Monday, August 12, 2013

Making Waves

I'm working on Metro Waves using my Paris Flea Market fabric collection.  I cut my wave pieces from 10" wide strips.  Although I've departed from the original pattern instructions, I'm sticking with the designer in one area:  cut a little bigger than necessary then trim blocks to size before sewing together.  Except instead of blocks, I have long strips to trim down to 9.5" wide.  This will allow me to even up the edges, where although the wave pieces went together easily, the edges are not all perfectly even.

To help with the trimming, I cut a wave from paper and taped it to the wrong side of my 9.5" square Omnigrid ruler.  I can place the ruler on my strips with the paper wave lined up with a curved seam.  This ensures the ruler is centered on the strip before I trim from each side. 

 
This made the trimming easy. I started at the top of a strip with the paper curve aligned with one of my curved seams, trimmed along each side, then repositioned the ruler further along and cut again.  I repeated this the length of each wave strip. 

 
The result is a much cleaner edge on each strip.  I think this will make it easier to sew the strips together into the quilt top.

 
I did not do much sewing over the weekend.  Mr. Main Street and I decided it is time to replace our 1992 Volvo station wagon with a new car.  I think we got our money's worth after 21 years of service!  The car actually still runs very well but whenever something needs to be replaced we have to wait while they locate parts because Volvo doesn't make them for this model any longer.  So we spent Saturday doing a little shopping and comparing and I think we found the one.  We are supposed to pick her up on Tuesday.

3 comments:

  1. I'm enjoying following you on this quilt. I bought that ruler and pattern too but haven't started anything with it yet. I'm not completely understanding the direction you are going in b/c I haven't gotten the pattern out and read it but I think when I see your blocks come together, it will be clearer. I agree, the Paris Flea Market fabric is beautiful and I understand you wanting to let the fabric showcase itself. Keep these posts coming!!

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  2. I didn't do much sewing over the weekend either. We are needing a new car, too, and I don't even know what I want! Actually, I want some sort of computer program that I can input all my relavent considerations and it will spit out the name of the perfect vehicle for us! Alas, no such thing exists, so we will have to figure it out ourselves. We have yet to go to a dealership yet. I guess I'm really dragging my feet!

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  3. Ingenious idea for trimming the edges. I've thought about trying this ruler but just haven't gotten to it yet. Nice to know how it works for someone.

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