Curved seams intimidate me. Not because I haven't sewn plenty of them - they show up frequently in garment sewing (especially Jane Austen dresses) - but because I've never really been sure I was doing them correctly. They just feel like the sort of thing where there must be a trick that makes them easy to do but no one ever taught me. I love the look of curves in quilting too and I've never felt confident enough to actually try it out. Sometimes all you need is a little push (and some naked couch cushions).

When I saw this tutorial on The Purl Bee I just had to give it a try. Molly's instructions for sewing curved seams are fantastic. It's like the difference between a pattern saying "Sew in zipper as shown," with a few cryptic diagrams, and my mother carefully walking me through the process of getting the right foot on the machine and explaining that if you baste the seam first the edges over the zipper will always match up perfectly. Molly explains how to pin the pieces together properly and shows how much stretching you can do (something I've never been sure about) to encourage your pieces to match up nicely and lay flat when you're done.

I followed her instructions - using lots of pins and sewing nice and slowly - and I got a perfectly flat pieced curve on my first try. It was so satisfying that I just kept going until I had enough quadrants to make two pillow covers. When I was all done I had two nice looking cushions decorating our family room couch.


Now I really want to make a quilt top this way. I think I'll use one solid and a whole bunch of co-ordinating prints.

Oh ... and this spat of sewing was prompted by my need to make a cover for the duvet Abby sleeps on. It's basically a big pillow case with an overlap on the back (like the backs of the pillow covers) so she can't pull it off. The duvet inside is folded in four. If she likes it this way I'm planning to get some nice home dec weight fabric that will be able to stand up to her digging for longer.

Though I kind of like how her bed matches my cushions perfectly.

 

Abby's squeaky ball - a very popular toy - good for both stationary squeaking and quick games of fetch. Zeke, walking away from the water dish, was just a little more interesting this time.

In an effort to help combat the February greys I'm participating in Yellow Week, hosted by Erin of House on Hill Road (I highly recommend taking a look to see what other people are doing). These are some tulips we picked out at the grocery store on Saturday. I love the way they've opened up. We've got them sitting in the middle of the kitchen table where they are easy to see as we go about our everyday things. There is another view of them (from the night before - not quite so open) in my 365 set on Flickr.