Are all your quilts comprised of straight cuts… strips, or squares or triangles?  You can make some stunning quilts with simple cuts.  But have you ever wanted to try a pattern with curves? Elisa Wilson of Elisa’s Backporch Designs makes sewing curves easy.  She takes the fear out of curves.  She has designed a complete line of curve templates made of plastic acrylic that make cutting your curved pieces easy too.  The templates have a quarter inch seam allowance built in. 

When you purchase a template set there is usually a pattern included that will get you started.  You can use your rotary cutter with these templates to cut your fabric. 

Here’s one example of Elisa’s patterns… Chocolate Go Round is made with the 3 1/2″ Drunkards Path, 2 charms packs and your favorite background fabric.  Here’s a chance to play with color.  Keep the dark sections but in the lighter sections use slightly darker shades as you go from the center to the outer edges of the quilt.  Or make the colors change as in a rainbow.  Or slightly darker from the center to the outside and the dark sections slightly darker from the outside in.  Play with it!!

Watch Elisa’s video “Cutting 20 Fat Quarters” on YouTube.  She’ll show you how to get the most out of your fat quarters using both the 8″ and the 3″ templates.  The 3 1/2″ template works perfectly on charm packs.

When you are finished cutting, you can sew your curved pieces together WITHOUT pins.  Watch Elisa’s video “Sewing Crazy Curves Without Pins” on YouTube.  Once you try it you’ll wonder why you waited so long to make a quilt with curves.  You’ll be amazed at your talent!

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