(upbeat music) - Hi! I'm Tula Pink. I'm here at Fat Quarter Shop Studios and today I'm gonna be showing
you English paper piecing, my greatest passion. So selecting fabric for an
English paper piece project is a totally different proposition than a regular pieced quilt, because you can't really
determine how much fabric you need until you've determined how
and where you're gonna use it. So, one of the things that is, is a main staple of English
paper piecing for me is that you really want to let the effort that you put into sewing a
quilt should follow through. So what I mean by that is that if you are hand sewing a quilt, which is of course the
maximum amount of effort that you would put into making a quilt, the sewing portion of it, then
the quilting should be custom and specific and take a lot of time. The fabric selection
will match that effort. It will take time. So I always feel like
every process of a quilt should match an effort
all the way through. So if I'm doing a really quick quilt that I make in a weekend, then I'm probably going to
all over pantograph quilt it and I'm not gonna do a
lot of fussy cutting. But with a project like this, it's gonna take a
significant amount of time. It's really a labor of love. I want to put that same labor of love into the fabric selecting,
the fabric cutting, the sewing and the quilting. So everything matches
effort all the way through. And with a project like this, one of the things that I
love about hand piecing is it's an absolutely perfect
opportunity for fussy cutting. It is the best way to use those fabrics that you've had around forever, that you're afraid to cut into because you don't wanna
ruin them or whatever the reason is that myself
and probably you too have fabrics that you don't cut into. This is a great place for those fabrics, because you can really zoom
in on a piece of a fabric that you really love and really honor it by giving it a center, fussy
cut, perfect little display in the middle of your quilt. And that's why I say that
fabric selection is sort of a moveable process
within English paper piecing because I don't know how
much of this bee fabric I'm really gonna need until I decide how many I can cut of this shape perfectly all the way around, out of
a certain amount of fabric. So while it might only technically take a quarter yard of fabric, I might need a half yard of fabric to get
10 perfect bees out of it. I never pick all my fabrics
at the beginning of a quilt, for an English paper piece quilt. I choose my fabrics as I go. I like to say that English paper piecing is like eating an elephant. If you try to swallow it,
whole you'll choke and die, so don't do that. You got to nibble at it,
little pieces at a time. And as I'm going through the quilt, I will let the quilt determine
my next fabric selection. So in the case of this
pattern, which is Tula Nova, I like to talk about English paper piecing based on this quilt, because
when you finish this quilt, you essentially have every English paper
piecing skill that exists. There's nothing else to
learn, except for curves, which I never do, but that's
a subject for another time. But for a quilt like this, you have a couple of main
things that I like to look at when I'm choosing fabrics. I don't, like I said, don't
choose all the fabrics from the beginning. I try to find a system to work within. So in the case of this quilt, there's these 10 stars that go around the center of the quilt and they radiate out to the end. So the 10 stars become
like spokes on a bicycle. And so what I do is I start by choosing my 10 spoke fabrics,
so my 10 star fabrics, and then I placed them in
color order around the center. And every fabric I
choose between two spokes is some combination of those two colors. So I'm letting my spokes or my stars choose the fabric that comes next. When people talk about having a hard time choosing fabrics or not
knowing what to go with next, usually it's because
they're trying to make every fabric choice from scratch. Every time they choose a new fabric, often people are like,
okay, what is the fabric? and I'm starting all over again from everything in the world that I see trying to find the one fabric. That is what makes it difficult. What I try to do is set up a system that's gonna choose my fabrics for me. So I choose my two stars that go here. This one sort of plummy, this
one sort of pinkish and red. Every fabric that I
choose that's gonna land between these two stars, all I'm doing is choosing fabrics with
these colors in them. That's it. So I have eliminated 90%
of my fabric stash already by just looking for fabrics
with some combination of the colors in these two stars. So I'm really letting the quilt tell me what fabric to choose next,
rather than making each choice some precious object that takes forever. So when I start with a quilt like this, typically I start in
the center and work out and what I'm choosing for the center, the only thing I'm looking
