Curves Made Easy (or at least easier)

I have two charm packs (one of them is 2wenty Thr3e! I just love that line!) that I want to make into cathedral window-like pillows, but without all that ironing and top-stitching. Not to mention the fabric waste. You know, easy-peasy piecing (except for all the curves and perfectly matching points)?

So I broke out my Robbing Peter to Pay Paul die from Sizzix for the first time and painstakingly pinned along each seam. And I finished a block. Yeah. I'm not posting a picture of what that looked like, and for good reason. Granted, I didn't try that hard, but it was way too time consuming for a four inch block (3.5 finished, yikes!).

Enter the Curve Master Presser Foot. Careful if you google it (ask me how I know). Thanks to Amazon Prime, my foot arrived in two short days.

And then it was time to play. I installed the foot, which was able to snap-on to my Janome without any of the ankle adapters that come with the package. Initially, I was a little worried because my needle comes down in sort of a strange place on the foot, but it seemed to work just fine regardless.I will try to get a picture to add for the visual.

And then I cut out all the little shapes in two seconds flat thanks to my Sizzix. Bonus points since one charm square can produce three of the half-oval shapes.

And I started sewing all those beautiful little fabric bits together.  It is going to take a little practice, and it won't ever be as easy as patchwork, but it is completely manageable. And the results are pretty great. This little block took me about 10 minutes from start to finish, isn't it cute?

Even though this worked really well, I have to shelve this project for now. My fabric diet is over (yay!) and I have some serious quilting to get started on. And I have some doll clothes (long story for another blog post) that need making ASAP. More soon!