Thursday, August 16, 2007

Faux Paper templates...

I thought almost everyone knew about this but I'm glad that some of you found a new way to do these. So I figured maybe you'd like to see all my saved pieces. Who knows when I might need them again, so I keep them. First to give credit to the lady who started this. I'm almost positive it was Judy Mathieson that I saw on Simply Quilts showcasing this method. She said it doesn't make it faster, it just saves the picking time, which was her least favorite.

These are the ones I keep in a folder. Most from older projects that can still be used...The correct way to do this is to layer about 5 sheets of freezer paper with your draw pattern on the top. Then with NO water in your iron, hold it up and use the tip to tack several places on the paper pattern so the pieces stick together. If you iron the whole sheets, they sometimes don't come apart so well. On this square in a square pattern I probably tacked 6 or 8 spots just to keep them together.
Then you use an empty needle to sew your lines where you will be folding. When you need several blocks you can use this method to make several duplicate sheets of freezer paper patterns at once! Plus the perforations make folding a bit easier. I often skip this if it's a small simple pattern and I only need a few blocks. I use a straight edge ruler to fold the paper back nice and crisp.

Below is my SQ in a SQ pattern extras. Perforated and ready for use. I "sewed" on the inside fold lines and had 5 pieces under the main pattern. All I have to do is draw the outside lines with pencil to complete the pattern.New York beauty blocks and a row of flying geese!Another new York Beauty blocks not yet folded and used! Below was my main pattern piece for the blocks used to make this quilt! I think the stick um is dead, but I still saved it. One huge plus to this method over traditional paper piecing is the ability to move the seam placement. If you don't like all your seams going one way simply peel back the freezer paper iron the seam the opposite way, then iron the freezer paper back over and move forward!! Very cool when doing New York beauties.Marjorie...freezer paper is fabulous for this and luckily Dawn mentioned that they sell it in precut sheets for the printer! I just got a 50 sheet pack from Connecting Threads and can't wait to use it.

1 comment:

MJinMichigan said...

I just took a class in this technique at Quilt Festival in Houston. It was taight by Judy Mathieson and I saw her teach it on Simply Quilts.