Learn all about improvisational curved piecing including improv circles in this article with half circles and quarter circles.

One of my favorite techniques to teach is piecing curves. Curves are magical—they look complicated to do, but they’re really not. So many quilters are intimidated by curves but if you can sew a ¼” seam you can sew beautiful curves. Seriously. All you need are some tips, a bit of patience and practic

Incorporating curves in my work has been as challenging as it has been satisfying. There’s something about the shape of a half circle in a quilt that’s unexpected, gentle and pleasing — elements that you can’t get from other shapes. I consider it an intermediate-level sewing skill, but I encourage y

from my Quilt Festival class with Jean Wells Keenan - Intuitive Color and Design.

My improv pieced curve quilt is finished. In my bid to practice sewing pieced curves, I got out a bunch of 5" squares that I had left over from a previous project and took to them with my rotary cutter. It was a little scary at the beginning, but I'm so glad that I made it... and finished it. I learned a lot about curved piecing along the way - the right ways of doing it, and the wrong. After watching a bunch of YouTube videos, it seems that I sewed my curves together the 'wrong' way. I had the concave and convex curves in the opposite order when I made these blocks, but hey, they worked just fine. I finished off my quilt with a cute backing fabric print and spiral quilting. I even added a hanging sleeve to the back, but just need some dowel from the hardware store. I'm counting this as my OMG finish for February 2020. Yay!!

Incorporating curves in my work has been as challenging as it has been satisfying. There’s something about the shape of a half circle in a quilt that’s unexpected, gentle and pleasing — elements that you can’t get from other shapes. I consider it an intermediate-level sewing skill, but I encourage y

how to stitch a circle into a block with no applique

Enjoy 15 of some of my favorite modern quilts from QuiltCon 2018 in Pasadena, California. All descriptions were written by the makers. Do you have a favorite quilt you s

Guest post from Sharon McConnell sharing tips and tricks for piecing curves in quilting as well as the Classic Curve Ruler to help with cutting accuracy.

This ruler is designed to cut circles, semi-circles, and quarter-circles from 3in to 15-1/2in and every 1/2in in between. Easy to read black and white markings. Designed to be used in a variety of ways, so additional markings are included for techniques such as fusible applique, piecing, and turned-edge applique. Use a 45mm or small rotary cutter. Hold rotary cutter straight up and down for ease of cutting and guide it along the inside edge of the curve. Fold lines and 1/4in seam allowance lines are clearly marked. Follow the instructions for the desired shape. 22-1/2, 30, 45, 60, and 67-1/2 degree lines are included for more design possibilities. Comes with fully illustrated step by step instructions. Scan the QR Code printed on the ruler to view a how-to video of these features and to see the patterns that can be made with this ruler. Ruler slides easily over the fabric until pressure is applied. Then our exclusive grip holds the fabric in place while cutting, eliminating slipping and miss-cuts. Total Size – 11-3/4in x 18-1/2in PLEASE NOTE: This item is over sized so shipping is a bit more. I will always refund shipping overages in excess of $1.00. Thanks!!

Summer's over and it's back to school time, which means it's also back to sewing school time! (Did you know that I have a FREE beginner's sewing course?) Last week I mentioned that I have a new free pattern for a pencil-shaped pencil case to share with you (update: here's the info on the pencil

Learn all about improvisational curved piecing including improv circles in this article with half circles and quarter circles.

Learn my tips for sewing curves perfectly every time and gain confidence to sew curves of any size the easy way! Begin sewing curves today!

Inset Circles are a great way to enhance circle shapes in a quilt. Use this measurements guide to make any size inset circle you want.

Incorporating curves in my work has been as challenging as it has been satisfying. There’s something about the shape of a half circle in a quilt that’s unexpected, gentle and pleasing — elements that you can’t get from other shapes. I consider it an intermediate-level sewing skill, but I encourage y

Simple circles free quilt pattern by Andy of A Bright Corner - a throw size fat quarter quilt pattern that is easier than it looks no curved piecing

Enjoy 15 of some of my favorite modern quilts from QuiltCon 2018 in Pasadena, California. All descriptions were written by the makers. Do you have a favorite quilt you s

A blog about quilting and sewing.

Learn all about improvisational curved piecing including improv circles in this article with half circles and quarter circles.

I love modern quilts and have since I was a little girl. I especially love quilts with a lot of white space – not surprising!...

Cupcakes Block Free Tutorial Download PDF here . Photo Courtesy of Thelma @cupcakesndaisies 9" x 9" Supplies needed: 1...

