Today we’re going to dive into piecing our sections! I know many of you are experienced paper piecers so some of this won’t apply to you, but I still encourage you to read through and watch my videos as you may find some new techniques to try and some helpful tips!

If you are completely new to Foundation Paper Piecing (FPP), let’s start with the basics! I will not be sharing my own complete step-by-step tutorial here today, but will guide you to a variety of options for learning how to FPP.

First, you can check out my Take Wing Mini pattern. It is designed for beginners with step-by-step photos and directions on how to FPP from beginning to end. Alternatively, there are several tutorials online you can refer to. I often direct people to this video by Connecting threads. The method is not exact to how I piece, but it is close. You can also refer to my previous post about how I prepare my pattern and then apply the basic piecing steps from the video tutorial.

Another tutorial you can check it out is this one by Cassandra Madge. It is a two-part post on how to FPP using my Butterfly Charm Block pattern. I once again recommend watching my videos or pattern prep and fabric cutting regardless of what method you follow.

You can also do a search for FPP tutorials and find many more out there. You can check out a few and see what suits your working style.

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Piecing tips, tricks and more

Now let’s get into some specific tips and techniques that I always use when paper piecing. I love to chain piece for efficiency whenever possible, and while many people do this with traditional quilt block piecing, they don’t often with FPP simply because of the nature of the beast. If you follow my previously outlined steps for pattern prep and fabric cutting, chain piecing your FPP project is a breeze! Below is a short video showing my setup and explaining how I chain piece FPP. I will do a more in-depth tutorial on this in the future, also. 

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My next video highlights the benefits of the pattern prep and fabric precutting steps I covered in the first sew along post, showing how I use the traced pattern lines as a reference and how I place my fabric pieces for foolproof placement and piecing.

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In my next post, I will talk about joining sections and the methods I use to ensure accurate alignment of pattern elements for a flawless finished piece! It’s nothing fancy or complicated, it just takes a little time and patience, but is well worth the effort.

I have one more important topic to cover before we wrap up today, and that is trimming sections after piecing before joining them together. Below is a quick video explaining when and how I trim.

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I hope you have found these tips helpful! They’re all just a small peek at my process which I cover in great detail during in-person workshops and classes,  that hopefully we can get back to one day soon! I do also have plans to offer more online class options in the near future, so stay tuned for that.

Please continue to share your progress photos on social media with the hashtag #MidnightBiteSAL and watch for my final post on October 26!