The Joys of Foundation Piecing
Foundation piecing (also known as paper piecing) is a type of patchwork quilting, where the patterns are printed on paper, which is sewn onto the fabric. I love foundation quilting (the quilt that I’m making for my future niece/nephew is paper pieced), and here are some of the many reasons why I think that you should try foundation quilting.
- There is no measuring required. You can complete a whole quilt without a quilting ruler or measuring tape. There are no numbers to get confused about.
- Your cutting doesn’t have to be neat or straight, it’s just your sewing that you have to be accurate with. I just place the pattern onto the fabric and cut the fabric into a roughly similar shape.
- It is literally ‘quilting by numbers’. Every little part is numbered, you sew piece 1 to piece 2. Sew piece 3 to that until you are finished. It couldn’t be simpler!
- It’s great for using scraps because you don’t particularly need equal seams (or at least, I can’t be bothered to cut equal seams)
- It’s easy to produce really complex quilts. You follow a pattern, so the more intricate the pattern is, the more intricate you’re quilt will be – but you still produce it by sewing the pieces together in order.
- It’s easy to produce tiny patterns. Because you’re sewing on the line you can accurately sew tiny pieces of fabric together.
- It’s easy to sew together unusual shapes, and smaller shapes. The fabric is sewn onto foundation paper pattern which stabilizes the pieces while you sew.
- It’s easy to sew together silky, stretchy or delicate fabrics because of the good old foundation paper.
- As long as you sew on the lines, all the blocks you produce with a pattern will be identical.
- You can think of something you’d like to sew, find patterns and start sewing in a matter of minutes, thanks to the glorious wonder that is the Internet. It’s easy to search for and print free patterns. Yay for sharing!
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