Originally Posted by christinetindell

OK, English paper piecing was described earlier, you baste pieces of fabric to a shape, like the Grandmother's flower garden quilt. Then with the paper (stiff like cardstock) still inside that perfect shape, you whip stitch them together. When all are stitched together and all of the shapes are perfect, you take out the basting stitches and the paper. Foundation piecing can take a few different forms. The ones that I have done most recently are slightly different. I am making the "Roll cotton Boll Roll" Christmas mystery from Bonnie hunter and one of the blocks used an 8 1/2 inch piece of paper as the base and then we sewed "strings" of fabric to the paper right sides together, flipped them out and kept doing that until the square was filled, on the diagonal. Then I flipped it over and squared it to 8 1/2 inches and then removed the paper from the back. The reason you use the paper is for a basic shape and for stability.
I also took a class from Edyta Sitar and her foundation papers are printed with 1/4 inch seam allowance, so you sew with the pattern and the fabric on the same side. You line up your piece of fabric, that is cut exactly to size with the seam allowance line and finger press it out as you go. This works especially well for pineapple blocks. It was so fun and oh so precise. This will also work for other paper piecing, but you have a lot of figuring to do before you start sewing. Without a visual, I guess it's hard to conceptualize.