Easy Curves Quilting Tutorial

Thinking about giving curved quilting a try, but nervous because it looks complicated?  Me too!  And that is exactly why I wrote this Easy Curves Quilting Tutorial. 

Isn’t this the prettiest fabric palette?  This quilt was not finished in time for it’s recipient’s birthday. Why? Because I spent several weeks just staring at this fabric rather than cutting into it.  It’s so soothing and calming.

These curved blocks, sometimes called Drunkard’s Path are simply a circle, cut into four equal quarters.

Here are a handful of different ways these blocks can go together to create different designs in the quilt top.

But, before we get to the quilt top layout, let’s talk about how to make these little curved quilt blocks.

Easy Curves Quilt Tutorial – Cutting the Fabric

To make 3” quilt blocks:

From the circle fabrics, cut strips 3½” by Width of Fabric

From the background fabrics, cut strips 4½” by Width of Fabric

Download and print out this handy little Circle Block Quilt Template.   Make sure when printing that the little square measures exactly 1”.

Circle Pieces

After cutting off the selvage, place the circle template on a strip of circle fabric.  Start by cutting just one strip at a time, as comfort increases, cut two or three strips at a time.

The corner edge of the template should be flush with the edge of the fabric.  Pin in place in two or three places, making sure that the pin does not cross the edge of the template.

Using fabric scissors, cut along the edge of the template.  My fabric scissors were a gift from my grandmother and are still and by far the greatest physical gift I have ever been given.

Using the same template, pin it again to the fabric strip, getting as close to the cut edge as possible.  This way the least amount of fabric will be wasted, and more pieces can be cut per fabric strip.

I use a rotary cutter to cut the straight edge (far left), but scissors could be used for that too.

Background Pieces

The background fabric pieces are cut in much the same way.  Pin the outer template into the upper corner of a fabric strip.

Use fabric scissors to make the first curved cut.

Then, flip the template down to the bottom edge of the fabric strip and pin again.

Cutting the curved edge will yield an oval-shaped scrap of fabric, and don’t forget the straight edge cut as well.

Continue making as many pieces as needed for the desired size quilt.  My quilt uses 367 quilt blocks like this, which is a lot.

367 is an unusual number of blocks, what’s up with that?

While this quilt can be made with any fabric choices, the sneaky little secret of this quilt is that it is actually a temperature quilt!  My finished quilt shows a complete year, from a birth date to a first birthday and includes a leap day.  That’s 365 blocks for one year, one block for the first birthday and one block for the leap day for a total of 367 quilt blocks.

Now, as I’m sure you are aware, 367 blocks cannot be easily divided into an equal number of rows and columns.  Once we get to the Putting It All Together section of this easy curves quilt tutorial, I’ll show you how I added in some extra blocks to finish out my columns.

Easy Curves Quilt Tutorial – Making the Blocks

Each block is made of one circle piece and one background piece.

Scoring

Gently fold both the circle piece and background piece in half. Score the edge of the fold with your thumbnail.  This will make it so that the center points of the two pieces can be aligned.

Don’t press with the iron for this step! We don’t want a heavy crease which will then be sewn into the block.  We just want a gentle crease, enough to make pinning in the next step simple, but not so strong as to leave a fold or crease in the quilt block.

Line up the circle and background pieces so that the center points match.

Pinning

Flip the background piece onto the circle piece, right sides together and pin the two pieces directly on the center line.

Working from the center out towards the edge, gently ease the background fabric so that the edges of the fabric of both the background piece and the circle piece meet.

Pin frequently.

It is fine (and to be expected) if the background fabric folds and bunches.  As long as any folds or bunches are more than ¼” from the edge – where the seam allowance will be – it will be fine and not affect the finished quilt block.

Continue working from the center towards the edge, pinning frequently.  The number of pins needed will be different for every quilter. Some will prefer more pins and others will prefer fewer.