at is what's my favorite. What's the fabric I love the most, because when we look at a quilt, we very rarely read it like a book. You don't really look at a quilt if it's on a wall or on a bed and start in the upper left hand corner and read all the way to the bottom. Typically you approach a quilt by looking at the middle and working out. So I wanna make sure that
whatever's in that middle is the thing I wanna look at the most. Cause I might not get
to the end of the book, but I always start in the middle. So that's the fabric I'm gonna see over and over and over again,
when I look at this quilt. So for me, I chose on
this particular quilt, this little raccoon in
the blues and greens. And the reason I chose
it in this color way is because it has a little
bit of every color in it. There's the green, there's the teal, there's some dark greens,
there's some reds, there's some oranges. It has almost every color in the quilt, in some variation in this middle. And then the next fabric I'm gonna choose to attach to that is this little triangle. And all I'm looking at is what
looks good with this fabric. I'm not trying to conceive of
the entire quilt all at once. And the beauty of this particular quilt, which is very true of
most English paper piecing is that no matter where
you start, if later on, you decide you don't want
that to be in your center, say you're me and you design something you like better later,
I can take this block and move it to many
other places in the quilt and make something else for my center. So this doesn't have to be the choice that rules your world forever. So when we're talking
about fabric selection, the point I'm trying to make is you don't have to pick
everything all at once. You can pick your fabrics as you go. So when it comes to cutting fabric for an English paper piece
project, I like my cutting to take the same amount
of effort as my sewing. So this is the place
where I really focus in on fabrics I love and the parts of the fabric I love the best. So I have 3 1/2 methods for cutting. The fourth method isn't really
a method, it's more anarchy. So it doesn't really
get a full method count, so it's a half method. So I have 3 1/2 methods
that I use for cutting for English paper piecing. So the first method I use is cutting, ah, cutting with the template. So this is your most straightforward. So my preferred template actually has a 3/8 inch seam allowance. And that 3/8 inch seam
allowance is important to me because typically as
quilters we're used to using a quarter inch seam allowance. The problem is is that
when you get the fabric around the edge of the paper and baste it onto the back of the paper,
you've lost so much fabric in that quarter inch that I find it's not really enough fabric
to really hold onto the piece. So I prefer to work with
a 3/8 inch seam allowance. So just shy of half an inch, just a little more than a quarter. It gives me that little
extra to hold on to. And so the first method is
the most straightforward. The most straight forward
using the actual template and a rotary cutter on a piece of fabric. So I called this optical fussy cutting. And what I mean by that is that
it appears to be fussy cut, but I'm not getting really aggressive about matching every piece exactly. So I'm not gonna measure how much distance from one edge to the other, the motif that I'm focusing
on is falling into. I'm just optically centering my design and that's gonna be something that's ideal for a piece of fabric like this, that has one very specific design. And I can take my little template
and I can move that design around inside this etch line, because remember, this is all seam allowance here. So I'm really only looking
inside this solid line. That's what's gonna show up
on the front of my quilt. So I'm looking inside that
line and I can move this around until I feel like it fits
in exactly the right spot. And obviously I only want
a single layer for this. So and I'm on this little
rotating cutting mat. So this is a cutting mat, a rotating cutting mat from Sue Daley and it's a really beautiful cutting mat cause it's on a steel ball bearing. So it turns really, really easily, which is kind of ideal
for what we're doing here. And it's not a necessary
tool, but it's helpful. So I'm gonna center my design. So I'm focusing in on
the sewing machine here. I wanna make sure that all
of that is in my piece. So I'm gonna move it around until it fits perfectly
in that little piece, and then I can either trace it
and cut it out with scissors or just use my rotary cutter
and cut around the template. So this is an acrylic template. So you can use it just like
a regular quilting ruler. See how the rotating cutting mat is really helpful in this situation. Oh, missed some. So now I have my little piece all nicely cut out to fit my template. And you may think now I
have to go press this. Total waste of time. The only time I'm going to
press something like this, only when I'm English paper
