Today is my stop on Patchwork Lab: Gemology book hop tour. Patchwork Lab: Gemology is a new book by Andrea Tsang Jackson of 3rd Story Workshop. To celebrate the launch of the book, I’m going to give you a peek of a quilt in progress, combining my Typecast English Paper Pieced letters with a Foundation Paper Pieced block from Andrea’s book. I’ll also explain the benefits of and differences between English Paper Piecing (EPP) and Foundation Paper Piecing (FPP). If you’ve tried one but not the other, I hope you’ll be inspired to explore.  And if you’ve never done either, you’re in luck! You have two new quilt piecing techniques to try out!

Last year as I was testing blocks for my Typecast English Paper Piecing pattern, I made letters spelling “Rockstar” with fabric from the Sunprint collection by Alison Glass.

These blocks sat unfinished in a stack for a while. Earlier this year, my friend Andrea shared with me her plans for her new Gemology book. My ears perked up… the blocks in her book were the perfect companion to my Rockstar blocks.

I selected the Marquise block, one of the nine foundation paper pieced blocks included in the book.

I love combining techniques in quilts, especially machine piecing and hand piecing. I can work on the same quilt in different environments—machine piecing while I’m in my Studio and hand piecing while I’m traveling or watching television on the couch.

Again, for this quilt top, the Marquis blocks are machine pieced using Foundation Paper Piecing techniques and the Typecast letter blocks are hand pieced using English Paper Piecing techniques.

Not sure what the difference is between these two very different paper piecing techniques?

Here’s an overview:

Be sure to check out Andrea’s book and Foundation Paper Piece your own gems!

Go make something great,