Crazy Curves Workshop

This is the workshop I attended on Saturday. It was held at the Parkerville Baptist Church and the money raised goes to their nominated charities. This time, money went to Pakistan for flood relief and a women's charity in Cambodia. The ladies I sat with were very nice and we had a lovely time sewing and chatting.

Here is a look at the curves I was trying to sew. I tried out my CurveMaster sewing foot. I had to have help to fit it to my machine, but it seemed to go on all right once a part of the machine was unscrewed and removed (gasp). I had a lot of trouble with some of these curves - the ones that changed direction half way along. We are meant to sew these without pinning but bringing the two edges together to gently touch the edge guide on the sewing foot was like trying to tame two unruly children sitting in the back seat while you're driving. No one was happy.

This is my curve master foot. You can see I had to remove the boot that holds the presser feet in order to fit the adaptor shank. The verdict is still out on whether this is a good gadget or just a good idea at the time. I've only seen it demonstrated with drunkard's path blocks which is a nice smooth curve - not one that changes direction. I suspect it is user error on my part and that I just need more practice, although a little more guidance would be good but there's nothing on the net. (Feel free to share with me if you can find something besides a drunkard's path demonstrated.)

The pattern was a curved 'stack and whack'. The instructor had pre-selected colour schemes and had the kits ready for us, although we did the actually cutting of the curves. I learned how to do that at least - it was a little nerve wracking. The curves were not cut free-hand but you kind of slide a small square ruler along the cutting line keeping pace with the rotary cutter - which needs a new blade as you must go through all the layers in your stack (6 layers plus the freezer paper). They need to be exact as you shuffle the pieces around to re-sew them together.

So here is what I've gotten done so far. This is two stacks i.e. 12 fabric squares equals twelve blocks. I've had a go at pressing them but they just won't sit nicely and there are puckers and I'm going to take my time and clips some seams and see what I can do with them. After I get all 24 blocks done I will trim them back to the largest square I can (probably 8.5" or 9").

This will come along to the retreat with me on the 30th of September for a good play and the ladies there will not be as shocked as my family if I start swearing under my breath...

Please share with me if you have a curve master foot and how you've found it...

It's the day job this week with a guild meeting on Tuesday. We have our first committee meeting for the 2011 exhibition and our theme is "magical medallions".