Curved Piecing

Alright, as promised, here's my jamboree curved piecing project!

First, my workstation with my fabrics. I brought all my batiks, most of which I had used in the bento box wedding quilt last year. Plus, I had some oranges, reds and pinks to throw into the mix.

We received a copy of the pattern that we traced onto freezer paper and muslin.


Then we had to cut out the freezer paper pieces and pick fabrics - that was the most difficult part for me, I just can't picture the final product!
I ended up just making some educated guesses on what I wanted there, and then followed my policy of

"Just do it and hope for the best!"

Here are the freezer paper pieces ironed to my fabric choices:

I cut out the shapes and laid them out on my muslin to decide on the last two pieces: the paper-pieced shapes!


Once I picked the colours for those, I learned a new paper piecing method, I forgot the actual name, something to the point of sew-fold-snip. Basically, the seams don't and up on the drawn line on the paper pattern, but instead the lines indicate where to fold and cut the fabric, then lay the next fabric on top and sew a 1/4" seam. It was pretty straight forward. Just the typical trouble of trying to save fabric by using small scraps and then discovering upon folding the seam open, that the fabric doesn't cover the whole pattern it should or that it angles in the wrong direction... like I said, the usual :)

I cut around those shapes too, always leaving a bit of extra fabric.
Oh, and then there was the tedious task of taking off the paper again, I hate that part for the paper pieced sections - the larger pieces that were just ironed on came off easy, of course!


The teacher told us to lay all the pieces out to decide if we needed to switch a print here and there. Well, heck no, after all that work I wasn't starting over, so I didn't even consider replacing anything. It was just for fun and practice anyway ;)


When all the fabrics were butted up against each other, I zigzag-stitched along each seam, again, easy-peasy and so quick!


Then I skipped taking a few photos :) But basically, I learned how to make bias tape with a cool little tool that I'll buy if I decide to make more of these! It was really quick and easy!

Using a really narrow straight seam, I sewed the bias tape down through all the layers of the quilt (incl. batting and backing) and put the binding on.


As of now, the binding is done and I've sewn on some beads, but I've run out of ideas :) We'll see if inspiration hits me. I'm kind of busy right now completing another guild project... the President's Challenge!! More about that soon :)