Paper Pieced Union Jack Mug Rug, Day 2

To piece, or not to piece, that is the question...

If you are new to paper piecing, as I am, it is a good idea to find a tutorial or two to understand how the patterns work.  Basically, you are using the paper pattern as a base onto which you'll be sewing pieces of fabric.  Numbers are printed on the pattern and you sew the fabric onto the different sections in numerical order.  Then, when you've finished sewing all the sections, you rip off the paper foundation, and you're left with a detailed fabric design.  

I found a pretty good tutorial at Connecting Threads.  It covers the basics, including what paper piecing is, choosing the right kind of paper for your project, and what tools you'll need to make your own paper pieced block.

One of the first things I did before starting this Union Jack project was to make the piecing pattern more manageable to work with.  It's a PDF pattern that breaks up the flag into five different sections.  

I cut out the five pieces and trimmed them so that they each had a 1/4" border.  Then, to lessen the chance of my making a mistake, I marked the sections where I'd sew red and blue fabric.

The next thing I did was to switch out the needle in my sewing machine.  With paper piecing, since you'll be sewing through not only fabric but also paper, it is important to start off with a sharp needle.  As mentioned in the Connecting Threads tutorial, it is also a good idea to have a larger sized needle, since this will make larger perforations in your paper.  I usually sew with and 80/12 sized needle, but for this project I'll be using a 90/14 quilting needle.  The 90/14 refers to the diameter of the needle's shaft in both the European (90) and American (14) numbering systems.

And now for something completely different!