Organizing the Ogees

We have had three nice days in a row here in eastern Ontario - our spring has been very slow to catch on here!  I haven't broken out the flipflops yet - and since the weather man is talking about rain through the weekend, it won't be this week either.

If you are super-organized, you have managed to complete all your cutting for the quiltalong, and if you are merely human, you are somewhere along the way.  I hope you are excited about starting to stitch!  But before we begin to sew, we have to spend some time thinking about the layout.  This is one of those quilts where the main motif (the ogee) cannot be constructed without involving bits from connecting motifs - to make the top of one ogee you are at the same time making the bottom of another ogee.  In other words, you can't sew just one at a time.  What this means at this stage of the game is that you need to figure out the layout of the whole quilt top before you sew a single seam.

The easiest way to do the layout is to throw all the pieces up on the design wall that you have permanently attached to the wall right beside your sewing machine, organize them into the layout you like best; after you sew each seam you can put them back onto the design wall and keep everything organized.  What's that you say?  You don't have a design wall permanently affixed beside your sewing machine?  Then this post is for you!

First, take all the little scraps that I told you to save in the last post.  (If you haven't yet done your cutting, save small scraps of each fabric about an inch square or so).  Tape or glue each scrap to a piece of paper and number each scrap from one to twenty.

Next, take the 32 large squares that you cut and lay them out on a table or other workspace.  If you look at the layout diagram on page 3 of the pattern, you can see that the pattern has five rows of four complete ogees and four rows of three complete ogees.  These complete ogees are bordered by half-ogees all the way around.  So to figure out your fabric layout in a constrained space, we can work with the large squares only, to give us an idea of how the fabrics will work together.  Lay them out offset in rows of four and three. Try to lay them out so that the squares (which will be the centres of the ogees) have neighbours that are not too similar in colour or value.  I'm sorry that my table is in the same colour family as these fabrics - it's difficult to see some of them.

Place the rectangles around the sides on the rows with three squares - these are the half-ogees, so you will have to leave a little space on the sides (but not on the top and bottom), as I have done in the photo below.  Keep looking at the layout diagram on page 3 and you will see what I mean.

Now, take the diagram on page three of the pattern and, cross-referencing the key you made with your fabric scraps, transfer the layout from your table onto the diagram via the numbers of each fabric.
  
This is now your guide to assembling the quilt top, so you don't need to keep the individual pieces out on the table or on a design wall.  Here's the one I made for my first ogee quilt.  It will be your guide to piecing the fabric you need for the curved seams.  Keep it in a safe place for the next week or so while we practice sewing curved seams!

Coming soon:

This weekend just past I made an instructional video about sewing curved seams without pins!  I'll be posting that next week.

Also - the Blogger's Quilt Festival starts on Friday!  I hope you will all join in the fun!  This will be my third one, and I will enter Miss March, since it is my latest finished quilt and the one I a still most in love with.

Time to start sewing those curves!

I know that not everyone has finished their cutting, but I'm going to keep more or less to schedule and post today about sewing the curved seams.  That is the first step in assembling the quilt top.  However, since the curved seams are what brings trepidation to the souls of many, my suggestion is that we take some time to practice sewing these curves before we commit to putting our special fabric under the needle.  After all, it took so long to mark those templates and cut out all those pieces - am I right? - that we want to feel confident before we start sewing them up.  Here are some Drunkard's Path blocks I made to sharpen up my curved seam sewing before embarking on my second ogee quilt.

Last week I made a video about how I sew curved seams without pins.  It was my first video ever, and I did it several times before I felt like it was good enough to post.  Without too much rabbiting on by yours truly, and with a decent view of what was actually happening under the needle.  I uploaded it to Vimeo and when I watched it afterwards it was completely sideways!  I was mortified!  And despite all my research to this end, I couldn't figure out how to rotate it so that it would play with the proper orientation.  I was resigned to making another video, but in accordance with Murphy's Law, my camera took that moment to lose the spring on the slot that holds the memory card.  This meant that the card wouldn't click into place, making the camera unusable.  So I took my still-under-warranty camera in for service - which means I can't make another video to demonstrate pinless curved seams.

