This is a picture of a block from the quilt I just started. It is paper pieced, and it is one of 70 blocks needed for this quilt. I'll update my progress as I go. The pattern is called Pineapple, and I have been wanting to do one of these for a while. When a new magazine had a nice paper piecing pattern for one, I jumped on it. The block measures 7.5 inches.
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Those who make crafty things know that people always want to know, "How long did it take you to make that?" and "How many pieces are in that quilt?"
Sew, I figured out, based on timing and counting one block, these approximations:
How much time will it take? 53 hours to piece the blocks, 2 hours to cut the pieces, 2 hours to sew all the blocks together, 4 hours to add borders, 7 hours to quilt together, 3 hours to bind. Total: about 72 hours.
Pieces: 41 per block for a total of 2870. Then, probably about 16 border pieces for a total of 2886 pieces of cloth in the quilt.
But, those who make quilts know that we don't really care about all these numbers. We just love cutting up fabric and sewing it back together.
Lol. I am going to have to figure out how many peices are in that Irish Chain... the number is a little impressive. Lol. But I get more joy out of cutting up all the fabric just to sew it all back together again than worrying about how many peices are in it.
What does it mean to be paper pieced? Is that the method by which it is done? And what is the difference between that and others? Sorry I am not a quilter (yet anyway) I just wondered.
Paper piecing is a method of sewing blocks together. You make a copy of your pattern on paper or fabric, then you put the fabric pieces on the back of the paper and sew on the lines on the front of the paper. It is a very accurate way to piece, since you just sew on the lines. I said accurate, but not easy. Many people hate the method, but I love it and have done several projoects this way.
It's also called "foundation piecing" because you can use a fabric foundation instead of paper. Paper really works better, but you have to tear it out when you finish the block. A fabric foundation can remain in the quilt forever.
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