Need helpful hints for a Winding Ways block
 

I have always wanted to make a Winding Ways quilt. The accu go die seemed to be the best way for me to cut it out. I sprayed a layer cake with plenty of Mary Ellens best press. I even watched Ebony Love's video on sewing it together. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXdnEJXFh_c I had heard that it was easier than some other curved quilts to piece so I was feeling pretty confident when I sat down yesterday to put a block together. Boy, was that short lived!
Ebony Loves order for putting it together was very helpful and the pieces are cut out so perfectly. I did find it very difficult to get the pieces to stay matched perfectly as I slid them under my presser foot. Do you start these with a pin at the beginning?
My block is not very flat and my edges are not perfectly straight. The mostly likely culprits I think are the skinny little centre pieces. They are a sharper curve than the other pieces.
Can anyone offer any more tips for this block? It will be stuffing my dogs bed if my blocks all look this wonky.

I am very old school when it comes to quilting and sewing which probably stems from learning to sew garments long before I ever attempted my first quilt. I would not attempt ANY curved seams without pins and lots of them. Winding ways is on my bucket list. At a minimum I would use 3 pins for every seam, probably more. The first pin to match the center point of the curve on each piece and one for each end. More than likely I would insert two more pins at the half way point between center and edge.

Some people have the curve master foot for their machine and I have seen it demo'ed at many shows and they don't use any pins. In order to use this foot on my Bernina I would have to buy a special adapter to fit my shank which drove the price of the product up quite a lot and quite honestly I don't mind pinning and I get good results with pinning.

If I were you, I would try a few units with pins and see if your results aren't more to your satisfaction.

I have not yet started my NY Beauty but I would have made some test blocks to get the technique down. I am also old fashion and use pins.

I was mesmerized by this quilt and purchased the studio die as soon as it came out. I have made several quilts, and actually have one in progress right now. It's almost my go-to quilt.
http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...s-t273566.html
http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...s-t261037.html
http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...s-t198142.html
I have the book "winding ways: a practically pinless approach" by Nancy MacDonald, which I actually purchased before I got the die:
http://www.amazon.com/Winding-Ways-Q...s=winding+ways
I also did a lot of garment construction, but was a bit intimidated with curved piecing. I did some online research but found the instructions in the book to be the best technique. She has sewing and pressing instructions that will make the block lay totally flat. Also lots of ideas on setting the blocks in patterns I would not have thought of. I would highly recommend purchasing it or tracking a copy down at your library or quilting guild.
Two tips I can give you are: make sure that you know exactly where your 1/4" seam is. Verify it with the thread and fabric you are using for this project in case you have to make a slight adjustment. Here's a good way to check:
http://www.quiltingboard.com/tutoria...ce-t89997.html

Also, make sure that you don't sew the petals to each other when you join them to the long skinny piece. There should be a thread of the long skinny piece between them. You may not be able to see it from the right side, unless you gently stretch the block, but it should be there. Hope this makes sense!
Let me know if you have more questions.

Have you tried fabric glue on the corners and dead center of the curve?

My Winding Ways quilt is all cut out and up on my design wall. I have to take the plunge soon for sewing it together. Eagerly reading suggestions here, and I'll post anything I learn once I start.

Don't know this particular block but when doing drunkards path blocks I found that when pinning the sides/ends I get better results if I pin along the side, a bit down from the seam, either instead of along the seam or in addition to along the seam depending on the size of the piece. My ends match up better that way. If I just pin along the seam the pieces can twist at the end and then not match up.

I only pinned at the centers of the curves. I used those long angle pointed tweezer like things to hold the beginning and ends. Like this one from connecting threads:
http://www.connectingthreads.com/tools/Sewing_Machine_Tweezer__D82294.html
I have made several curved quilts without all that pinning and had no problems. I put a finger between the top and bottom curve so I can meet the edges appropriately. You an pin the beginning and end if you want, but I found the tweezers worked better for me.

Its a very precise block, but with the dies it has made it so much smoother. Remember, it's curves and you have to go slow and steady and I agree with all paper princess has stated in her post......the first few are the toughest, then suddenly it will be ok.......

Finished my first block, and I'm pretty happy with it! I have the Marti Michelle templates, but rather than marking the center point on each piece through the template, I'm just making a crease to mark center before I sew them. 3 pins (center and one at each end), plus liberal use of my awl to keep things lined up and feeding evenly seems to be working. I need to make my seams a tad more scant - I'm about 1/8" shy on my block size with this one.

No help with winding road but when I did drunken path I pinned in this order. First find the centre of seam then pin two ends now ease the sections between without moving the first 3 pins. Did a great job became easier over time. Sorry no picture as I gave it away.

