Foundation paper piecing is sewing fabric onto a printed paper pattern, following the printed lines with your needle instead of measuring anything. The paper holds every seam in the right place, which is why the technique produces points so sharp they look machine made, and it is also why the first attempt feels backward: the side you sew from is the side you cannot see the fabric on.
That one fact organizes everything else. Once you accept that the back of the paper is the front of the block, the rest of foundation paper piecing is a short list of habits, and none of them are hard.
What foundation paper piecing is
A foundation is any material you build a patchwork unit on top of. The Quilter's Bible puts it simply: many forms of patchwork use foundation piecing to join shapes quickly and extremely accurately, and it is particularly useful for intricate blocks such as Pineapple, Storm at Sea and Mariner's Compass, though it works for any piecing at all.
Foundations come in two families, and the difference decides how you work.
Temporary foundations are removed once the unit is built. Thin printer paper, newspaper, freezer paper, tear away stabilizer and water soluble foundation paper all belong here. They carry no seam allowance and are never sewn into one, because that would make them impossible to remove. The foundation is cut to the exact finished size and shape, and its outer edges become the sewing lines that join this unit to the next.
Permanent foundations stay inside the quilt. Muslin, thin cotton, lightweight sew in interfacing and commercial foundation sheets are used for this, all of them lightweight so the finished quilt can still be quilted through.
There is also a second axis, and it catches people out because both are called foundation piecing. Under pressed piecing is what most quilters mean by the term today: the pattern is printed on the paper, the fabric goes underneath, and you sew on the printed side. Stitch and flip is the one you may already know by another name, and the Bible files it under foundation piecing too: fabric is laid on top of the foundation, sewn with a quarter inch seam, flipped and pressed, with no lines to follow. Everything below is about the first one.
Foundation paper piecing and English paper piecing are not the same thing
These two share the word paper and almost nothing else, and if you have ever followed a paper piecing tutorial and found yourself lost in the first minute, this is probably why.
English paper piecing is hand work. You cut stiff paper or cardstock into the finished shape, usually a hexagon, wrap a fabric patch around it, baste the seam allowance down, and then whip stitch the patches to each other by hand. The papers come out at the end. The Bible describes it as often one of the first techniques beginners learn, and it travels well because it needs no machine.
Foundation paper piecing is machine work. The paper carries a printed drawing of the block, the fabric never wraps around anything, and the sewing happens along printed lines at the machine. Nothing is basted and nothing is hand stitched.
They solve different problems. English paper piecing exists to join shapes that have angles a machine would fight you over. Foundation paper piecing exists to put points exactly where the drawing says, at speed. If the instructions tell you to baste around the paper, you are reading about the other one.
What paper to use
Ordinary printer paper works, and it is what most tutorials assume. The variable that matters is weight, and it pulls in two directions at once: heavy enough to feed through the machine without tearing while you sew, light enough to come away cleanly when you are done.
Standard office paper is 80 gsm, and it does the job. Monica Poole of Pattern Poole TV uses 70 gsm and says the lighter the paper, the easier it is to remove, which is the whole argument for going down a weight. Below that you start fighting the printer more than the paper is worth.
The purpose built alternatives are worth knowing about even if you never buy them. Tear away stabilizer is made to come off in one pull. Water soluble foundation paper dissolves, which is the answer for a block with so many seams that picking paper out of them would take an evening. Freezer paper can be pressed to the back of the fabric and repositioned, and it is the one to reach for when you want to reuse a template.
Whatever you use, print one page first and measure it before you print the rest. Printers scale silently, and a template printed at 97 per cent produces a block that is 97 per cent of the size it should be, with every seam in the wrong place relative to its neighbors. Monica Poole checks that her template A measures 4 1/2 inches square and her template B measures 4 1/2 by 5 1/2 before anything is cut, and that is the habit to copy.
How big to cut each piece
Pieces for foundation piecing are always cut larger than the shape they will fill, because they have to cover the shape and its seam allowance and still leave you something to hold while you sew. How much larger is where the sources disagree, and both answers work.
The Quilter's Bible says to cut each patch at least 1/2 inch larger all round, which is a full inch added to each dimension. That is the generous version, and it is the one to use when the shape is an awkward angle or when you are new to the technique.
Leanne of Twin Rock Quilting works tighter and gives a rule you can apply without doing any arithmetic. She measures the piece on the printed template, adds half an inch, and cuts to that. A three inch center becomes a 3 1/2 inch square. The side triangles on her square in a square come from another 3 1/2 inch square cut once on the diagonal, and the outer ones from a 5 inch square cut the same way. Half an inch total means a quarter inch of overhang on each side, which is exactly the seam allowance and nothing spare.
