Vicki Bellino`s English Paper Piecing Tutorial

Vicki Bellino’s English
Paper Piecing Tutorial
We asked Vicki to share her secret for beautiful
English Paper Pieced designs when she visited the
SUPPLIES NEEDED:
- Paper shapes of your choosing (we used
pre-cut cardstock shapes)
- Fabric scraps bigger than your paper shapes
(a great use for charms!)
- Small, pointy tipped scissors
Connecting Threads office. English Paper Piecing
- An embroidery needle (#8 or 9) and/or an
applique needle.
uses hand piecing, which makes it perfectly
- Thread that contrasts with your fabric
portable for doing while watching TV or during
- Monofiliment thread or thread that matches
your fabric closely
a long car ride. You can make beautiful pieced
shapes to feature in quilts or even dimensional
- Thimble (optional)
items like bowls. Be forewarned though: we
found it to be very fun and addictive!
HEXAGON FLOWER
STEP 1
Hexagons are a very popular shape used in English
Paper Piecing. Our tutorial uses them to make the
flower shown for appliqueing on quilt blocks. These
same directions can be applied to a variety of other
shapes as well.
Place your paper shape on the wrong side of the fabric and
pin in place. Cut fabric a generous 1/4” larger than the paper
piece. Don’t worry about being precise with your cutting;
the paper shape will keep your lines straight. Repeat for all
shapes needed.
STEP 2
Psst...Unless your fabric is extremely wrinkled, there is no
need to iron beforehand!
Fold fabric over paper shape. Tie a knot at the end of your
contrasting thread and insert the embroidery needle through
the fabric and paper from the right side of the fabric. Baste
fabric in place around the shape with large running stitches.
Leave an approximate 1” tail on thread and cut when
finished.
STEP 4
STEP 3
With right sides facing, align two pieces and stitch with your embroidery or applique needle and
monofiliment thread, using a small whipstitch, just catching the edges of the fabric (avoid stitching
through the paper). Continue until all of the pieces have been stitched together. For this hexagon
shape, we stitched all of the pieces around the center shape before stitching them to each other.
When all of the pieces have
been sewn together, lay flat
on ironing board and press
on both sides. Spray sizing
to help keep your fabric in
place for applique. Remove
basting stitches and then
remove paper pieces, which
can be saved and reused.
DIAMOND STAR
Shapes with no center piece, like the star shown use the
same technique as for the hexagon tutorial, with some
slight modifications.
When basting the fabric to the
paper, fold only one side of the
center point, so that the “tail”
hangs below. These tails will
interlock when you stitch the
shapes together, preventing a gap
from showing in the center.