Saturday, January 16, 2021

I was working on an Alias Grace block today. I knew it was going to be hard because I didn’t have an actual pattern and it wasn’t one I could easily sketch out. But I found a couple of patterns online that were similar and copied them as best I could.

The block was full of curves and I don’t do curves; I have an appliqué work-around that has served me well with my calendar blocks. But that wasn’t going to be an easy work-around with this one so I decided to learn how to do it properly and sew the darned curves.

My first mistake was getting two curves sewn and then realizing that there was going to be a raw edge. I was able to draw a second curved template and use it to press under a hem. It was easier to do on the pieces that hadn’t been sewn together yet and a bit of glue worked wonders.

I had everything put together when we stopped for lunch. It was far from perfect but I decided I could live with it. I even had one set of edges hand-stitched down.

When I showed Pat he immediately noticed where the curves should have met and where they clearly didn’t. He had suggestions on how to fix it. The only way it was going to work was if I took it all apart. From there I could better match the curves but it meant the blocks had to be trimmed down. I kept matching and stitching and trimming until I got a better fit but a smaller block. There is still some trimming to be done.

It’s good to have a critic in the house (some days) as he challenges me do things better.