The difference is forgiveness. The Bible's inch lets a piece land slightly off center and still cover its shape. Leanne's half inch does not, which is why she holds every piece up to the light before sewing it. Pick the one that matches how carefully you want to work. Either way the cut has to be square to start with, and the rotary cutter checks that keep a cut accurate apply here as much as anywhere. Use good quilting cotton too: loosely woven fabric frays into the seam allowance and eats the margin you left yourself. Ours is in fabric by the yard.
Setting up the machine
Three settings change for foundation paper piecing, and one of them is not what you would guess.
Stitch length goes down. Every source agrees on this one. A shorter stitch than you use for ordinary patchwork perforates the paper more densely, so it tears along the seam instead of tearing across it. Monica Poole sets hers to 1.8. The Bible says simply to sew with a shorter stitch length than normal. Whatever your machine calls it, go shorter than your usual piecing setting and do not go so short that unpicking becomes impossible, because you will unpick something eventually.
The needle is where the sources part company. The Quilter's Bible says to use a larger needle, giving size 90/14 as the example, for the same reason as the short stitch: a fatter needle makes a bigger hole and the paper releases more easily. Monica Poole uses a size 70, which is finer, and describes it as a thicker needle than she would normally use, which does not match the numbering. What both agree on is that the needle is doing double duty here, sewing fabric and perforating paper, and that a needle you have already worn out on something else is the wrong one to start with. If you want the paper to fall away, take the Bible's advice and go up. If you are worried about the holes showing in the finished block, go down and accept a little more picking at the end. Fifty weight cotton suits either, and ours is in thread.
An open toe foot earns its place. You are following a printed line you can see, and a standard foot covers part of it. Monica Poole switches to an open toe so the lines stay in view the whole way. It is the smallest of the three changes and the one that makes the most difference to how the sewing feels.
Two more things that are not machine settings but belong in the same breath. Set the iron to dry, with no steam, because steam softens paper and a distorted template stops being a reliable drawing. And set up a cutting mat and a pressing surface within reach of the machine, so that trimming, stitching and pressing happen without standing up between every piece, which on a block with eight pieces means eight fewer trips.
Sewing the block, step by step
This is the under pressed method, the one the Bible sets out and the one both video tutorials follow. The sequence below works for any foundation pattern, from a square in a square to a Mariner's Compass.
Read the numbers first. Every section of a foundation template carries a number, and often a letter on each line. You work in numerical order, and where letters are printed, in alphabetical order too. On a simple block the order barely matters, but the habit is worth forming on the easy one because on a complicated block it is the difference between a finished unit and a piece you have to unpick out of the middle.
Perforate the lines before you sew. This step is optional and it is the single best tip in either of the tutorials. Monica Poole runs a tracing wheel along every printed line, using a ruler to keep it straight, with the paper on an old cutting mat or the back of a good one. It does three things at once: the paper folds crisply on a perforated line, the lines become visible from the blank side, and the whole template lifts away at the end without a fight. The Bible describes the same idea from the other direction, needle punching the lines with an unthreaded machine, and notes the catch that most modern machines refuse to sew unthreaded.
Place piece one, right side up, on the blank side. The printed side faces down for this. Position the fabric over its shape so it overlaps on all sides, then turn the template over and hold it up to the light to check that fabric is covering the whole shape plus its seam allowance. Pin it in the middle, well away from any line you are about to sew. Monica Poole uses a flathead pin so the template still lies flat on the machine bed.
Fold back on the first line and trim to a quarter inch. Fold the paper along the line between piece one and piece two, which shows you exactly where the seam allowance should end, and trim the excess fabric back to a quarter inch from that fold.
Lay piece two right sides together against that trimmed edge. Center it so an even amount extends past each end of the seam. Hold it, or pin it well clear of the stitching line.
Turn to the printed side and sew exactly on the line. Only the length of the line, with a backstitch or an automatic tie off at each end. A couple of stitches past the end is fine and on an outer line is helpful.
Open it out and press. Set the seam, open the piece, finger press, then press with the dry iron. Monica Poole is specific that pressing with the iron rather than finger pressing alone gives visibly better accuracy, and she is right: finger pressing leaves a soft fold that eats an eighth of an inch you will miss two seams later.
