Hello all, Mary Ellen here.
Certainly could not let Pi Day go by unnoticed. How do you feel about sewing curves? Are you one of those who thinks they are very difficult to get nice and smooth? If so, I’ll bet you were taught to pin the heck out of your curves-15 or 20 pins in a 4 inch seam for example. I find that 3 pins will usually do the job quite well. One pin at the beginning of the seam, one in the middle, and one at the end. I have found that with more than that, you actually end up pinning the tucks into the seam, rather than smoothing the seam. There is actually some math behind my theory (retired math teacher of course), but we won’t go into that here. Try using just 3 pins and your stiletto to match the edges in between. Of course an accurate 1/4″ seam is essential-that might be your trouble spot if it’s not the pinning. Again, I won’t go into the math of it all but if you’re not on the correct seam line then you are attempting to force two seam lines of different lengths to match one another. Always will present a headache.

Here are a few free patterns for circular quilts to celebrate Archimedes’ mathematical breakthrough which lead to so many people’s favorite math course–calculus! LOL, TFPIC.*

circular baby quilt: click here

Jenny Doan’s Cheerio Quilt: click here

raw edge circle quilt (totally avoids the whole curved seam debacle!): click here

Heading off the the sewing machine now-another Gudrun Erla quilt in the works. Be sure to celebrate Pi Day today with something nice and round–Paula’s donut? Pizza?, chocolate chip cookies?, I’m sure you’ll think of something.

*Tongue Firmly Planted In Cheek!