paper piecing

Here's the previously mentioned project that I started over Spring break.  It made for a great car project.  As the passenger. Drivers should probably not attempt.  It's the project that I turned to on the long drive home when all my hats started being crazy sized.   I just recently learned about English paper piecing.  I was warned it was addictive.  It is.

Please note:  my training in this art is brief and consist of three you tube videos.  You start with cut out pieces of paper.  I used hexagons, but diamonds and triangles and other odd shapes seem possible too.

You rough cut a piece of fabric about 1/2 inch  bigger (all the way around) than your paper piece.

Using a contrasting color of thread,  baste the fabric around the paper piece. Big stitches can be used as long as it holds the fabric in place.

Fold the edges as you go and keep basting.

You can see the thread better in this picture.

When you have a bunch of them, you can lay them out and move them around to see how it's all going to fit together.  I only chose 6 fabrics, if I had been home, I would have added a few fabrics from my own stash in addition to the fat quarters I bought, so I would have had at least 8 or 9.

When you are ready to start attaching them together, hold two pieces right sides together.  You'll want to whipstitch in a coordinating thread color.  Stitches should be tiny and close to the edge so that you aren't really working in the paper at all.

When you go on to attach another, you'll need to fold any existing pieces so you have get the right edges together.  This previous sentence made little sense.

When you get a piece totally surrounded, you can clip out the basting stitches.

At this point, the paper piece should pop out the back.

Then you'll have several together and you can keep plugging them in where you need them.

Here's what the back looks like. 

I thought I was making a table runner, then I decided a small quilt, now I'm not sure.  No doll deserves something this detailed.  I didn't buy enough of the fabrics to make it too big.  When I'm at home, I've been too busy to get it out.  It may just be for car rides and might take me a whole year.  

I am not sure how I'll finish the outside edges yet.  There seem to be a number of methods for this.  We can learn together.  Sometime next year.