Before you begin, photocopy your patterns so that you have a MASTER copy.  This will guide you through more complex designs and give you a backup for other copies should you (heaven forbid) make a mistake. 

•	STUDY YOUR PATTERN
	Check out the large capital letters.  These are the major section identifiers.  They will be assembled in alphabetical order, In other words complete component A and B and then stitch the two together.   Complete C and attach to A/B etc.    Within the segment you will occasionally find a // (double slash) across two lines.  This means you must stitch the two pieces of fabric together first and then stitch them as one piece onto the foundation.   

•	GET SET UP
	 For efficiency, you should have your iron and cutting board handy as you SIT at your sewing machine.  Table height for the ironing board is strongly recommended.   Ideally, place the iron to your right, your small cutting mat and rotary cutter to your left, your fabric to the upper left and your mastercopy on the wall in front of you.  Of course, if you are left-handed reverse the above.  A swivel chair (with ergonomic design, if possible) will be appreciated by your back.   

•	MACHINE SETTINGS
	 Adjust your machine tension for normal sewing.  The stitch length will be quite short to adequately perforate the paper, and to secure sometimes very small pieces.    Use about 15 stitches per inch (spi).  Also use a relatively SMALL needle, such as a MICROTEX SCHMETZ, size 12.

•	PREPARING YOUR FABRIC
	Be sure your fabric is all prewashed.  Starching after prewashing restores the finish and stabilizes the fabric, quite helpful when paper piecing and dealing with bias seams.  If your pattern is color coded, you must identify the fabrics according to their color name/code color, by using a removable Avery label or magic tape.  This is especially necessary when using gradations of hand dyed fabrics, due to their inherent variations.
	I usually work with an eighth of a yard at a time – in other words a strip 4-5” wide and the width of the fabric. Depending on the size of the piece to be added, you will cut off a small chunk from this strip.  Remember 95% of the errors made are due to the fabric applied being too small.  After stitching, when you rotary trim and add seam allowance, the larger the remaining scrap, the more likely you will find a use for it later!  So DO NOT BE STINGY and DO cut off a larger than necessary piece. 

•	SEAM SIZE AND TRIMMING
	The stitch length and the size of the piece (and perhaps the ultimate use of the finished quilt) determine seam allowance size.  When you are using 15 spi, an eighth inch seam allowance will hold up to anything - if you don't believe me just try taking it out!!  Sometimes when the pieces are very tiny I trim even smaller than that.  If you are doing a wall hanging, which will get little abuse, this works well.  If you are doing a pillow or quilt for actual USE, you should never trim less than the eighth inch. 
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•	WORKING INDIVIDUAL SECTIONS 
Trim the entire pattern ON the outside edge.  You may need to tape together parts of the pattern, indicated by red dotted lines. The black dotted lines indicate separations of the sections.  Cut off Section A.  Leave the rest of the pattern intact. Your paper section will act as a template.  As you sew, remember,  the seam allowance is 1/4” beyond the paper! .  The fabric pieces need to be large enough to accommodate the seam allowance.
	As you begin piece #1 needs to be secured to the BACK (unprinted) side of the paper. Use a straight pin to secure #1’s location.  You can be sure it is correctly placed, by holding it up to the light and checking coverage.  I repeat, the wrong side of piece #1 (rough cut to approximate size and shape if desired) is secured with a pin to the unprinted side of the foundation.  Place fabric for piece #2 right side up, on the sewing machine or other surface.  Lay the pattern with piece #1 pinned in place, with the printed side up, fabric #1 right side down on top of fabric #2.  Align the fabrics so the seam allowance will be to the right of the needle and the bulk of both pieces of fabric will be to the left.  Be sure that the fabric pieces are large enough (actually huge enough) to cover the pattern areas, plus seam allowances on all sides.  Place your needle into the fabric at least 4 stitches before the outer edge of the #1/2  seamline.  Check the underside.  The edge of #2 should fall approximately along the quarter inch seamline mark on your machine.   If all is well, stitch on the line and beyond 4 to 5 stitches.  Do not backstitch.    Remember, check twice and sew once! 
	Remove from the machine and turn the piece over to check for complete coverage, including seam allowances.  From the front, fold back the paper on the stitching line (if necessary tear the paper from previous stitching lines so the paper folds back cleanly).  With SCISSORS (more efficient than a rotary cutter here) trim the approximate 1/8 – ¼” seam allowance.  From the fabric side of the section, press the new piece across the paper aggressively.   Add each piece in numerical order.  Be sure to trim carefully and press well with a steam iron.  When you have completed the section, trim the perimeter with a rotary cutter, ADDING THE QUARTER INCH SEAM ALLOWANCE BEYOND THE PAPER.

