Sunday 26 October 2014

Foundation Paper pieces..

Did you ever draw your own Foundation Paper Pattern?
Well, I did, for a bee last month. And I was very happy with the result. But. Yes, Big BUT.. I used paper and pencil- you know, that old fashioned stuff. Which, with all its merits, you cannot happily print a half dozen off, all identical. Or, you can, using a photocopier..but not long distance, or immediately, and not when you already used it!


So, if someone asks you for the pattern, but you already sewed the thing and sent it off, you really do not have a copy to send...


Ok, so that is not an impossible ask, you can, after all, draw one out on a computer package... such as 'Paint'  and do it that way.

I am sure there is a better thing to try this on- it is just, I have 'Paint' on my computer, so it felt feasible to use it for the purpose.

Again, there is a but. When I did this with paper and pencil, I drew my finished square first, and then put in my tree and worked out what the sequence was from there. With 'Paint' I have no idea how big my starter square is. Yes, there is a rule you can put round it, but what do the measurements on the rule apply to? It surely is not inches.. and does not appear to be centimetres either..

So, you do the whole thing, and print it off and then measure it.

And then, because it has come out 2 1/2" rather than 3", you do it again. You do some pretty basic maths, and try once more. And it comes out 4 1/8 ".
There must be a way to do this, you think. So you take their scale measurements and try once more...

A bit nearer, at 3 1/8 "  and after messing about and printing off yet more versions, you find that applying a 'resize' factor only seems to apply to the image on the screen, and not at all to the printed version, you decide to settle for what you have!

So, I have emailed all three different size versions of it, to the requester, and shall hope she can make head or tail of them!

That little tree over there, on the right...



Anyone else want to have a go at one?

3 comments:

Diane-crewe said...

did better than me ... would not know where to start!! well done x

the running hare said...

Sounds complicated! I'd have just redrawn it again on paper as I have zero computer skills!

Archie The Wonder Dog said...

I'm not sure it'll help you but you can set the ruler in Excel to display inches. You could then drag the cells or drawings to be the right size. It's not something I've tried (yet!) but if I do I'll let you know!

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