I’m pretty sure it was my first time buying her fabric and it is colorful stuff. I chose it in part because I have a touch of cabin fever and would rather be somewhere warm and tropical, dressed in these shades of cobalt, turquoise, green, and lavender. Sigh.
I quickly put these charms to use in one of the projects for Rachel Hauser’s Curves Class. Operation: conquer the drunkard’s path (DP) quilt block.
Rachel’s method of constructing the DP involves oversizing the pieces and, as she says, “trimming to perfection.” She’s my kind of sewist.
The curves themselves didn’t present too many problems. The fact that I didn’t sew right sides together at one point and miscut the fabric at another did. Then there was the incident of the scorched blocks, but I really don’t want to talk about that right now.
For my Curves classmates and anyone else who’s interested in the nitty-gritty of the DP: I sewed without pins. (Remember: there was enough play to trim the finished pieces of the block.) I tried starching before cutting and before sewing, and I didn’t see much of a difference—except for the scorch marks.
I attempted to cut more than one charm at a time, and it didn’t work. I press pretty hard on my rotary cutter to main control of it when I cut without a ruler. That worked fine with one layer of fabric. Anything more than that would bunch up, resulting in inaccurately cut pieces.
As for the sewing itself, I’m going very slowly, using a short stitch length, and stopping with my needle down to pivot occasionally. I’m pleased with my results thus far:
Next up: Rachel’s Orange Peel Pillow. It contains 16 orange peels—that’s 16 curves to sew. I think I just may be able to do it. Step 1: Pick your fabric already, Michelle!
Linking up to TGIFF and Finish It Up Friday ...
When I starch, I keep telling myself to leave the fabric for a couple of minutes to let it dry a bit because every time I hear it sizzle as it dries up the starch I'm terrified it's scorching!! But I'm always too impatient with a project to leave the fabric long enough so I risk it everytime!!
ReplyDeleteI like the finished potholder, very nice! I had a custom order for a pincushion set in the horizon line and so I got a layer cake, I really like the soft colors of the collection
ReplyDeleteEven with the fuss they look great! New skill you can teach me and it's in my style no pins.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful results. Love that you didn't use pins - may have to have another go myself.
ReplyDeleteYour potholders turned out lovely even with the snafus. Very pretty line of fabrics.I need to learn to sew more curves. Thanks for linking up to this week's TGIFF.
ReplyDeleteBeauiful colours - I like what you have done with the fabric!
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