Foundation Paper Piecing Tips and Supplies

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I’ve been posting most of my quilting and hiking projects over on Instagram, but I want to blog a bit more this year.

This past year, I did quite a bit of both foundation paper piecing and applique quilts. I love the precision of foundation paper piecing and the crisp edges that it gives. I recently completed a quilt along using this technique and will blog about it over the next few posts. I’ll also talk about my applique quilts and the wonderful experience that I had as an artist-in-residence last fall.

I’ve heard from some quilters who want to know about the tools that I use for foundation paper piecing so this post will focus on that topic. I do have a page on my blog that lists all of my favorite tools so you can amend your toolkit with these items. I use each tool to achieve foundation paper piecing perfection!

The foundation paper piecing technique creates crisp edges!

Foundation Paper Piecing Method

I use the TSP technique for foundation paper piecing, which I learned many years ago from Carol Doak. What is that, you may wonder? It stands for trim, stitch, and press. Essentially, I trim the seam with my add-a-quarter ruler, stitch the next seam using a 1.5″ stitch length, and then press that seam. And repeat!

Foundation Paper Piecing Tools

I use both a 6″ add-a-quarter ruler and a 12″ add-a-quarter ruler, depending on the size of my fabric pieces. I tape these rulers to a postcard to create a sort of flipping mechanism to align my foundation just right. I flip the ruler up, lay the postcard against the seam on the foundation, fold it back, and then trim the fabric underneath. You can get into a nice rhythm using this method, which makes foundation paper piecing a relaxing experience. I may do a little video of myself doing this method in a future post so you can visualize it better.

For the first piece of fabric, I use a little bit of roller adhesive tape rather than glue or pins. I find that glue hardens and makes a terrible little nub in your project, and pins tend to be too big for my small foundations. Remember to place your initial piece of fabric wrong side down. It’s the only piece that gets applied wrong side down! For the remaining pieces of fabric in your foundation, you’ll place the fabric right sides together.

I prefer to use a smaller rotary cutter for foundation paper piecing. My preferred size is a 28mm rotary cutter. For me, the 45mm rotary cutters are too large, although I do use them for cutting sashing, borders, or larger pieces of fabric.

When I do foundation paper piecing, I have a little cutting mat, a small wool pressing mat, and a mini iron next on a little table to me so I don’t have to get up for each step. For larger seams or when the block is complete, I will move to my big iron for pressing. However, I find having my little press and trim station next to my machine helps me to be very efficient at foundation paper piecing.

You can also use this method to chain piece foundations. Yes, you heard it correctly! You can chain piece while doing foundation paper piecing. I usually only chain piece when I’m making similar blocks. If the blocks are very different, then I do them individually so that I don’t get too confused.

If you found these tips and supplies helpful, give me a comment! Would you like to see little videos or pictures of these tips in future posts?

Happy quilting!

Jen

Meep, meep!

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Last October, my husband and I traveled to New Mexico to see the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque and to do some hiking at various national and local parks. I did manage to squeeze in visits to a couple of local quilt stores and purchased a couple of fun patterns.

I hoped to see a roadrunner during our visit, but, sadly, didn’t see one. I’ve only seen a roadrunner once in person on a visit to Cathedral Gorge State Park in Nevada several years ago. I decided to buy a little roadrunner quilt block called Marigold from Stitchology, a cute modern quilt shop in Albuquerque.

This block is 12″ and is a combination of traditional piecing and applique.

Here’s a close-up look at the applique feathers on the bird’s head:

Applique stitches

I decided to finish this quilt block as a mini quilt to commemorate my visit to New Mexico. It’s quite a different bird than what we have here in the PNW!

I added a turquoise inner border with some decorative stitches. For the outer border, I used this fun roadrunner print designed by a textile artist in ABQ. She has a store front in old town called Desert Bird Mercantile where you can purchase her prints as fat quarters or by the yard.

Completed Marigold the roadrunner mini quilt

The next day, we took the tram up to Sandia Peak for some hiking. We did about 8 miles along various trails. It was a gorgeous day and the aspens were in their fall glory!

