OK, I think I am done with sewing (at least on this project) for the day.  Here is what is on the machine today.

Paper piecing a modern wedding ring quilt (or at least getting a bit more done with it).  This is a foundation pieced block in EQ 7 (Electric Quilt 7- a computer program to help draft quilts).  This is for a group I am part of, Modern Meet-up.  I will also finish it to enter into a guild quilt show later this year.  The theme of the show is “Everything old is new again”.  So I decided while I was at it I might as well do some videos on paper piecing (finding it easier to explain what I am doing rather than trying to explain it with pictures. But since I also have the pictures I will start with them and then add the videos after.

So here is what I am starting with today.  I have already sewn and pressed the 1st seam.  But with paper piecing, the fabric for each piece is not cut precisely.  so it needs to be trimmed before the next piece is sewn on.

So I place it with the fabric down and place my guide along the next line to be sewn on.

Fold over the paper and make a crease.

Using my add a quarter ruler I butt it right upto the folder paper.  This ruler has a lip that will make it stop at that edge.  

Then I use my rotary cutter to trim the excess fabric.

Unfold the paper and it is ready to sew on the next piece.  So here is the videos of those steps (and more).

Here are a couple of videos of the machine stitching those blocks.

Ok, now here is the trouble I ran into.  I thought I had cut enough for this 3rd piece I was putting on, but I ran 1 short.  That is OK, I do have enough fabric, so cut 1 strip for 1 piece. Then when I was ironing, guess what? I found my missing piece.  I had sewn 2 on instead of one because they stuck together.  Now I know I am the only one who has ever done that.  But just in case it ever happens to you and you have enough fabric to cut another piece. Here is what you do so that you don’t have to do any unstitching (which is really hard when you have reduced the stitch length and the paper tends to tear as well since it has already been stitched.  

So here is a picture of my 2 dark blue pieces sewn together.

So carefully cut the top fabric as close to the stitches as you can (I have to grab my reading glasses and go slow so that I don’t catch the stitches or the fabric beneath it.

I have these cute little stork scissors that are perfect for this job.

And here it is after I have carefully pulled both sides away from the stitches.  I’ve learned this little trick from when I’ve caught the excess backing fabric under the quilt when I am doing my machine quilting.

Not the end of my troubles though.  These triangle blocks are put together in pairs to form squares. 2 of them will have yellow triangles in the corner and 2 will have blue.  I have 1 set of triangles done and am working on the other 3.  Guess what I discovered?  Yup, I sewed the yellow triangle to the block that should have the blue triangle.  Do I want to have to take off triangles from 32 block? No, I definitely do not.  So I go back to EQ 7, so I can recolor the block and see what to do.  But guess what?  I can’t find the file.  Then I remember, I had to recover my computer from my backup (which was about 40 days old).  And I must have made this file after I had done that last back-up.  Well, since it was a block that was already in EQ7 it was pretty easy to redo it and then redo the colors to see which blue to use in the corner.  Was going to use the dark blue, but now the fabric it would next to is that dark blue.  So I did 2 versions; 1 with a medium blue and 1 with the light blue.  Decided to go with the light blue.  All my problems are solved (for the time being), good thing I am making 16 blocks in addition to the practice block I made.  Going to call it quits for the day (and go have dinner with my daughter and her boyfriend’s family-yay, I don’t have to cook!).  Have a good day and I hope I have taught you something you didn’t know that will help you on your quilting journey.