Phone book paper for foundation piecing


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Earlier this year, I was able to get the Layer Cake™ of With Glowing Hearts by Grace Noel before it was sold out from pretty much everywhere. I'm using this gorgeous line of fabric to create a commemorative quilted throw to mark Canada's 150th birthday this year.

I decided to make my quilt using the Hunter's Star quilt block because I love the block and it ties in with Canada's fur trade history. Hunting and trapping, especially beaver, was how Canada began.

There are several ways to make a Hunter's Star block. I chose to use foundation piecing because it's the technique I'm most comfortable with. However, this left me with a dilemma. I needed 48 blocks to make the quilt, but I didn't want to use 48 expensive sheets of foundation paper for the project. I know phone book paper is used for strip piecing, so I thought I'd try using it for foundation piecing. I was very pleased with the results. The phone book paper printed beautifully with my inkjet printer. If this were a complicated template, it might be hard to read, but it was perfect for this block. This paper is very light but doesn't curl up with normal iron heat and it tears away easily. Honestly, if I could get my hands on some of this paper not printed I'd buy a box of it.

The Pros and Cons of Using Phone Book Paper for Paper Piecing

PROS
  1. Very light but strong enough to be handled.
  2. Prints very well in an inkjet (not tested on a laser printer).
  3. Tears away with no effort at all.
  4. Doesn't curl up with the heat. 

CONS
  1. Somewhat difficult to read the template
  2. Not a nice 8½" x 11" sheet of paper.
  3. Can't see through it.

How to Print Your Template Onto Phone Book Paper

Because phone book paper has to be cut slightly smaller than normal letter-sized paper, use this method to print your templates.
  1. Copy your templates onto an 8½" x 11" sheet of paper.
  2. Cut out phone book pages to about 7¾ " to 8" wide.
  3. Cut a piece of white paper to the same size as your phone book paper.
  4. Cut out templates and paste or tape them down onto the smaller white piece of paper.
  5. Place phone book paper in your printer paper tray and adjust the paper width bars to the width of your paper.
  6. Center the template page on the printer bed and photocopy it onto the phone book paper.

2 comments:

  1. Try your local news paper. I have heard of people getting roll ends for packing

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good idea. Thanks. I never thought of that.

    ReplyDelete