Design Notebook

Embroidering and Embellishing Foundation Pieced Blocks

A few touches of embroidery or other embellishment, such as buttons, often make a foundation pieced block "come to life." Markings for these are often shown on the foundation patterns. Here are two of my favorite methods for transferring these markings to the fabric:

1. To transfer the markings by hand, try old-fashioned dressmaker's tracing paper. Choose a color that will show up on your fabric without too much contrast. Lay the tracing paper with the chalk side up on a table or other firm surface, and place the pieced block fabric side down on the tracing paper. With a waterproof ball-point pen (such as a laundry pen), firmly follow the embroidery lines on the paper foundation. Check after the first line to verify you're pressing firmly enough to get a good mark.
2. Or use your machine to transfer the markings. This works particularly well for marking longer lines, such as bird legs or whiskers. Place your piece foundation-side up, and follow the embroidery markings using a short stitch. When you come to the end of a particular marking, just lift the presser foot and move the piece to stitch the next marking. When you're finished, trim any long connecting threads close to the stitching.

To embroider or embellish by hand-stitching, carefully remove the paper foundation from the areas to be worked after all markings are transferred by either method. Leave as much paper foundation as possible, especially around the edges, if the block will be sewn to other blocks after embroidery.

For embroidering or embellishing by machine, trace your foundation unit on a tear-away stabilizer for machine embroidery. Since you won't be able to remove every bit of foundation from beneath the embroidery, a stabilizer foundation would be preferable to paper for heirloom and competition-quality projects. Do a test block first to see how the stabilizer handles during the foundation piecing process (especially pressing, since some are designed to decompose with heat or moisture). If your project will be loved/washed to shreads (such as a child's quilt or garment), you needn't worry about the tiny paper bits remaining from paper foundations.

Position the block with the fabric side up and machine embroider as you wish with satin stitch or other fancy stitches, following your markings. Pull loose threads to the underside and secure. Tear off the foundation only after sewing the finished block to other blocks, sashing or border.