Spring Fling

I've been fascinated by curves in a quilt for a long time, but the challenge scared me. I remember back in the day when I used to make clothing, I hated doing sleeves on shirts, as it was hard to get a nice seam that didn't pucker or ruffle or pleat... The seam ripper was often my friend back when I used to set in sleeves.

Then I discovered this website called Sew Kind of Wonderful. It had this ruler that guaranteed easy piecing of curves in quilts. I watched many videos and browsed many photos of completed projects. It did seem easy. So, I bought the ruler, a jelly roll, a coordinating solid and a pattern.

But I didn't want to use my newly purchased fabric just yet. I wanted to test the ruler first. I found a free pattern for a block called Spring Fling and thought I would give it a go.

The test block turned out wonderful, just as it was supposed to, and, much to my surprise, the curves were not difficult at all. This block hooked me and made me want to make more of these... "make a whole quilt" it said. 

I assembled four blocks out of strips that I had, but I wasn't in love with the fabric placement I had chosen once they were put together (the greens and yellows kind of got lost with the background, and the prints really jumped out). They were alright, but not as lovely as that first one. I am also not a fan of square quilts, so I used the leftover bits and made two scrappy blocks, so it was large enough to be a couch quilt.

With sashing in between and all around, I am calling it done as a top. I debated adding a border, but opted not to. 

I love the ruler, and now feel confident enough to tackle the pattern I bought, Metro Hoops, without worrying about wasting my "good" fabric.