piecing, I love pressing. I'm obsessed with it, but when it comes to English paper piecing because this is a longterm project, we're not going to waste time on things unless they make the quilt better. If it makes the final quilt better, I'll go the distance. But if it's not gonna
impact the final quilt, I'm not going the distance. This is all about shaving
seconds wherever we can. We're not gonna do anything
here that's gonna save us hours, but we are gonna do things
that shave off seconds. So taking the time to press this is seconds I don't wanna waste because once I put this
on the paper and baste it, the paper's gonna hold
it flat and in its shape. So there's no reason to press this out. The only time I'm gonna take
the time to press something is if there's a hard crease in it, like a very hard crease in it that I know the paper
won't sort of pull out, then I'll press it. But it's very, very rare. I am a terribly lazy quilter, so I don't wanna do
anything I don't have to do unless it's absolutely necessary. So this is called optical, fussy cutting, pretty straightforward using our template and cutting around it. No big surprises there,
but there is another kind of fussy cutting that we see a
lot in English paper piecing, which is sort of called
a kaleidoscope effect where you cut a whole bunch
of pieces exactly the same way and then when you put them together, they make a totally new design. So they can make like a flower or some sort of kaleidoscope effect. And that is the most like one of the most impressive things to people in an English paper
piece quilt is when you make a design connect all the way around and for a piece like that,
you're really gonna look at up for a fabric that has
a symmetrical design in it because we wanna make sure that our piece is exactly the same on both edges, so that when I put another
identical piece next to it, it connects to make a secondary design. So optical fussy cutting
is a lot easier than this, but this is a lot more impressive to your friends and family
and that's important to me. So what I'm looking for in a fabric to do precision fussy cutting, which creates that sort of
kaleidoscope effect is something is a fabric that has a really
definite line of symmetry, which means that if I put my
piece on that line of symmetry, I'm gonna end up with the
same pieces on each side so that when I connect
them, it's gonna make a continuous line or continuous shape or a continuous pattern. So this is a really good piece for that because it has a very
obvious line of symmetry. So I'm gonna find something
to focus up on here. That's gonna create that symmetry for me. And in this case, I'm
actually gonna work on my light pad rather
than on my cutting mat. And the reason for that is I need to be able to see through the piece. So if I need to make,
let's say five pieces that are exactly the same,
no differentiation at all, so that they all line up again. That's one of the like great conundrums of how did somebody make that. Well, I'm gonna show you. It's super easy. So I'm actually gonna work
from the back of the fabric this time and the reason I'm gonna work from the back of the
fabric, and this is why I have my light pad so you
can see through the fabric and when I put my paper on it, I can, well, you can't, but in real life, I can see through the
paper onto this fabric. So what I'm gonna do here, and here's why I'm working
from the back of the fabric. So you notice when I
worked from the template to do optical, fussy, cutting, I was working from the front
of the fabric, the right side. So this side of the fabric. The reason I'm working
from the back of the fabric is because now I'm gonna
actually trace the paper onto the fabric rather than the template. And so I know that if I've drawn the line on the back of the fabric, there's no seam allowance included. So I know I have to add seam allowance. And so working from the back of the fabric is an indicator to me that
I need to add seam allowance and it just keeps it organized. So I'm gonna find something here that's the same on both
sides to connect to. Let's see. I actually, haven't done
this with this piece yet. And what I'm gonna do is so I'm setting up the top and bottom points of
this piece on my center line. So I know it's the same on both sides and I'm going to just mark. I can see through the
paper on my light pad and all I'm doing is marking the edges. So if you can see that
I've marked just the edges where the fabric design is
gonna connect to the next piece. And so I'm using that just as a template and I'm drawing directly
on the paper, these little, it's almost like if you know what registration marks are in printing, it's like little registration
marks that tell me where the piece is sitting. So I'm just gonna trace my
template, my paper template, not the acrylic template, onto the back of the fabric. So when I pull this up, I have a really strong line to cut on and it's on the back of my fabric, the wrong side of my fabric so I know I need to add seam allowance, but I need to make four more pieces that are identical to this piece. So I'm gonna move over to
