Post by nightmist on Mar 3, 2012 12:22:10 GMT -5
I would like to try foundation piecing, has anyone tried it and if so, give me your feedback. I help make banners for our church and got a book that shows banner designs using this technique so it looks interesting but any tips would be appreciated.
Joyce
Foundation piecing is not hard.
It can certainly ease the construction of some patterns. Particularly fiddly ones with a good many little bitty pieces.
Some people don't care for it because it takes a bit more fabric. Generally for foundation piecing you do cut your pieces larger than the standard quarter inch seam allowance. I on the other hand consider it an awesome way to use the small scraps that you cannot cut true to grain for your piece. If you are using a permanent foundation you can cut as off grain as you please, for sewing it down to the foundation will keep it from stretching and going all cattywumpus on you. For this reason I find myself sometimes using foundation piecing of some sort for all or parts of scrappy quilts, even if the pattern is an easy one. Of course a permanent foundation has long been considered essential for crazy quilts.
Mind you if you are foundation piecing large curves I would be careful of off grain pieces. A while back there was a great craze for foundation piecing the New York Beauty pattern, and were I doing one of those I would make sure those quarter circles were cut true!
The big drawback to foundation piecing using a permanent foundation is when you go to do the quilting. If you are using a permanent foundation you pretty much have to machine quilt. This can be traumatic for some hand quilters. Seriously, you pride yourself on accomplishing 10 even stitches per inch by hand, and now you have this beautiful quilt top and you cannot do that. Ow!
I imagine you could stab stitch the whole thing, but that would take just about forever.
I have seriously wondered if paper piecing was invented just so you can hand quilt a foundation project if you prefer.
I have never been wild about paper piecing, when you take the paper off the back it can be a real bear to get it out of the seams. But it is real useful for when you are doing one of those patterns that has just parts that are complicated. You can piece the simple parts regularly, and then foundation piece the tricky bits using paper. I've gone a step further in the making stuff easier department by using Solvy in cases like that. I just trace the patterns onto the solvy with a washable marker, and if I have a lot that doesn't come out easily after sewing I just soak the piece, or sometimes the whole top, in lukewarm water and give it a couple of good swishes, then lay it out to dry. You may have some parts that feel like they have sizing in them after that, but that will wash out when you wash the finished quilt. Bear in mind I am a devout pre-washer, and a good bit of my fabric I've done my own dying and surface design on. Thus I am reasonably confident I am not going to have any bleeding. YMMV