Kim your quilt looks fantastic! I am struggling with a project idea for a quilt for Ian's bed and I keep coming back to this one. I love the play of the simple shapes and the colors The circle piecing worries me a little, so I'm glad to see your success with it. And your tips, invaluable, thanks for sharing them. I'll be in touch soon.

Great list of tips! I am a victim of the ironing vs. pressing distortion. After only one quilt I know that is going to be a huge difficulty for me to overcome.

I can't wait to see your finished quilt! This is one that my husband likes, so I'm really intereted in watching yours come together!

I never knew how useful the walking foot tip could be until I used the one that came with my Bernina Aurora. Wow! The one I had for the 1965 Singer does not compare... Now I understand why my friend Jessica uses the walking foot all the time.

I press my seams to one side and line them up as shown in the tutorial, but without pins - never tried it any other way, and 90% of the time my points match on the first go.

The tip that I would add is to get some silk pins. Once you've used them, using regular pins feels like trying to shove a twig through the fabric.

Thanks, Kim! This is all really useful info, curved seams are my downfall. Your quilt looks wonderful!

Thanks for this great list. I'm going to try the walking foot. I think this could be a big part of my problems. Your quilt looks great.

Very nice list. I haven't tried a walking foot for regular piecing. I'll have to try (but like you, it is hard to see the 1/4" line with my foot...)

One thing that has helped me, is to mark the 1/4" line on my sewing machine (below the footplate) with a piece of tape. This extends the line and helps me keep the fabric in line BEFORE it gets to the foot and the needle. This only works on bigger pieces, of course.

Another tip I learned in a class is to to use the tip of your seam ripper or another long sharp thing to help hold the ends of your smaller pieces together as they are going under the presser foot -- to prevent the machine from pulling them one direction. The seam ripper point (or they sell "stilettos" just for this, can hold the fabric a little longer than your fingers can until the presser foot grabs hold. It makes a difference when you need to be really accurate.

Oh anal retentive quilting, I hardly know ye.

I thought of several reasons why your seams are bubbling. I planned to post them here but I thought they needed photos so I just added a post to my blog instead. Cliff Notes, I think the problem might be grain.

Thanks for posting your tips and wavy seams trouble, it gave me a lot to think about.

Mea culpa, mea culpa! I am guilty of all of the above: ironing, in stead of pressing, not trimming up my blocks, not using a walking foot. I will repent and hopefully overcome my fear of circular seams, all thanks to this wonderfully coprehensive post. I think you quilt is going to be beautiful!

Your quilt is amazing!

hello! your quilt looks fantastic, & thank you for the great piecing tips!

Thank you for all the great tips! The quilt looks great! I love that cocky feeling of a job well done.

The most common questions we get are about piecing curves. Because the curves you are working with are so large, you may also have some stretching along the edges from the bias cutting and the handling that took place during the piecing. Check to see if the circles lie flat before you inset them.

We have found that in piecing curves and insetting circles the four issues that are responsible for 99% of the problems we see are inaccurate templates, absence of registration points,sewing too quickly and insufficient pinning.

We think it's virtually impossible to get curves to lie flat without an accurate template. Be careful too about copy machines. Some brands distort the circle. Check the final template with a compass. I once taught a class in a shop in which all of the students had been given warped templates.

Then mark points along evenly spaced intervals around the circle and around the opening with chalk. This will help you distribute the fabric evenly. Pin as closely as you have to to make sure it lies flat on the sewing machine. Pin according to the diagrams in the MQW (see Gamelan and Eclipse).

Sew slowly and put your needle in the needle down position when you think you might be getting near a tuck. Lift the presser foot, redistribute the bulk and replace the presser foot.

If you still have waviness and tucks that you can't bear to redo, make sure that you square it up as best you can and quilt it densely. Tight quilting will not take out big bubbling, but it will smooth out fine tucks near the seams if you make sure to flatten the tucks before you quilt over them.

We are working on a quilt right now with over 30 inset circles so we know these techniques make a big difference.

Hope this helps. Let us know if you have any other questions that you think we might be able to help with.

This is all great advice. I'm thoroughly impressed with your piecing skills/attention to detail/general unwavering patience... you get the idea.

Kim - to use walking foot at correct 1/4 inch width - play around with stitch width of your machine. On my janome I use a 6 as my 1/4 inch and then up width to a 7 to use the walking foot to joint pieces. Seams match perfectly with both ordinary foot and walking foot. Try sewing a line on piece of paper and then measure with ruler for width to arrive at correct width on your machine.
Have just started using walking foot this weekend, theorising that it would make the material sit still, and not move, if that makes sense. Have also discovered that flat seams are making for better meeting of points, was surprised at this, as had been taught to roll seams to one side, drove me insane, then came across the flat seam advice on net today. WORKS!

penne