Carol B

Hi all,
I have recently been playing around with some paper piecing and have not quite mastered the art yet! I am starting with some of the easier star patterns and am then going to move onto the more difficult patterns later. I have a question though. The more advanced starr patterns seem to be quite intricate and I was wondering....do you have them quilted after you have pieced them or are the patterns enough. I suppose you could choose for yourself, but I was wondering what others did.
Thanks for all your help once again fellow quilters ;-)

LyndaOH

I always quilt them after I've assembled them into a top. You want to quilt them so the batting doesn't shift around, and the method you use to piece them really doesn't matter unless you are doing "quilt as you go".

ckcowl

since the quilting is to hold the batting/backing to the top- yes you quilt after constructing your quilt - even if the quilt top is intricate...an option would be to tie the quilt- but the 3 layers have to be held together somehow

BKrenning

On those tricky stars with all the points coming together in the center; you would avoid quilting in that specific area. Also, when you are assembling blocks that all come together in the center area like some stars--you don't sew all the way to the end. You sew up to the 1/4" from that intersecting point and back stitch. On the final seam when assembling the 2 halves, you sew all the way across/down. When you press out your blocks before assembling into rows--you may even have to press some seams open and I've even had to hammer some of them flatter like you do for rolled seams in denim.