Curve Stitching

When I was a kid, my mom taught me to use graph paper to draw these really fun curvy designs using only straight lines.  I used to really enjoy making as many different shapes as I could.  A few years later, my mom got me this book, Curve Stitching, which incorporates both specific designs, tips for drawing your own designs, and instructions to stitch them.  As a kid, I never sewed any of the designs I drew, but something possessed me to get the book back out the other day and try stitching one of them.

I drew the design on freezer paper and then ironed it on to some linen-like fabric I'd previously bonded to a layer of fusible interfacing.  I put the whole thick thing into an embroidery hoop and stitched from the back (the freezer paper side.  I used a variety of different green threads and tried to keep them straight to make a pattern.  It was really fun to stitch since I couldn't see the right side.  I'd turn it over every so often to watch the pattern emerge.

After finishing the curved stitching, I decided to set it into a foundation pieced spiky New York Beauty style ring.  I used a bunch of different green/yellow scraps and the linen to piece it.  Sadly, my points are pretty terrible.  From afar, they look ok, but not so much up close.  I quilted it with more or less straight line echo quilting. It got weirdly rumpled so the center sticks out a bit like a plate.

It's pretty modern looking, so I think I'm actually considering it my first modern (mini) quilt.  Hooray.  It's for my mom for mother's day.  I hope she likes it in spite of its imperfections!