Taking time to breathe

We all need such times.  Time to just do things we love and ignore the pesky chores which do not generate the same pleasure.

I am going to teach something to a small local guild that  I saw and have to credit Cheryl Arkison
 http://www.cherylarkison.com/ who showed a quilt on The Quilt Show https://thequiltshow.com/ using her free form curves.  I just loved the verve of the free form curves.  I had been taught a version of free from curving originally by Becky Goldsmith https://pieceocake.com/ at a class and truly enjoyed the freedom of cutting fabric in curves with just a rotary cutter.  I did a whole small quilt at that time and this one carries on from both experiences.

First of all curves seem so difficult but are not and curves are so much a part of what we see.  I love the detail of paper piecing and the geometrics of traditional quilting but curves are so ever present in our lives.  Just look at the curves in the letters we use when keyboarding or writing with a pen.  Actually with a pen, my writing is totally unrestrained curves, illegible, almost.  Our bodies are made up of many curves, some of which we strive to contain.  But we certainly do not look like boards.

This quilt is the first of the demonstrations and with luck today will have an almost finished small quilt with another application of free form curves.  This is in my head, but not made so we shall see what the finished product is.  I have an idea built on an existing technique and will see if it works.

I also tried something different with this quilt.  I have done it before but this was with a thicker batt than I had on hand. So, I doubled the batt.  I had some spare from a larger quilt and it was not quite as 'fluffy' as I wanted for the curves I was going to quilt so I doubled it.  It did present a challenge as the sandwich was quite thick and with the pieced back it required quilting a bit slower because of the seams and the bulk.  But it certainly enhanced the quilting.  I love piecing backs particularly on smaller quilts but there is a challenge when seams on top and below are right together.  That combined with continuous curves was a challenge.

Time to get the ideas in my head into cut and sewn fabric.  The day is fast disappearing.