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Improv Curves & Machine Pieced Hexagons // Technique Tutorial Tuesday

This post is part of the Technique Tutorial Tuesdays Series. Click here to see all of the posts and learn more about the series. It's been a few weeks since the last Technique Tutorial Tuesday. Today I bring the series back with a sponsored tutorial by Fat Quarter Shop. Modern quilters have embraced the pre-cut!  Pre-cuts help ease the quilting process by eliminating a large portion of cutting for the quilter.  In today’s Technique Tutorial Tuesday, Lisa Calle of Moda Bake Shop walks us through two quilting techniques fit for a modern quilter that utilize pre-cuts.

Improv Curve Piecing

The first technique is an improvisational curved piecing technique that yields dynamic quilt blocks.  In the video, Lisa uses a 60mm rotary cutter and about four layer cakes (a 10" x 10" pre-cut). This improvisational curved quilt is a quick, fun sew!  In the video, Lisa expertly demonstrates this curved piecing technique in an easy-to-understand way.  Try your hand at improvisational piecing with this fun technique! Yesterday after watching Lisa's fantastic demo I did some experimenting with improv curves. I used a Moda Pezzy print layer cake and some solid layer cakes. I found the technique to be really fun and relaxing. For the back I used one of the left over curves blocks and some layer cakes. I pieced them together and then cut the entire square into quarter square triangles, then mixed them around and pieced them back together. I plan to make this into a mini quilt and to bind it using a facing technique I have been wanting to try. I will share more about the facing technique next Tuesday. The second technique is for piecing the new Moda Honeycombs.  These adorable pre-cut hexagons are very useful and can be used in a variety of projects, such as trendy geometric pillows, bold modern quilts and adorable embellished skirts.  They are sewn together using Y seams, which Lisa demonstrates for us in the video.  It may look intimidating, but this tutorial will make sewing with Honeycombs a cinch! In April we will be English Paper Piecing our hexagons for the Skill Builder BOM. This machine piecing hexagon tutorial would be a fantastic alternative to English Paper Piecing if you would prefer machine sewing over hand sewing.

The Video Tutorial

Thank You so much Fat Quarter Shop for sponsoring this tutorial and a huge thanks to Lisa Calle for such a fabulous tutorial! I encourage you all to get your rotary, some layer cakes, and some pre-cut hexies and practice these very helpful techniques! If you do I would love to see what you make, please post photo's in the Pile O' Fabric Flickr Group.

Alyssa

Alyssa Williams

Alyssa Williams

Creator of Pile O' Fabric

Alyssa Lichner is a graphic designer turned avid sewist. She writes modern quilting tutorials and shares techniques and inspiration on her blog, Pile O’ Fabric. Alyssa has a passion for exploring different techniques and applying them to modern designs. She is thankful to have the opportunity to share these techniques, through her tutorials, patterns, and classes with quilters around the world. She always encourages her readers and students to challenge themselves to try new things and to approach quilting with a fearless attitude.

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