Check coverage, then repeat. Hold it up to the light again. The new piece has to cover its whole shape including the seam allowance. If it falls short, now is the moment to unpick, not four pieces later. Leanne of Twin Rock Quilting checks the light on every single piece and calls it out as the habit that saves the block.
Trim on the outer line last. When the last piece is on, turn to the printed side and cut on the outside line. What you have is the unit at its unfinished size, with every point sitting a quarter inch in from the raw edge, ready to join to its neighbors.
Trimming between pieces, and why the bulk matters
The fold and trim between pieces is not housekeeping, it is what stops the block from becoming a lump.
Leanne of Twin Rock Quilting does it with a rule worth repeating out loud: fold the paper back on the line, lay the ruler along the fold, and cut a quarter inch away from the paper, not from the edge of the fabric. Do not cut the paper. On a square in a square, where four triangles meet the corners of a center square, that quarter inch is the whole difference between a block that presses flat and one with a hard ridge diagonally across it.
Brenda of Conquering Mount Scrapmore trims dog ears deeper than the usual right angle for the same reason, taking a little more off each corner than the shape strictly needs. The seam at the edge is still sound, and the corner where four seam allowances are about to meet has less in it.
Both habits are cheap at the time and impossible to fix afterward. Once the block is assembled, the bulk is sewn in.
When to take the paper off
The default answer is at the very end. The Quilter's Bible says to remove temporary foundations after all sewing is complete, and the reasoning is sound: the paper is stabilizing edges that may have ended up off grain, and a bias edge with nothing holding it will stretch as you sew the next seam.
Monica Poole does the opposite on the block in her tutorial, and the reason she gives is the useful part. She checks the grain first. On that block every outer edge sits on the straight grain or the cross grain, so nothing can stretch, and with the paper gone the units are easier to nest and press. She also points out the practical half of it: paper is far easier to remove from a single unit than from the middle of an assembled block, where the seams have closed over it.
So the rule is not a rule, it is a question. Look at where the outer edges of your unit fall. Straight or cross grain, and nothing is at risk, so take the paper off now and make the rest of the sewing easier. Bias anywhere on an outer edge, and leave it in until the last seam is sewn.
When you do remove it, the short stitch you set at the start does its job: the paper tears along the perforations rather than dragging the stitching with it. Tweezers get the last slivers out of the seam lines, and it is worth getting them all, because a scrap of paper left inside a seam stays there for the life of the quilt.
Joining foundation pieced units to each other
Every foundation template carries two kinds of line, and telling them apart is the thing that catches people on their first finished unit.
The lines inside the drawing are sewing lines: you stitch on them. The line around the outside is the cutting line, and it sits a quarter inch beyond where the block actually finishes. Leanne of Twin Rock Quilting ends her tutorial on exactly this distinction, because the outer edge is where you cut and the seam that joins this unit to the next one runs a quarter inch inside it. Cut on the wrong one and the unit is a quarter inch short on every side, which is not recoverable.
The edges of a temporary foundation are doing a second job here. Because the paper is cut to the exact finished size, with no seam allowance of its own, its edges are the sewing lines for joining. That is what the Bible means when it says the foundation's edges act as sewing lines for joining the unit to other blocks later.
Joining is ordinary patchwork after that. Right sides together, pin at the points where the stitching lines cross so the points survive, nest the seams where they run in opposite directions, and use a scant quarter inch. If you left the paper in, you are sewing through it, which is another argument for taking it off when the grain allows.
One habit worth carrying over from block piecing: press so that the seams of neighboring units fall in opposite directions. It costs nothing at the ironing board and it is what lets the units nest instead of fighting each other at the intersection.
Where foundation paper piecing goes wrong
Almost every problem with this technique comes from one of five places, and all five are avoidable.
The template printed at the wrong size. This is the most common and the most expensive, because you only find out once the block will not fit its neighbors. Print one page, measure the printed template against the size written on it, and fix the printer before printing the rest. Check the scaling setting, not just the page size: printing at fit to page shrinks by a few per cent silently.
A piece that does not cover its shape. You sew it, open it out, and a corner of the paper is still showing through. The cause is always the same, the piece went in slightly off center, and the fix is always the same too: hold it up to the light before you sew, not after. If it has already happened, unpick that one seam. There is no way to cover it later.
Sewing next to the line instead of on it. A sixteenth of an inch off is invisible on one seam and adds up to a distorted block by the eighth. An open toe foot and a slower speed fix most of it.
