quilting

Work In Progress Wednesday

As much as I love wool appliqué, I have been missing piecing blocks. So I decided to take a little break and pull out some paper foundation fun. I have had my eye on a little mini New York Beauty block for quite awhile. The pattern is from a Fons and Porter magazine that I’ve had for years.

I gathered my fabric, small cutting mat, and my essential quarter-inch ruler. This block is small enough that I could really use an eighth-inch ruler, but I don’t have one so will make do with the one I have. It is a handy tool for paper foundation. The ruler has a lip on one edge that you butt up against the seam allowance, allowing a quarter-inch seam to be cut.

One of the other tools that I find essential is good lighting, as it helps me to hold the fabric and foundation paper up to the light to see that I am aligning my fabrics correctly.

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The trickiest parts of paper foundation is getting your brain around the rhythm of working off of a foundation. I haven’t done paper foundation for awhile, so this is a practice block to remind me of the process and to see if I really want to make a mini (these pieces are pretty small).  If you’re new to paper piecing, you can  watch a video tutorial here.

Here’s how the quarter-inch ruler works. I fold the paper foundation back, butt the lip of the ruler against it, and cut the quarter-inch seam with my rotary cutter.

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I’m making progress — look at those tiny points!

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Once you get in the rhythm, it goes pretty quickly.

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Once all the stitching is done, it’s time to trim the excess fabric.

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Look at those little bright points! Now it’s time to add the curved pieces.

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I decided I wanted this fun and bright.

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In the picture above, can you see the crease mark I made on the orange fabric? There’s a matching one on the black and white, but it’s harder to see. These are the center marks of both pieces, where I will begin pinning.

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Before pinning, it’s time to remove the paper. This tweezers that I just got in my Sew Sampler box from The Fat Quarter Shop is perfect for this task; it’s difficult to get my fingers in those little points!

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Pinning is key, together with working carefully with those stretchy edges.

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Here’s the finished block, a little wonky but not bad. I’m not sure if I want to do blocks this small. I’ll try another one tomorrow and see what I think.

So now I’m off to do more wool work. I’ve satisfied my yen to piece for now.

I’m linking up with So Fresh Quilts and QuiltFabrication today.

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