Improv Quarter Circles…

I was listening to the Crafty Planner’s podcast with guest Sherri Lynn Wood the other night as I sat down to do a bit of improv sewing. Putting on a podcast and sitting in front of my sewing machine in the evenings is a real treat as my husband entertains the kids.The gals were talking a bit about Sherri Lynn’s curved sewing. Then this happened – my little brain went ‘DING, DING, DING’ and I grabbed my scissors and two 5 inch solid charm squares and cut a quarter circle curve into the squares. I cut some more, sewed some more, sewed what I had together, created an undulating path and thought to myself ‘YES, I love it’!

So here is the first installment of a little series on my process of creating a mini quilt using Improv Quarter Circles.

Step One: Check your rotary cutter and ruler at the door! Grab your scissors and a pair of squares (what ever size you would like) and get cutting! I happened to use solid charm squares (5 inch by 5 inch).

Step two: Swap around the colors and start sewing! I highly recommend watching the video Sewing Curves by She Can Sew. If you line up the edges of the fabric flush and start sewing, you will end up with a more tumbler-shaped block (like the blocks in the image below on the left). If you start about 1/4 inch from the edge, your block will turn out more square (like the block in the image below on the right). Do one, try the other, then do what you like.

Press seams towards the convex piece, the seam naturally wants to go this way. Trim the extra bit off to ‘square’ up your blocks.

Step Three: Layout your blocks. Step back, look, make changes until you are happy.

Step Four: Sew blocks together. You may need to trim a bit here and there to make things fit better.

Next post I will baste, audition thread colors for machine quilting, trim excess batting and backing, machine quilt and use faced binding to finish this mini off!

Weekly sewing round-up:

• I’ve been enjoying basting hexies and upon occasion, sewing them together.

Cheers,

Amanda