Beautiful aspens in fall color

Here’s a stunning viewpoint from the top overlooking Albuquerque below. We had a little picnic lunch here while admiring the views.

Lunch time view looking down at Albuquerque

I’ll post some pictures of our hiking adventures from the trip in future posts. I love checking out hikes whenever we travel!

Happy quilting,

Jen

Meowville Finished Quilt

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Last year, I completed work on my epic tiny house quilt. I started this quilt in 2023 as a weekly sew along with tiny 6″ foundation paper-pieced houses by Quilt Art Design.

When I last shared my progress, I was about 2/3 finished with the quilting. My goal was to finish this quilt so I could display it at the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show last July. I realized that I never shared my finished quilt!

My husband and I hike and backpack regularly so I decided to take a picture of the final quilt at the start of a fantastic trail in the Columbia River Gorge called Eagle Creek.

Here’s a look at the finished quilt with all the beautiful greens from the moss and vegetation:

Meowville Finished Quilt at Eagle Creek

If you’ve never hiked along the Eagle Creek trail, I highly recommend it. One of the picturesque falls that is easily doable for most hikers is called Punchbowl Falls. It’s about a 5-mile round trip hike. It does have a few sections with steep drops so be cautious, especially with children and dogs.

I have hiked all the way to the top to Wahtum lake when I was a teenager, which requires either a car shuttle or backpacking. On this particular trip with my quilt, we decided to do a long day hike. We had lunch at Twister Falls and turned around at that point. Tunnel Falls is approximately a 12 mile round trip hike with Twister being about 1/2 mile beyond. If you do hike to Twister, there is a very steep drop often called the “Vertigo Mile” that might be challenging if you’re afraid of heights. There are cables attached to the rock to help you navigate that section if you need them.

Tunnel Falls at Eagle Creek
Twister Falls at Eagle Creek
A Section of the “Vertigo Mile,” the approach to Twister Falls along the Eagle Creek trail with my hubby and dog.

We hiked this in April 2024 so the waterfalls were flush with water. So beautiful!

I did enter Meowville into the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show so if you visited in July 2024, you might have seen it.

Here’s a look:

Meowville at the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show, July 2024

Each of those house blocks has a cat or two pieced into it. If you zoom in on the picture, see if you can find all of the cats. There are some really tiny pieces! I really enjoyed creating this quilt, and sewing one tiny house each week for 36 weeks.

Let me know in the comments if you saw my quilt at the show!

Happy quilting,

Jen

Vintage Christmas Quilt Along, Month One Blocks

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Hi everyone,

In my previous post, I talked about the new Vintage Christmas quilt along hosted by Fat Quarter Shop. This quilt along lasts 12 months and features blocks from Lori Holt’s book, Vintage Christmas. Each month, we’ll sew 4 blocks and you can join at any time!

Let’s take a look at my remaining three blocks from January (see my earlier post for details on the first block).

Candy Canes block

Vintage Christmas Quilt Along, Block 2, Candy Canes

This block came together pretty quickly. If you’re using directional fabrics, be careful how you place the reds/pinks and whites so they are all facing the same direction.

Candy Swirl Block

Vintage Christmas Quilt Along, Block 3, Candy Swirls

This block was the easiest to sew this month. Again, watch your directional fabrics if you want them to face the same direction. In this block, I kept the directional fabric going vertical for the outer ring. For the darker reds in the middle, I made two of the half-square triangles with the print oriented vertically and the other two with the print oriented horizontally.

Christmas Candles Block

Vintage Christmas Quilt Along, Block 4, Christmas Candles

This block has some very tiny 3/4″ pieces! The are situated in the candle flames and in the greenery at the bottom. These small pieces are challenging so go slow. If I were to make this block again, I think that I’d foundation paper-piece those sections (by drawing my own pattern based on the block).

Vintage Christmas Quilt Along, First Four Blocks

Vintage Christmas Quilt Along, First Four Blocks

You’ll notice that three of these blocks have a darker background fabric, and one block has a lighter background fabric. I’m using the kit from Fat Quarter Shop so these blocks will all pop nicely against the sashing when I put the blocks together.

