THE secret to making foundation paper-piecing easier!

Welcome to my second post this week! I don’t know what I enjoyed more yesterday, playing with the HeatnBond StitchnSew EZ Print Quilt Block Sheets, or taking in the great colors of the Gütermann 26pc 100% Cotton 100m Thread Set and the Gütermann 26-pc Sew-All 100m Polyester Thread Set.

Before we continue with the tree block in the table runner project introduced yesterday, I’d like to show you another pair of products I’ll be using today. The UNIQUE Quilt Template – 21 x 30cm [8¼” x 11¾”] and the UNIQUE Quilt Template with Grid – 21 x 28.5cm [8¼” x 11″].

Quilting template sheets by UNIQUE.

Today, I’ll complete the tree block I started yesterday while showing you a trick to work with those two angled lines from the pattern.

To help guide us today, below is the foundation-piecing pattern.

Foundation piecing pattern for the tree block of the table runner.

At the end of yesterday’s post, we completed the bottom of the tree section of the block.

The bottom of the tree foundation block.

The next piece to be added to the tree block is the A4 fabric piece. This will make the tree.

With right sides together, line up the long edge of the A4 fabric piece against the tops of the A1, A2 and A3 fabrics we sewed yesterday. On the printed side of the StitchnSew quilt block sheet, sew along the bottom, horizontal line of the A4 section, then press.

Place the A4 fabric piece over the A1, A2 and A3 fabrics with right sides together.

After sewing and pressing the A4 fabric, turn the StitchnSew Sheets over to the printed side. Using a sheet of quilting template introduced above, I’ll show you how to fold and trim. Using a template sheet makes the job so easy!

Place the template sheet along the A4/A5 line as in the picture below. Turn over the corner of the StitchnSew sheet.

Place the plastic template edge along the A4/A5 line on the quilt block sheet.

With the StitchnSew sheet corner folded back, trim the A4 fabric to ¼” from the edge with a ruler, as shown below.

Trim ¼” away from the fold.

After trimming is complete, return to the non-printed side of the quilt block sheet and place the A5 fabric piece on the edge of the A4 fabric with right sides together.

Right sides together, place the A5 fabric piece (sky) along A4’s (tree) edge.

With the A5 and A4 fabric pieces in place, sew on the A4/A5 line on the printed side of the quilt block sheet.

After sewing the A4/A5 seam, repeat the above steps for the A6 fabric piece. It needs to be added to the opposite side of A4.

The final piece to be sewn is A7 (sky).

I recommend using the plastic template’s edge along the A6 line again to make the fold. Fold down the Stitch n Sew sheet, trim the A5 and A6 fabrics to ¼” from the fold. Place A7 fabric piece along the edge where A5, A4 and A6 meet and sew.

Foundation-pieced tree block completed and ready for trimming.

The first of the tree blocks is complete!

Turn the block over to see the printed side of the quilt block sheet. The outer square lines should be ¼” away from the inner square lines. To ensure there is ¼”, I always trim using the inner square as my guide.

Trim block ¼” away from the inner square.

The last step we’re taking today is to complete the other seven blocks.

Two of the eight tree blocks for the summery table runner

Earlier in this post, I referred to the UNIQUE Quilt Template – 21 x 30cm [8¼” x 11¾”] and the UNIQUE SEWING Quilt Template with Grid – 21 x 28.5cm [8¼” x 11″]. Either one of these template sheets works well with foundation piecing patterns. I always keep both handy in my studio, as they’re useful for other quilting techniques, too.

Come back tomorrow when we’ll work on adding sashing and piecing our table runner.

This is part 2 of 5 in this series

Go back to part 1: 3 products that make foundation piecing a joy to do!

Go to part 3: For home or away, the UNIQUE Folding Cutting Mat is the one you need!

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