Steam. Paper and steam do not get along. The template softens, stretches where the iron pushes it, and stops being the accurate drawing that the whole technique depends on. Dry iron, every time.
Bulk at the intersections. On a block where several points meet, the seam allowances pile up and the center will not press flat. Trim each seam allowance back to a quarter inch as you go, clip the dog ears deeper than the right angle, and where a center still refuses, press that seam open rather than to one side.
Blocks worth starting with
Not every block is a good first foundation block, and the difference is how much can go wrong before you notice.
Square in a square is the block both tutorials use, and it is the right one. It comes in two depths. The shallow one is a center square on point with a background triangle on each side, five pieces and four seams, which is what Monica Poole builds on her template A. Add a second round of corner triangles and you have nine pieces and eight seams, sometimes called an economy block, which is the version Leanne pieces and the one on our free sheet. Leanne calls it a very beginner block and it is: every piece in either depth is large enough to hold while you sew. The units are useful long after you have learned the technique: they turn up as sashing cornerstones, as the center of a larger block, and as a quilt center on their own.
Flying geese are the next step and the reason many quilters try foundation piecing at all. A goose made on a foundation has the point exactly a quarter inch from the raw edge every time, which is the one thing the other methods keep getting wrong. If you want the versions that do not use paper, we have three ways to make flying geese and a size chart.
The blocks the Bible names are where the technique stops being convenient and starts being the only sensible option. Pineapple, Storm at Sea and Mariner's Compass all have pieces too narrow or too oddly angled to cut and join accurately any other way. Nobody starts there, and everybody who does them uses a foundation.
Anything with a point that has to land on a seam. That is the honest test for whether to reach for paper at all. If the design has a point that must meet something exactly, a foundation will put it there. If it is squares and rectangles meeting at right angles, ordinary piecing is faster and you do not have paper to pull out afterward. The same test decides between paper and the cut and sew methods for triangle units, which we set out in three ways to make half square triangles.
Making your own foundation pattern
You do not have to buy templates, and making one is easier than it sounds.
The Bible sets out the method. Start with the block drawn at the size you want, enlarging or reducing it on a photocopier if needed. Then mark the pattern in reverse onto the back of the foundation material, because the printed side is the side you sew from and the finished block reads as a mirror of it. Use a light box if you have one, or tape the drawing to a window, flipped over, with the foundation taped centrally on top of it. Then draw the lines with a ruler and a marking pen or sharp pencil.
The reversal is the part people forget. It does not matter at all on a symmetrical block, which is another reason the square in a square is a good place to start, and it matters enormously on anything directional. A letter, a house, an animal: get it the wrong way around on the paper and the finished block is a mirror image of the drawing.
Number the sections before you start sewing, not while you sew. Decide the order, write it on, and check that each numbered piece can actually be added after the one before it without being sewn into a corner it cannot get out of.
The Bible offers a warning about photocopiers that applies equally to printers: copy the size and shape accurately without distortion, or errors creep into the sewing. Measure the copy, not the original.
The free square in a square foundation sheet
Everything above works on any foundation pattern, but you need a pattern to work on. Ours is a one page sheet with a square in a square template printed at actual size, four inches finished, numbered one to nine and ready to sew. Beside it is the cutting table for three block sizes and the sewing order, so the whole method fits on the page you take to the machine.
Download the one page square in a square foundation sheet, free. Print it at 100 per cent, measure the one inch bar under the template before you cut anything, and if the bar is not an inch, fix the printer scaling and print again.
The sizes in that table are the printed shape plus a quarter inch on every side, which is the least that will cover. Leanne of Twin Rock Quilting cuts looser than that on the corners, a five inch square where the minimum is four, and the extra makes each piece easier to place. Either works. Her rule covers any size you ever meet: measure the piece on the printed template and add half an inch.
Nothing on the sheet is missing from this article and nothing in this article is missing from the sheet. The sheet exists because a page beside the machine beats a phone that keeps going to sleep, not because we held anything back for it.
Foundation paper piecing questions we are asked most
What is paper piecing in quilting?
It is any patchwork method that uses paper to control where the fabric goes. In practice the phrase covers two different techniques. Foundation paper piecing sews fabric onto a printed paper pattern by machine, following printed lines. English paper piecing wraps fabric around paper shapes and joins them by hand. When someone says paper piecing with no other qualifier, they usually mean the machine one.
What is foundation paper piecing?
