The Basics of Paper Piecing

Paper Piecing is a technique used to stitch shapes that would be hard to cut and stitch or when perfect piecing is desired. A pattern is copied onto a special sheer paper and then stitched through by machine while adding layers of fabric on the backside of the paper in numerical order. The finished work will emerge right side out on the back side of the paper.

To get started, make photocopies of the pattern onto Simple Foundation Paper. Always make sure that the copy is the same size as the pattern. Some copiers will distort the size and your pieces will not fit later. Next, adjust the stitch length on your machine to 1.8 (or 15-18 stitches per inch). This will perforate the paper and make it easier to remove at the end.

Cut apart the sections if applicable. You will be working on them individually.

Folding the paper 1/4″ away from each seam line will make it easier to line up fabrics and trim seam allowances. Using an Add-a-Quarter Ruler, line the ruler up with the stitching line so the 1/4″ raised part of the ruler extends into the next section to be sewn (if you line up on the stitching line between sections 1 & 2, then the 1/4″ section of the ruler should be extended into section 2). Fold the paper over the ruler to create a crease 1/4″ away from the stitching line. Repeat for all of the stitching lines.

On the backside of the paper, use a fabric glue pen to apply glue to the section 1 area.

Place your #1 fabric on top of the glue. Make sure the top edge of the fabric is even with the 1/4″ crease mark between sections 1 & 2 and that the entire section is covered with fabric with at least 1/4″ extra fabric extending past each stitching line around the section. If you are using a directional fabric such as a stripe, lay the paper on a cutting mat. Because the paper is sheer, you will be able to see the mat lines and use them as a guide to keep the stripes straight.

Lay the #2 fabric on top of the #1 fabric right sides together. Be sure to line up the top edge at the crease line between section #1 & #2.

Use a pin to hold the fabrics together.

Flip the piece over. You will be sewing on the front side of the paper.

Lower the needle 2 stiches before the start of the seam line between section #1 & #2. Using an Open-toed foot makes it easy to see the line.

Sew directly on the line.

Stop 2 stitches past the line.

With the back side facing up, press toward fabric #2.

With the front side facing up, fold the paper on the stitching line.

Bump the 1/4″ raised section of the add-a-quarter ruler against the paper and trim away any excess fabric greater than 1/4″.

Repeat for the other sides to remove the excess fabric. Save the fabric to use on other sections.

Line up the edges at the crease between sections #1 & #3. If using a directional fabric such as a plaid, make sure the stripes match so the pattern continues across your block. Check if section #3 is covered by at least 1/4″ on all sides.

Repeat the steps above starting with the pinning. Flip the piece over and sew like before. Press, then trim. Continue repeating these steps adding new fabrics in numerical order until all of the sections have been covered.

From the back side trim the finished section 1/4″ away from the solid line to create a seam allowance around the section

First section is complete.

Second section is complete. Repeat for all of the sections.

Sew the sections together by first pinning them together, making sure to line up any seams or design points, and then stitch on the seam line. It may be helpful to put a pin through the seam line on one piece and then through the other as they are rights sides together to make sure the stitching lines are on top of each other before stitching on the line. The goal is to stitch exactly on both lines at the same time.

Repeat to add all of the remaining sections of the block.

The block is finished! Repeat these easy steps for any paper pieced project you have:) Enjoy!

Posted by going batty! on October 10th, 2011 | 8 Comments »

Take time for you!

I mentioned a few weeks ago that recently I have had a series of events that have made me stop and take a look at my life. In the past three months I have had an aneurism scare, a bad mammogram, and test results that indicate I may have rheumatoid arthritis. Let me tell you that just the first thing is enough to get you thinking about your life! But by the time you have gone through multiple things that make you evaluate whether or not you will be happy if you had only a short time to live you are making plans that involve serious change! I haven’t done a good job of taking care of myself, I work way too many hours in a week, I only sleep 4 hours a night, I rarely have time to eat, and when I do it’s usually driving through somewhere on my way to and from work. And exercise? Forget about it. Never had the time for it, and if I did have time, I spent it with my family or sleeping. I have decided I need to do something for myself.

