Teatime Mug Rug: paper piecing experimenting

One thing I have not done a whole pile of is paper piecing. I have done some EPP, but paper piecing with freezer paper I have looked at, admired and bookmarked patterns for, but shied away from actually doing it. It looked like a whole lot of work, to be honest, in a fiddly, tiny piecing kind of way and up to now I wasn't in the place for it.

 

But oh, how things change. I bought Ayumi's book Patchwork Please and have been drooling over the patterns. And I realised I needed to tackle my paper-piecing avoidance issues if I was to have any success with making some of the gorgeous things in her book. I was also taking part in a small mug rug swap with some fellow Irish stitchers, and, knowing that my partner was a tea drinker, I wanted to make a teapot or teacup - and of course, as soon as I searched for a pattern I found Ayumi's teapot pattern. So I decided that it was a sign, and I duly printed off the pattern and set to with the roll of freezer paper.

The thing about paper piecing that intimidates me is all those teeny tiny pieces. And sewing the angles right. But I was brave :-)


I think the most tedious bit is adding the seam allowance to all the pieces on the freezer paper. Once that was done, I flew through most of the rest of it.

I did find it took a few seams at funny angles to really get the hang of where to match raw edges to get the seam sitting right. A couple of the early ones were unpicked multiple times as I just wasn't happy with them - with such small pieces, a few milimetres out made a difference. But once I "got" it, that was it, I was hooked and I understand now why people find it so addictive.

I love the crisp, sharp look of the piecing, and I am really pleased that my version is pretty close to Ayumi's. I see more of this in my future!

I added some embroidery to finish off the quilt top - I had a clear idea in my head of how the steam would make the words. Unfortunately drawing is not my strong point so it doesn't quite look how I thought it would but I think its still ok.

 

Some straight line quilting to emphasise the crispness of the pattern, and I was done.

All ready to be posted off to my partner tomorrow, and I hope she will like it!