Sunset still in progress

I am making progress - slowly but surely! This blog entry will show you a bit of how I use a tear away foundation to piece my quilt tops.  I call it the Fold and Sew technique and I invented it in a moment of desperation years ago. (I have a patent on it, if you can believe it!)

I use a foundation to piece long strips.  It makes a huge difference keeping those straight rows straight! HUGE difference.  What you are seeing is the top part of my sunset quilt; it is all the strip segments sewn together and transferred to a tear-away foundation. I use a simple glue stick for paper to glue the strips to the foundation and will fold and sew along some lines I drew on the foundation earlier.

I explained the technique much more in depth in my first book and it will also be part of the subject matter of my second book.  And maybe a third?!  So, let me show you some of the steps involved in using a foundation to piece. 

First, I sewed together the less complicated strip segments and pinned them back on my design wall. This is my last chance to change any strips, or any part of the design.  You can see from the photo that I have only taken care of the top half or so.

Sewing simple strip segments together and re-pinning them in place on the wall

 When I'm designing, I don't stop to sew any strip segments together, I just pin everything. So the first thing I need to do is sew those strip segments together. 

Before sewing

Sew on the drawn line

 Since this strip is part of the sky, I want a long angle - which helps blend one strip color into the next. To get this long angle I lay the top strip at a long angle and eyeball it. This should be about a 20-30 degree angle when I open it up. (If I want to build mountains or a steep hill slope, I'll chose a different angle; closer to way we sew binding strips together - a 45 degree angle.) I drew in a sewing line to help you see where you'd sew. 

Working my way down the landscape strip by strip, every strip segment so far is pieced except for the sunny area.

 In the above photograph you can see that most of my strip segments have all been sewn into long strips. This quilt will be 47 inches wide when I'm finished. HOWEVER - there are a few strip segments I haven't stitched down yet. You can see these below.  Why? you might ask? Because these are arranged and spaced in a bit more complicated way and I don't like peicing... lol. I think I mentioned this before!  So for these few strips, I'll use a glue stick to finish them. 

Complicated strip segments 

 All I have to do is open up those pinned strips, press in the angle I want, open up that angle, glue along the crease, finger press it closed, glue it to the strip beneath and trim off the excess fabric. Got that!?  It is pretty easy once you think about it.

Once the angles are glued in place, I top stitch them with monofilament thread.  Here is one finished strip.  I just need to trim off seam allowances.

Finished glued and top stitched strip segment 

Lets get on to the foundation part.

Foundation taped to my rotary mat

My favorite foundation is called Create a Pattern by Bosal Foam and Fiber. I sell it on my website because it is hard to find.  It comes on a bolt - 46 inches wide. Pellon also makes a product I like, it is called Easy Pattern and it comes on a bolt 45 inches wide.  I cut off the necessary amount of foundation and tape it to my cutting mat.  (Excess foundation can just drape over the edge of my table. If I'm working on a big quilt, I can finish drawing one side at a time and move the foundation over by just lining up the previous drawn lines.)  

I overlap the foundation along the 1 inch measuring line both horizontally and vertically.  Then I draw in that line using a ball point pen and my rotary ruler. I call these two lines my plumb lines.  When sewing strip pieced landscapes, you don't have a 'reference point' so these plumb lines become the actual side and bottom of your landscape.  

Once these lines are drawn, I add more lines to enclose my strip widths. Then I transfer all my strips, row by row to the foundation with a glue stick and fold and sew along those drawn lines.  By the way, you can get somewhat  precise when transferring your strips to the foundation in case you want any of your strip angles to line up once they are pieced. You just glue them to the foundation taking the 1/4 inch seam allowance into account. 

Aligning strips taking into account the 1/4 inch seam allowance

And here we are. All the strip segments are sewn together and glued to the foundation. One other thing which makes this method so nice is that if your strips are not perfect, it doesn't matter. As long as they fit between those fold/sew lines you drew, they will come out perfectly when you are finished!

More on my Fold/Sew technique will follow, and this material will be a big part of my next book. (Due in the Fall of 2014, it is called Lovely Landscape Quilts.)  As always, questions and comments are welcomed!