First Paper Piece Block

Thank you thank you thank you Patti. I think the mirror image thing will solve my problem. I knew there had to be a way to match those silly seams without so much trouble. Hmmm maybe all is not lost after all.

Mika

Hurray! . In message , Mika writes

I think Kate meant an "add a quarter" ruler. There is also an "add an eighth" ruler, which is useful if you're doing miniatures, but the "add a quarter" is the one that is used for most paper piecing.

Julia in MN

This is usually where I put in my plug for the "Butterfly Trick" from the Paper Panache website. If you're a visual learner, you can learn to do paper piecing that will always fit, have stripes or other directional fabrics oriented in the right direction, and not have to pick up your piece and hold it to the light like some people do. (I never did understand that one.)

I think it is pretty amazing that you finished such a hard block. It does look good and you should try it again. Debra in VA See my quilts at

I'm left-handed, too, Kim! My DT is right-handed (we're mirror twins). I married another left-handed person, and we had two DDs, one of whom is also left-handed. LOL! Our poor rightie had a tough time growing up. ;)

The advantage of joining the group (the same advantage that we have here on RCTQ ) is that you can read as many/few of the messages as you like. You can participate in as many/few of the group challenges as you like. But you *always* have a great resource for questions! I'll see you there! :)

I checked it out and bookmarked it for future reference. Thanks KJ.

Mika

I think if there was one thing I could change it would be that. I think being left-handed has been the one thing that had the most drawbacks for me. Unfortunately I couldn't have surgery to fix that the way I could the hole in my heart. I always hated notebooks that had the wire on the left and desks that had only half a writing area and it was for right handed people. But the worst was having to use right-handed scissors when I wanted to sew. I have had more blisters than I care to even think about. I started sewing when I was 7 years old so I had a lot of years to deal with it.

Mika

One of these days, I will come over and show you how I cut the pieces. Do you have any of the paper piece spftware or Electric Quilt or Quilt Pro so you can print multiple copies off the computer?

L>Thanks Kate. I don't have the "add an inch" ruler but I guess that will be

That really is a pain. When I was teaching, I made my own gradebook so I could punch the holes on the right side of the paper, thus making a left-handed gradebook.

That was awkward, too. Luckily, these days most desks have a bigger area, so lefties like us aren't as uncomfortable.

I still hold my scissors with my thumb and middle finger to adjust for the fact that right-handed scissors don't work correctly for lefties. I even hold my left-handed scissors that way, since I have too many years of that habit behind me to be able to change easily.

However, I'm lucky in that I can do a lot of things with my right hand, so I don't have some of problems (manual can openers, for example) with living in a right-handed world as DH has.

Mika, despite all your frustrations, that is one gorgeous block! I'll tell you, I'm a paper-piecing novice too--tried it years ago and didn't really get the hang of it. But that block could make *me* reconsider. :-)

I see a lot more than 12 seams in that block. And it looks darned good too. Love the colors. (And that is not an easy block to start pp'ing with either.)

Pati, > Ok I finally went and did it. I am no longer the Paper Piece V*rgin.

Jessamy wrote:

That is a very nice job - and I love your colour choices. I've never done paper piecing but I just might give it a try after seeing what a lovely job you've done. Great work!

Sharon (N.B.)

I would love for you to come over and show me how you cut the pieces. I can use all the help I can get right now. I don't have any software yet. What I did was print the template from the website, resize it to the size I wanted then make multiple copies of that. I have a copy machine/printer so making copies isn't a problem. The biggest problem is just getting the template sized correctly.

Mika

Well there actually was I just didn't do a very good job of describing it. The template was a square cut in half on the diagonal. So each half only had two seams. Sewing the triangles together then sewing the squares together was a piece of cake. Sewing the pieces of fabric to make the triangle was a nightmare. But you're right, I miscounted on the number of seams. Here is a link to the pattern. You can see what I'm talking about if you look at the template pattern. I love the pattern as long as I don't have to make it. lol.

Mika

Thank you Michelle.

Mika

Thanks Sharon.

Mika

I would love to see the pattern for this, but you forgot your link.

Beautiful job on the block!!!!