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Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Complicated when Drunk, a tutorial

I will freely admit to having drunk the low volume Kool-Aid.  I had to make a surprise gift for someone recently... and I was browsing her pinterest quilt board, and seeing a lot of awesome things, but nothing really spoke to me until I saw some drunkard's path quilts:

This one and this one especially.

Now, I love drunkard's path! Love it. And low volume, I've already said I drank that Kool-Aid, so I started drafting a combo of the two - the alternating layout of the first, with the low volume background of the other, and then I thought, huh, it's just not complicated enough.  What can I do to complicate this fairly simple idea?

The answer, is this: 


Add more piecing! I did it magically right the first time through, but then I got cocky and cut out all the pieces, and realized there was a trick to it. And if you want to do it without weeping, too, follow this advice:

Start with 2.5" squares, and whatever camp you are in about pressing seams, press them to the side! When you have four joined, it should look like this:



And the back:


If you look at it, starting at the top, going clockwise, all the seams are going the same direction (pressed clockwise) except the one at 6 o'clock.  So! It is possible to press your seams so they are all but one pointing counterclockwise! I have done this! And you don't want to! So you need to pay attention when you are joining your pairs into fours, that the seams start out the right way. Here's a graphic:

When you press the final seam to the right, the seam at the arrow with be the counter clockwise one.

You need to cut your curve through two seams that a) going in the same direction, and b) pointing in the direction you will sew the seam.  Clockwise!

 
Once cut will look like this:



As you travel down that curve, the seams are both pointing towards the end. Piecing curves is complicated enough without fighting additional seams.


As so! When you're done, I would suggest pressing the curved seams outward, so you don't double the bulk in the circle itself.

And I was going to do the big reveal of the finished quilt, but that'll have to go in another post...

Until next time, then.

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