•	ASSEMBLING SECTIONS (CAPITAL LETTERS) AND MATCHING SEAMS
	In general B is stitched to A, and C to B etc.  However each design will require some study.  It may be that component A-B-C-D is then stitched to component E-F-G and then those two pieces are stitched to H. 
 	At this point you must match points as you stitch the sections together.  Many seams do not have a CRITICAL MATCH POINT indicated.  Do NOT match the edges of the sections!! You must match the SEAMLINE which is ¼” in from the edge.  You will know you have accomplished this when the seamline intersects at exactly the edge of both sections, ¼” inch in from the edge parallel to the seam, In other words, you will have triangular fabric tips of various sizes extending beyond the stitching line.   Critical MATCH POINTS, designated by the red circle, require precise matching – within a thread!  Align the two sections approximately in place.  At the red circle, fold back the top seam allowance to evaluate the location of the points that must match.  Without regard to the ends of the seams, position the two fabrics so that the points line up.  Do not pin, instead use a basting stitch and stitch 6 stitches over the match point.  Remove from the machine, cutting threads extra long, as they will be removed.  
Open the seam and check.   Should you be unhappy with the matchup, pull out those few stitches and try again.  If you are satisfied, you have secure basting stitches in place.  If there is more than one critical matchpoint on the seamline to match, stitch over each one individually and check.  It is much easier to remove a few stitches than a whole line of stitching!  Now return the stitch length to the shorter length, and stitch the entire seam.  It is sometimes necessary to ease a little and sometimes the ends of the seams are not as precise as you like.  The Critical Match Point is the most important area in this seam.  
Each seam will need to be pressed carefully.  Remove any paper that is adjacent to the seam, unless it is necessary for placement of the next component. The seam allowance should be pressed in the direction of the least resistance.  When many perpendicular seams meet the new seam a great deal of resistance to pressing is encountered.  Use hand pressure and steam.  The bulk will not be noticeable when the block is complete.

•	CORRECTING ERRORS!!
	If you make a mistake, DON'T PANIC.   There are several options available besides the awful "r" word!  But do fix it before you quit for the day.  It will be much easier to get back to.  
•	 If you are working on a small section and have only stitched one or two pieces, consider chucking the entire section and starting with a new paper pattern section from the extra photocopied master copy pattern. 
•	If that is not a good choice, and the fabric piece just added is just too small, consider adding an additional piece with a new seamline to extend it.  This works on large busy background pieces, but is probably not a good choice in focal point locations.
•	If you must rip, go get a cup of coffee, call a friend and find your seam ripper.  Also locate some scotch tape (very important).   On the fabric side, insert your seam ripper into approximately every fourth stitch to cut the bobbin thread.  From the fabric side locate the needle thread (you may need to pull it up through).  NOW PLACE THE SCOTCH TAPE ON THE PAPER OVER THE SEAMLINE THAT YOU ARE REMOVING.  Pull the needle thread out, almost like pulling a gathering thread.  Whew!! Your paper with the scotch tape is intact and you are ready to try again.
LAST TIP  Come back to these instructions frequently – as you develop your skills, you will find tidbits of important information that you missed the first few times through the Basic Instructions!!