Join me again in February where we’ll make four more blocks! Let me know in the comments if you are quilting along with this BOM. I’d love to see your progress. You can also follow my progress at Instagram at @nwquiltedcat.

Happy quilting!

Jen

A New Year and A New Quilt Along!

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Wishing you all a very happy 2025! We started the year off with a short hike through a beautiful forest. The trail contained so many hues of green from the giant sword ferns to the mosses to the trees. The trail was quite muddy from all of our recent rain, but we were fortunate to have cloudy conditions and no rain during our walk.

For 2025, I’m doing a themed quilt along with the Fat Quarter Shop called Vintage Christmas. For this sew along, you’ll need this quilt book by Lori Holt. You can use your own fabrics or you can buy the quilt kit once it is restocked.

Each month, we’ll make 4 blocks, each finishing at 6-inches. The quilt along runs until December so you’ll have a beautiful quilt finished in time for Christmas 2025, assuming you can finish the quilting, ha, ha!

I’m using the quilt kit, and here’s a look at my book with some of the beautiful fabrics.

Vintage Christmas book and fabric kit for the quilt along

I do starch my fabric, usually one block at a time because I don’t have the time or space to starch the entire kit all at once.

When I work on these smaller 6-inch blocks with many pieces, I like to label them with Alphabitties and place them on little design boards. You can make design boards by using a foam board, batting scraps, and fabric scraps for the binding or purchase them here.

Vintage Christmas block one with Alphabitties on a design board for easier piecing

When sewing these blocks, go slow and careful to maintain accuracy. I do lower my stitch length slightly and backstitch where the pieces will be exposed on the edges. I don’t like to use steam in my iron so I do a final press when a hot, dry iron and Flatter spray. I also use wooden clappers and let the blocks cool completely with the clappers on top.

Here’s a look at block one called “Away in a Manger.”

Away in a Manger block – Vintage Christmas Quilt Along

I hope you’ll join me along in this festive quilt along. I’ll post the other month one quilt blocks this week to inspire you.

Happy quilting!

Jen

Epic Tiny House Paper Pieced Quilt, Part 2

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I last blogged in January, but I have been working on various projects to submit to the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show. I have some quilt tops that have been pieced for a while and need to be quilted plus I wanted to submit some post cards for the annual fundraiser at the show.

For the tiny house project, I had to decide how to piece the top because there is no pattern for the final layout.

I decided that my “Meowville” quilt needed the pieced name to be on the top, but the quilt was still missing something. Hmm, what could I add? How about a giant cat face peeking out at the viewers? I found a great pattern from Quilt Art Design called “Cat Helper” that would fit my idea with a few modifications.

The cat’s eye is always watching!
A partial cat head, perfect for mischievously peering down at the Meowville tiny houses

I now had the final blocks of my quilt assembled and ready to be set into a layout! I thought about a layout for a few weeks, and decided to place my tiny houses in rows without sashing strips. I set the blocks using a fun Ruby Star Society from their Starry line. I used Starry in the Smoke colorway, which is a beautiful deep blue with black stars. Finally, I added an outer border using a black print from my stash to give the quilt a nice frame and to meet the minimum width requirements for the quilt show.

Meowville quilt flimsy

Last weekend, I loaded Meowville onto my frame to start quilting. I’m using Glide thread in Celery in the giant cat head and letters, and using Glide thread in black for the remainder of the quilt. I’m going to keep the quilting very simple to keep the focus on all of those wonderful tiny houses!

Time for quilting!
A cute heart quilted into a paw

I’m about 2/3 of the way finished with the quilting, and I expect to finish this week. I’ll post a picture of the completed quilt soon! I have 2 more quilt tops ready to be quilted for the show so I need to get to it!

Happy quilting,

Jen

An Epic Tiny House Paper Pieced Project

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Hi everyone!

Last year, I participated in a weekly tiny house sew along designed by Quilt Art Designs. These are 6-inch blocks with very small foundation paper pieced sections with a total of 36 houses. This project was designed as a scrap buster, but my scrap bin is still overflowing!!

I kept up with the weekly sew a long and you can find all of my individual houses posted to my Instagram account @nwquiltedcat or by searching on the hashtag #meowvilletinyhouses.

