Beware of Curves!

This month I am the tour director for my Round Robin Bee group and the subject is sewing curved seams.  Sewing curves may be intimidating but with a little practice and a lot of patience you can tuck this technique into your tool belt and produce some amazing blocks. This month I will be posting about several blocks and techniques that I hope you will try.

Today I would like to talk about the old fashioned "Orange Peel" block and how to sew it.

This is the pdf for the block shape. You can also find a template at www.popularpatchwork.com/sites/4/documents/orange_Peel.pdf. This is a very old block, so there are many online sources for this template.

This is the block we are ultimately producing:

You will need to cut 4 of the "petal" shapes and 8 of the background shapes.

Take one petal shape and two background pieces and fold them in half and finger press a seam across the half way point on each.

Match the center point of one of the background pieces on the center point of the "petal" piece and pin.

Pin each end of the background piece to the ends of the "petal" piece.

Beginning at the center pin, insert pins about every half inch, working out to the edges. Yes, it is a lot of pins, but believe me, pins are your friends in this block!

After you have placed your pins on the front, turn the piece over and make sure the fabric on the back is nice and smooth along your pinned seam.  If you need to, smooth the fabric with your finger outwards toward the edge until there are no puckers or ridges.

The 411 on this block: sew slowly and patiently. Don't work on this block if you are tired or in a hurry.  Curved seams are not as forgiving as straight seams, so take your time.

Keep the outside of your 1/4" foot exactly on the outside edge of the fabric. Sew four or five stitches and then pause. Don't sew over a pin. Stop and take the pins out as you come to them. It helps if you keep your eyes in front of the right side of the presser foot while sewing along the curve instead of watching the needle.

Once you have completed the seam, take a small, sharp pair of scissors and clip the seam every half inch.  Clip within 3 or 4 threads of the seam, being careful not to clip into the seam itself.  The clipping allows the fabric to splay and relax into the seam so you can iron it flat.

Press the seam toward the center.

Using the same guidelines, align the center of the second background piece with the center of the "petal" piece, inserting a pin at the mid point.

Again, pin on the outer edge...

Pin, pin, pin...

Once again, after you have sewn the seam, use small sharp scissors and clip the seam every half inch to let the fabric relax and spread open on the seam.

This is the first of the four squares in the block. Sorry, it's sideways. I have loaded the photo three times, three different ways and it will not load straight up. Repeat the same steps for the remaining three blocks and you will have an Orange Peel block!

When you sew the four blocks together, please pay attention to the concave and convex curves and match them so the blocks come together in alignment.

If you choose to put the petals together as above, you will have a flower block and if you angle them the other way you will have the circle block. Give it a try!