How to Paper Piece a Quilt Block
Paper piece refers to the pattern pieces, like a sewing pattern, except this is quilter's speak. One of the most challenging aspects of quilting is insuring that block after block remains a constant size throughout several detailed cuttings and sewing. To create a regularity of size, the paper piece was designed, for cutting the quilt pieces that are sewn to make a block.
- Organize your squares. Cut even squares 12x12 inches of your quilt fabrics. Cut as many as you like at any given time, some stores offer these pieces precut to save time. The more advanced you become, the more time saving piecing techniques in quilting you will learn.
- Select which type of fabric matches to each paper piece. Count every triangle, of every dimension, in every fabric of the quilt block. Neatly stack the fabrics for cutting from your 12x12 inch squares. Every quilt pattern emerges from the block geometry. First, cut four perfect squares from 12x12 square, later this become squares and triangles using your paper-pieces. Next, cut your triangles, using the paper-pieces from the block pattern. At the end, you may have one hundred triangles in red, 25 triangles in blue, and so forth through all the pieces. Some quilt patterns will list by block or quilt the number of pieces you need.
- Preview your blocks to insure the pattern is replicated and paper pieced correctly. Gather all of your block pieces, check against the cut piece pattern, sew the block pieces, then check the pattern reproduction. If any of the pattern does not fit because of the paper-piece, start again. Doing this now saves much grief later if you realize that a piece is not the correct pattern piece or size.
- Unite every block together as one quilt, if your paper-piecing is correct then the final blocks should match exactly to the quilts' overall pattern. If not, you will replace the block that does not match the pattern.