Today’s Quilter – September 2019

71

ESSENTIAL GUIDE l sewing pieced curves

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MORE ADVENTUROUS PIECING

To tackle blocks such as Double Wedding Ring,NewYorkBeauty,PickleDishand

Curved Flying Geese (see Fig 8), the piecingof thecurvetakesmorethoughtandwork.

Blocks like these normally require separate templatesto createthepiecedarea,often

achieved with Foundation paper piecing (FPP).Wewilllookin moredetailhowto sew

a Curved Flying Geese block, as the principlescanbe usedforothersuchblocks.

1

Make a full-size copy of the

Foundation paper piecing (FPP)

template provided and cut it out with a

little extra paper all around. Turn the

template to the wrong side (WS). Cut

a piece of fabric big enough to cover

shape 1 on the template with at least

in extra all around. Place it right side

(RS) up over shape 1, as in Fig 8A. Cut

a piece of background fabric big enough

to cover shape 2 on the template, with

at least in extra all around. Place it

WS up on shape 1, angling it as in Fig

8B. Pin and flip the template over to

the right side and sew along the line

between 1 and 2 past the edge of the

template (Fig 8C).

2

Trim the excess fabric along the

seam by first folding the paper

template out of the way and then using

a quilting ruler to trim the excess to

in from the sewing line. Press the

fabric pieces into place (Fig 8D).

Repeat this process to position a piece

of background fabric big enough to

cover shape 3 on the template, with at

MAKING

A CURVED

FLYING GEESE

Templates are provided for a 6in finished

block (6in unfinished), but it is easy to

scale up the block using the lessons learned

last month in Drawing Curved Templates.

The Flying Geese section is created with

Foundation paper piecing.

Fig (^9) Sewing the block together
A
B
C
Thecurvingtrianglesin thisblock
aremadeto‘float’byusingthesame
backgroundfabricforthesmallerside
triangles.Youcanreversethedirection
ofthecurvebyreversingthetemplate
beforeuse
RS
WS
1
2
3
4
5
6 7
8
9 10
11
12 13 14
(^151617)
(^1819)
21 20
(^2223)
24
RS
A B C D E F G
Fig 8 Sewing the FPP unit
least in extra all around. Pin this
in place, flip the template over and
sew along the line between shapes
1 and 3. Trim excess and press into
place (Fig 8E).
3
Continue in this way to add all
of the fabric pieces, following the
number order on the template. When
all pieces are added, press well and
then trim it to the outer line on the
template (Fig 8F).
4
Now, cut the fabric pieces using
the other templates for the block
(Fig 8G). Sew the shapes together
in the stages shown in Fig 9, using
curved seams.