Note to my readers: to those of you who are trying to follow this blog, I am not only learning how to make this quilt, I am also learning how to create blogs and insert pictures. Thanks for your patience.
Lastly, I tried paper piecing. I used the "master" (at left) I had generated for the freezer paper and photocopied onto plain photocopier paper. I sewed exactly along the lines, with the much smaller stitch length suggested. I found it difficult to get everything to match up as I was working with the template cut fabric with only a 1/4 in seam allowance (afterall, I had already cut the fabric, and didn't want to waste it) and not oversized pieces. But I persevered and made a very passable arced piece. But when I tried to rip off the paper, it distorted the seam and in some cases caused the stitching to come loose. I talked to my paper piecing friend and she said to dampen the paper and then rip it off. This was ok, but I ended up having to use tweezers to remove the last bits.
Better yet, buy some tissue paper for piecing. In my previous endeavors I had used some old paper patterns from my dressmaking days (the ones with huge swaths of paper for making shirtwaists), but had purged my patterns and was paperless. Sigh. Back to the quilt store to get some paper piecing paper. This time $10.00 for 100 sheets. I asked myself the question: How much more money was I going to spend on supplies for this quilt? I had already spent $10.00 for 30 sheets of freezer paper which I could put in my photocopier, and two sheets of template plastic at about $1.70 each, all the fabric my sister and I had purchased, and the allure of more new reds & purples had not yet subsided. Maybe I should just stick with the freezer paper and with practice it would get easier. Reason prevailed, and I rewarded myself by purchasing a few fat quarters of new fabric which had just arrived.
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