I love foundation paper piecing! It is the best way (IMHO) to get accurate points and seams especially when working with small pieces. What is it? Sometimes called sew and flip, it is the technique of sewing fabric directly onto a printed pattern and the flipping it over and sewing another piece to cover the raw edges. Usually you can just follow the lines on the printed side so it is really easy. The hardest parts are getting your fabric pieces the right size and shape to cover the shape you are working on, figuring out in which order to sew the pieces, and working upside down and backwards. For a more comprehensive description and instructions check out this YouTube tutorial from Connecting Threads.
I do foundation piecing almost exactly the way Karen (from the video) does with a few exceptions. Instead of pinning I use either a dab of glue stick or a piece of blue painters' tape.
Additionally, instead of paper or vellum, I have recently been using a foundation product that doesn't need to be taken out - Ricky Tims' Stable Stuff Poly. I think both foundations (lightweight paper or Stable Stuff) are good it just depends on the final product. I really don't like removing papers, so this works for me.
I'm working on a couple of foundation pieced projects at the moment. Sedona Star, a BOM from Sarah Vedeler, and Enchanted Forest, a BOW by Janeen Van Niekerk of Quilt Art Designs. I'm loving the Enchanted Forest (I added the adjective enchanted - it fits), I keep thinking about painter Bob Ross every time I piece a little critter (remember? "its your world, you can put little squirrels and rabbits anywhere you like").
Janeen is the QUEEN of foundation piecing. She has patterns for animals, cars, dresses, traditional blocks and anything else you can think of. Check out her Pattern Shop at Craftsy. She also has BOM and Quilt Alongs on her website every year. Enchanted Forest is the Art Quilt Along for 2015.
To make Enchanted Forest, I've needed green fabrics - lots of different greens! Lime, Avocado, Olive, Kelly, Moss, Forest, Spring, Hunter, Spruce, and Blue-Green. And lots of different prints - Solids, Tone on Tone, Textures, Dots, Stripes, Foliage, Swirls and more. It's been fun looking over the green Fat Quarters in the shops I've visited. Of course I also needed blues, reds, yellows, browns, grays, and oranges for the critters.
So, I've finished week 5 of 12 - some sky, sun, flying geese, 3 trees, 3 birds, and 1 lizard. I hope to catch up - Janeen has been sending out a pattern a week and I am 4 weeks behind.
Janeen lives in Pretoria South Africa. I wonder how many people from different countries are participating in her Quilt Along.
So, if you are at all curious about foundation piecing, check out Janeen and Quilt Art Designs. They are terrific!
What is a typical sewing day for you? For me, last Sunday was a super productive sewing day and it happened to include multiple BOMs! I wish I could say it was typical in terms of productivity, but I don't usually get quite so much done. It was typical in one huge way - variety.
"Typical" usually means multiple projects going at once, often at very different phases (design, cutting, piecing, quilting, finishing), and in very different colors and fabric styles. One thing I have learned about myself is that I get bored easily if I have to do too much of the same thing - same blocks, same fabric, same whatever. So I like to keep it varied. Sunday was a really varied day!
As you know I've got several embroidery BOMs going, so yesterday I made 2 tiles for the last Month 10 block for feathered star. I'm only 1 tile away from finishing all the star blocks. Then I will only have border blocks left to do - talk about boring, all 48 of them are exactly the same block with just one piece of fabric changing from block to block. Oh well, at least its bright, bold, happy fabric.
While my Bernina 830 was busy embroidering the feathered star (I'm needed for thread changes and adding pieces of fabric now and then, but mostly the machine takes care of it), I was working on last year's JayBird Quilts' BOM Toes in the Sand. Each month there are 2 blocks using the same pattern but with different fabric. So I got 2 blocks (Month 7 checked off my checklist) done and started cutting the pieces for the Month 8 blocks.
Then in the afternoon I scooted down to the shop for some sewing on the Sedona Star (more details in a later post). My friend Peggy is teaching the Sedona Star at Mea and I join in when I can. Class was cancelled yesterday due to the holidays, but Peggy was working on the shop sample, so I joined her and worked on the Month 4 paper pieced stars. I got one of three done!
As you know, sewing is fun, but designing and thinking about quilting is almost as, if not more, fun. In January I'm going to start a new BOM (details available in a later post) so I've been perusing Pinterest and other sites for ideas about color choices for the new
BOM. I found a FQ bundle of PB&J on Etsy and ordered it so I could potentially use some for this new BOM. Craftsy was having a year end sale, so I also ordered a few FQ bundles from them too.
Overall it was a productive day and I got lots of creative itches scratched (I'm sure there is a better metaphor than that but I used up all my creativity!).
Happy Productive Creativity to You!
I think we've all experienced it to one degree or another - that feeling of being overwhelmed, blue, in a rut, under the weather, or down right depressed. I have to admit that I have been experiencing all of these feelings over the last 6 months or so. It's frustrating, because I have a great life - a wonderful, supportive husband, great home, a to-die-for quilting studio, a good job, health (mostly), friends, financial security, etc. But I just was not happy. While I was out (overwhelmed, blue, in a rut, etc.) I didn't post anything and sometimes would not visit my studio for days at a time. Come to find out it was most likely due to some dietary issues combined with some depression, and with some lifestyle changes I am back on track. HooWoo!
The year is winding down and I've been doing a review of some of the things I've accomplished this year and thinking about some goals for next year.
Even given my 6 month funk, this year I:
- made progress on my multitude of BOMs.
- improved my free-motion quilting skills.
- moved and set up a sweet quilt studio.
- reached out more to friends and hosted several sew-in days.
- visited some new quilt shops on my trip to New England.
- attended 2 retreats.
- signed up for (and watched most of them) lots of Craftsy classes.
- added to my stash of fabrics, books, and patterns (not sure if this is an accomplishment or something to be avoided next year).
- took some great workshops (the highlights being Jacquie Gering, Victoria Findlay Wolfe, and Kelly Ashton).
- designed (in my head) several quilts for my "50 Quilts from 50 States" series.
- started my self portrait quilt.
I still have time to think about what I want to accomplish next year. The hard part will be limiting my list to what is actually do-able!
So standby for next year's goals and updates on what I'm curious about in my studio!