Now more than ever while we're experiencing a pandemic and stay-at-home orders, I'm missing the beautiful water, beaches, sunsets, and sky of Hawaii. If you're new here, let me let you in on a not-so-secret, secret. I'm obsessed with Hawaii. You can read about it here. A couple of years ago, I in

When I began sewing, more than half a century ago, I learned by making garments. I set in sleeves and made curved facings and sewed princess seams and curves were part of the process. A few years l…

I am using Rachel Hauser’s Dear Dottie pattern and Sharon McConnell’s Classic Curves Ruler to make a quilt – mixing the pattern’s emphasis on learning colour value skills with the adventure of cutting and sewing curves. (Links to websites and tutorials at the end of this post). In the Dear Dottie pattern Rachel gives advice […]

Dies ist ein sehr langer Blogpost und meine deutschen Leserinnen möchten mir es bitte verzeihen, dass ich aus Gründen der Länge darauf verzichtet habe, den Post zweisprachig zu schreiben. Ich habe oben links auf meinem Blog einen Button “Übersetzen” installiert, der wird einen recht lustigen Text aus alledem machen. Aber die Bilder, und das ist die Hauptsache, sagen ja viel mehr als all die Worte. The new collection COMMA is arriving in stores in the next few days and I’m overwhelmed by the enthusiastic response I got for this group! When I get a line saying “It's one of the few fabric lines where I can honestly say, that I like all the fabrics really much” I’m so glad the fabrics work wonderful for all kinds of projects. Joanna from Shape Moth talked about the fabrics recently on her blog, while preparing a sample from Comma for a magazine. I copied her picture which shows the fabrics so nicely. Now for our currently running Moda friendship quilt sampler here is a step by step tutorial of the “Zen CHIC” block (and I so love to have gotten this block to play with, the circle shape is so appealing to me). It is pretty easy to do and with all the downloadable detailed instructions even a beginner can dot it. What you need is two strips of fabric for the ring, each of it at least 20” by 5” and a piece of fabric for the background, at least about 9 1/2” by 14”. In addition some wonder under fusible web and a clear monofil thread. That’s it, stashbuster, huh? Ok, from each of your “ring” fabrics cut 4 pieces, each 5” square, from your background fabric cut two squares, one is 9 1/2”, the other 4 1/2”. Prepare also your fusible web by cutting three squares, one 9 1/2”, one 8” and one 5”. Great! Next is easy peasy: You just sew together each two different squares from your “ring” fabric to form a rectangle. Of course you can speed up this process by chain sewing. Press seams to the darker fabric and join each two pieced pairs to a kind of checkerboard square. Next prepare your fusible web: on each of your pieces draw a centered cross and use it as a guideline for your compass. For the largest square draw a circle of 9”, for the middle one of 7 1/2” and for the smallest (which needs no cross guidelines) one of 4 1/2”. (How to work with this appliqué technique is explained in detail in the attached block instructions). Iron the fusible web on the back of your fabric, the smallest circle on the little square of background fabric, the both other ones on the pieced checkerboards. Make sure your cross guidelines meet exactly your seam lines. Now cut the circles out very exactly. To avoid too much bulk in the middle of this block, cut a hole in the larger two circles. The diameter of the largest circle’s hole is 7”, the one of the middle circle is 4”. Take 9 1/2” background square, fold it in halves length and crosswise and press some creases as guidelines. Pull off the paper of your fusible web, lay the largest ring on the background square, seam line matching creases and fix it by pressing. Do the same for the middle ring. Mark your smallest circle with two creases by folding it exactly in halves. Make use of these guidelines and put it onto this kind of “wedding cake” ;-). Iron it. With a clear monofil thread and the button hole or zigzag stitch of your sewing machine sew around all three layers (actually you could have left the smallest circle