For my houses, I decided that I wanted to incorporate little cats into each house. I fussy cut various cat faces and cat bodies and pieced them into each block.

I put these blocks to the side for a few months to ponder how I might finish this project, and I recently put them up on my design wall. These are all of the tiny houses pieced together in rows, but the rows are not yet sewn together.

I decided to call my little village, Meowville! I used paper pieced letters designed by Sam Hunter in her book, Quilt Talk.

Meowville banner for my tiny house village!

I’m leaning towards adding an inner solid border around the tiny houses, and then adding a wider outer border with the Meowville banner, some paw prints, and maybe a paper pieced cat or two. Stay tuned!

Happy sewing,

-Jen

A Quilted Dog Portrait!

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I have a wonderful dog companion named Pepper. She is a great family dog, and she loves to go hiking and camping with us. She is 31% German Shepherd, and loves to patrol and keep a careful eye on anyone walking down the sidewalk. Her favorite thing in the world is to go for walks, followed by chasing squirrels. She does not have a keen interest in being a quilt inspector, unlike her cat brother, ha, ha!

Last year, I had the wonderful opportunity to take a 3-day class at the Stitchin Post in Sisters, Oregon with the amazing June Jaeger. The class focused on creating pet portraits out of fabric and fusible web. I decided that I really need a pet portrait quilt of my best girl!

I had this wonderful photograph of Pepper that I snapped during one of our hikes to a waterfall. I was taking a picture of the waterfall when Pepper leaned her head over to see what I was doing while I snapped the pic. I then dubbed it: Pepper’s Selfie! It just captures her cute, inquisitive face so perfectly.

In the class, we prepared our patterns using our photos. We enlarged these photos and traced them in reverse so that the final quilt would be facing in the correct orientation. The colored pencils are matched with fabric swatches to create a code.

Pepper’s Selfie pattern in progress

Once we had prepared our patterns and made our fabric swatch codes, we could then start creating our pet portraits. I started with Pepper’s nose. This is a layering technique to give the perspective of the nose being closest to the viewer while the cheeks are farther away. You could almost envision that fabric nose sniffing you!

Pepper’s nose takes shape

The fabric layering process continued throughout the class. My pet portrait featured a close-up of Pepper’s face so I didn’t have details such as paws and tails to add. Due to this cropped photo of Pepper, I was able to get my fabric collage completed in the 3-day class. If I had used a full body photograph of her, I probably would have needed a couple of more days at home to finish the portrait. I only used batik fabrics in this quilt because it doesn’t fray like regular quilting cotton fabrics.

After class, I carefully took my pet portrait home and thought about how to finish it. I added a black border to the long side opposite of Pepper for balance, and a fun cream batik for the bottom border.

I secured the edges of all the appliqued pieces using my regular Bernina and color matched the thread to the fabrics. I stitched in details such as whiskers and added sparkles to her eyes. Once I had finished, I then quilted the background on my HQ Avante using Glide thread in Celery.

Pepper’s Selfie quilt in the wild!

I really enjoyed making this quilt, and I definitely want to take this class again. There are so many invaluable techniques that June teaches in this class, and I highly recommend it!

Here’s a look at where Pepper’s Selfie quilt hangs in my sewing room. When I sit down to sew, my good girl looks down upon me. Aww, how sweet!

Happy quilting!

-Jen

Woodland Wonderland Quilt Flimsy

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A few years ago, I signed up for a whimsical woodland quilt block-of-the-month program with Fig Tree & Co. I kept up with the blocks for about the first 4 months or so, and then you know what happened! Time got away from me, and I stored the remaining blocks for a “someday” project.

One of my goals for this year is to catch up on some of my quilts that are partially completed. I still plan to work on new projects, but I do want to devote some time to these WIPs. I pulled out the Woodland Wonderland project recently, and just started sewing on it every evening after work and on the weekends.

When I pulled out the remaining blocks, the project did look overwhelming initially. I decided to pull out one block at a time and really took the time to enjoy sewing each block. I started with this cute little owl block:

Owl block from the Woodland Wonderland quilt

The eyes are woo felt that I appliqued after constructing the block.

