Art Quilts by Kathy York

No. 9

Part 2, the piecing

The next part was making all the HSTs. I used the paper cut out of the humps on my design wall, and then made half square triangle blocks until the template was completely covered.  To be fair, I also did some measuring because the size of the blocks shrink after sewing them together.

Here are the blocks for one of the humps, cut, marked and ready to stitch. These are for one of the humps that used multiple colors and tiny 1" blocks. 

I think the step of trimming the blocks to their correct size with the rotary cutter is the least fun of all the steps. However, it makes the joining of the blocks really easy and precise.

I love looking at them once they are arranged on the design wall!

Next is to stitch the blocks together. I pin once through the matching seams, and then pin on both sides of the seam and remove the first pin. So, for each matching seam, there are two pins. It makes for a lot of pins, but also it seems to work well for me, so I do it.

Once the entire section is pieced, I turn it wrong side up, trace the shape of the paper template on it, and then cut with scissors 1/4" out from the marked line (for the seam allowance). 

Since I am working with curves, I also use a good number of registration marks to match the point on the hump with it's corresponding spot on the background piece. And, once again, I use a LOT of pins. However, pins on a curve are a bit more unwieldy and I tend to get accidentally poked by those pins, which is not at all fun. 

Here are some details photos of the top with the humps pieced in. I was really pleased with how well the process worked!

In case you are wondering, I used the same system with the arcs, of tracing the paper templates, and using registration marks. I was worried about the narrow arcs stretching out of shape, so I stay-stitched near the edges before cutting them. It worked reasonably well!

Stay tuned for the next post. I will share some photos of the quilting!