Designing a Foundation Pieced Block from a Photograph

This is a short tutorial on how to design a foundation paper pieced block from a photograph. You can either use pencil and paper or software to create this. For a more detailed tutorial with video content and how to draw this in EQ8, see my online workshop Creating A Foundation Block From A Photo

Note: if hand drawing you will want tracing paper and a scanner to copier to reproduce the pages.

1. Find a suitable photo that you would like to transform. Start out with something simple like the flower in this tutorial. Be sure you abide by any copyright protections laws if you are using someone else's photo. I always find it is best to use my own photos to avoid any issues.

2. Start simple by drawing the block outline. It is easiest to make this a square or rectangle. Size doesn't matter at this point as you can easily enlarge or reduce it later.

3. Draw the primary lines to divide up the block by drawing along the edges of the design. The lines should be drawn from one side of the block to the other keeping straight - use a ruler if drawing by hand. I've drawn three primary lines you can see in red below.

4. Subdivide the sections drawn in 3. These lines should identify the various sections of your photo ie the petals or leaves. All lines should connect between any two lines already in place.

5. Subdivide the sections again and keep going as many time as you like. The more lines you make, the more detailed and complex your block will be.

6. Plan your piecing order.

A: Remember, there is no right way to do this but in general if a section joins to a seamed piece, then the seamed section must be constructed first. For example: looking at the 2nd section from the right of my block. It has a blue line in the center with seams connecting to it so the piece above would need to be added after the section below was constructed.

B: Any line that has seams protruding from both sides of it will be a split in the foundation and therefore create a separate foundation. I have marked those lines in green on my example thus you can see I will create 8 separate foundations for this block.

C: Label each foundation with a letter. At this point the red and green lines will be the cut lines. 

D: Now it should be easy enough to decide on the order to piece each foundation remembering if a section joins to a seamed piece, then the seamed section must be numbered first.

7. After all your sections have been numbered, you are almost ready to start creating it. First make a copy of it and put your original aside. Separate the main sections. Add seam allowance to them. If you are hand drawing, you may need to trace them again with enough room between each foundation to add 1/4" (or more) seam allowance. Note: it is quite useful to add larger seam allowances for the foundations to give yourself a little wiggle room.

8. Make another copy of your foundations with seam allowances then make a test block. Select fabrics and make each foundation. Join all the foundations along the blue seams first, then work the red seams. Check your design and rework it if necessary adding any adjustments to your original copy.

Do you want to learn more about how to create this paper pieced block on your computer? Join me for a more detailed description of this tutorial with a video of the process and another how-to video on how to create this process using EQ8 software (EQ7 may also be used however the presentation will appear different). Check out my online workshop here: Creating A Foundation Block From A Photo