Modern Mystery Quilt part 2

I like holidays - it gives me time to do what I love - sew.

After finishing a lap quilt for grand-daughter Ava, and a Halloween lap quilt for Emma, I continued with the I Spy jar quilt wall hanging and I'm very happy with it. I only have the appliqué on the bottom shelf to do and it will be ready to back.

 So I started on part 2of the Modern Mystery Quilt. I printed out the template and went through the kitchen cupboards trying to find a plate, bowl or lid that would fit - no luck. I didn't want to make 30 patterns or make a plastic template so I decided to use freezer paper.

I traced over the template and then folded the freezer paper in half before cutting. This gave me a circle.

I folded the circle to make a semi circle again and placed it around the long end of the background fabric. I pinned 4 layers of fabric together and used a dressmakers pencil to trace around the freezer paper and cut with scissors. The pattern says to discard the cut out fabric - YEAH RIGHT!!!! I'll use it for something. 

The larger circle I ironed onto one piece of fabric. I used scissors to cut around it. 

 

I then pinned the paper and fabric to about 4 layers of fabric and cut around that.

After cutting 15 circles I needed to cut them in half to make 30 semi-circles.

 I did this by folding the original paper and fabric circle in half and using my rotary cutter and ruler i carefully cut each group of 4 fabrics in half.

 I watched the Amy Gibson Craftsy video again to see how to sew circles. She is so good with her explanations and hints.

http://www.craftsy.com/lecture/September-Curved-Piecing/551.html?t=1958
 You will need to register for the class - it is free - and the whole class is full of different hints and ideas, it is well worth it.

After sewing 2 or 3 blocks it became easier to pin and sew the curves.

One good hint was to pin the middle and the two ends a couple of times with one pin, and all the other pins only once picking up a few stitches only. This allowed the fabric to move to where I wanted it to be when sewing.

Amy's video showed exactly how to sew and lift the foot to move the background fabric around so it wouldn't pucker.

And here we are with 30 finished part 2 blocks.

Some school work to do then back to start sewing part 3.
Allison