Hello friends,
Recently I have been playing with the Winding Ways Block On Board ( or BOB for short) from Accuquilt.
Years and years ago I made a Winding Ways quilt, but I'm pretty sure it was made using a foundation that I then fused to a background ( it has been an incredibly long time and I don't remember the details, and that quilt has disappeared so I can't even try to figure it out).
Anyway, a member in my FB group shared a photo of a scrappy Winding Ways quilt that she had found online and I immediately fell in love!
( image via Pinterest by Stitched in Color)
So I bought the die and started cutting up my scraps and made this:
I had SO much fun making a scrappy version, but then decided to make a slightly less crazy version in just reds and whites! These are some of the blocks:
I just love how the circles appear when you sew the blocks together, don't you? This one will become a slightly bigger quilt with 25 blocks. These blocks are very fun to sew, but there are a few tricks that I have picked up sewing this and other curved pieces, so I wanted to share them here in this post.
First of all, it is really important that you cut your fabrics correctly, which means placing them on your die with the selvage edge facing the sticker and then running your die through your machine with the sticker going through sideways ( if you are a long-time Accuquilter you will know exactly what this means). For hints on how big to rough cut your fabric and how many of each piece you need, make sure to download the free Accuquilt instructions: https://www.accuquilt.com/media/assets/blockassembly/55069-go-winding-ways-instrucs.pdf
Just a note: I tried sewing these blocks in several ways, and what follows is what ultimately worked best for ME. You should try various ways and figure out which method works best for YOU ;).
Once you have cut the needed pieces for one block, lay them out:
Now you are ready to start sewing!
1)Start by sewing all your B pieces to your A pieces. Place B on top. If you have never sewn curves before it is going to feel really awkward to sew these two pieces that hardly line up. Just trust the process!
If you have the "needle down" function on your sewing machine, use it!
Start by lining up the two flat edges at the top of A and B and then sew a few stitches. Stop stitching. With needle DOWN, adjust your fabrics so that the raw edges line up. Sew a few stitches. Needle down, adjust your fabric and repeat. Keep an eye on your notches because you are trying to line those up. Continue sewing all the way around, repeating the above method, until you get near the end. A this point I find a pair of tweezers very helpful. I use them to keep my fabric lined up ( and my fingers out of the way!)
Here is a video that might be useful: https://photos.app.goo.gl/nYEtGtbHxU661pR29
Once you have sewn all your As and Bs together, press towards B, being careful not to distort your pieces. 
2) Time to sew the C pieces to the A/B units! This part can be a little tricky because C has that skinny little part. This is how I sewed mine: The two units on the left I sewed starting at the wide part of C. The one on the bottom right I started sewing at the skinny part of C. My C pieces were ALWAYS on top so I could keep a good eye on them.
Whenever I had the wide piece of C on top, I followed exactly the same method as when I sewed A and B, but when I had to sew the skinny side of C here is a little trick I used:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/QhJ3rD7bBZy1vfak7You should now have something that looks like this:
Press the seams between A/B and C OPEN.
Lay your pieces out in the correct configuration again:
3) Now it is time to sew the rest of the A/B pieces to the C pieces.
This time you are starting your sewing at the skinny parts of C so use the glue trick if you need to. Sew slowly and carefully and stop when you need to to adjust your raw edges.
Press seams OPEN.
4) One final C seam to sew! With this last one you can start to sew with the wide part of C.
5) One very last seam to sew to complete your block!
This is the ONLY place where I used a pin because I wanted to make sure that my seam allowances were spot on.
I placed a pin straight through the seam allowances, like this:
You want the pin to go through the seam allowance of the top B/A/C/A/B piece while being at about 1/4" from the raw edge AND lining up with the raw edges of the bottom part ( do your best ;) )
Press your seams open.
And your first block is complete!
Pat yourself on the back! These blocks definitely get easier the more you sew them. And if you notice a little extra fullness in your pieces, just adjust your seam allowance slightly when sewing your next block. If there is just a bit of fullness, it will disappear when you sew all your blocks together and you quilt everything. Besides, no one is going to notice that when your quilt looks so awesome and complicated ;).
If YOU would like to buy the Winding Ways BOB, here is my link: https://tidd.ly/4oixauu
I will receive a small commission if you buy through my link~thank you for supporting me in this meaningful way!
And if you have any questions, please ask and I will try and help you out!
Happy creating!
Monique
