Paper Piecing

Moving into a new office, for me, means new decorating.  I wanted something that wouldn't clash with my co-workers decorations (since we share an office now) but yet still reflect my personally.  Since I work for a publishing company, what better way to showcase my love for books than a bookshelf wall hanging.

I found the pattern a Craftsy for about $5.  It is paper pieced and measures 24 x 27 inches.  So the "books" get really small!  I wasn't expecting them to be so small, so I was glad for the paper piecing technique.

I haven't really done much paper piecing, but I have a huge basket of scraps that is perfect for this type of project.  You have a basket like that, right?  Little pieces of left over fabric, too small to use in your project but too big to throw away.

The pattern was a PDF file, so I printed out 2 copies, one to keep and the other to be used in the paper piecing process.

Here's how one of the "books" was made.

 

Each block of the wall hanging is made of a 5 inch block, or set of books.  Each set is shown in the order of how it should be sewn together.  (A1, A2, A3...)  I wanted to use some lettering on the fabric to be the "title" of my book, so I aligned the pattern to the wrong side of the fabric and pined it down.  The right side of the pattern is showing because this is where you will sew.

This particular book has gold strips in the binding and they are tiny!  I trimmed the fabric so that it was just a little larger than the pattern.  They yellow will be my gold trim and then two more small pieces of the book fabric for the area at the top and bottom of the book.



Place the yellow fabric over the printed fabric, right sides together.

 At the sewing machine, sew on the paper pattern at the A2 line.

 Carefully trim away the excess fabric, being careful not to cut the paper.

Iron the yellow fabric up.  Add the small piece of printed fabric, right sides together.  The picture shows my mistake, because I didn't turn the fabric so that the words wouldn't be upside down when I'm finished.  I corrected that in the final process but didn't take a picture.

 Now sew on the second line at A2.

 Trim away the excess fabric, still being careful to not cut the paper.

 Here's what you have.  Do the same thing at the bottom of the "book".

 This is the finished book from the back.

Trim the excess fabric from around the paper pattern.

 Finished book, ready to be added to the bookshelf.

To add to the rest of the set, sew along the marked side of the book, which is a 1/4 inch seam allowance.

I used fabric with words and also embroidered my own titles on some of my books.

 

I waited until the entire wall hanging was done and then removed most of the paper from the back.  I didn't get all the pieces off, but I'm happy with how it turned out.  I only quilted in the brown background with a stippling stitch and then a loop design in the border.