the next part of this repeat and take my piece of paper
that I drew these lines on and now I can line this up. And because of these little marks I drew, I'm lining those up with
the fabric underneath and I can make another piece and I can do this all day and
these pieces will continue to be exactly the same every time. So I'll end up with a
whole bunch of pieces that are exactly the same. And I don't, when I go to cut these out, I'm gonna cut them out really rough. I don't need to worry about how much, like I don't need to lay
the template on top of it and cut it exactly. I can just rough cut these out. Again, it's saving seconds wherever I can. And you can see that I'm cutting just more than a quarter
inch away from that line and I don't care how ugly it is. Anybody who judges your quilt based on the back of your quilt is not a real friend. So I don't worry about what the backs of my quilts
look like, only the fronts. So I'm just cutting these out, super rough, and it would
seem like a bad idea because then how do you know
where to put your piece. But when I go to base
this, I have the line drawn right on my piece. So I can put it in exactly the
same place every single time. And when I go to baste this,
I'll have identical pieces. So this is how we're gonna
get that kaleidoscope effect. And when we get to the basting,
I'll show you that more. So this is precision fussy cutting. Optical fussy cutting,
precision fussy cutting. So one of the other things
that we need to talk about when it comes to cutting is
what to do with specific pieces. Like there are a couple of
tricks that I've learned from making this quilt over
and over and over again that I just wanna share with you because they work out really great. One of them is polka dots. So you'll notice on my
template that my logo is printed in the middle of this triangle and this is Piece G for Tula Nova. And if I put that logo right
on top of the polka dot, which is exactly the same
size for my poms line, I will cut this out and get a
perfectly centered polka dot every single time, which
is kind of a treasure. It was an accident, but
it works really great. But so this is sort of the same method as optical fussy cutting. I'm not lining this up. I'm not being really persnickety about it. I'm just placing the logo over the dot and then I can cut this
out and get a polka dot right in the middle of the triangle. And so what I love about that, what I love about that
is that once it's quilted and whenever Angela Walters,
my long arm, quilter and friend, and generally lovely person sees that she knows to quilt
extra lines around that dot and it ends up looking
like an appliqued polka dot in the middle of your piece. So my main goal in all
things that I make is to, is to produce as little effort as possible in order to impress people
as much as possibly can. I don't really wanna earn
it. I just wanna have it. So I don't wanna do the work, but I want people to be really impressed with the things I do. So I'm always looking
for ways to achieve that. And one of the most important
ways that I achieve that is with stripes. So stripes are the English paper piecer's
absolute number one, bestest friend in the whole world. People are terrified of stripes. Quilters all over the world
are scared of stripes. I love stripes. If you look at all my
English paper piece quilts of which there are many, you will notice a heavy, heavy usage of stripes. And the reason for that is it achieves what I just talked about. Maximum impressive factor, minimal effort, which is my goal for everything. So all I have to do to get a stripe to line up exactly right every single time is just decide what stripe
I'm lining my piece up with. And for English paper piecing,
this is the very best. So here's a piece that I have in progress, and you can see how I've
lined up the stripes all the way around to
create this sort of chevron that goes around my center block. And it is like the wow
factor for quilters. They look at it, they go, "Oh my gosh, you're such a good quilter. You line up all those stripes." And you go, "Yeah, I know I'm the best and it was really hard." And then when they ask
you, "You know, Oh my gosh, can you teach me how to do that?" You go, "No, it's too hard. You couldn't handle it." So, but I'll show you how to do it, but you have to remember. You never tell anyone it's easy. You always say it's hard no matter what, but it's probably the easiest
piece I will actually cut in this whole quilt. And they will line up exactly
right every single time. So let's say, I want to make these stripes all lined up, right and I need them to all be
exactly the same every time. I don't have to pre decide
how I want these to line up. All I have to do is make one decision. I have to take my template, place it on my fabric
and agree with myself that I'm gonna line up
one side of this piece on the same stripe every single time. And I'm not gonna trace it.
