Today's Quilter - UK (2019-07)

Snowball Baseball Drunkard’sPath

WindFlower LoveRing RobbingPetertoPayPaul

60 Joinusatwww.todaysquilter.com

ESSENTIALGUIDE l sewingcurvedseams

C

urvedseamsareusuallyregardedas“tricky”and

manyofusavoidthem,preferringtosticktothe

straightandnarrow.However,therearesomany

wonderfulblocksandpatchworkeectsthatcanbecreated

withcurvesthatit’sa shametoshunthiscreativetechnique.

Sewingcurvedseamsdoesn’thavetobehardand,

thismonth,wewilllookat howtoachievethecurvesand

undulationsthatgivesucha dierentlooktoa project.Being

abletosewcurvedseamswillallowyoutoadddozensofnew

blockstoyourrepertoireandopenupthewonderfulworld of

pictorial blocks, which we will look at in a future issue.

CURVED SEAMS

USING TEMPLATES

Therearemanytraditionalblockswithcurvedelements

andanimportantgroupis onethatusessimplequadrants

(quartercircles)withjustonecurvedseam– the

Drunkard’sPathblockis a goodexample.Oncethisis

mastered,it is easyto moveontoblockswithtwocurved

elements,andsoon,upto moredicult,multi-pieced

designssuchas Grandmother’sFan,DoubleWedding

Ring,NewYorkBeautyandMariner’sCompass.With

thehelpof thismonth’sEssentialGuideyouwillbeable

to makestraightforward designs, such as the examples

showninFig 1.

Patchwork blocks with curves

Fig 1 Blocks using curves

Knowinghowtosewa simplecurvedseamwillopenthe

doortomanycreativeeffects.Thischerrydesign(left)was

createdwithTemplate2 (seeTemplatessection),withan

added border and some simple appliqué for the stalk and leaf

Blocksthatusecurvesaremost

successfullymadeusingtemplates

(patterns)to cutthefabricshapes.

Therearealsorulersavailablefor

this,butin thisarticlewewillfocus

ontemplates,whichcanbecutfrom

templateplasticorcard.Theshapes

thatneedto becutareusuallya

matchedpair,whereoneshapehasa

concavecurveandonea convexcurve.

Fig2Ashowstwosuchshapes.Youwill

seethatthefinishedshapesfittogether

neatly.However,theseshapesneedto

haveseamallowancesadded.Looking

atFig2Byoucanseethatthischanges

theirshapesoverallsotheynolonger

lookquitesucha matchedpair.This

caninitiallycauseanxiety,butthereare

reallyonlythree things you need

to check:

1

Whenyouprintthetemplates, do

they print at full size?

2

Whenyouprintthetemplatesfull

sizeandcutoutjustthecentre

sections,dothey fit together exactly, as

inFig2A?

3

Doestheseamallowancemeasure

in all round (asinFig2B)?

If theansweris yesto allof these

questionsthenthetemplateswillwork.

Youcanalsocheckwhatthefinished

andunfinishedsizeof theblockorunit

willbebymeasuringtheconcaveshape

asinFig2C. Theouterverticallines

willtellyouwhatyourunfinishedsewn

unitshouldmeasure.Theinnervertical

lines will predict thefinishedsize.

Curvedshapeswithand

without seam allowances

A

B

C

Unnishedblocksize

Finished block size

Un

nished

block

size

Finished block size

A

Concave

shape

ConvexB

shape

Fig 2