My Love For Paper Pieced Quilting

Please join me in welcoming today’s guest blogger Jennifer Rodriguez as she shares with us her love of paper piecing, a few photos, a tutorial and a cute little pattern for download so you can give it a try too.

Hello everyone! My name is Jennifer Rodriguez and I blog over at All Things Belle. I have been sewing for over 2 decades, but it is only in the last 5 years that I’ve started quilting. Like most beginners, I struggled with the precision of the piecing. I began to move more into applique and found I enjoyed that with less frustration, but I missed the look of traditional piecing.

At the beginning of this year I finally tried paper pieced foundation quilting and fell in love! I was able to get exactly what I wanted with this technique. I Googled everything I could find on it and dove head first. There are several ways you can do it and I suggest you try a couple until you find what works for you. I have a very easy beginner tutorial here.

Paper pieced quilting does have some limitations, for example you will won’t be able to get a perfect curve. However, I personally love its distinctive look – it’s precision piecing without a lot of fuss. You don’t have to worry about the grain of the fabric and you can use such tiny pieces! One thing I’ve been wanting to do is piece with fabrics other cotton. Given the stability of the paper, you can easily quilt with silk, velvet, or denim. Time to get out those scraps!

Today I’m going to share a pattern I designed called “The Giving Tree”. This block can be scaled to many different sizes for a number of different projects, but today I used it as focus for a card. Making a paper pieced project on a smaller level allows you to get used to how it’s created, a feel for the colors you want to use, and maybe decide if you want to move ahead with it at all. Rather than tossing out the sample treasure, why not sew it on to a card for a dear friend? I would love to receive a miniature quilt in the mail and I bet you would too!

Download the pattern here [PDF format]. The pattern should print at 3.25″x5″.

Remember that your final piece will be the mirror image of how it prints on the paper. I also recommend printing 2 copies – one for working on and one to color, to assist with fabric color choices.

I hope you will try this out! For you experts out there this will be a cinch, but for you others like me that had been crying over imperfect matched seams – you will love this.

Thank you so much for spending this time with me!