I'm not gonna draw a line. I'm not gonna get out my rotary cut cutter and my cutting mat. I'm literally just gonna
hack this out of the fabric, super willy nilly. This is gonna be very aggressive. It's not for delicate viewers
so just be forewarned. So I'm gonna decide, I'm
deciding with myself, I'm gonna line up on this purple stripe, where the purple meets the blue here, and I'm gonna hold it and I'm gonna hack this out of the fabric so quick, so dirty. I'm not paying any attention to anything, except for making sure that my fabric is bigger than my piece. That's it. That's how much effort I'm gonna put into cutting the stripe and
it's gonna line up every time. So the reason it's
gonna line up every time is because when I baste it,
I'm gonna put that piece right on that stripe, where
the purple meets the blue. And I'm gonna anchor that side down first and work it all the way
around and every single piece is gonna be exactly the same. So then I can take those
pieces and turn them until they make a design I like, like this sort of chevron. The reason I like this
design so much on this block is because it mimics
the star in the center. It makes the same star around the outside. So I could also turn this
piece and have it make stripes that connect all the way around. I can just twist it around until I find the right spot that it fits in. So that's method three stripes are an English paper piercers, bestest friend in the whole world. So that brings us to our half method. Now this method is very, very aggressive and I'm
very sorry in advance, but I, like I said earlier,
we're shaving seconds wherever we can. I'm not gonna use precision unless it's going to
gain something for me. So when I'm looking at
a fabric like this one, there is no amount of fussy
cutting of this piece of fabric that's gonna gain anything
for me in the final quilt, same goes for a solid. So anything that sort
of a scattered print, a non-directional there's
no little picture in it. It's a texture or a solid
or a linen or something. I am never gonna take the time to cut that with any kind of template,
because total waste of time. So let's say I need to make star points, little tiny star points, like this piece. So say I need to make this piece, but I have to make a gang of them, right? So every star has five
of these points on it. If I was teaching this in a class and I saw somebody on
this fabric drawing out five of these little triangles, I can make them go sit outside and think about what they've done, because they've wasted their time. No good for anybody. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna draw. I'm gonna trace my template once. So I have one, I have one little template, but I need five of these or four of these, or however many I need. One, two, three well in
this case I can get four, four of these guys. And this might be better to
do with a bigger scissor, but this what I've got right now, Now I have five pieces that are
all the right size and shape that I need for my piece
or four in this case, 'cause my fabric wasn't long enough that are all exactly the same. No amount of fussy cutting is going to make this quilt better so
there's no point in doing it. And if I'm really, really lazy, I will make this a lot uglier. But I'm trying to teach you
to do as I say, not as I do. So I'm trying to do this
the right way for you. But so that is the half method where I'm just hacking
chunks of fabric out. I don't care if one of the
pieces goes a little big, if it's not exactly the right shape, as long as it's bigger than the piece, I need to put it on by at
least a quarter inch or more, I'll have enough fabric
to baste it onto a piece. So if you look at the backs
of a lot of my quilts, they're not terribly pretty. They don't need to be. They don't need to be perfect. They don't need to be totally
even all the way around. You can see that this seam
allowance is a lot smaller than this one on this side. I'm not caring about any of that. I care about what the front
of my quilt looks like. Not the back I'm saving the time where it doesn't make the quilt better and taking the time when it
does make the quilt better. Once all my pieces are
cut, it's time to baste. And I was a stitch baster for
years where I would actually baste my fabric to my pieces
with needle and thread. And then Sue Daley, the goddess
of English paper piecing introduced me to glue via video. So she doesn't know she
introduced me to that, but she did. So one of her YouTube videos,
