Spotlight: Ingrid Alteneder, Quilt Designer
If you think that foundation paper piecing patterns are predictable, you have not met Ingrid Alteneder. From her third-floor studio in Frankfurt, Germany, Ingrid breaks images down into basic geometric...
Foundation Piecing
Foundation Piecing
Stitching on a printed foundation can make your fiber art precise and intricate. It’s easy to get started with simple designs.
The foundation helps stabilize the pieces that are sewn together, since they are stitched to a base. Paper piecing is a type of foundation piecing, but when the pieces are sewn together, generally the paper is removed. When a fabric is used as the foundation, it becomes the stabilizing basis of the textile piece.
Foundation piecing allows you to make intricate designs without fussy cutting shapes and worrying about sewing them together. By following the design printed on the foundation, your design comes to life. You can either use a pattern for the design, or create one yourself.
More Foundation Piecing
Spotlight: Amy Pabst, Quilter
It's worth stepping up close to get a good look at the work of Amy Pabst. She quilts in miniature, with thousands of pieces paying homage to quilters of the...
Scrap-Happy Stash-Busting Quilts
I love scraps. To me, they are the comfort food of quilts. My first contact with quilts was not the ornate Baltimore Album quilts or the intricately hand quilted whole...
Design Challenge Art Quilts
For a number of years, I have had the privilege of gathering with a talented group of fiber artists that studied with Lorraine Torrence. The "Off Grain Stitchers" continue to...
Seasonal Door Quilts Make the Year Go ‘Round
When I worked for a quilt shop, I made small quilts as store samples. Before long, I had a "collection". I shared most, but kept some. I like to decorate...
Spotlight: Bill Volckening, Quilt Collector and Blogger
Bill Volckening is proof that if you pursue what you love, good things follow. Now regarded as an expert on vintage and antique quilts, Bill got his start when he...
Super Makoplasti-Girl Doll
Last summer I had a total hip replacement due to a too-close encounter with our large (92 pound!) Lab mix. He meant well - I think he was genuinely trying...
Best Sewing and Quilting Notions
Whether you are sewing a garment, home dec, or making a traditional, modern or art quilt; there are some notions that you need to have in your sewing room /...
Log Cabin Prayer Flag
My friend, Salem, Oregon, artist Dayna Collins, spearheaded an art installation last summer that she called “Scattered by the Wind”. This Log Cabin Prayer Flag, “Praying for Shelter” was my...
Paper Pieced Kaleidoscope Quilt
Oh, how I love designing in Electric Quilt! The drawing tools helped me design one side of a paper-piecing-friendly 60-degree triangle and mirror-image it: I made six of them. I...
