Instead of sewing fabric to paper, which gets torn out when the block is completed, I used slightly-starched muslin that I've stamped my design on. Call me lazy, but what's the point of going to all the trouble of teaing out all that paper??
I love foundation piecing because of the accuracy and consistency of the blocks. I sometime enlist my dad's help in constructing quilt blocks. With foundation piecing, it doesn't matter who constructs the blocks; they'll all come out the same.
Of course, I have a fair bit of prep work upfront to make up for the paper tearing at the end: I must pre-shrink the muslin; cut the muslin into strips; soak the strips in a starch/water solution; press the strips before cutting them into squares; and then print my design with a rubber stamp. WHEW!!
I found a product that I blogged about previously that let me run foundation sheets through my printer: June Tailor's "Perfect Piecing." It is non-woven, and feels like a slightly stiff paper; it can be either left in the project or torn out. Well, I left it in the project, but it leaves the projected sorta stiff and it has the sound of paper crinkling . . . ERK!!
Back to the muslin . . . If I could just find a method that didn't have so many steps . . .
Years ago, I tried something I mentioned on my "Simply Quilts" appearance. Instead of pinning fabric to the right side of the muslin foundation and sewing along the printed lines on the back, I tried sewing the fabric from the front. It should be possible to use the sewing foot as guide. I decided to give this another try.
Unfortunately, I have half-inch seam allowances built into my templates. To remedy this, I attached a quilting guide at the half-inch mark, as shown below.
Then, I pinned my fabric to the muslin foundation and sewed it, using the quilting guide as guide for my half-inch seam allowance.
I may go back to rubber-stamping my muslin, and sewing from the back . . .
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Have you tried freezer paper piecing? Instead of sewing through the 'foundation' you fold it back the sew next to the fold. Then iron the fabric open and re-iron the freezer paper, and fold for the next piece. The freezer paper goes through printers, but you can re-use the papers about 10 times so not so many 'foundations' are needed.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the tip, Paula . . . I did a search, and came up with several variations using freezer paper: one method involved "folding" as you mentioned; the other method called for individual pieces of freezer paper affixed to the wrong side of fabric pieces.
ReplyDeleteI think there's a third reason I love muslin foundation piecing that I didn't mention in my post: Neatness. All of the seam allowances are automatically covered by the muslin foundation. When I assemble finished blocks and press the seams open, the fabric caught in the seam allowances is the only fabric seen on the back.