The more people I talk to, the more I realize that this is common with women. We often sacrifice ourselves for the ones we love and to help others. I think it is so important that not only I, but that we all make a shift in our thinking. Maybe soak in a hot bubble bath once a week, commit to drinking more water, go for a walk with the one you love, get a massage, a manicure, a pedicure, or better yet get ALL three. Think about it, what is the thing you love to do that makes you feel great but you just don’t take the time to do…then DO IT and share your experience with us…I’ll be sharing mine!

Posted by Carie on January 16th, 2010 | 14 Comments »

…now you know “the rest of the story”

I remember hearing that phrase when my Dad would listen to AM talk radio. I can’t remember the name of the guy who said it because I was young but I loved it! Anyway, back to my story… early in 2009 we started looking to make a change. We had been trying to find a Store Manager, but as many of you know, this was a difficult process. I don’t think many people realize how difficult of a job it is to run a quilt/sewing business. And I have high standards for how I want my business. We eventually found a wonderful school for our boys in Utah and enrolled them for the upcoming 2009/2010 school year even though we still didn’t have the whole Store Manager thing settled. We kept our house in Reno and now split our time between Reno and Utah. Neff and I still own, plan for, give direction for the store, and take turns commuting to work in the Shop.

The boys completely LOVE their new school and are thriving! That’s right, boys plural! We have home schooled our kids until 8th grade before putting them in private school but we love this school so much that we enrolled Brenden as well! Yes, I am making sacrifices to give my boys what they need, and it is not easy being away from my family when I am in Reno and traveling so much, but it is worth it to me to see them so happy and successful.

Posted by Carie on January 12th, 2010 | 10 Comments »

Sometimes You Just Have To Take A Leap Of Faith…

So where does that bring us to today? We’ve been in our new location for about 4 ½ years. In our first full year with Bernina we were nominated as one of the top 3 Rookies of the Year. The next year we were District Dealer of the Year with Bernina, which covers most of the West Coast. I started travelling more to help teach new dealers for Bernina in Chicago. Things were getting crazy busy.

In the meantime, my 3 boys were growing up. When we moved to this new location they were 14, 11, and 6. Now they’re 18, 15, and 11. Our oldest boy was having emotional problems and needed to live in a group home. Our other two boys were growing up fast, and I was missing out on much of this. Neff and I, on a much needed vacation, talked about it and figured we were each working over 100 hours a week. The boys were helping out at the shop, so at least we were together, but we knew a change was needed. I knew I needed a change, not just for the family, but for me.

Keegan was at a private school here locally, found that he loved theater, but not the drama. As a Mom, I hate to see my kids unhappy and struggling! I would do anything to avoid that for them. After a particularly rough week of giving out what seemed like non-stop advice, counseling, and strategy sessions I finally just asked him, “What do YOU want”. I was shocked that he had such clarity! He knows who he is, what kind of environment he thrives the best in, what he would like to do to help others, where he wants to go to college….and the thing that impressed me the most was how simple a choice it was for him to make major changes in his life to make those things happen and be HAPPY! I learned from him that day that just because you are doing what you have done for awhile or thought you would do forever it doesn’t mean you can’t decide to do something else if you are not completely fulfilled. We only have one life…in the end will we be happy with how we lived it? If not, I encourage you to be brave and make a change. Sometimes you just have to take a leap of faith…

Posted by Carie on January 9th, 2010 | 4 Comments »

Sometimes doing the “impossible” leads to better things…

The suite we bought was what they call a “vanilla shell”, meaning it had nothing but walls and a floor. The floor was plain concrete and the walls were just primer white. But it did have 25 foot ceilings and over 5000 sq. ft. We had to install electricity and lighting and more electricity and more lighting, just to open. Oh, and we only had 30 days to do it all and move! I had a great Staff, friends, and Family! We packed up after we closed one evening and set-up in the new location the next day! We were only closed for the one day and then we were back open! Looking back, I don’t know how that is even possible but we did it! We added flooring later, and finally painted and added a wall to divide off the classroom. We have even more planned that we’ll share with you later.

