Pat :
There are two different techniques called paper piecing. The first is English paper piecing, like the traditional Grandmother's Flower Garden. This is when you fold the fabric edges over a precut shape and then baste the pieces together. Foundation piecing is when you actually sew through the foundation material, either paper or muslin. Foundation piecing involves tracing the pattern onto the foundation and then actually sewing through the foundations in a numerical order. It is an extremely accurate way of piecing and is my favorite! A good web site for more info is www.zippydesigns.com That is the site for the Foundation Piecer magazine.
There are two kinds of paper piecing. One is English Paper Piecing, and hand piecing method where you form your pieces around a paper template and whipstitch them together. This has been around for ages and is often used in making Grandmother's Flower Garden quilts.
The other kind--which is probably the one you are wondering about--is Foundation Paper Piecing. Most people think this is new, but as a sprightly 85 year old student pointed out to me this weekend, it has also been around for years. In past times it was a popular way to do Crazy Quilts.
In Foundation Paper Piecing, the design is printed or drawn on a soft paper, and the parts are numbered. You start with number one and two and stitch right through the lines on the paper and go on to the next pieces in sequence. The advantages are that it is a good way to use small scraps of fabric, it is very accurate, and it can be used to accurately piece miniatures.
This does not really tell you much about how to do it, but there are instructions on several websites including this one.
Kathy in south central Washington
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