I’ve stitched three blocks for my Splendid Sampler quilt in the last couple of weeks with foundation paper piecing. Until I started this quilt-a-long I didn’t even know what FPP was, so I still get a little glow of achievement when I stitch another one!
The first one is called ‘Balls in the Air’, it’s designed by Aylin Ozturk. I’ve been putting it off since the end of June as it did look complicated! The overall effect is of a circle, but it is made from some teeny triangles, and I mean teeny!! I’ve taken a close-up photo so you can see just how teeny!!
I like FPP but I do find it a bit wasteful on the fabric front, having stitched a quarter of the ball I was seriously worried that I wouldn’t have enough background fabric to finish the block. I worked out a new way of avoiding quite so much waste, rather than cutting out a piece that I knew would be big enough I positioned the seam onto a straight edge of the fabric piece, stitched it, pressed it, and then cut the fabric off the main piece. It seemed to work pretty well…and I didn’t run out of fabric!
I’m really pleased with the final block, my four quarters match together fairly well.
The second block is called ‘Pencils’, it’s designed by Jane Davidson who is one of the organisers of The Splendid Sampler. I really enjoyed stitching this one, pieces were just nice size, matching wasn’t quite so critical so really there was just the fabric choice to worry about. I really like it and one day I will remember to trim the threads before I take the photographs!
The last FFP block was a quick one, it only has six pieces! Faith Jones designed it and called it ‘Whim’. I don’t feel I’ve got my colour balance right here, I chose two pinks, blues and greens but somehow it doesn’t seem to work as well. I did think about putting some embroidery on it, a bit like crazy patchwork, but I’ll have to work up a bit of enthusiasm for it first!
I’ve just cut out an outfit from one of my saris, as I want to wear it in eight days time I think I need to have a short break from Splendid Sampler to crack on with dress-making!
thecraftycreek 
Gosh, they are tiny pieces in the first on, do you need magnifying goggles for those?! Looking good tho, I’m regretting not keeping up to it, but hopefully will make something with what I’ve done so far 😃
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They are pretty tiny pieces! The blocks will be available for about a year, so why not just choose the ones you like so you have enough to make a quilt. With sashing you don’t need any where near all of them 🙂
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I’ve been doing foundation paper piecing for while (none recently) but I haven’t attempted anything with pieces as tiny as those! If you enjoy it, look up Carol Doak, she has several books on it with lots of patterns and some wonderful tips and tricks.
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Thanks Kaelyn, I’ll have a look for Carol, I’ve downloaded a pattern for a quilt already so a book with tips etc could be very useful!
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Margaret, you keep out-doing yourself! And clearly have so much more patience than I, to have stuck with this type of quilting. These look lovely! Best wishes with your sari make-over! Will await your report with anticipation. (I remember living in Silicon Valley and driving over to the East Bay, where there were several sari shops, but I never had the courage, or dosh, to go in and look around by meself. 😉
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Hi, you don’t need much dosh to buy vintage silk saris off ebay, I paid £12 ish ($16) including postage from India! That’s for 5-6m of silk!
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Hi, and thank you for the info, Margaret! Had no idea the amount of fabric involved. Now am curious about width, but don’t want you to go busily hunting a tape measure! An approximation would be grand, but only if you’ve time. 😉
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Hi, they’re 42″ wide approx, one end has a square of pattern, the rest usually has a border on at least one side.
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Lovely work, and impressive for a first attempt. Removing the papers and pressing when the pieces are so small is a bugger, isn’t it? I’d like to pass on one tip for FPP: make yourself a batting pressing pad for the final press on the front of the piece before you start quilting. All the seam allowances sink into the batting, which lets you achieve a perfectly smooth front. You’ll get a much better quilted result.
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Ooh, thanks for the tip, I’ll make one of those, do you just make it like a mini quilt, a batting sandwich?
…and yes, I did struggle to remove the papers, there’s still some bits in to try again later!
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For the papers, very pointy tweezers, NOT a stitch ripper, and with the batting pad, no, just four or five layers of batting with no cover – a 12 inch square should be big enough for most blocks. You won’t need to press hard, you’re basically just ‘polishing’ the surface of the block to push all the bumps backwards.
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