Alabama Beauty revisited

Eighteen down and eighteen to go – The other blocks are already printed and cut out – so it’s just a matter of sewing them together. I don’t even remember why I abandoned them so long ago. This is on my list for Quiltfest Jacksonville 2014.

Eighteen Alabama Beauty blocks

Nine more blocks finished – now to sew them together in a group of nine.

I am very pleased with the way they are turning out. The red “butterflies” are prominent – which I had planned on – but you never know with these Kaffe fabrics – often what I have in mind doesn’t always work out. The yellow/orange print backgrounds are forming the secondary  circles quite nicely – I really wasn’t sure they would

Alabama Beauty blocks #10, 11 and 12

I put the three new blocks up on the wall and they didn’t match the first nine. I have a “map” and the blocks are numbered – but each fabric is not numbered. I have the 16 pieces for each block laid out on a numbered square of flannel. So what was wrong?  I moved them every which way and they still didn’t fit.

I panicked.  I thought somehow I had mixed up the positions of the fabrics in each block – or maybe just some of the blocks. But then…. I thought – maybe I have the set of nine blocks in the wrong position – YES! I flipped it to the right and everything fit. Thank goodness!

How I sew an Alabama Beauty block

This is the first group of 9 blocks – sewn together. There will be a total of 36 blocks – 3 more sets of 9.

In this first group I joined each block – one at a time. I couldn’t wait to see what it looked like – it was exciting seeing it come together. I wasn’t sure the secondary circles would show up – but they do – just enough!

When I finished a row of three blocks I joined them to each other. When I finished the middle row I joined it to the top row and the same for the bottom row.

I haven’t posted any progress on the Alabama Beauty blocks for awhile – but I have been working on them. I discovered that sewing the same pieces together on all 9 block makes it go much faster – I get into a rhythm when I do the same thing over and over.

This picture shows the 16 pieces that make up one block.

1) I sew the two trumpet shaped pieces to the four purple pointy bits. First I have to clip the concave curves on the purple pointy pieces. While I’m at it I clip the trumpet shaped pieces too – because I will have to do it later anyway .

I press it open like this. I do this for all 9 blocks before I move on to the next step.

2) The next step is to sew the four purple pointy modules to the four orange peel shapes. Press and repeat for all 9 blocks.

This is what it looks like from the back after pressing.

3) Now I sew one set of two orange peel modules together.

And then the other – on all nine blocks.

The last step of course – is to sew the two modules together to form a completed block. I start sewing at the center and work out – I find it makes the points meet more accurately.

I am just finishing step two on the ninth block.

This is my method - using Inklingo of course – I cannot imagine sewing a 16 piece block – every single piece is curved – any other way!

Other Inklingoists undoubtedly approach it a bit differently – it took me a few blocks to discover my favorite way of doing it.

Cathi at Quit Obsession is a master at hand piecing – with a special fondness for curved patterns. See Cathi’s wonderful very well  illustrated tutorials on hand piecing  here and here. Whether you use Inklingo or not these are excellent instructions.

Nine Alabama Beauties

Top row of three are sewn together the bottom six are not. There will be another three sets of nine for a total of 36 blocks.

Six Alabama Beauty blocks

The first row of three are sewn together into a strip – the bottom three aren’t – but I couldn’t wait to post them – it’s so exciting seeing the circles appear.

Alabama Beauty #5

Finished this one over the weekend. Break over – back to sewing the Christening Gown this week.

Alabama Beauty # 4

Finished this one yesterday – I had started it before the christening gown project. I had to take a break and get in some hand piecing – my under the fabric finger tip is losing it’s callus!

Alabama Beauty block 3

Click on the picture to see the detail – this one is so much better than the first two – especially the center.

Here it is attached to the others. Joining them as I go along I will not be faced with the boring task of doing all 36 at the same time.

Joining Alabama Beauty seams

Each block has been a learning process. I am working on the fourth and I think I’ve got it!

Things I have learned:

Press as you go. The first two blocks I didn’t press until they were finished – what a mess. It might have been easier had I had one of those teeny irons.

Now I join the four sets of purple points and two background pieces first – then I press them.

Next I sew the 2 of the points/backgrounds units to two of the peel sections and I press again.

The final seam is one long continuous run.

I learned from Cathi to use needles instead of pins – but I also discovered something else. Let’s see if I can explain it without a picture. Normally you would stick the pin into the match point then down into the piece. If you stick the pin into the match point and up into the seam allowance it seems to  distort the sewing line even less. The head of the pin is down and the point up. Does that make sense?

Addendum:

The seams of the two pieces shown in the picture above cannot be sewn in one long seam. You have to have the concave piece facing you – so you have to start in the center and go to the edge – turn it around and do the same. Actually it makes for a much more accurate center join. I have been sewing with the convex (peel shape) piece facing me until I re-read Linda’s curved piecing tips and she says the trick to curved piecing is having the concave piece facing you. I’ve been doing it all wrong for the first three blocks. Never mind – I have thirty-three more to go – I’ll get it right eventually!

Click on the picture for an enlargement and you can see the placement of the needle/pin.