I tried to get it by following directions step by step. The part that
tripped me up was always the part about how big to cut the fabric. The
instructions would say something along the lines of cutting the piece
large enough to cover the next area plus seam allowance. It makes sense
to me now, but at the time, it was incomprehensible. If you get there
and have trouble, just cut an oversize piece. Foundation piecing does
waste fabric in a way that traditional piecing does not. It saves on
not having to make templates, do math or fumble with accuracy. I now do
both depending on what's easiest for the particular block I'm making.


I'm always interested in how different minds work, the way one person
will understand a sewing method that depends on working in 3 dimensions
or having something come out in reverse or turning something over so you
sew on one side and have it come out on the other. Those are all the
things that drive me nuts though I have little trouble with the math.
Working with fractions and adding seam allowances is a proverbial piece
of cake for me. I believe that's why I took to quilting the first time
I tried it. Quilting is basically working in small flat surfaces unlike
finding addresses which is large flat surfaces or fitting dresses which
has the element of 3 dimensions. I'd never been interested in any sort
of sewing before. Well, I'd been interested enough to try but not
enough to finish one project and go on to the next.


The teaching method that seems to work when someone isn't stupid but is
having trouble with concepts in one area is rote memorization. That's
what you and I are doing with paper piecing. Not able to wrap our minds
around this business of having the pattern on one side with the fabric
on the other, we memorize what to do without understanding why we're
doing it. After we've done it enough times, the understanding comes
later. I've seen that happen with students and math. They don't really
get what's going on with those fractions and what's happening that
multiplying by 1/3 is the same as dividing by 3. That's a hard concept,
but if you use it enough, it starts to become apparent why it works, why
it is the same thing.


--Lia