So!  I am uploading the sideways vid.  If you have a laptop you can hold it sideways or prop it on its side with a can of peas.  If you are watching on a desktop, I suggest you lie on the couch, or perhaps channel your elementary school self and sprawl on your table with your head on your arm, the way we used to do in school when the teacher was reading aloud.  That will give you a good angle on this video.

Untitled from L Woolley on Vimeo.

What I didn't say in this video is that there are times when things will go off the rails and you make a dog's breakfast of a particular seam.  No fear - just employ your reverse sewing skills with your seam ripper and start over.  As my mother used to say - as long as you don't cut anything, you can always fix your mistakes.
There are a number of videos on the internet that show you how to sew curves using pins.  I don't use pins on curves because I think they give you a false sense of security, and they cause more problems than they solve.  I find they are awkward on small pieces of fabric (perhaps the small applique pins would work here, but I don't have any of those), and I don't want to have to stop a million times to remove pins as I sew.  Also, if you pin the pieces together, you are necessarily going to have the pinned seam curl up on itself as you are sewing, and I find that makes it awkward to see what is going on under the needle.  Finally, I prick myself with the pins and pins fall out onto the carpet, never to be seen again (until they are stepped on) and that just makes me cranky.  However, if you do choose to go with pins, then carefully place pins at both end of the seam.  Match the centre points that you marked when you cut from the template and place a pin there.  Then place pins along the remaining edge, distributing the fabric evenly.  Place the pins perpendicular to the seam line with the pin heads to the right - this will make it easier to remove them as you sew.

I suggest that you cut some pieces from scrap and trace Template A and B on them, and then practice sewing these curves.  I used a small Drunkard's Path template for my practicing, which is similar, but does not mark the curve from corner to corner, as is the case with the ogee blocks.  Be courageous!  Since you're practicing on scraps, you have nothing to lose.  I encourage you to try the no-pins approach, but pins or pin-free, you will soon find that you feel like sewing curves is a breeze!

And if you want to join the Ogee/Curlicue Quiltalong, you can jump in at any time.  All the posts will be here.

Also!  What? Yikes!  I have 200 followers!  You are all awesome!  And to celebrate I will have a spontaneous giveaway of fat-eighth bundle of Maison de Garance!  But not today.  Tomorrow!  Come back tomorrow and leave your comment on tomorrow's post!  (Huh.  I guess that's not so spontaneous.)

Ogee Quiltalong: Cutting

I love the fabric choices that folks have posted in the Flickr group so far!  If you are quilting along, I encourage you to post photos of your fabric.  If you don't do Flickr but have photos on a blog, let me know in a comment so I can link up and share with the other QAL-ers.  Now it's time to get cutting!

EDITED TO ADD:  This is very important, folks!  When you are printing your .pdf pattern, make sure it does not scale the pattern to fit the page (there is usually a check box asking if you want this in the printing process - on some printers it is the default to be selected.  Deselect it, if this is the case for your printer.)  Template A and Template B on the pattern must fit the small squares that you cut in step 3 below.  If you do not follow these instructions, your A and B pieces will be too small!

It's a bit tricky; since this is a proprietary pattern, it would be very poor form for me to post photos that would make it possible for people to easily make he quilt without buying the pattern.  So the photos I am showing here are necessarily a bit abbreviated, but I think they will help with the points I want to make.

First, I want to say that the instructions in Rebecca's pattern are very good, so if you follow them to the letter, you won't go wrong.  However, you should know that this is definitely the time to apply the rule "measure twice, cut once".  If you make a mistake in your cutting, and if you are cutting from fat quarters with no backup yardage, you are SOL.  Not to scare you, or anything, ha ha.  So in this post, I want to point out some things to look for so you don't go wrong.

1.  As I said in a previous post, begin by measuring your FQs.  Different shops are more or less generous in their cutting.  A stingy FQ will be 18" on the short side.  I am using a Kona solid bundle and these FQs are very stingy: not a hair over 18".  This means I have very little scope for straightening up the cut, since the calculated waste on the 18" side is only 1/2".  If you have more generous FQs, you can breathe a bit more freely.
2. You want to begin by cutting 1 wide strip and 3 narrow strips from each FQ (the width dimensions of the strips are in the pattern).  The FQ will be 18" x 20-22".  Make sure you cut the strips so that they are 20-22" long.  If you cut them 18" long you will not have enough fabric.  In this picture I have the ruler along the 20" side.