As long as the two pieces of fabric meet at the edges and any wrinkles are more than ¼” away from the seam allowance, the number of pins needed is insignificant.

Yes, my background fabric does over hang the edge of the circle fabric.  That’s by design, and is the reason that the background fabric strips were cut slightly larger than the circle fabrics.  Those little tails will be trimmed off later.

Easy Curves Quilt Tutorial – Sewing the Blocks 

While it might seem counterintuitive, sewing curved quilt blocks works in exactly the same way as sewing straight edge blocks.

Go slowly, gently feeding the fabric along the feed dogs and under the needle, gently turning the block so that the seam line is always ¼” from the edge.

Press all blocks towards the background fabric.  I found that it was easiest to work from the edges towards the middle when pressing.

And there’s a block, ready for trimming!

Easy Curves Quilt Tutorial – Trimming the Blocks

Trimming curved quilt blocks is easier than you are imagining!  At this point, the curves are done.  Everything that happens with this quilt block from here until the quilt is finished is all straight lines.

Start by trimming the two sides of the block that are background fabric.  Trim so that the seam is exactly ¼” from the edge.

The graphics in this picture only show this cut on one of the background fabric sides, but this cut needs to be made on both background fabric sides.

Then, trim the remaining two sides, the circle fabric sides, so that the block is 3½” square. 

Repeat to make eleventy-billion.  No, just kidding.  This quilt measures 54” by 63” and is made up of 18 squares in 21 columns which is 378 blocks total.  A larger quilt will need more blocks, a smaller quilt will need less blocks.

Easy Curves Quilt Tutorial – Putting the Blocks Together

At this point, the quilt top can go together in any way you choose, but I am going to give you some suggestions as well as show you how I worked with so many little blocks.

I chose to work on my quilt two columns at a time.

Because my quilt is a temperature quilt, only 367 of my 378 blocks are curved blocks.  The other 11 blocks are just plain squares from my background fabrics. 

Quilt Layouts

While I also have photographs to show what I mean and what my process looked like, here are some graphics of the quilt layout.

First, the 18 by 21 grid, for 378 squares total.

The grayed out squares are the 11 squares that are not part of the temperatures for given dates, because I only need 367 days (remember, that’s a year + 1 leap day + a first birthday)

On the furthest left column, that 3 signifies the 3rd of the month, the birthdate and the start of the birth year included in my temperature quilt. If you are making just an easy curves quilt, you don’t need to worry about these steps.

Once I reached the 20th at the bottom of that first column, I continued on into the second column and continued the dates. Once I reached the end of the month, I continued into the next month and changed the dates to red, to help distinguish.

Making Columns

My first two columns started with 5 background squares, as shown in gray in the graphics above.

Then I used my temperature/fabric key and the calendar to lay out the next several blocks I needed.  If you are making a curved quilt but not a temperature quilt, your block placement can be entirely random.

Then I started twisting and turning the blocks to create the circles, waves and drunkard’s path shapes that I wanted to flow across the quilt.

I placed the next column in the same way, always working two columns at a time.

I sewed the blocks into pairs, into groups of four and into groups of eight, labelling the groups as I went.  Then, I moved on to columns three and four, following the same directions as the first two columns.

In this way I worked my way across the quilt top, until all 18 columns were complete.

Snowy Quilt Photos!

Before I basted and quilted the quilt, but after my mom got to see the top, we had a snow storm, so I popped outside to snap a couple of photos of the finished top.

Once I realized that I was holding the quilt upside down in that photo (all of the purples should be over on the left side of the quilt), and once the sun came out, I took the quilt back outside to get a better photo.

I actually like the cloudy gray, upside down photo better, but I did want a right side up photo too.

The next few photos show the key that I placed in the backing before basting and quilting, so that my mom will always know what temperature range is connected to each of the individual fabrics.

And, if you scrolled past above, here is another link to the template to cut out your curved and background pieces: Circle Block Quilt Template.