Sewing Curves

What I’m Working On…

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A couple of days ago I started a new quilt – the previous one really didn’t challenge my sewing skills (I was making it specifically for a friend who didn’t want anything too “fancy”).

This time, I’ve started building something I think I’ll end up calling “Bamboo” – blocks cut freehand with contrasting inserts to look like stems with long narrow leaves. Quite difficult to execute, actually – these first five blocks started out with 9″ wide fabric but trimmed up somewhat less than 6″ in width because of the curvature that occurred with the leaf insertions.

Free-form Blocks

However, after eight blocks I think I’ve finally figured out how to execute the blocks – do the initial slashing cuts, then lay out the pieces and remove fabric from each cut so that when the inserts are stitched and pressed the block retains most of it’s shape and the size will be closer to the starting size. This block is cut, now to add the leaves and stem.

Setting Up The Block

I’m not worrying about keeping block size consistent – they’ll come out whatever size they do; then I’ll fill in with other smaller piecing to make the whole work out.

Amaryllis 

My amaryllis now has 6 flower blooms – four showing and two to come. That’s the most I’ve ever had on a stalk. The third stalk is still peeking out of the bulb – it’s not clear if it will actually grow or not.

Amaryllis Stalk #2 – with 6 blooms!

This set of blooms makes me smile each time I look at them.

Modern Quilt II – Improvisation

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Saw a photo of a wall hanging on Pinterest based on large “wonky” curves. I’ve never really tackled curves except on the princess seams of a jacket where you have to join a convex edge to a concave one. Curve sewing seemed a good thing to learn to control. The technique is the same here as it was on the jackets except the curve is more exaggerated making the sewing more complicated in order to have the seam lay flat! 

The curves are also improvisations cut with a rotary cutter – no pattern, no templates, just free-form cutting. The first few cuts were nerve-wracking – what shape curve to cut, from where to where,… It took a couple of blocks before I started to get the hang of what I was trying to do. 

I started with 12″ blocks of each fabric, paired them up, and began cutting. I swapped the corner of one block with the fabric beneath – each cut yielded two blocks each consisting of two different fabrics. I realized on the first pair of blocks I needed to insert a thin accent strip in the block – so two curved seams! When I finished each block the outer edges were no longer straight – the blocks needed to be trimmed and squared. The resulting blocks ended up 10.25″ x 10.25″.

To join the blocks I used 1″ sashing giving me 1/2″ separations between each block. The borders are 2″ strips.

I bought backing fabric this morning (before the snow starts falling this evening). Tomorrow will definitely be a sewing day.  I’ll have to think about what improvisation to use for the back – it should be something that suggests curves!