How to Remove a Paper Piecing
When a quilter paper-pieces a quilt, she uses a technique that involves small scraps of cotton quilting fabric and a paper quilt pattern to create intricate quilt blocks. By using a paper quilt pattern and sewing the scraps of fabric to the lines on the paper pattern, a quilter can successfully stitch complicated patterns with small pieces and tiny corners. When you finish paper piecing, the last step is to remove the paper pattern from the finished quilt blocks.
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Things You'll Need
- Finished quilt blocks or quilt top (with paper pattern sewn to back)
- Straight pin
Instructions
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Lay the quilt block or the quilt top out onto a flat surface with the paper pattern side facing up.
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Tear the paper pattern with your fingers anywhere within the stitch lines on the paper pattern. Tear pieces of paper pattern off gently, taking care not to pull the stitching out or distort the fabric as you tear the paper pattern.
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Continue removing the paper pattern in small pieces. As you tear, the paper will perforate where you stitched through the paper. Use these perforations to remove the paper in pieces.
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Work until you remove every piece of paper pattern from the backside of the quilt block or quilt top. Discard the small pieces of paper in the garbage.
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Tips & Warnings
If you have tiny corners or angles with stubborn pieces of paper stuck in stitching, loosen the paper by inserting the point of a straight pin into the remaining paper and pulling the paper away from the fabric carefully.
Some quilters prefer to remove the paper patterns from the back of each quilt block individually and other quilters prefer to leave the paper patterns on the individual blocks until the entire quilt top project is completed. Leaving the paper patterns on the backs of the individual quilt blocks provides stability to the fabric and helps stitch the blocks together accurately to form the quilt top.
References
- Photo Credit quilts image by Christopher Martin from Fotolia.com
