Nicholas Ball was my number one choice for a class at the 2024 Quilt Symposium in NZ but he has apparently pulled out (mumble curse grumble) so I have been watching some of his demos on Youtube. Great tips in them, probably all in his book that I do own - note to self, read the book.
Interestingly the details of how to sew a curve are much better in the demonstrations than in the book. In the book, he says to align the top of the fabric but in the demo, he says to align the curves. And in the demo, he shows how to hold the top and bottom fabrics separately and how to bring them together to butt against the seam allowance gadget. Also, he talks about cutting and sewing in one continuous motion if possible in the demos.
With inserts demos he talks about his preference for a 'little bit' more than 3/4" wide strips being a good width for most pieces but if using a large beginning piece make the insert strips a bit wider. He also talks about cutting layers of fabrics so you can then mix and match different fabrics from the layers to make an interesting set of blocks - covered under Stacks in the book.
No rings demos. In the books the triangle instructions are good - great hack to save fabric however in the demo he gives a hack for if your background fabric is a patterned fabric.
There is more in the books than the demos.
With binding he joins straight no on the bias, he attaches much as I do with the mitred corners and he joins the continuous binding straight not on the bias. Interestingly, he then sews around the whole binding 1/8" from the sewing line to anchor the quilt and the binding seams togethers. He says it folds over better and no ridges are formed.
