Arcadia Avenue: Fly Away

Paper piecing is a great way to learn how to sew an accurate 1/4" seams. If you failed to do so, then your design will not align at all in the end.  You'll pulled your hair and asked yourself, "What did I do wrong?"

For my first  paper piecing project, I fall in love with this beautiful pattern by Sassafras Lane Design called Arcadia Avenue. It's definitely not a pattern for beginners and didn't shied away from this frigthening adventure and with each block, I'll share my errors, tips, and frustrations along the way.

Before you start anything new, it would be a good idea to take a class to familiarize yourself with  a new technique and terms. For my part, I watched a class on Crafsy: Start Foundation Paper Piecing by Elizabeth Dackson . It was very informative and give me confidence that I could do this on my own and found tutoring on website helpful too.  Sassafras Lane Designs  has tutorial for each blocks  for the Arcadia Avenue quilt. You've the purchases the book and it provided an cutting overview for each blocks.

After I completed Fly Away block #1, I found a tutorial on Sassafras Lane Designs. It was an  helpful as I was a bit confused with the paper foundation at first. You can watch it for yourself:Fly Away

My first section went well and was surprised I didn't make any mistakes. So far so good. After trimming it, it look rather nice. Eleven more to go!

 Your trimmed each pieces with the Add-A- Quarter ruler. The ruler tucked nicely against the foundation paper nicely and doesn't move.

A tip: Stapled all the paper foundation together (if they are the same) and perforated on the lines with a pin. It's easier to fold the paper and you can also see it on the reverse.

Tip: Baste first with a longer stitch, check if everything aligns, then sew it again with a regular stitch. After each sections were sewed nicely, I paired them up.

After each sections are paired, then I sewed three section together, making two halves.

All the sections are sewn making two halves and sadly noticed something troublesome. My halves didn't butted together.  I tried to fix it three times, but it still buckled. The hexagon did NOT laid flat.

 If you noticed in the photo above the halves are curved and after verifying it with my ruler, they both didn't have straight edges and that when I said, "What did I do wrong?" I couldn't just start all over, not when I passed hours of sewing, trimming, pressing. *sad face*.

To retract my steps, I cut six pieces on the pattern on muslin fabric and sew them the same way I did  and guessed what? The halve section was slightly curved too!  For sure, I thought, my problem had to be the 1/4" seams. It always the 1/4".  So, using the muslin sampler, I took a bit more unto the seams to test my theory and the problem was solved. I had  straight edges on the muslin half section. Now that I knew what the problem was, I checked every single seams.

Because I was so careful not to sew the points, I slightly sew toward the outside of the 1/4" seams, not on the line, but just beside it. You wouldn't believed by doing so, the problem it created. A little 1/8" here and there can added much at the end.

 Here you can see clearly an example.

 Another example were I sew slightly toward the edge and not on the line.

 When I aligned my ruler over it, that's how much extra there were and you just cannot trimmed it off; otherwise, the section will be off balance with the rest of the design.

 After going over each seams, right on the line this time, it help fixed the problem. Look the result. A straight edge and I didn't trimmed anything or cut the points in the design.

 I'm so happy my block #1 laid flat. It's not perfect, but I'm very happy with it.

WHAT I LEARNED:

• Take a class or watch  tutorial, before starting your own paper piecing.
• Precut strips of fabric for each section.
• Get a Add-A-Quarter ruler.
• Set the stitch length at 1.5.
• Trim each section leaving approximately a 1/4"  on all sides.
• Do not removed foundation paper until all blocks are sewn together.
• There is a sequence in which to sew each pieces.
• Place the fabric on right side up of the pattern.
• Asked for help, if you're in a pickle. Quilters love helping each others.

TO WATCH FOR:

• An accurate 1/4" seams.
• Match each section by basting it first together, check, then sew again with a regular stitch. 
• Removed the paper, at the seams, where all the points meet.

 Sassafras Lane Designs has  wonderful tutorials for each of the blocks for Arcadia Avenue.