I've been playing with an old, foundation strip piecing pattern that some quilt buddies shared on our KHQS Facebook page. It's really a fun process that lends itself to a lot of adaptation.  

The original pattern was based on using a 7" square foundation block and strips that are cut anywhere from 1 1/2" wide to just 3/4" wide. Length does not matter.  I found that that it was best to have a wide variety of strip widths.  

I also used a large variety of cotton prints and a few cotton backed lame' solids that were from a workshop, that I took way back in the last century.

To start, you need to cut 7" blocks from a good background fabric.  I chose two different black prints as the starting point. At the time, I thought that would be all I would do. As you can see, in the photo, I did end up using some blue prints in the border that I decided to add.

The foundation blocks were marked as follows: Mark 3" from the corner and draw the line to the opposite corner. Mark 3" on the other side of the corner and draw the second line to the opposite corner. 

Lay the first strip of fabric down along one of the lines and sew it using a 1/4" seam allowance.  

Flip the strip over and press it into place either with an iron or finger press it. Lay the next strip onto of it and sew again. Repeat this process until the strips go all the way to the corner. 

Now repeat the process on the second line.  This photo shows the adaptation I made from working with a square to a rectangle. The rectangle was 5" by 7". 

Four of these blocks go together to make one block of the quilt top.  This photo shows four of the square blocks put together. Notice that the strips do meet up together. Because they are all different widths, they are not meant to meet in straight lines.  That really makes for super easy piecing.  

The only seams that need to meet are the four straight seams when you sew the blocks together.

Once I got all several of the blocks made, I started playing with placement and deciding how many more I would have to do.

I started putting the top together in sections. I had to leave it up on the design wall to make sure everything went together in the right place.  I would take a section down, piece it and then do another section.

The border blocks were cut as squares and rectangles in order to keep the piece from being too long in relation to the width, which is one of the hazards of working with rectangles.
 

Once the whole top was laid out and partially pieced, I started wondering about a border that was completely different from the rest of the top. 

I started pulling out cloud and star fabrics and anything that seemed like starlight.  In order to make it look symmetrical, I had to add in some of the new fabrics to the black border, which meant, that I had to unsew parts of the finished seams.
 

Fortunately, I discovered this part before I had sewed the rest of the top together. 

I had a really good time going through all of my quilt incubator baskets and picking out fabrics for this quilt top. The studio was rather covered up in cut strips for awhile, with the incubator baskets sitting everywhere.

So that's all there was to it. I now have lots of strips left over that are incubating until the next idea comes up for using them.

I am really looking forward to quilting this piece. I can see lots of metallic thread on that dark background. Lots of fun for sure!

Creating Always,
Karen










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