3.  Subcut the strips into the pieces that are marked on the pattern.  You will end up with 17 small squares and 2 large squares.  Here you can see the waste from the 18" side when cutting the strips: that 1/2" strip on the right side of the cutting mat.

4.  After I cut each FQ, I am keeping the pieces together in a plastic sandwich bag.  (The reason I am doing this is that some of the Kona solids are very similar in colour, and I don't want to get them mixed up.  If your fabrics aren't too similar, keeping them in separate bags isn't really necessary.)  NOTE: From a piece of the waste fabric, cut a small swatch and keep it safe.  You will use this when you are planning the layout of the quilt.  This is not in the pattern, but it is something that I found extremely helpful when I made my first Ogee quilt, since I don't have a design wall that I can leave up for extended periods.  Here you can see the the size of swatch I have preserved. I keep it in the plastic bag with the other pieces from the FQ.

5.  The pattern provides two templates for you to use to cut the curved pieces.  I used some Dritz template plastic to trace the pattern pieces onto with a smudge-proof pen.  
This plastic is fairly thick and I like it, but any reasonably stiff plastic or even cardboard can be used.  When you cut the templates out, be sure and transfer the marks at the centre of the curve onto the template with a pen.  Cut them carefully out with scissors.

6.  Fit one of the curved templates onto one of small squares that you cut from the FQ, and trace around with a sharp pencil.  I used a regular mechanical pencil when I made my first Ogee quilt, but I am using this Sewline fabric pencil with white lead for this one, since so many of my fabrics are dark.

The pattern will tell you how many of Template A and Template B to cut from each FQ (see Step 3 on the pattern).  Be sure and mark the centre point of the curve.

7.  Cut along the marked line carefully.  Here's what you will have after you have cut out one Template A and one Template B.   I pitch the leftover from Template A (marked "Waste").  I save the segment that remains after cutting Template B - marked "Save?" - the question mark means that it's up to you to save or not.  It is not required for the Ogee/Curlicue pattern, but I think you could probably do something interesting with them.  You will have a lot of them when everything is cut out.

8.  After your initial cutting of the strips into squares, you will have 2 large squares from each FQ.  Since the pattern calls for 20 FQs, you will have 40 large squares in total.  Pick 32 of these for the main ogees in the pattern.  Step 4 of the pattern says to trim each of these 32 large squares down to slightly smaller squares (see the Step 4 of the pattern for the precise dimension).  Of the remaining 8 large squares, pick one for your corners and set it aside.  NOTE:  This next bit is where I started off wrong when I made the pattern the first time.  With the remaining 7 squares, trim ONE SIDE ONLY - the pattern will tell you how much (I went hog wild and continued to trim on both sides, because I didn't read the pattern carefully).  At that point, cut that piece in half to form two equal rectangles (again, the precise dimensions are in Step 4 of the pattern).  In the photo below, you can see what happens to the two large squares of a FQ: the one on top will be one of the 32 main ogees and has been trimmed to a slightly smaller square.  The one on the bottom has been trimmed on one side only, and then bisected into two rectangles.   The photo looks elongated because I was at an angle - sorry!

9.  The last large square that you set aside in that FQ will be cut into four equal squares - the pattern will tell you the exact dimensions (see Step 6).  These will be the corners of your quilt top.  No photo for this step.
Done!  Phew!  Have fun cutting!  And don't forget to post photos if you haven't already!

And if you aren't quilting along but you read through this entire post, here is your reward:

Getting started!

Time to begin our quiltalong!  At the end of the post I'll set out the schedule that I hope to maintain.  I hope you've had a chance to think about the fabrics you'd like to use for your ogees.  I wanted to make a few observations about fabric and how it works with this pattern.  When I made my first ogee quilt, I pulled a whole bunch of fabrics for consideration.  I started with a fat quarter bundle of Sugar Pop in the pink/orange/purple colourway, which comprised eight different prints, and I pulled from my stash to supplement those.  Here are the eight Sugar Pop prints.

