Curved seams

I taught myself how to quilt by reading books gotten from the library, and from old issues of Quilters Newsletter I would find at quilt shows. There was no internet then, no blogs to surf, or google to search with.

So when I learned a new technique, I was never intimidated by it. I never read or heard that others were intimidated by it or that people had a hard time with it.

Curves are simple, albeit frustrating at times. The key is to use lots of pins, and go slowly.

I started out with some colorful squares. (Please forgive the fuzzy pictures, not sure why the camera is doing that on some.)

Cut out my concave (top) and convex (bottom) pieces.

Fold in half and finger press. This will give you the middle of each piece, so you can line them up. No markers to fuss with and the line easily comes out.

Rights sides together, match middle lines and pin.

Then start pinning to the left, or right, about every half inch. Gently pulling the concave piece to fit the lines of the convex piece. Making sure there is no small ruffles.

Here is the other side. This is the side that I like to have face up when sewing. That way you can ease around the big ruffles.

Sometimes it's helpful to cut tiny, itty bitty notches in both pieces of the curve. Helps to ease the two pieces together. You notice that the notches are less than 1/4".

Now put your pieces under the needle and slowly go along the edge, pulling pins as you get to them, and gently easing the the pieces together.

If you get to a ruffle that wont move, you can manipulate the fabric just a bit, to make it smooth again. Taking a pin out and adjusting it as needed.

Here it is, all trimmed and ready for the iron. You will notice the fold lines match perfectly.

I always press the seam up, they sit easier that way.

I am quilting this and making  a pillow out of it...notice the top left piece. It has some tiny ruffles there, but those are easily taken out with the iron...apparently I didn't iron well enough ;) .....

I'll show you when it's done.

I hope that I've helped take the intimidation out of curves for you. Feel free to leave comments or questions.

Thanks for stopping by,

Till next time....

Dorian
Copyright D. Lucas, 2011 This is my tutorial. You are welcome to use any of my tutorials for personal use. You are not permitted to use my pictures or my words without linking back to the original and giving me credit for them.

Bindings

LOL, going from "lesson 1" to bindings...that was a quick trip, huh?  ; )

As I am just learning, there aren't any more lessons right now. I'll leave that to the pros. But I did want to talk about binding.

There are many reasons that people don't want to hand stitch the back of the binding down. Some people have hand/nerve problems, some people don't want to take the time, and some people just HATE doing it.

I fall in the first catagory, so I've needed to figure out how to machine bind my quilted stuff. I was surfing some blogs and came across a great tutorial at redpepperquilts.  Thank you Rita!

So I want to hit on a few key points here.

This is how you DON'T want it to look. I used to sew from the BACK, but now I know, you sew from the FRONT.

See where the arrows are pointing...your sewing line isn't straight, unless your binding is perfectly straight. Sometimes I would even sew off the binding it's self...not pretty.

So you want to make sure you sew from the FRONT, after pinning.

After you stitch the binding down on the top, bring it around to the back and pin, just covering the sew line from sewing on the front. This is important, to make sure you cover your stitches. This is what happens when you don't....

Point 2, make sure you stitch in the ditch...and I mean RIGHT in the ditch...

'Cause if you don't....see where my off-white stitching is just a SMIDGE outside the ditch....

Then this also happens..

So if that happens to you, you can either resew from the front with your machine. Or you can just whip stitch that little bit down by hand.

There is my 'lesson' on machine piecing bindings. They really are soooooo easy this way.

Now you can put those bindings on much quicker...for those times when you are in a hurry.

Thanks for stopping by....Till next time....

Dorian
Copyright D. Lucas, 2011 This is my tutorial. You are welcome to use any of my tutorials for personal use. You are not permitted to use my pictures or my words without linking back to the original and giving me credit for them.

Delving into machine quilting

I've been quilting for 17yrs. I've always been a hand quilter. Only machine quilting a few little things here and there. Like pot holders or table runners. I just enjoy hand quilting.

But things change, and due to physical problems, I haven't been able to do much hand quilting this past year or so. I have been machine piecing projects though, and have decided that this is the year to really learn how to machine quilt.

First lesson:

Make sure you use the right presser foot!!

This is the foot I use for piecing. It's just a normal foot, sews a great straight line, but doesn't sew well on thick pieces.

I sand whiched a small project and started sewing. I was using my normal presser foot to quilt with. And it was a disaster. The tension wasn't right, no matter what I did. It was still sewing tight. The foot didn't want to go over the seams very well, so kept getting caught on my fabric, which caused puckers.


Then the light bulb went off, and I remembered that I had a 'quilting' foot! It's not a walking foot. It's just this little foot, that is more open in the front and has rounded ends.

I don't know if you can see the difference in these pictures. Top one is using the quilters foot, bottom the normal foot.

The difference is amazing!! With the quilters foot, you can see in those two pictures, that my curves are better. The stitches don't get bunched together and fabric doesn't bunch up...at least not as much.


The quilters foot glides over the fabric, the tension issues are solved...well, almost (I need to adjust it just a little, the top thread peaks on the backing a little).

I don't think the quilters foot can do free motion quilting. But at least I can do some simple, straight line quilting.

I know that I need lots of practice...

Do you think this stack of pretties will give me the practice I need?? LOL

 This is only about a THIRD of the quilt tops I have, that need quilting! I should be pretty good, by the time I'm done :)

Till next time....

Dorian

Another rainy Saturday

The rain and snow are still coming down here. We are finally going to see a relief from it on Tuesday. Now I love snow, but I am tired of being cold. The older I get, the more it affects me.

So the mystery quilt weekend is done. I have another top to add to my pile that needs quilting. I am hoping that this Summer is going to be a turning point for me, and I'll be able to get some tops quilted up. Here's a sneak peek.

This block is very interesting to me. I think I am going to have to make more and play with them. I love have the X looks like it's floating.

Saturday's are usually days that I put aside my chores, except for cooking, and spend time in the sewing room. It's my one dedicated morning. This morning I am working on a new bag pattern.

Here are a few bags I've made recently.

I call these my Ditty Bags. Cute huh?!

I made this satchel bag awhile back.

Today I will finish up doing a Satchel bag for the boys. It has lots and lots of pockets, places for clipping things like flashlights and compasses. And a place for a water bottle. It will be a great bag for a little boy (or girl) to take outside and explore nature with.

Well that's what I've been up to. How about you? Making anything new?

Thanks for stopping by.

Till next time....

Dorian

Snow day = sewing and baking

Well it's another snow day here in Northern California. It's cold, and slushy and wont last long, but I am ready for some sunshine. It's looking like March is going to be a very wet month.

So, what do you do on a cold, snowy day?? You sew a fun mystery quilt and bake some yummy cinnamon rolls! At least, that's what I did today :)

Here is a few sneak peeks of Jess's mystery quilt this month. You still have time to buy the pattern, the fun starts tomorrow.

I know, not much of a peek...

Don't want to ruin the mystery though....

Sorry for the tease!! LOL

Speaking of mystery quilts. Did you know that Jess is one of the nominees for Pattern Designer, in the Golden Quilters Awards, put on my SewCalGal. You can go here, to vote (leave a comment on that post).

Have a great weekend!

And good luck Jess!!

Till next time,

Dorian