The first part of 'Love Entwined' has now been published, we are to start in the centre with a Mariner's Compass. I have chosen to hand piece my centre using Freezer Paper templates. I thought it might be useful to show my method for preparing the pieces here.
The first step is to print or trace the pattern pieces onto Freezer Paper, I like the Jenkin sheets, as they are a little more robust than the Reynold's brand and feed through the printer easily.
Cut out the pattern pieces on the solid line - i.e.
without seam allowance.
Then select the fabrics you wish to use.
Iron the FP template to the
wrong side of the chosen fabric.
Draw around the shape (I like to use a mechanical pencil) and cut out,
adding a 1/4" seam allowance as you cut. The drawn line, is your sewing line; it makes it easy to match the seams and helps with accurate piecing.
I then pin all my cut pieces wrong side up on a fabric covered board. This helps to keep everything in the correct place; as you piece sections together, lay them back in the correct position on the board.
My 'board' is actually an old 12" square ruler that I dropped! I glued it back together and covered it in wadding and fabric, with felt on one side - it is really useful to keep pieces in the correct order when hand piecing.
I plan to piece my compass in the same manner but have never used a fabric covered board to lay out the block. Thanks for the tip. I am itching to get started but am still searching for a few more fabrics and want to make sure I am sure about my choice since it is the center of the quilt. Look forward to seeing your compass.
ReplyDeleteThankyou this is very helpfull
ReplyDeleteKlara
you do it exactly how I do it!! I did it this way for both of my Dear Jane quilts and found it worked out so well. This is how I will do the center of the LE also. Now I am just waiting on my fabric.
ReplyDeleteI do it the same way - it is easy to keep track of them like that. It will be nice to see all the different compasses!
ReplyDeleteOh cool! I'm going to bookmark this -- very helpful! Maybe I will get up the nerve to tackle this one too. Thank you!!
ReplyDeleteI'm relatively new to hand piecing so thanks for this great post. What a good idea to keep everything together on a board.
ReplyDeleteI love you colour choices, cant wait to see the finished compass.
ReplyDeleteAm going to start sewing mine tonight, but im slow at hand piecing and am not looking forward to it.