I saw her using a glue pen and it wildly changed my life. So credit where credit's due. I don't know if she invented
it, but that's where I saw it. So one of the beauties of glue is A, the time it saves is incredible. I could usually baste, stitch baste like 50 pieces in an afternoon. I can glue baste 200
pieces in an afternoon. So it's so much faster. It holds better. It gives me a tighter,
cleaner baste on my piece and it's just all around great. So when I'm gonna baste the
piece, I like this again, this rotating cutting mat
is gonna come into play, which is also a Sue Daley product. Thank you, Sue. And I think it's great because
it's just the right size. It moves really easy and I
don't have to pick up my piece, I can just turn it. So when I'm glue basting, there's a couple of
things about glue basting thing that I really want you to know. One is the glue does not need
to survive the apocalypse. So I don't ever wanna
see anybody doing this, like over and over and over. It's swipe of glue, one
solid swipe, nice and easy. And I'm not gonna use the
edge of my glue stick. I'm gonna use the full flat
side of the glue stick. So one thing about glue
that I want to mention is I use these Sewline
glue sticks exclusively. I don't ever use like a craft glue stick. The glue is too heavy. It's often not archival, which means that it can affect your fabric over time. This glue is designed for fabric. It's a temporary hold,
but it essentially holds until it doesn't. Until I've had pieces that
have been basted for months that are still holding. And so I really prefer these.
It's better for the fabric. It's easier. It's a smaller glue head. So you're not getting too much glue. If you are having trouble
getting your pieces out of the fabric, once you've sewed it, then you've used too much glue. If they're not holding long enough, then it means you haven't
applied enough pressure. So that takes a little minute to learn, but I usually use about the
pressure I would use to write. So I'm gonna make one
swipe of glue across this, and I'm not getting any glue
on the edge of this paper and the reason for that,
so I'm gluing above it. If you can see, I can
draw it with a pen maybe. My actual glue is starting here. So this is my swipe of glue right there. And the reason I'm not gluing
on the edge of my paper is because eventually I'm
gonna use my delicate, precious, beautiful hands to push a needle through that fabric and any dried glue that's on the edge of
that paper is something I'm gonna have to push that needle through and it will hurt me and
I don't wanna be hurt. So I don't want any
resistance or anything. When glue dries, it gets hard
and it gets sort of crusty. And I don't wanna have to
push a needle through that. So I'm not gonna put any
glue on the edge of my paper. I'm just doing one swipe
just above the paper. The only thing different I'm gonna do is I'm gonna go onto the
fabric on both sides. And then I'm always going
to push my seam allowance up onto my piece and I'm just
using the weight of my hand. I'm not like, again, this doesn't need to survive the apocalypse, I promise. So I'm just using my fingers
to run along the cutting mat, catch the fabric and push
it up onto the paper. What I don't like is when you pull it down onto the paper, you don't
get an even enough baste. So consistency is king
in English paper piecing. You want every single piece
to be basted the same way with the same amount of pressure. And it doesn't matter if
you baste a little looser or baste a little
tighter, you just want it to all be the same. So I'm gonna start with one edge and then start on the
fabric across the piece, onto the fabric on the other side and baste my piece down. And now I have this beautiful
little mitered corner. The reason that we baste onto the fabric is 'cause if I don't, if I stop there right before the fabric, when
I go to base my next side, see what happens to my corner. It's all floppy and messy and weird. And that's actually the
point I'm gonna line up on, which is why I baste all
the way to the fabric to hold this side down. So when I go to the next side, it makes a perfect
little fold right there, and I can get all the way around my piece, just one swipe of glue, push it on. And remember how this
piece was all wrinkly in the part where I was cutting it was, it looked like it needed to be pressed. Now that it's on paper,
it's all smooth and flat. So that pressing would have
been a waste of my time and I don't like to waste my time. I got a lot of quilts
to make before I die. So I need to get through