The background fabric is a black chambray from Moda.

I started to feel my enthusiasm for this project coming back, and I quickly moved on to other blocks:

Gnome block and mushroom block from the Woodland Wonderland quilt

I cleared a space on my sewing room floor to place the blocks that I had completed so far, when my quilt inspector, Romeo, jumped up onto to his special chair to supervise the job:

Romeo inspects my progress on the Woodland Wonderland quilt

He could see that I still had many blocks to complete so he went back to sleep. In the meantime, I kept sewing in my free time and enlisted another one of my quilt inspectors, Pepper. She isn’t as skilled as a cat quilt inspector, but she did her best inspecting this block:

Pepper tries to be a quilt block inspector. Romeo needs to give her more training!

In January, our teen had a band retreat down at the coast. I thought that would be the perfect opportunity to get some photos of my completed quilt flimsy. It was pretty chilly and windy, which made getting good photos a bit tricky. My husband and I stayed at a cute little motel, and he held up the finished quilt top while I took a few photos in between wind gusts.

Woodland Wonderland quilt flimsy at the Oregon coast

The motel had these fun red railings that I thought accented the quilt rather nicely. It used to be a U.S. Coast Guard lookout station in the 1940s. The most recent owners have remodeled it with a vintage vibe, including turntables in each room. You can check out LPs from the front office.

Here’s a close-up look at the quilt flimsy:

Close-up of the Woodland Wonderland quilt flimsy

I did tweak a few things in my quilt from the original Woodland Wonderland pattern. I omitted the column of flying geese from the side next to the trees and stars. I liked the look of the quilt better without the geese. I also added little blocks above the big mushroom blocks next to the gnome. I used those some blocks, slightly larger, and added them to the ends of the long vine blocks for balance.

I really enjoyed making this quilt. It’s all traditionally pieced with only a couple of appliqued features on the owl and hedgehog. The printed fabrics are all from the original block-of-the-month, and I think they are all Fig Tree fabrics. The background is black chambray from Moda, which really sets off all the green, red, and cream fabrics wonderfully!

Next up, how to quilt it? The quilt flimsy is going into my to-be-quilted pile. I want to finish up some piecing projects before tackling this pile.

Happy quilting!

~Jen

Mini Rotary Mat Holder Project

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Happy 2023!

I recently participated in a holiday project swap on Instagram where participants made 13 items using modern fabric. In exchange, we received 12 items from other swappers and the extra items were auctioned off by the organizers.

I decided to make a mini rotary mat holder to use when going to quilt classes or retreats. I really liked the idea of having a little case to hold a small rotary mat and cutter for trimming up little foundation paper pieced blocks.

This project uses a free pattern from American Patchwork & Quilting.

My Supplies

My Custom Tula Pink Mini Rotary Mat Holders!

I altered the pattern slightly by piecing a Deja Vu Parisville cameo into the back of each mat. I really wanted something that could showcase this large scale print, and this little project worked great. I used the Essex Yarn Dyed linen for a little extra structure and stability, and to provide a nice contrast to the bright Tula Pink fabrics.

Here’s a look at the front and back of 2 mini rotary mat holders opened:

The large pocket holds a 6×8 inch rotary mat. The smaller pocket is divided into 4 sections to hold small tools such as a rotary cutter, scissors, pencils, and more. I added a ribbon to each exterior flap for a cute accent.

Each holder uses the same Painted Ladies fabric in alternating “glow” and “glimmer” colorways. The “glow” colorway is the white background and the “glimmer” colorway is the aqua background. I had a fat quarter stack of the Tiny Dots and Stripes prints so I used a different one for each rotary holder. I really love how colorway these little cases are all together!

Everyone in the swap wrapped their items so that participants could unwrap one item a day for the 12 days leading up to Christmas.

I wrapped my items in a polka-dot printed paper with a pink ribbon:

I really enjoyed participating in this swap, and I received some really fun items in return! This project comes together pretty easily if you want to make one for yourself or as a gift for a quilting buddy.

Happy quilting!

Jen