Curvalicious Quilts - June Challenge

I love the logo above.  The June challenge for the Island Batik Ambassadors was to make something with curves.  This was an interesting challenge.  I spent weeks thinking of what to do.  

I thought about doing curves like in New York Beauty blocks.

Photo from Pinterest

I love New York Beauty Blocks and thought something like that would be fun.
Then I thought about simple curves like Orange Peel.

Photo from Pinterest

I also thought that many blocks give a curved image, but are made from straight lines- like the snowball block.

photo from Pinterest

This is just one of many I thought of...my mind was spinning!  And time was running out...

Then I thought about fusible applique!  You can cut and fuse any kind of curved shape you can imagine....and I love to do this technique....

This is my Falling Leaves quilt.  It's so easy to fuse, cut and sew any shape.

So what should I do?  I finally decided to go the traditional route and to sew the curves on the machine.  I found a block I liked and decided to use the Dotalicious Earth fabric I had in 5" squares. I like to make small things, so I decided to make a hot pad using a selection of the blue squares.

These are my pieces- three pieces to a section and 8 sections.

Just a word of caution to someone just starting to sew curves - they are easier with larger pieces.  These are relatively small pieces and I found it was easier to put about 5 pins in to help sew the larger curve.  The inner curve was fine with three pins- one in the center and one on both sides.

Here is my completed block/hot pad.  The colors blended nicely.  I used a layer of Insul-Bright from The Warm Company and a layer of cotton batting for the inside.

Of course I didn't want to waste a scrap- it took nine 5" squares to make the front.  I added one more square to the scraps from the front to make a scrappy back.

I used the new 80 wt Aurifil thread for the quilting. It quilts beautifully! 

I like the back too- you could use either side!

Three more partial squares were used for the scrappy binding.  I used thirteen 5" squares for this project, with only a few small strips leftover.  Success!