When we made the move to the new place, the owner of Sew and Such was retiring (but later sold the business instead) I had been wanted to have machines in the Shop so we could have them available for classes. We applied to start a NEW Bernina dealership and the rest you can say is history. That was one of the most wonderful things that happened. Bernina is such a fabulous company to represent and they make the world’s best sewing machines. The company is very family oriented and the ownership in Switzerland has been in the same family for over 100 years. We are also a very family-oriented company, if you’ve been with us for awhile you’ve seen my husband and boys working in the shop over the years as well. Bernina was a great fit for us.

Posted by Carie on January 6th, 2010 | 2 Comments »

Turning My Hobby Into A Business

I got so involved with long arm quilting (even winning some awards) that my friends were complaining that they never saw me anymore! When I told them I was quilting they couldn’t believe it! After all, that was not the “norm” for someone my age. But, once I showed them some of my work they were begging me to teach them. So, I started teaching classes at my home once a month. We had so many people that wanted to learn that I decided it was time to open my own shop.
On May 30, 2003, I opened Going Batty Quilt Shop in Sparks, Nevada. How many of you remember that cute shop? We had 3000 square feet of an old clothing store, the carpet was from remnants of a theater (remember the funky purple colors?) and we had the theme of an old farm yard. We were right in between a couple of bars and when there were events on Victorian Avenue it practically shut us down. But I loved our display window, it was always so cute! So after our lease ran out in 2 years, the building owner wanted to rent the space to a cigar shop and we had to find a new home. We looked high and low for some place in Sparks where we could have at least 5000 square feet of space and have high ceilings to display our quilts. But we could not find anything. So we started looking in Reno and found our current location. By the way, just for fun try clicking on the photos in this post…they will get larger so you can see more details! The photos for classes work the same way! COOL!!!
  

Posted by Carie on January 3rd, 2010 | 3 Comments »

Be Careful What You Ask For…You May Just Get It All!

I loved to piece quilt tops! One day after looking through all of my precious pieces I realized that I had made 17 quilt tops but had never finshed one into a quilt! I’m sure no one else out there has been here before, huh?! I tried to tie a quilt, but realized that wasn’t appropriate for the type of quilts I was making. I then tried hand quilting and after working on it for a few months with only finishing about a 2 square foot area (and not really liking the results either), I decided this technique wasn’t for me. OK, maybe that’s a little too ”PC”, I hated hand quilting and machine quilting. I know there are ladies that love it, but I did not. Of course, since then I have learned that it would have been a lot better if I had taken a class and not tried to teach myself! Anyone else feel this way?

I had seen an ad in a magazine for a Long Arm Quilting Machine and wanted to try it out. So, I convinced my husband, Neff to go with me to a quilt show in California. The machine looked intimidating at first but as soon as I drove it, I knew that it was for me! To say the least, I LOVED IT! Neff looked at the cost and told me I would have to start a business if we were going to get one. I ran ideas through my mind as to what I felt that included and quickly decided that if I quilted for a few of my friends that would be a business. After all, he never said how big the business had to be. He knows me too well! So after my quick “ok” he added that I would need to get a business license. I admit I hesitated. He was serious. But, I still agreed.
This is when I first started using the business name of Going Batty. Neff came up with this idea as a play on words for the batting that goes inside the quilt and that a key to my sanity and life balance was quilting (i.e. not going batty . Our original logo was a sheep that was getting long arm stitched inside a quilt. If you’ve been with us for awhile you may remember that logo!

Posted by Carie on December 30th, 2009 | 1 Comment »

Quilting is my therapy!

I started quilting to do something for ME, and I REALLY needed it! (Anyone else feel this way?) We had recently adopted a child with cystic fibrosis and he was going through a hard time adjusting to our family, and had also begun doing foster care for a special needs child with cerebral palsy who was non-ambulatory and non-oral. Plus I had two more little ones running around. My husband was still working out of the home at the time, so when I say I needed some time for me, I really, really did. A wise person suggested that I find something to do that did not involve the kids, or doing something to help anyone else, but something that was just for me and my own personal growth. One afternoon, I will never forget, while surrounded by kids and still in my PJ’s I heard an ad on the radio mention the words to do something for you this year…take a quilting class. I remember thinking, here it is, my lightning bolt answer! So, I started taking quilting classes and was immediately hooked… Why did you start sewing?

Posted by Carie on December 24th, 2009 | 3 Comments »