gerda you temptress you - actually i'm not sure you posted the first link to quiltville.com - but take a look at this one from that site!!
http://quiltville.com/scrapbargello.shtml
ain't it a beauty??!!!

Ladies, it's to keep your lines staight and your fabric from stretching out of shape! When you get all your blocks together, then just tear it off! But if you use muslin for your paper you don't have to do away with it!


Betty

I posted this site on another thread too. I was looking around the net yesterday, and came acrossed it. She has some great looking strip/scrappy quilts.

Dorian

Thank you Betty! After trying to pound it into my hard head, I finally got it!

I just made a demo for my class and I used an old sheet. Found them really cheap at a 2nd hand store and it worked great. I don't like tearing off paper. It is just annoying.
Love the bargello.
Vicky

You are welcome Jenell! Vicky you would do better to buy muslin for your foundation as sheets are tightly woven fabric and almost impossible to quilt through!

Jenell, I started an art quilt several years ago for a grandson and it's still now finished but it began by making 2 35.5" squares on paper. Then I had to divide those squares into 4 parts by first finding the center of one side and drawing a line to each corner; then I had to find the center of the bottom of the paper and draw a line through the center of the piece. Well anyway I could not imagine what I was going to do with that! lol It was used to keep by 3" strips straight!

So now you know about those papers!

Betty

Betty,
I have not quilted mine yet. Hopefully I will feel able to do it tomorrow, so that I can hang it in the store. I guess I will find out if it is hard. I just did it the way my friend does hers. She and her mom make a ton of quilts to give to the foster kids every year in her area. They try to make sure every child has a quilt of their very own because of the poor living conditions they are from. I have made a couple for her. I feel like it is one the very best projects I have ever been involved in. Have an awesome day.
Love,
Vicky

Vicky-

My guess is that if you are making these quilts for charity, they are expected to get repeated and frequent washings. You aren't planning to hand quilt them, are you? I would save hand quilting for heirloom quilts and either machine quilt or tie these. In which case, an inexpensive sheet should work fine. Muslin is the preferred choice, but you need to do what makes the project work for you. Old sheets were often used for foundation piecing, folks had no choice but to be frugal and make do with what they had available. If using inexpensive sheets allows you the opportunity to make more quilts to donate, then go for it.

There are no hard and fast rules in quilting, only informed choices. When you know the limitations and characteristics of the available materials then you can choose what works best. Each project stands on its own merits, one of those being financial consideration. For anything you plan to hand quilt, then, as Betty said, muslin would be a better choice. The sheet has too high a thread count to needle well.

Meg,
I machine quilt because I have a pinched nerve in my neck and my hands go to sleep any time I try to sew by hand. I even sew the binding with machine because 3 or 4 stitches and my hand is asleep. I am sure that makes a big difference. Plus I have a frame so that machine quilting is also easier.
Thanks,
Vicky

Well here are my practice blocks. I like the look of them but I don't like freezer paper! Too stiff so I'm going to keep looking and experimenting till I find the right combo for this one.