Curvaceous Single Girl

Silence please. I have an announcement. 

(a hush falls)

I have pieced my first curve!
(the crowd goes wild!)

I followed Nova's tutorial: acuppaandacatchup.com/2011/02/learning-curves-2/

(bows in the direction of Nova)

One quarter circle of my Single Girl quilt pieced. Seventy-nine more to go. Visit the Single Girl Support Group and see all the versions of Denyse Schmidt's pattern here on Flickr.

All At Sea

Some more blocks have arrived from Amy for my Beehive bee quilt, "The Busy Sea At Night". One of Amy's blocks, the yellow submarine, has cute little buttons for portholes, but I won't attach them until after the quilting. Fifteen blocks done, twenty to go!

At this size, the quilt is getting quite difficult to photograph. I laid it out on the floor, balanced on the edge of the couch and held the camera above it on an outstretched arm. I flapped the other arm to stop myself overbalancing and to shoo away Miss Brown, who adheres to the rules about not sitting on the furniture but insists upon her right to sit on anything on the floor.

Sparkly Starburst

Here's my Starburst Block for Jo, also known as Sparkly Green Knickers. It's from  the Starburst Block tutorial by Film In the Fridge, and it's a great pattern to enjoy some favorite fabrics. As you can see, Jo has made the most of the opportunity with some Denyse Schmidt, some American Jane, and some of my favorite, Suzuko Koseki.

I did the bottom half first. By the time I started the top half I had improved my technique for creating a central point, although I forgot to check if the fabric pieces were large enough and had to do quite a bit of unpicking. Twice, actually. As you may know, quilting is a hobby that requires concentration and focus. As with fencing, you must be en garde.

I'd hoped to disguise the imperfect centre on the lower half when I joined the two pieces, but I had already trimmed each half to size and didn't have any room to move.  As with fencing, when quilting one must be careful not to cut off something one might need later. Touché.