You can see that on balance, they are all pretty light, so I went looking for some darker ones.  Here is a photo of my selection process.

I tried to get a range of values from light to dark.  A black and white photo helped me ignore the actual colours and see the values more clearly.  Overall, I think I did an okay job picking fabrics.  I'm not trained in art of any kind, so I really learn as I go and, unfortunately, too many of the lessons are learned after the fact!  Here's what I learned in making this quilt.
First, directional fabrics.  Unless you are possessed of amazing spatial sense and intense determination, you will likely get directional fabrics oriented every which way.  I knew this would happen to me, so I limited my directional fabrics to small prints, like this one.  See how the lines in this print are perpendicular to each other, rather than all going the same direction?  I am okay with that since the print is small - I would be annoyed if it were bigger.

I was also surprised when I realized that some prints were actually directional, when I didn't realize they were.  For example, this Hope Valley.  See how the diamonds point east-west in part of the ogee but north-south in another?

Even this one is directional, although it doesn't show so well in this photo.  But the name of the print is Oval Elements, so that is enough to tell you that it is directional.

Second, large-scale prints.  Strictly speaking, these are also directional, but I think the important design element here is how sparse the main figures are; this has a bearing on how coherent the ogees look.  For example, here are two ogees where the print is quite dense - I think this obscures the joins where the parts of the ogee come together and makes them look quite tight and coherent.


On the other hand, here are a couple of examples where the main figures on the prints are quite sparse.  I think that, with these prints, the way the pattern is broken up makes the joins in the different parts of the ogees more obvious, and it looks less tight and coherent.


Third, solids.  In my initial fabric pull, I had included a Kona solid purple, but a number of readers commented that it didn't look right to have a single solid in with all the prints.  I agreed that something didn't look quite right.  I replaced it with two fabrics that were looked like hand-dyed solids.  They weren't, but they had a bit of visual texture while retaining the essence of a solid.  This gave them enough action that they went well with the prints, while the Kona solid was too flat all by itself.  I think they looked fantastic.  I didn't take individual photos of these, but you can see the orange solid at the left of the first photo below, and the purple solid that was the poverty piece in the second photo.  (As to that poverty piece, this is what happens when you don't ensure your fat quarter is big enough, as I mentioned in my previous post.)


I am picking on individual prints here, and showing you individual ogees to make my points.  So here is the whole quilt again, so you can see what I mean when I talk about "more" and "less" coherent, tight or successful ogees.  Go and look at other quilts made using this pattern to see if these principles also apply here, here and here - I think they do.  I lack the technical vocabulary, so I hope this all makes sense.  When I look at the quilt as a whole, and I consider my fabric choices, I feel that I was still a bit heavy on the lights, and I could have used another dark or two.  This is descending to the level of the ultimate picayune, as my mother would say, because on balance I think the quilt works very well and I love it dearly.


So!  The schedule!   Here's what I have planned.
Finish cutting by Friday, May 6 (I will have a very short cutting post for you later today, so I suggest you wait for that - I made a cutting error that led me to another poverty patch when I made this pattern the first time.)
Decide on layout and prepare work sheet (for those of you who do not have permanent design walls, like me) by the following week, ending May 13
Practice sewing curves on scraps, week ending May 20 (I may have a plan for a mini-project based on your successful scrap curves - stay tuned.)
Piecing frenzy for two weeks, ending June 3 with a completed quilt top!!!

I'm excited!  Don't forget to join the Flickr group and post your fabric for us to ooh and ahh over and to provide advice if desired.  And, of course, you can join the QAL at any time.

Ogee/Curlicue Quiltalong and Pattern Giveaway!

I’m excited that people want to quilt along with me to make an Ogee (aka Curlicue) quilt!  The first step in quilting along is to acquire the pattern; you won't be able to follow along without it.  As I mentioned last time, I know that lots of folks may already have it (although I haven't seen many quilts made up from it yet - I have been given permission to show the two I have seen - besides Rebecca's original and mine - here in this post).

