gracielet13

Hi,

Pardon the long post - I'm very new. However I have enough fabric to start a quilt store and tons of ideas without the skills to execute any of them! Actually I have done parts of projects - I have finished about half of the blocks for a drunkards path quilt, pieced by hand (and the curves didn't bother me a bit), and I made the pattern/templates for a castle wall block scaled to fit a gorgeous French border print fabric I spent way too much on - sample block (hand done) came out perfectly! But I long to FINISH SOMETHING and that means I need to use the sewing machine.

I have the original fabric kit for Judy Niemeyer's "Hawaiian Star" and was scheduled to attend one of her retreats in Montana (with Judy as the teacher) a few years ago over my birthday. But I got really sick several days before the retreat and couldn't go. Now I just look at the fabric a lot, and also have added more special Hoffman batiks to the kit as I find them. Probably have enough fabric to make the quilt twice.

I know virtually nothing about paper piecing and plan to either find some kind of class OR do a lot of practice before I ever touch that precious kit, but I was surfing the web and saw a statement in a preview of a book called "A Passion for Piecing: Breathtaking Quilts from Easy Paper-Pieced Units" by Claudia Clark Meyers. In the excerpt she says "I'm sorry to have to tell you, but it is virtually impossible to paper piece a curved line." She is telling people they will have to make plastic templates or use freezer paper for the curved part in her patterns.

?????? What ???? Don't almost all of Judy Niemeyer's patterns incorporate curved paper piecing?? If I had gone to the retreat I would have been taught how to deal with the various parts of my quilt pattern, plus I didn't know it was hard. They told me I could do Hawaiian Star, no problem. Now I am freaked out about all the curves!!

What do you all know about foundation/paper piecing curved seams?
Thanks!