WIP Wed #20 - Do you know about newsprint endrolls?

OK, so. . . My summer smash through UFOs came to a screeching halt as I road-tripped last month away taking kids to their school locations and then got shoved into my own studies. So the biggest WIP for me now is actually my "Society and War" masters-level history course.

This was the pile before the final 3 arrived.  Yes: Bleh.

But I'm REALLY GETTING EXCITED now for the 2-day quilt class I have at Quilting By the Bay with Jacqueline deJonge at the end of this month!!  I signed up for it over a year ago. So for quilting, my current WIP is getting all the prepwork done for that class.

Isn't this amazing?

There were several quilts to choose from for the days on which I'm registered. I must have been drunk off of success after the Judy Niemeyer class I did in January, and chose the most advanced for my class days: Listen With Your Eyes.


Well, it's gonna be amazing. HOWEVER, let me warn you - many of the deJonge patterns do not have the papers you actually stitch on, but only have a master copy. This is one of them. (Of course - that's my luck!)  So you have to make your own foundation papers. The instructions suggest tracing each one, but I was not about to do that. My printer does a very good job of copying exactly 100%, thank you!

The masters are full of big black squares, though, and not wanting to waste that much ink, I did trace sections of each checkerboard arch to make copies from. (By the way, you ARE allowed to get photocopies for your own use, but not to share with others. Jacqueline stated in an email to us to make sure, if we're getting copies, that they print out exactly 100%, so there you have it, right there. I did not break any copyright laws by using my printer instead of my pencil.)

Now, here's a tip that can save you LOTS and LOTS of money: Don't Buy Foundation Papers or Fabrics. Use newsprint. You can go to a printing press and ask for an "End Roll".  These are the leftovers on a roll that  won't last the next printing, so they discard them.  Many places will let you have one for free. Mine was a gift from a gentleman in our guild who takes his truck to the printer's and asks for as much as they'll give him for $10. He typically drives away with 7-10 endrolls.

My endroll is 23" wide - perfect for cutting 4 sheets at a time out of a spread such as this.

These suckers have YARDS and YARDS of paper on them still! And it's the perfect weight for paper foundation piecing. (Tutorial about that sewing technique here.)  It's also superb, according to Earnest, for rolling out across a table and letting kiddos go hog wild coloring or painting. Or drawing out a full-size original design and using that for pattern pieces. Or spreading on a work surface to protect from the overspray of basting glue. Or using as an easy tear-away foundation for satin-stitch applique. Versatile stuff!

To use the newsprint with my printer, I needed to cut it into paper sizes. A bit of a pain, but definitely worth the money saved when I used 98 sheets of the stuff! That would have cost quite a bit in "official" foundation paper or fabric.


You do have to be careful and make sure your printer is not set on "fit to page" or any custom size that will give you anything other than an exact replica. And you can't use the fast setting, because the paper's too thin and will slip.


After printing all the duplications for each section out and CAREFULLY slicing the rows apart, according to directions, I finally have this complete set of foundation pieces all ready to go!

~*~*~*~

Goodness - it's been so long since I did a WIP post, I forgot to include a link to the party!

A big "Thank you!" to Lee at Freshly Pieced for hosting WIP Wednesdays 

It really keeps me motivated to keep those UFOs going! (Go check out what everyone else is doing - there are some really neat projects out there!)

Also, Check out my BOMs AWAY Mondays regular link-up.  

This week's stats:

New Projects – (Listen With Your Eyes by Jacqueline deJonge)    

Completed Projects This Week -  0  

In Active Progress - 1    (Listen)

UFO Firing Range - 31.333          

Finishes for 2011 - 24  

Completed tops awaiting quilting:

One charity wheelchair quilt

Center of Marissa’s Moment of Freakishness

Marissa’s Moment Pillowcase panel

Dreamy Unicorns

Wagon Wheels West #2

Be Attitudes

We Love Kelly

Devon's Silk Spinners

Kelly's Thirties Hand Quilter

Kelly's Calico

Poor Forgotten Orphan from 15 Years Ago