How Not to Make Curves

So much time has passed since I completed the top to my king-sized Storm at Sea quilt. I had originally hoped to have the quilt done by Christmas of 2008, and here we are two days away from Christmas of 2009, and I still don't have the backing pieced together. I blame my real job, the one that brings home the bacon. It has been sucking up 10 to 16 hours a day of my time this past year, leaving me very little time to finish quilting projects.

However, now that I have a few days off from work, I had hoped to at least finish piecing the back before returning to the office. I put together what I thought was a simple pattern of curvy waves, however once I started sewing from memory, I realized that it wasn't as simple as it seemed.

I was taught to sew when I was in middle school, 30-some years ago. I remember my teacher having us put the right sides of the fabric together, double-stitching the seams, and then cutting out notches her 1/2 inch, like this:


However, what I forgot was that we were making pillows at the time, not quilts. When I tried to turn the fabric with the right-side up, I found that no amount of ironing would get this curve to sit flat. It's great if I want a bumpy quilt with 3-dimensional waves that actually stick out with stuffing, but that might be uncomfortable to lie on.

So, out came the quilting books that discuss the art of sewing curves into flat quilts. I know it's not rocket science, but I still don't get it just looking at the pictures and diagrams. I'm actually going to have to take some time to read these books. I have so many other things to do this week that having to give up time to read through some books seems so daunting right now.

From what I can tell, it looks like I'll need to use freezer paper, iron over the seams and do some top stitching like with applique. This project is going to take a lot longer than I anticipated. What do you think? Should I abandon this project temporarily and shoot for finishing it for Christmas of 2010?