Quilt Paper Pieced
The paper pieced quilt is the oldest of all quilts. Before beginning the construction of the fabric, quilt paper pieced together to form the design. A paper pieced quilt is utilized as the inner lining. When historians find such quilts, it becomes easy to identify the era when the quilt was made, as when the outer layer fabric wears off the date on the newspaper used for the quilt can be viewed.
A foundation piecing or a paper pieced quilt is a traditional method that has undergone a dramatic change since the early 1990’s. The miniature quilt enthusiast was among the first to revive quilt paper pieced, since when done the right way the blocks are always perfect, irrespective of how small the patches are.
There are few quilters that often mistake quilt paper pieced or foundation piecing with the English paper piecing that is a completely different technique. Sew and flip and flip and sew are two terms you will hear. Both illustrate the actions involved in stitching a paper pieced quilt block.
When you paper piece, you stitch patches on a template or an exact replica of a portion of a block or quilt block. Foundation templates can be printed or drawn on fabric, paper or some other material. The seam on the outer perimeter of the unit is the only seam on the template.
The fabric is placed on the opposite side of the foundation template, and has edges, which overlap the drawn lines. Seams are stitched directly on the lines i n the front, and the edges of fabric that overlap become the seam allowances. If one carefully positions the fabric, and sews on the lines, the blocks will be always perfect.
In a quilt paper pieced, the foundation fabric is covered completely, basically making a whole new fabric. Portions of blocks or blocks are then cut out from this fabric. These are often also termed as string quilts, as they are made from strips of cloth that are very narrow to be used for anything else. There are times these take up a crazy quilt look with leftover fabric scraps of varied lengths and widths.
