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Curved piecing made easy with the Dreamweaver XE

Curved piecing made easy with the Dreamweaver XE

by Christine Baker

Yesterday on QUILTsocial I used the Dreamweaver XE from Brother to start sewing together some of the pieces of our Double Wedding Ring quilt blocks.

So far all of the piecing has been straight seams, just like you would do with most quilt blocks. Today, however, I’ll start sewing some of the curved seams and you’ll see how easy it really can be! Ready?

The Dreamweaver XE

The Dreamweaver XE

Start by selecting one inside arc and one of the pieced arcs from the pile that was set aside yesterday – it doesn’t have any squares sewn onto the ends.

The inside arc and the pieced arc

The inside arc and the pieced arc

Fold the inside arc in half lengthwise and put in a pin to mark the center of one curved edge.

Center pin

Center pin

Pin the center of the inside arc section to the center of the pieced arc (the seam between the 3rd and 4th sections).

Pin to center of pieced arc

Pin to center of pieced arc

Pin the ends of the inside arc to the ends of the pieced arc, aligning the straight ends of the inside arc with the straight edges of the ends of the pieced arc.

Pin the ends

Pin the ends

Drop the presser foot and then use the “needle position” button on the Dreamweaver XE to drop the needle at the point of the first stitch. This will help to hold the two pieces of fabric together while you gently pull at the spot with the center pin. This will straighten out the curve so that you can easily sew the two pieces together with a ¼” seam. Go slow and make sure that the raw edges of both sections are even as you sew.

Drop the needle

Drop the needle

Once you get almost to the center pin, stop the machine so that the needle drops, remove the pin and then pull on the other end of the pieced arc to straighten out the rest of the curve for easy sewing with the Dreamweaver XE.

Stop and drop the needle

Stop and drop the needle

Here’s the curved seam between the pieced arc section and the inside arc. Don’t worry, it’ll look so much better once it’s pressed!

The curved seam

The curved seam

The seam is pressed in the direction of the inside arc.

Press

Press

Here’s the first curved seam of the Double Wedding Ring quilt sewn with the Dreamweaver XE.

The curved seam

The curved seam

One down…126 more to go (if you’re making a queen size quilt)!

I’m making a bed runner that will be 2 blocks wide by 6 blocks long, so I need to make 32 arc sections – I’ve got 31 more of these to sew. I’ll keep working on that and tomorrow I’ll use the Dreamweaver XE to attach the pieced arc sections that have the squares on each end.

This is part 4 of 5 in this series.
Go back to part 3: First steps to piecing the Double Wedding Ring quilt

Go to part 5: Accurate pinning makes all the difference with curved piecing

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5 comments

Joyce G Staley August 10, 2019 - 6:36 pm

I would like the 5th article. I can’t find where to get it. Please email it to me. Thanks for the great information! I LOVE the double wedding ring quilts!!!

Reply
Bronwyn Hobson May 7, 2019 - 7:50 pm

Hi when’s part 5 out and can you tell me what die cutter your using as mine accuquilt go cutter cuts them differently.

Good instructions. Thanks

Reply
Carla A. Canonico May 10, 2019 - 12:55 pm

Hi! You’ll find the link for the continuation of the Wedding Ring tutorial at the bottom of the page. It runs through to Friday May 10.

Reply
Cheryl Smith May 28, 2019 - 4:58 pm

I just cut out this pattern with my Accuquilt for my neighbor and have been looking for a pattern for the entire quilt. He sent me this link, but I can’t fine part 5. Can you send me the link. The information that has been given is fabulous. We had to figure it out by trial and error. Thank-you !!!!

Reply
Christi March 28, 2019 - 12:49 am

I love a DWR quilts. The people who put a million pins are crazy in my book. I like this way.

Reply

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