Howdy

Had a question on how to make the curved seam nine patches. Over the years, I've done a lot, and I mean a lot, of workshops with all sorts of famous quilters--Caryl Breyer Fallert, Ricky Tims, Judy Dales, Debra Wagner, Jinny Beyer, etc.--and from that, go home and think to myself, I wonder what would happen if I tried (insert idea here). After one inspiring time in Paducah with classes with two of the above, I went home and found some 10" squares of fabric that I'd bought somewhere, and tried laying one on top of another, right sides up on both pieces, and cutting two gentle curves through both pieces. Then, took the top pieces from the outsides and the bottom piece from the middle, and sewed them together with a very narrow seam, about 3/16". Then sewed the bottom outside pieces and top middle piece together. Then pressed both blocks, laid them on top of each other right sides up on both, with the seams as close to lined up as possible, and made two gently curved cuts in the other direction, and repeated the above, to get two curved-seam nine patch blocks. Since there's no seam allowance, the seams can't match each other, but since this is a just-for-fun technique, it doesn't matter. I'm sure it would work with four patches or sixteen patches, too. Give it a try sometime if you have an afternoon, and you can always use the resulting blocks to make a Linus quilt.

Pat in Rockport, TX