these as quickly as I can. So this is our main piece. Now I want to show you a little bit about basting that stripe. Remember how ugly I cut this out. Now this is very dramatic. And I did that just so
I can show you the edges of where you can go with
how messy you can cut these, but they don't need to
be perfect is my point. So I decided when I cut these, that I was gonna line my piece
up on this purple stripe, where the purple meets the blue here. And that's obvious to me,
even though time has passed, because if I lined it up here, I clearly don't have enough fabric. If I lined it up here, I clearly
don't have enough fabric. So it's obvious to me that
this is the choice I made when I was making my stripes and I'm gonna do the same thing. So I'm gonna baste onto
the fabric on both sides. Try not to get any glue
on the edge of the piece. And I get a lot of glue on my
cutting mat when I'm basting, but that's okay because
it's water soluble. So it'll all wash off. So super ugly, really beautiful. So it's taking the time when it matters and not taking the time
when it doesn't matter, super important. We got to save whatever time we can 'cause this is a long process. Now, when it comes to basting diamonds, this is the only time that it gets that I'm gonna kind of
ask you to do something a little bit differently. And that's because with any
kind of triangle like this, that has this sort of acute point on it, you're gonna have ears,
those little pieces that stick up on the edge of your piece. So where this, all the fabric
is neatly tucked behind it and will never get in your way. Anytime you have an angle like this, you're gonna have a
little ear that sticks up and I never know how exactly
that's gonna affect my quilt. I don't know if it's gonna run into something else or not. So I'm gonna give myself the
most options I possibly can. And that the best option I can give myself is to make both ears
that'll happen at the top and the bottom here face one direction, because if they face one direction, I can always turn the piece around to avoid some kind of interference. But if they're, if I baste, if I start here and go all the way around, I'll end up with one ear pointing this way and one ear pointing this way and there's nothing I can do. No matter how I turn the piece, I'll always have ear interference. So I have a little rhyme for you when you're dealing with
something like this. I want both my ears on one side. So I'm gonna say my little rhyme for you. Whichever side, the first side that you baste is the side the ears will faced. So that's my rhyme. You'll remember it because it's catchy. But so whatever side I
baste first is the side those ears will point to in the end. So I wanna get both my ears
on this side, let's say. So I can start by basting this side. The first side I baste is the
side, the ears will faced. And then instead of
going here, I'll go here. So now all of my fabric
is facing this way, right? All of my seam allowances on this side. So when I go to baste this
side down and same method as anything else, my ears
folding up to that side now. So the first side I baste is
the side my ears will faced. So now I have my ears both on
the same side of the piece. So this one's fussy cut so
it's a little different, but if I had a piece that I didn't matter, it didn't matter to me which way it faced and it was interfering with another piece. So I can do it this way. I can tuck the ear under
here and avoid interference. So it just gives me options
when I get to sewing, because I never really
know where those ears are gonna run into each other. So it's just something to
keep in the back of your mind. So that is essentially
everything that I know about cutting and basting for
English paper pieced quilts. It's the only methods I use for anything. And it's really all you need to know, which is what I love about
English paper piecing. It's the great quilting equalizer. It doesn't matter how many
years you've been sewing, how many machine quilts you've made. Everyone starts at the same place. And the learning curve is
really, really shallow. So it's a few techniques. Once you know 'em, you can make any English paper pieced quilt
pattern that you ever see. Nothing changes. So thank you for watching
about cutting and basting for English paper piecing. Be sure to check back
in for the next video on all the tools and supplies that make English paper
piecing easier and more fun on our next video. (electricity surging) (camera rolling) (scissors snipping) (electricity surging)
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