Monday, July 9, 2018

Slow Going...

...But Persistence Equals Progress

The paper-pieced borders for my Pickle Dish quilt are coming along. Slowly. These strips are about 15" and each will need to be 60", so I'm only a fourth of the way along.

Paper piecing these borders is effective, but I've made so many mistakes that I've had to rip almost as much as I've sewn. Wrong side up to start. Then several times I've added the next wedge wide ends together. So many times that I now have a note on my sewing machine to remind me, the wide end needs to line up with the narrow end of the previous wedge.

Ripping out mistakes from paper piecing is tedious. The easiest way I've found is to use a very sharp surgical blade type seam ripper and just touch it to the threads between the paper and the fabric, peeling the fabric away from the paper as you go.

Hopefully I can make some more progress on these borders this week. With much less ripping.


Link ups:
Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
Em's Scrapbag
Love Laugh Quilt






8 comments:

  1. Your border is going to be fabulous. I love that flat sharp ripper! I also love to use Scotch removable tape on those long pieces of paper. Hope no more ripping has to happen. Love your note to yourself!

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  2. Well the border will be worth all the pain and agony (not to mention ripping) once it is done. It's fantastic. Are you using adding machine tape?

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  3. I hope the note helps a lot. I tend to make a lot of mistakes with FPP when I get started, too. I'm the queen of starting with my fabric wrong side up.

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  4. Sticky notes are my sanity ;-) It will be worth it

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  5. Sorry about all the ripping, paper piece ripping is the pits!!! But your borders are so pretty.

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  6. I know exactly what you mean ... I too forget and sew pieces wrong-sides out. Bummer but it makes up for it in accuracy. Looks good so far!

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  7. It's a great idea to check your note each time you add a strip. There is nothing worse than unpacking, especially when doing paper piecing.

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  8. Paper piecing makes some things easy, but it can be so easy to get things lined up wrong or putting the pieces together wrong.

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