out and make the hole of the middle circle exactly 4 1/2” diameter – in case you use the same fabric for the center and the background of the block. You for sure can vary the center point and give it another face than the background). Done! Piece of cake, wasn’t it? Yeah, an easy to do block – and now? What can you make out of this? Add a 3 1/2” wide border to the block, and you have a nice front for a 16” pillow form. Make two more blocks, set all three together to get a table runner rectangle. Or make three more blocks, make a setting of two rows and two columns and get a nice square tablecloth. Or make an entire quilt from these blocks. So speaking of quilts I can tell that this block is all about color value! You can make lots of variations out of it (what? this is just a ring on a square, what are you speaking of?) Yes, I said lots of variations. Because… What would you like to see as your focus? The center circle? Make it from a dark fabric, well saturated and it pops out and gives you this quilt look. Something like a bull’s eye, the inner circles are the dominant elements in this design. Or – you can inverse this values, make the background really dark, the center circles bright and light. Your quilt design looks now like a wall with lots of windows in. It seems you can look through and find a world behind. Although using the same block and the same setting, this quilt looks totally different from the one above. The first one: bold – the second one: mysterious. And have you noticed, that in both designs the fabrics of the ring are from a very similar value, so the ring itself looks quite calm. But the ring is also an element to play with. It has this checkerboard structure in it. Lets accentuate this checks and make back- and foreground calm. The depth disappears and instead we get something very dynamic, it looks like wires which are going round and round. And what if we turn the blocks, alternating? Notice how we’ve got two overlaying designs: the circles and also squares , looking like tiles. Now you see, you can play with this block and find endless variations. Would you like to see a quilt design not only in black and white, but rather in a fabric suggestion? Voilà. The new line Comma, in stores now, makes a stunning quilt from this block. If you use once in a while the background fabric also for ring pieces, the shapes seem to open and disappear. Go with a reduced color palette and make a graphic quilt, perhaps for a young boy. Wouldn’t you love it? Or make a huge block, one which fills an entire bed quilt, like I did with this pattern: Or - and that is this blog post actually all about – make a single block for a sampler quilt. Because this is MODA’s friendship sampler blog hop. Besides this block you will find each day three new different blocks from each Moda designer, all explained in detail. All with different fabric styles, suggestions - you name it. Fabulous! Here is the nearly best: In the end Moda will give you a quilt setting containing all the blogs of this blog hop. Choose your favorite line and make a cool sampler quilt, make a Block Of The Month project out of it, maybe for your quilt group. And show us pictures!!! Please, yes please! Post them at the flickr group here. Follow the block hop and gather all the blocks. Click here for more information and the listing of participating Designers. Now – after the nearly best – the very best: You will have the chance to win! Yeah! We have a brand-new fabric bundle from the very brand-new fabric collection Comma for you. BTW: Each designer has something for you, so hop around! Today the amazing Bonnie from Cotton Way and my lovely friend Anne Sutton from Bunnie Hill show you their newest line, a wonderful block and start their giveaways. Don’t miss to stop by at their blogs! Win this Fat Eighths Bundle containing all 40 different fabrics What do you have to do? 1. FOLLOW the Zen Chic blog, the one you are currently looking at ;-) and get all the news about project and fabric ideas. 2. Leave a COMMENT on the blog as to why or for which project you would like to work with the Comma fabrics! Don’t miss to leave your email address so I can inform you in case you are the lucky winner.

