A tutorial on joining liberated roses with curved piecing

A reader asked me how to frame liberated roses

without having lots of long straight edges, like below.

My suggestion is using your rotary cutter

and some curved machine piecing.

1. Cut 4 to 5 inch wide background strips in green

2. With your rotary cutter, cut your rose into a curved shape.

3. Lay your wide strip underneath one side of the rose and cut along the line of the rose.

4. Mark the starting point on the rose, pin and sew, using a shallow seam allowance.

5. Press seam, and then repeat for the opposite side.

6. Lay another background strip on the top and cut curve where necessary.

6. Sew and press. In this case, the last side only needs a straight strip sewn on it.

7. Sew, press, and square up to preferred size.

Here's two rose blocks.

And since a bunch looks better, here's a third.

8. I decided to join the blocks into a small bouquet, so I repeated the steps.

I laid the lighter green block underneath the darker block

and cut a gentle curve where the two overlapped.

9. Here they are sewn and pressed.

10. then lay the third rose on top of the joined blocks and cut around it.

11. pin, sew, and press

12. Lay another strip of background fabric underneath, and cut along the curve of the rose

and extend the curve to the edge, as below.

Here it is sewn together.

13. repeat for remaining gap. mark and pin where necessary.

14. Sew, press, and square up. I know my greens contrast with each other

and I'd suggest using background colours in the same value.

Any questions? email me at strings[at]mts[dot] net or leave a comment below.