Tomorrow I am heading to Roberts Sewing Center in Crest Hill, Illinois, to teach a workshop on Saturday. This is my first time teaching there, but I hope it won't be my last!
I am teaching my design called Flower Shoppe. This design is one of my favorites to teach because I have a couple of foundation paper piecing techniques that I can demonstrate with this design.
One of the things I like to teach is how to pre-cut some of your fabrics in order to be able to assembly line piece your foundations. This will make your piecing go faster, waste less fabric and keep your block edges from being on the bias.
This design also has a Y seam when it is assembled. If you've never done a Y seam, just seeing that term can cause some people to put a pattern back on the peg at the quilt shop.
I don't remember the project I was working on where I needed to sew a Y seam, but I'll admit, I was a little skeered! I did it, but it was a little fussy for me and I didn't enjoy it very much.
Years later, after avoiding Y seams altogether, I accidentally designed a new foundation paper pieced block.
I really, really liked the block design, so I decided to test it out.
It went together so smoothly because all of the stopping and starting points are marked on the foundation, that now I don't hesitate to use a Y seam in my designs and I love to teach others not to be afraid!