Rebecca Johnson's original

If not, you can buy it for a very reasonable price at Rebecca’s online shop.  For me, the best thing about buying from her shop is that the pattern is available via download – it comes in a .pdf file that you can print out, or just read on your iPad immediately, with no need to watch the mailbox.

Made by Penny at sewtakeahike.

Because she is the sweetest lady in the southern hemisphere, Rebecca is donating three copies of the pattern for a giveaway to inaugurate the quiltalong!  She is excited to see all the new versions of her quilt that we will be creating!  I'll leave the giveaway open until April 22, when the Passover seders are over, then I'll draw the names of the winners.  In the meantime, think about what fabrics you want to use!

<a href="http://pickledish.blogspot.com" /><img src="http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/i472/leslyww/ogeeQALbutton.jpg" /></a>

I am walking on air because I managed to create my very own button for the QAL - you can find it over on the right panel of my blog, and I am attempting to embed it in this post, as well.  Html and I are only nodding acquaintances at the very best, so I'm counting this as a real victory.  You can grab the code if you would like to add the button to your blog.  I also started a Flickr group, where we can post photos of fabric selection and ongoing progress. etc.  So if you are going to quilt along, go over and join the Flickr group.

Made by quiltjane

I am going to use about six weeks to conduct the quiltalong.  Of course you can join at any time and progress at your own pace, but I am trying to get mine completed before high school graduation.   I am going to lead you along the path that worked for me when I made the pattern the first time, and I will point out some errors that I made, to save you from falling in those particular pits.  Of course, I can't promise we won't discover new ones!  Here is a rough outline:

Week 1  Materials needed, thoughts of fabric selection, things to consider in fabric layout (e.g., what counts as directional fabric - you will be surprised)
Week 2  Cutting - fun adventures with templates
Week 3  How to keep track of what pieces go with what if you don't have a design wall (I don't)
Week 4  Practice week for curves - sewing scraps both with pins and without pins (my favourite)
Week 5 Piecing frenzy!
Week 6 Piecing frenzy concludes with finished quilt top
Throughout:  Plenty of encouragement and camaraderie!

Mine!

So without further ado, let's proceed to the giveaway!  To qualify for a chance at one of the patterns, leave me a comment telling me what fabric line or colours you would choose for this quilt.  I will choose three winners at random on April 22.   I can't emphasize strongly enough that if you are a no-reply blogger, I probably cannot contact you if you are a winner.  (I really blame Blogger for not making this clear to people - I am sure most no-reply bloggers think they are not, since they have to enter their email address whenever they leave a comment.)  Also, if you are a blogger intending to quilt along, please leave your blog title in the comment and I will assemble a blog roll for the sidebar.  

Care to Quilt Along?

Remember this quilt?

I had a great time making it, so much fun that I agreed to make it again.  This time it's going to be for a friend's daughter who will be starting university in the fall; she wants her daughter to have a cuddly quilt to keep her warm in her new home in Toronto.  I'm going to be making it in solids, this time.  I'm using the Kauffman Kona Solids bundle in Hot Spice.

Want to quilt along with me?  The quilt is made from the pattern Curlicue by Rebecca Johnson of Chasing Cottons.  I know that many recent giveaways have featured this quilt, and I think it was a signing bonus with Fat Quarterly a few months ago.  I figure there may be a few folks out there who have bought or won the pattern, but haven't worked up the courage to venture into Curved Seams Land.  If that's you, maybe you want to come along with me as I make this quilt for the second time.  It's really much, much easier than it looks.

Here are some things you might want to know before you make up your mind to quilt along:
You would have to buy the pattern from Rebecca at her website - it is a downloadable .pdf so no waiting for the mailman!
The pattern requires 20 fat quarters (plus fabric for the backing and binding).
The quilt finishes at 48" x 55", but you could add a border, if you wanted it to be larger, I suppose.
Although I have a special presser foot for curves, you really don't need one.
I plan to start this quiltalong, if there is any interest, in two or three weeks, once Passover is behind us.

What do you think?  Any takers?