Scroll down to third video. ;-)

http://www.backporchdesign.com/video-tutorials/

This one shows it close up. ;-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlwVGoL4zV0

This is a Winding Ways pieced on my Pfaff using a water soluble glue stick. Just a touch at the beginning and end of the seams. A walking foot might help. I didn't have any problems matching the pieces. It may take a few blocks to get the hang of it but keep trying. [ATTACH=CONFIG]545712[/ATTACH]

Thank you so much for all of the help. I am heading off to my sewing machine with new ideas to try and lots of pins and a glue stick too.
Felinefanatic I have a quarter inch foot with a flange (pfaff machines) that looks like the curve master foot. I did try it with my DWR but those handy little centre marks on the go cutter pieces seemed to catch a bit and twist. I decided that the regular quarter inch foot was less trouble. If I had cut the pieces with a template though I think that foot might work well, I had forgotten that I had it.
I am working from a layer cake and had planned on making a wall quilt so I have enough fabric for extra blocks. I will remember to not use my favorite fabrics first though.
Paperprincess your quilts are just lovely and are just the inspiration that I needed to head back to the machine and try some more.
kristakzI am looking forward to seeing your quilt. I will check out your blog in hopes of a look at your progress.
Thank you for the backporchdesign links. I had watched those when I stated my NYB but hadn't thought to watch them again.
Dogwood quilter that is a beautiful quilt. it has enough contrast to show those circles off but feels so peaceful too. Thanks for the encouragement.

If you need more help, just wanted to let you know that Ann Peterson has a class on Craftsy called "Playing with Curves". In the class, she makes a winding ways quilt and demos it quite nicely.

Good grief, I had forgotten that I had watched that. I will review it as well. Thanks Mom :-)

Dogwood, I love your winding way. Mine is starting to come together. Here's a picture of where I am now. So far so good, and the 3 pins and going slow is working well for me.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]545842[/ATTACH]

Looking good, kristakz. By the way, mine was cut with templates from Marti Mitchell. Easy to rotary cut with a 28mm rotary cutter. Good luck, coffeecozy you can do it.

I have this pattern and a plan to do it with scrappy Batiks. Thanks for all the suggestions. The die cut method sounds awesome if I can find someone who'll let me use theirs.

i have done Winding Ways with a Curvemaster and NO problem. Easy, peezy.i have a newer Bernina and the foot I needed was included in the kit. I also got a Pfaff Passport to take to classes and emailed Sandra Chandler and the foot I needed to use with that was in the kit also. Check out her site and YouTube video. I highly recommend it.

Things are going much better now. I was very surprised to find that for me the best results on piecing the curves came from using no pins at all. Thank you for the backporch design link and also the reminder to watch Ann Peterson's class, both were especially helpful. Also the tweezers were a really good tool for feeding those last little bits in right at the 1/4 inch. And of course the convex curve underneath made it much easier.
The pins seemed to twist and ripple the fabric so much that it was slow and frustrating ( not much patience here).
I love the pattern that your colours are making Kristakz. It really shows the benefit of a design wall. Did you lay it out in EQ before the wall or design the placement right on the wall?
faykilgore the die cut curves are great because they have the middle markings on them and are so consistent but I have used the backporch design templates on a NYB and found my curves were very consistent with them as well. I doubt very much that I could have made a decent block with a paper template and really admire anyone who has made a curved quilt that way.
Thank you again everyone for offering so many different ideas. It would have been a shame to continue making a pile of dog bed stuffers ;-).

Thanks coffeecozy. I did the design placement right on the design wall. I've tried using EQ for this kind of thing before, but I don't have the patience to colour each individual square for a quilt which is essentially scrappy :) Plus, stupid EQ (at least my version) doesn't actually have a Winding Ways block. I found something similar but not quite the same curves under the "orange peel" set. There are some EQ pictures on my blog which I made after the fact to play with border ideas.

I think I need to figure out where to put a design wall.
Kristakz try a block search, notecard, clover. It comes up as a four leaf clover block.

Good advice here about using pins. I wouldn't dare attempt this block without pinning in at least 3 places.

My winding ways was hand pieced, a project carried on a train tour. I started at the point of the skinny pieces, first one side, then the other. Press these seams toward the larger piece. The outer pieces went on after.

Another video
 

I am working on this block too. I found a different video which helped me a lot. Maybe it will help someone else.

The block is assembled as a four patch, which just makes more sense to me. You get four corners (A+B+C each) and then sew them together.

I am not using any pins most of the time. When I do pin, I pin ALONG the seam line from the bottom of the seam up and taking just a tiny bite with the pin. I don't have to remove the pin until the needle gets to the very tip of the pin, then I can ease the pin out one stitch at a time if necessary. The pin is parallel to the the gap between the presser foot toes, in other words, with the head of the pin towards me.

My struggle now is to actually attach the blocks to each other and match the points.

https://youtu.be/iDwMSsRt5Xw?si=8GypB-OHRpz1KGdT

I also made one using the Marti Mitchell templates. I will never make another one. The templates were good, but the whole process was just thoroughly unenjoyable for me. It's pretty and hangs on my wall in the quilting room, but one was enough for a lifetime.