piecing.

If that's true, then "English paper piecing" usually refers to one way of creating geometric, "one-patch," styles into patterns such as Grandmother's Flower Garden, Baby Blocks, Tumbling Blocks, and other multi-sided locks.)
http://quilting.about.com/od/englishpfp
The individual hexagons, parallelograms, or triangles, etc., are cut first from paper, then decorative fabric is folded over each one, then the edges of the two fabric shapes are sewn together one at a time ONLY on their tippy-top edges.


Foundation piecing, on the other hand, is creating a "pieced" pattern on top using a piece of paper or fabric (even interfacing) which has the desired pattern drawn on it. Each piece is added one at a time by overlapping the new fabric on its neighbor upside down, sewing on the paper's drawn line (from the back side), then flipping the fabric over so it's right-side out... repeat, repeat. (It can be done in *various* ways though... not just this one.)

Not all patterns can be done with foundation piecing, or may require more than one pattern, but it's very good for some small "picture" patterns and geometrics, and also for some "strip" techniques incluing Log Cabin patterns.

Foundation piecing (and "mini-foundation piecing" for the smaller ones) is great fun though!, and can be very easy (just rows of strips, for example), a little more difficult, all the way up to quite fiddly and complex. You obviously start off with the easier ones, then work your way up as you learn the general idea.

Here are some pages that deal with foundation piecing from my files... haven't checked to make sure they're all still there though:

http://www.winnowing.com/ppp.html (sample is a simple pine tree block)
http://ttsw.com/HowTo/FoundationHowToPage.html
http://www.nmia.com/~mgdesign/qor/technique/pfp.htm
http://quilting.about.com/msubfoundation.htm
http://www.quilt.com/HowTo/FoundationHowToPage.html
Part two: more complex piecing: http://quilting.about.com/library/weekly/aa071697.htm
http://www.patchwork.com/recroom/FreeVest.htm (look under Sewing, near bottom, uses see-through foundation fabric)
http://www.quilterscache.com/StartQuiltingPages/startquiltingthree.html

general lesson (and diagrams)….& Add A Quarter lesson
http://www.zippydesigns.com/Lessons/generalinstruct.html

http://www.geocities.com/pcpiecers/goofyangletips.html

links to many patterns
http://quilting.about.com/msubmenu1.htm
(many patterns!) (farm: house,barn, tree, silo… many crazy blocks… many trees)…. gone… only other things now
http://www.small-expressions.com/index.htm
Annette’s barter patterns (pines and palm trees, houses, cacti, lighthouses, etc. http://www.geocities.com/foundationpapers/index.html

lots of patterns: music, animals, jars (Wendy’s Quilting and Embroidery Place)
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Cottage/7627/
her new website, and free patterns put on cards
http://www.wendyvosters.com/cards.htm


HTH,

Diane B.

Answer 5

If you have ever done any kind of applique work with fusible web, paper piecing is similar, except you use some sort of paper that is removed after the pieces are sewn together. It gives a much sturdier base to work with smaller pieces. It takes some getting used to, but it pretty self explanatory if you take your time and work with it. Here is one link:
http://www.freequilt.com/piecing.html
Happy Quilting!!

Answer 6

paper piecing is difficult. my mom did it and she said never again. I would try a stack and wack for one of your first quilts. They are really pretty once they are done.

try simplicity.com