Right now I’m currently doing a bunch of “secret sewing” – things I can’t share with you until several months in the future. But instead of going radio silent for awhile, I thought I would fill the time with previous projects that my friends and I have made to keep you inspired.
Get the PDF Pattern for Beads and Baubles by Heather Black
For starters, I’d like to share with you Beads and Baubles – a quilt that my talented friend Heather Black (from Quiltachusetts) made to showcase Fandangle Fat Quarters. I love how she paired the prints with some soft tone on tone Color Weave prints to create a fun stripe in the background.
She named her quilt after the focus print from my collection, called “Baubles and Bits.” (I think these prints together would make a fun, modern Christmas quilt!)
Click here to get yardage of Baubles and Bits in Teal or Red
To further tie in the theme, she quilted it with an allover design that’s similar to the “Beaded Curtain” print from the line. I think it’s the perfect motif for this amazing quilt!
Click here to grab a fat quarter bundle of Fandangle.
Heather created this design with some simple curved piecing and I love how the oval shapes look like beads. She has released this pattern as a PDF version in her Etsy shop and I’d love to see what it looks like in different fabrics, too!
Click here to get the PDF Pattern for Beads and Baubles by Heather Black
Heather is so talented and I love her modern design sense! She’s made quilts from my fabric before (click here to see her amazing Pearl Pendants quilt) and she’s got several more designs in the works using my current and upcoming lines, too. I can’t wait for you to see them!
And now I have a question for you – have you ever tried curved piecing? If so – how did it go? Leave me a comment as I’d love to know. I’ve only done it sparingly but I love the look!
Christa Quilts 
Beautiful fabrics and quilt. Yeah, I do struggle with curved pieces. Doin g some Drunkard’s Path blocks was very challenging for me.
I’ve done curved piecing and enjoy the change from straight stitching. Small pieces are challenging, but doable by being patient. I think everyone should try curves, Y-seams, partial seams, etc. You never know until you try them in one block that they aren’t really that scary or intimidating to do..
I did a small wallhaing using the Sew Kind of Wonderful ruler and pattern. It’s not hard to sew curves but you just need to sew a little slower. Good thing the machine has a speed adjustment. I can push the panel to the metal and still go slow. Lol
They have a free pattern for trees that would make a great gift.
Yes, I have done curved piecing. My third or fourth quilt was a wall hanging using Drunkard’s Path blocks. About 10 years ago I made a Double Wedding Ring quilt. I am sure there are others but in almost 30 years of quilting it is hard to remember. But I do know that those quilt pieces were all rotary cut. Last year I pieced Winding Way and Flowering Snowball quilt blocks using the Accuquilt GO! system and corresponding dies.
Precision cutting IMHO is the way to go to make sure that the curved pieces will correctly fit together. With the Drunkard’s Path blocks I made my own template out of thin plastic. With the Double Wedding Ring quilt blocks, I used a purchased an acrylic template set. I had more piecing problems with the rotary-cut Drunkard’s Way pieces because it was easy to cut the pieces incorrectly. The Double Wedding Ring rotary-cut blocks went together a lot easier because it was easier to cut the pieces correctly using the templates which were make from thick acrylic. The easiest cutting and piecing was with the Accuquilt die-cut Winding Way and Flowering Snowball quilt blocks. I have fabric ready to cut and piece a quilt with Flower Snowball quilt blocks.
If I had to give just one piece of advise, it would be to cut out the curved pieces as accurately as possible.
What a wonderful quilt. It works so well with Fandangle. Makes me want to try curved piecing.