Sewing fabric onto a paper foundation that has the block printed on it, stitching along the printed lines rather than measuring seam allowances. The paper holds every seam where the drawing says it should be, which is how the technique produces points that land exactly. The paper is removed at the end.
Do I sew on the printed side or the fabric side?
The printed side. This is the part that feels wrong the first few times. The fabric sits underneath, against the blank side of the paper, and you turn the whole thing over to sew, following a line while the fabric you are joining is out of sight. Holding the work up to the light before each seam is how you check that what is underneath is where it should be.
Is foundation paper piecing the same as English paper piecing?
No, and the confusion is worth clearing up because the instructions for one make no sense if you are doing the other. English paper piecing is hand sewing around paper shapes, usually hexagons, with the seam allowance basted over the paper and the patches whip stitched together. Foundation paper piecing is machine sewing on printed lines. The tools are not the same, the skills are not the same, and nothing transfers between them except the word paper.
What paper should I use for foundation paper piecing?
Ordinary printer paper works. Standard office paper is 80 gsm and does the job; lighter paper around 70 gsm tears away more easily and is worth seeking out if your printer will take it. Purpose made alternatives are tear away stabilizer, which comes off in one pull, water soluble foundation paper, which dissolves and is worth it on a block with many seams, and freezer paper, which presses to the fabric and can be repositioned.
How do I stop the paper tearing while I am still sewing?
Some of it is the paper weight, and some of it is handling. Keep the pieces you are not sewing folded out of the way rather than dragging them through the machine, do not pull the work through, and pin only in the middle of a piece, well clear of the line. If the paper does tear along a seam you still need, a strip of tape on the printed side holds it long enough to finish.
When should I take the paper out?
Look at the grain on the outer edges of the unit. If they are on the straight or the cross grain, nothing can stretch and you can take the paper off as soon as the unit is trimmed, which makes the joining easier. If any outer edge is on the bias, leave the paper in until the last seam is sewn, because that is exactly what it is there to hold. The default advice in The Quilter's Bible is to leave it until all sewing is complete, and that is the safe answer when you are not sure.
Why is my finished block the wrong size?
Nine times out of ten the template printed at the wrong scale. Measure the printed template against the size written on it before cutting a single piece. The other common cause is cutting on the inner line instead of the outer one: the outer line is the cutting line and it sits a quarter inch beyond where the block finishes, so cutting on the seam line loses a quarter inch on every side.
Do I need a special needle or foot?
Neither is required and both help. An open toe foot keeps the printed line visible while you sew, which matters more than it sounds. For the needle, The Quilter's Bible recommends going up a size, to 90/14 for example, so the larger holes release the paper more easily, while some tutors prefer to stay finer so the holes are less visible in the finished block. What is not optional is a shorter stitch length than you use for ordinary piecing.
Can I reuse a foundation template?
A paper one, no. It is perforated by the sewing and torn off in pieces. That is why you print one per unit, and why a block of twenty units means twenty printed templates. Freezer paper is the exception worth knowing: pressed rather than sewn through in some methods, it can be lifted and repositioned several times. Permanent foundations, such as muslin or lightweight interfacing, are not reused either, because they stay in the quilt.
Is foundation paper piecing good for beginners?
Yes, with the right block. The technique itself asks for less skill than ordinary piecing, because you are following a drawn line rather than holding a quarter inch by eye. What it asks for is patience with an order of operations. Start with a square in a square, get used to sewing from the printed side, and the intricate blocks stop looking impossible. If quilting itself is new, our step by step guide to making a quilt covers everything around the block.
What to have ready
Printer paper, the lighter the better, and a printer you have checked the scaling on. Good quilting cotton, cut generously: half an inch larger than the shape if you are working tight, a full inch if you want the margin. Fifty weight cotton thread in a neutral color, top and bobbin. A needle you have not already worn out. An open toe foot if your machine has one. A ruler and rotary cutter, a dry iron, and a tracing wheel if you want the lines perforated before you start. Tweezers for the last scraps of paper.
A cutting mat and a pressing surface beside the machine are not tools, but they save more time than any of the tools do.
Where to start
Print one square in a square template. Measure it. Cut five pieces to the rule, center the first one on the blank side and hold it up to the light. Sew the first line, open it out, press with a dry iron, and hold it up to the light again.
That is the whole technique. Everything else on this page is a refinement of those four moves, and the intricate blocks are the same four moves repeated more times, in a stricter order, on a busier drawing. When you want something to put the unit into, our beginner quilt patterns are the shortest route from one block to a finished quilt.
