Miscuts, Scorch Marks, Kate Spain, Etc.

A funny thing happened the last time I was at the Fat Quarter Shop: I bought a charm pack of Kate Spain’s Horizon line.

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: one potholder in Kate Spain fabrics. (There were supposed to be three. See the aforementioned sewing snafus to figure out what happened to potholders 2 and 3.) two potholders in Kate Spain fabrics. UPDATE: I couldn’t fix the miscut block, but I was able to salvage the one that was scorched. You can barely seen the problematic spot; that’s good enough for me. Huzzah!

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 ...