Yesterday on QUILTsocial we looked at 10 ways to use Northcott’s Stonehenge fabrics in your quilts and today my box of Stonehenge Elements fabrics arrived!! Just look at these fabrics – so yummy and rich looking!! I have some ideas about what I want to do with these fabrics but…

I'm so glad everyone enjoyed Wednesday's post about the Social Justice Quilts of Quiltcon 2019. Of course there were a ton of other, non-SJ related quilts that were so stunning and inspiring. The creativity and skill that went into all of the quilts is obvious. This is only a small sampling of the amazingness I saw - if you're able, I'd highly recommend attending a Quiltcon yourself one day so you can see all of the quilts in up close and in person. It is a truly magical experience. There was a strong contingency of quilts from the Denver area. I was thrilled to look at a quilt's info sheet to learn that I knew the quilter or that it was a local person! These are a few of the quilts from our local quilters - nice work everyone! Local Favorites from QuiltCon 2019 Infinite Magnification l Christine Perrigo from Erie, CO l Modern Traditionalism Mayan Sun l Stephanie Ruyle from Denver, CO l Small Quilts Catching Modern Dreams l Stephanie Ruyle from Denver, CO l Piecing This next quilt was a charity quilt made by our very own Shawna Doering, Bob, Amber Corcoran, Heather Beckman, and Carrie Illum. Everyone contributed blocks to the quilt and Shawna did the quilting. This group chooses to make improv blocks that included piecing less than 1". All of the charity quilts are made using the same colors (this one was made entirely from stash fabrics!) and this year's theme was "Small Piecing". Proceeds from the sale of this quilt will benefit Sage of the Rockies. These remaining quilts are just a few more of the quilts I fell in love with last weekend in Nashville. Please enjoy and a huge thanks to the Modern Quilt Guild for putting on another great event! Jaime's QuiltCon Favorites Woven Indigo No 57 l Sarah Hibbert l Use of Negative Space The Modern Drunk l Jodi Robinson l Best Machine Quilting Deco Dots l Jen Sorenson l Fabric Challenge Forest Through the Trees, no. 4 l Carson Converse l Minimalist Design One Year l Georgia A. Dunne l Handwork Dance-Gigue l Irene Roderick l Improvisation Desert Bloo l Annabel Wrigley l Improvisation Curled l Charlie Mankin l Quilting Challenge Tidal Wave l Krystina Hopkins l Quilting Challenge Number 21 l Miguel Huidor l Appliqué Hypnotized l Jayne Willis l Quilting Challenge Harry Styles, But A Quilt l Liz Harvatine l Appliqué #16 l Miguel Huidor l Improvisation Four Triangles Ombre l Malka Dubrawsky l Minimalist Design The Orange Quilt l Shannon Page l Minimalist Design Shades of Citrus l Brittany Lloyd l Modern Traditionalism Synthesized Slivers l Cassandra Beavers l Small Quilts Modern Mandala l Betsy Vinegrad l Small Quilts Reflection l Sarah Hibbert l Piecing Roost l Staci Meyr l Piecing The Golden Hour l Hillary Goodwin l Piecing Vinyl l Susan Slusser Clay l Fabric Challenge Folded Flyers l Karen Bolan l Piecing Are you Here l Christine Yi l Small Quilts Louver l Jayne Willis l Piecing

stack improv curves tutorial

I’ll be honest – when I first started quilting, curves gave me the willies. It’s silly, because while I wasn’t particularly good at it, I’ve sewn clothing. I’ve …

I'm working on a drunkard's path quilt with a lots of pretty colors and a mix of scraps. It's turning out much cuter than I first expected but still needs a few blocks to make it large enough. Since drunkard's path is on my mind, I thought I'd look at a few quilts using the pattern. Aren't these some happy quilts? Every one filled with color and movement and joy. Have you made a drunkard's path quilt yet? Tell us a little about it in the comments, please.

It’s time to get life back to normal (or as normal as it gets in December) and focus again on...

Outside the October sky hangs glum and grey against the colors just starting to change. Inside the news goes on endlessly as those in suits and ties talk "sincerely" of pain and then use disinformation in their quest for power. Tempers mount. A friend is almost in tears. We all know the feeling of resignation that the want us to have. Shelburne Falls--October 2018--Ann Brauer Of course I turn to my beloved fabrics and sewing machine in my search for solace and purpose. After the last show there is so much I need to do. Orders to fill. I am sold out of phone cases. Yikes. I know I need more eye glass cases and place mats. A few table runners in popular colors. Of course more potholders. Time to get busy. High class worries. I have three more craft shows and one sale ahead of me, after all. So much to do. So little time. But though I turn to classical music or silence, the clouds still hang. I like working with colors and fabrics and feel so fortunate that I can do so, but I know I need more. Then I remember--did I ever forget--that in making wall art--getting lost in that world--I can regain my sense of purpose and energy. Don't we all need art now more than ever? Maybe I can capture the colors of the trees in autumn. So I start sewing. As usual, the questions--what comes next? Shall I take the obvious way? What about the bottom? Will green tie it together? Such questions. And yet, there is an answer and the drive to add the fabric, one piece at a time. This is why I make quilts. And why I must make another and another. color of autumn--quilt--Ann Brauer 2018 And you--what is the power of art in your life? How do you cope with the external world and maintain your own sense of self? Do your quilts ever just fall into place?

I have looked at quite a few quilts now, and most do not excite me any more. However, once in a while, I go ‘ohhh’. And that’s what I did yesterday when I came across this beautiful circle quilt tutorial. I love the fabric pattern, design & color choices of this quilts. This is the

Hi Everyone, Well, my first day of spring break was completely unproductive. But it felt GOOD to be unproductive! haha! Thank you so much for all of your positive feedback and comments on my finished project. I really appreciate them. I am very excited by how Finding my Marbles turned...

Incorporating curves in my work has been as challenging as it has been satisfying. There’s something about the shape of a half circle in a quilt that’s unexpected, gentle and pleasing — elements that you can’t get from other shapes. I consider it an intermediate-level sewing skill, but I encourage y