foundation piecing

No, I didn't, but it gives me another reason not to try FP again. I took a class on it once and it brought out every dyslexic fiber in me. Never again! The results are beautiful but I'll stick to plain old piecing. OTOH, it could give you a another valid reason to increase your stash.

Dogmom

Reply to
dogmom
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I needed a quiet time last night and decided to toy with foundation piecing a little while. The quilt I'd wanted to test is the one made by our Mickie Swall in Quiltmaker July '00 named Secret Garden. The flowers in this garden seemed possible to make without the tedium of foundation piecing. The leaves could be appliquéd but I thought I'd give the foundation piecing a reasonable try. I was really surprised to realize how much fabric I was using for each block and looked over at the magazine's list of fabric requirements. Waaaaah. It says, " For foundation piecing, up to twice as much yardage may be required." Did you know that? Polly

Reply to
Polly Esther

Well, Dogmon, my dear, you just nailed me. I thought I'd try, once again, to get over my malfunctioning brain connections - made a little progress with that. I figured if some of us were attempting FM even if it was a real struggle, that I could keep trying foundation until we were, if not friends, at least on speaking terms. And yes, indeed. It is certainly an emergency need to increase the stash to 'really big' yardage. Polly

Reply to
Polly Esther

Except, using Judy Niemeyer's method, you pre-cut pieces for each section of the pattern. I know this seems to combine the worst of both worlds, but in a pattern that has some really wonky sections, it really does save fabric.

Paper or foundation piecing does use extra fabric, but for most of us, it's the only way to achieve successful results in patterns like New York Beauty.

joan

Reply to
joan8904 in Bellevue Nebraska

Yep. Although with a bit of practice, you can cut down waste. What I do is easy but hard to explain. Before you start, make sure your paper includes the outer quarter-inch seam allowance, and crease all the stitching lines. Pin the 1st patch in place, making sure that it will cover the shape with a quarter inch extra all around. Fold back on the 1st stitching.line. Place the 2nd patch rst with the 1st patch. If you hold everything up to a strong light, you can see the shadow of the 2nd patch and whether or not it will cover its foundation. Then fold the paper back open and stitch on the line. Etc. When you get pretty good at this, you will be able to cut the patches close to the finished size, and even do things like placing the little flower right in the middle of the spot. Roberta in D

"Polly Esther" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news: snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com...

Reply to
Roberta Zollner

Yup! That fold back on the first piece's stitching line works all the way through the process! I have paper-pieced some blocks just because I don't feel like dealing with tiny little triangles. The paper helps keep my block and my pieces from stretching.

Reply to
Kay Ahr

Yes indeed. Because you are not cutting patches with precise seam allowances and shapes you can use a lot more fabric than "traditional" cutting. However..... there are ways to minimize the "waste". When I prepare to do any PFP I make templates of my pieces, but with wider than needed seam allowances, usually about 3/8". Then I can do my best to rough cut my pieces to "shape" and "size". It is a help to have the angles in the right orientation and all. I can also be sure of getting straight of grain on the outside edges, or fussy cut if I want to and so on. Makes the prep take a bit longer, but the actual sewing goes so much faster it is worth it.

Pati, > I needed a quiet time last night and decided to toy with foundation piecing

Reply to
Pati C.

I wish I could come teach you some tricks. I still have some waste with my PFP, but not as much as some people. Once I learned "the butterfly trick" from the Paper Panache website, I have a lot less waste and frustration. I picked it right up from the website, but I'm good with reading instructions. I know many people are much better visual learners, so I don't expect everyone to pick it up from the site's instructions. I do love to show the method when I can. When I'm in the PFP groove, I can really hum. But other times the extra "futzing" (DH's word..a derivative of fussing, I believe) with the fabric annoys me. It depends on my mood and how motivated I am to make whatever the project is.

Reply to
KJ

I'm no longer allowed to do foundation piecing. The robot at the pharmacy not only refused to advance my medications to squelch loud and violent out-bursts, crying jags, the urge to buy a pack of unfiltered Camels(haven't smoked for 25 years) and consume large quantities of adult beverages but also filed a FP Cease & Desist Order. If I'm really good on my supervised probation I get to advance from a spoon to a spork. ~rubbing cheek with Minky scrap, thinking calm thoughts~

Val

Reply to
Val

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case anyone is interested.heres a link to the butterfly trick that Kathyl speaks of and the other info they have on paperpiecing.check the home page too.a really cute PP Santa there.off soon for my last day of deliverys.only one more sleep, gonna be a long one i hope.i'm exhausted. i'm hoping next year someone else takes over. we only got a small tree this year, looks rather silly in the big tree holder, oh well. we put it on the deck in front of the window. as yet it is naked. will get the box of stuff down this afternoon and dd can do what she likes with it. all i wanna do is sleep and sleep and sleep. not much in the way of presents either. she and her b/f are difficult to buy for and ds and dh just dont care much about xmas. other ds is in the philippines. will take dd out after xmas to see if we can find her the right size/colour/quality of carpet mat for her flat. ttfn, j.

Reply to
nzlstar*

Yes.

[sigh!]]

But it is for me the easiest way to get nice sharp points consistently when the block is complicated.

You waste the most fabric when the block is small, so I don't do small.

Of course, stash increase is always a good idea!

Martha

Reply to
Martha

Thanks Jeanne. I "meant" to do that.....but since I've been trekking back and forth to the grocery store about 10,000 times, I neglected to do it. This trick made everything click for me. I can put stripes where I want as well as the grain. But I do understand it's not a technique everyone is comfortable with.

Reply to
KJ

Hi Polly,

I knew it took more fabric but never guessed that much more :)

While I do enjoy foundation piecing it does aggrivate my OCD something wicked! :)

I plan on just doing regular piecing for a while, esp on the larger projects and leave foundation piecing for the smaller ones (like potholders!) in order to use up scraps.

-Irene

Reply to
IMS

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