I finished another row in the 2019 Christmas Mystery Quilt Sew Along.

This week I did row four–nine paper-pieced Christmas trees.

I love paper-piecing. It’s not easy. It wastes fabric. And takes a much longer than just plain old piecing. But all the points are so nice and…..pointy!

As usual Jacquelynn Steves’s (the designer of the quilt) tutorial is very good. I basically do mine the same as she does except she starts out gluing the first piece in place. I just pin it. Flat-head pins like this pretty blue butterfly come in handy for paper-piecing.

I use this piece of thin plastic for my folds. I don’t remember where I got it, probably a craft store. I think I was using the plastic grid to make stencils. Back when I did that type of thing.

I print the patterns on “Carol Doak’s Foundation Paper”. It tears much easier than regular copy paper.

I make two mistakes when paper-piecing. No matter how many times I remind myself, I occasionally put the wrong sides of the fabric together. Seriously, I did it at least once on every one of these trees. Then the ripper and scotch tape are my best friends! Obviously the ripper is to pull out the stitches. The tape is to put the foundation paper back together again!

The second mistake is not leaving enough fabric for the seams. Then I have to start all over. But I didn’t do that in all nine of these trees! I’m progressing!

Another handy tool I use is tweezers. It’s great for pulling bits of paper out that get stuck in the seams.

All the pretty trees, ready to be stitched together.

Three rows done! I’m on track to get this finished before Christmas!