Curved Rails & Curved Quilting

So I won the  BlockLotto for the second time in September.  I won 48 wonderful batik blocks!  I've gotten the top pieced and am working on deciding about the quilting.  It is against my nature to show an unfinished project. But since the whole point of this blog is to share the "evolution" of my process, I'm going to show you what I'm up to.  Here is the pieced top:

I hope it is apparent (since I worried over it forever :) that I arranged the blocks so that the top of one block is in at least the same color group (if not the same color) as the bottom of the block above it and the corner pieces in the sashing.  It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.  It was suprising to find that I didn't have an odd piece out.  Not every match up is perfect, but they really are all in the same color groups.  I was pretty impressed with myself! 

So now on to the quilting.  I'm learning free motion quilting.  So I made a set of 3 blocks to practice a few things before I try it on the actual quilt.  Tell me what you think.

As you can see I haven't hidden any of my loose ends yet.

I'm also trying to decide whether to take the pebbles (that's what I call them anyway) right to the seam or just an 1/8 of an inch away.

What do you think?

Here's a close-up of the front.

And here are some pictures of the back.

My curves are still a little jerky, but I'm getting there!

So leave me a note and let me know what you think.  Seeing these close-up pictures of my quilting just encourages me to practice, practice, practice.  There's loads of room for improvement!  I'll try and keep things up to date as I continue with this one.  If you have any suggestions, let me know!

Drunken Sixteen-Patch

About 10 months ago I joined a group call the blocklotto.  Each month a block is chosen with a certain color scheme and everyone makes up to 9 blocks.  For each block you make you get an entry into the lotto.  If you win then you receive a share of the blocks that all the other members have made.  It's a lot of fun and taught me some new techniques.  Well for the month of October the block was a "Quilter's Choice," meaning each person could make whatever block they wanted as long as the color scheme was blue and cream with brown or tan.  So I made up the block you see above.  One of the other members of the group asked me how I made the block so I made a second one and took pictures while I did it.  This is my attempt to explain it step by step.  I hope it makes sense!

To begin, choose four fabrics and cut out one 6" square from each one.

 Then stack them together and pin through each corner.

Next make 2 curvy cuts perpendicular to one another.

 

Lay them out in four squares with a different fabric in each quarter.

Now sew piece 1 to piece 2 to form unit A
and sew piece 3 to piece 4 to form unit B.
Don't worry if they don't line up perfectly, you will be squaring it up at the end.

Clip the seam allowance along the curves.

Now iron the seam allowance toward the curve.

Next sew unit A to unit B. (still not worrying about everything lining up perfectly)

After repeating this for the other 3 squares, lay them out in an arrangement you like.



Take block A and block B and overlap them by about a 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch.



Then pin the two blocks with staggered pins so there is room to make a curved cut around the pins.

Make the curved cut between the pins. Then remove the pins and discard the cut away portion.

Sew A and B together to form one unit.  Then repeat this process with blocks C and D to form a second unit.
Iron these two units flat then overlap them, pin them and cut a curve between these two units.  Sew the newly cut units together to form your unsquared 16-patch.

Now cut your square down to 8 1/2" by 8 1/2".  And there you have your Drunken 16-Patch!!!

I hope that makes sense.  I realized I should have taken a few more pictures of the last few steps.  If you have any questions please let me know and I will try to clear it up.  - Andrew

P.S.  If anyone tries to make this block, please let me know.  I'd love to see your results!