I like to glue my first fabric piece to the
paper with a dab of glue from a glue
stick. Then, it won’t slip or slide around
on you. Make sure to glue the wrong
side of the fabric to the paper.
The rest of the pieces are then put on
with right sides of the fabric facing
each other. The second piece is placed
on top of the first piece with right sides
together.
The key to paper piecing is to make
sure to cut the pieces large enough
that they will generously overlap the
space to be covered allowing for the
seam allowance and a bit more. I cut
my pieces quite generously as I would
rather waste a bit of fabric than have to
recut and reverse sew.
Holding the fabric and paper up to a
light source allows you to see if the
fabric is covering everything it needs
to cover.
Sewing the fabric to the foundation paper
The quarter-inch foot with the guide
doesn’t work so well for this type of
piecing because the guide cannot line
up with an edge. I’ve changed to the
1A or 0A foot. The center of the foot
runs down the printed line, which is
the sewing line. The wider foot also
allows for more purchase on the paper.
Changing the foot
Changing feet on the Pfaff Creative 4.5
is fast and easy. Place the foot under
the presser foot with the two silver
bars lined up with the hooks on the
machine. Then, press the presser foot
down button to engage the foot.
To remove a foot place your thumbs or
two fingers at the front of the foot on
each corner and push down to release
it release from the presser foot column.
After each piece is sewn in place, trim
the excess fabric to a ¼-inch seam
allowance and press.
All the foundation piecing is done!
Once the sections are sewn together, it’s
just a matter of putting those sections
together to create the block. This can be
done with the paper on or off. I prefer
to take the paper off before I sew the
sections together.
Changing the needle
At this point, we should change the
needle before going to the next sewing
project as it has probably become dull
from punching through the paper a few
hundred times.
Multi-purpose tool
To change the needle take the multi-purpose tool out of the accessory box. It’s a
grey piece of plastic that looks a bit like
an H and has a hole in one end.
Trim excess fabric to a ¼-inch
Slide the needle into the small hole at
the one end. It works much better if the
foot is removed.
Move the multi-purpose tool up to the
top of the needle. Loosen the screw to
the right of the needle. You may need
to use the screwdriver depending how
tight it is.
The needle will release into the tool.
Reverse the directions for removing the
needle to replace it. Make sure the flat
part of the needle faces the back of the
machine.
To be honest, I find the tool a bit cumbersome and it’s much easier to change
a needle just using your hands and
holding the needle with one hand while
loosening and tightening the screw with
the other.
Foundation piecing completed
Wow! I’m really moving along with this
What’s Good For the Gal is Good For
the Guy quilt challenge. Now that a new
needle has been put in the machine, I
can start sewing all the blocks together
to form the quilt top.
Paper piecing the intertwined block
made for perfect points on this block
and tomorrow the blocks are going to
be sewn into sections to get ready for
some applique.
The Intertwined Block
QUILTsocial
.com
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spring 2015
11