Paper Piecing Perfection - Louisiana Block

Louisiana Block

A Short Visual Recap on Paper Piecing:

Remove the thread from your machine, including the bobbin.  Stitch on all the lines of your block, this will perforate the paper for easy folding and easy removal later.  Stitch past the intersections.

It helps to have an extra block printed that you can cut apart to use as a template in cutting fabric pieces.

Make sure that you give yourself a good 1/2 inch all around before cutting.  This gives you seam allowance and wiggle room.  Stack your fabrics right side up 4 deep for this pattern and cut all at once, unless you are fussy cutting your pieces.

Some people pin the first piece in place, I prefer to use a glue stick.  I like how the fabric lays flat and stays where you put it.  You don't need a ton, just a bit and keep the glue out of your seam lines, which are the perforations.

After applying the glue to the paper, place your fabric and check to make sure you have an overhang of at least 1/4 inch beyond all of  the seam lines.  Holding your paper up to the light will help you see this easily.

Do the same for all of your blocks at once, we will do the same step, over and over for each piece, sewing all of our blocks at the same time.  This will help you to keep things straight in sequence.

Fold your paper back along the perforated line between section #1 and section #2, trim your fabric to a generous 1/4 inch.

Get your pattern piece #2 and you are going to do the same thing as previously shown, using it as a template, cut a generous 1/2 inch around the piece.    You can cut a strip and turn your template back and forth cutting generously as shown below.

Take your fabric piece #2 and lay it right sides together on the trimmed edge of piece #1.  Make sure that your fabric is on the side of the paper with no printing, right sides together as shown below.

If you need to pin, pin in the center of the piece of fabric, out of the way of your seam, scotch tape will work too if you place it along the seam line, outside of the stitching area.  Carefully turn your paper over and stitch on the line between #1 and #2 as shown below, Be sure to start or finish beyond the intersecting lines.

Finger press your seam open before you press with your iron, to make sure you have the seam all the way open.

Do the same for piece #3 as you did for piece #2.

Again, finger press and then press your seams open with your iron.  You should have 4 beautiful flying geese right now.  Don't worry about uneven edges, they will trim up as we go along.  The important thing is to have enough fabric covering your stitching lines that you can trim back.

Fold your paper on the line between #4 and the first part of your block #'s 1-3 as shown below.  Note the little hole in the center?  As you fold your block, you will notice that you have stitched into section 4, just give that a tug, yes the paper will rip, that is okay, you want to be able to fold along the stitching line and trim to a generous 1/4 inch as shown below.

Do this for all four blocks, you will have a nice straight line to line up your last piece of fabric.

When you are stitching the last piece into place, you will be crossing the intersection of the previously stitched pieces, it is very important to stitch exactly on the line when you reach this point.  This will guarantee that you have a perfect point as shown below.

Take any ruler with a straight edge and trim up your blocks to the dotted line.  You should have four beautiful blocks as shown below.

Okay, now the fun begins...how do you want to put them together, here are some possible options...you could also put them all in a row, one after the other for a unique border treatment on a quilt.

We will be having our next Paper Piecing Perfection Class this coming Friday, April 19th.  We will be meeting at the LDS Church on Todd Valley Road in Foresthill, CA.  All are welcome!  I will have 3 block patterns for this class, we will make one in class and you can work on the others at home or in our extra week get together.  If you can't join us, you can follow along online.  Click on the Icon at the top right hand side of this page and it will take you to the PDF pattern downloads for this class.  Please post your work at our Flickr group, Paper Piecing Perfection, we love to see your creations!

Note for May, there will be a wedding at the church the third weekend and so they will need the space that we occupy for our class, we will meet the second Friday, May 10th and can meet again on May 24th if you like for an extra class.

Our Second Block is the Pin Wheel Block

Here are some arrangement options with this block...

This block can look very different and dimensional with some color additions.  We will talk more about that and I will demonstrate that in class.  See you Friday!