WIP Wednesday: Civil War

My first swan-dive into curved piecing came courtesy of a co-worker who'd purchased some templates from a quilt shop during one of her many do it yourself shop hops.  L assured me curved piecing was a snap even though I'd heard the same tune from my aunt Patsy.  Frankly, I didn't believe either one of them.  It all sounded like an evil plan to drive me over the edge.  But wonder of wonders...it was pretty easy and I sewed two charm packs worth of curved blocks.

And they sat in a box for over a year...

The other night I unearthed them and started playing around.  The prints are Civil War era, not my personal favorite.  This is one of the scenarios I came up with.  My brain doesn't like randomness at all and keeps pushing for more symmetry please!  Maybe I'll go with a more traditional Drunkard's Path.  Stay tuned.

I'm linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.  Won't you join me?

Happy quilting, y'all!

Back To The Salt Mines

That's my Mom's favorite expression, meaning 'Time to go back to work'.  She's says this now with a twinkle in her eye and a smirk on her face.  Darn retiree, rub it in, why don't you?!

So, by now I'm at that stage where if I ever see another platter of turkey, it'll be too soon.  Turkey sandwiches, turkey casserole, turkey soup.  Pretty soon I'm gonna start to gobble-gobble!  At least Christmas will be enchiladas and homemade tamales.  Ole! 

These past two days, the wind has been howling, making it somewhat miserable to be outside.  The weatherman says it's supposed to get up to the mid-50s, but I swear he lies just to get our hopes up.  I'm never satisfied with the weather.  When it's hot, I pine for cooler temperatures.  When it's cool, I pine for less rain and wind.  Do you think the Creator ever rolls his eyes in exasperation?

Today I made a big pot of loaded baked potato soup and took some down to my parents.  MPMOE and the Co-Defendants wouldn't touch it.  Are they weird or what?

 Yummy!  And made all the yummier with the addition of that wonderful cured meat, bacon!

I'd baked some chocolate cookies, which mysteriously decreased dramatically overnight and picked up peanut butter and oatmeal ones from my Mom.  They went great with my afternoon cup of coffee.

I got quite a bit of piecing done as well.  I think I can sew curves in my sleep now.

I still have a fairly impressive stack of blocks to pin and sew, but at least all the cutting out part is complete.

I hope you had a blessed Thanksgiving and, if you ventured out for Black Friday, I hope you didn't get pepper-sprayed!

Happy quilting y'all!

Curves Part Two

If you caught my post from yesterday, you know I finally jumped into curved piecing with both feet.  Not bad for a first effort, if I do say so myself.

The larger one on the left is my aunt's

Anyway, I'd been talking to a co-worker about curved piecing.  She'd just finished a wedding quilt for her son and new daughter-in-law...black, white, red and curved.  I wish I had a picture of it because it was gorgeous.  Lucy showed up to work this morning with a few spare block pieces of her own, did a quick demo and sent me home to try my hand at them.  This is what I came up with...

I must say, I like these curves much better.  I didn't have to scrunch up my face, swear like a sailor or clip the curves.  They're big, bodacious, generous curves...like J. Lo's butt, only better.  I just might try my hand at doing an entire quilt...maybe ;)

Happy quilting, y'all!

WARNING Curves Ahead

My aunt Patsy, in an attempt to convince me that sewing curves really wasn't THAT hard, came up with a hands-on tutorial for me several months back.  Mind you, we're talking about a woman who chose curved piecing for her very first quilt.  If we weren't related, I just might hate her.  Anyway, she'd sewn up an example block and left me the pre-cut pieces for a second block with instructions to 'just go with it...it's easy'.  Says you! 

I sat down several times with every intention of ending with a finished block, but it was a no-go.  Apparently, today was my day.  Perhaps this is my reward for making it through the Co Defs' weekend friends extravaganza.

Patsy's block is the larger one on the left.

Now, I used a 1/4 inch seam allowance.  Her's was more like an anemic 1/8 inch, so of course, her's turned out larger.  Next time, I too, shall make a go of the Kate Moss seam allowance.  But take a look at my curves, y'all!  They are so smooth and fine...wish I could say the same of my thighs.  Sigh.

Here's a close-up...of my block, not my thighs...

Smooth, huh?  What Patsy neglected to tell me is that curved piecing involves narrowing your eyes to pencil-line thin slits, scrunching your face into all sorts of wrinkle-inducing expressions and generally cussing like a sailor.  I haven't cussed that much since the last time I changed the oil in my car.  All in my head, of course, since my sewing room's in a corner of the living room and there were youngsters present.  And I think I used an entire bottle of Mary Ellen's Best Press to press those seams into submission.  All in all, not bad for a first effort.

Will I do it again?  Well, if you'd asked me earlier I would've said 'oh, hell to the no!' but since I've had that glass of wine, I could be convinced to go for round two.  We shall see.

Happy quilting y'all!