Friday 2 September 2016

Quilty 365: Circles in August

Audrey had the brilliant idea of appliquéing a circle onto a square of cotton every day for a whole year. Never having done needle-turn appliqué I liked the idea and decided almost immediately to join in. All went well until I spent a few days in hospital in the second week in June; I had kept on schedule and my needle turning skills improved enormously. The first five months I could report a full batch, in June half a batch, and in July I also managed to make one a day.

It was one-a-day too during the first half of August:

Oops! There were 16!
There were 16 in August, but one clearly got away!

Then on 16 August I wondered if I had enough for a lap quilt - we don't have quilts on beds around here - so I put all the blocks up on the design wall. I had been picking the fabrics at random so wondered if I could get a balanced layout, or if I should maybe concentrate in future on a particular colour.

My design wall wasn't big enough! I'm afraid I forgot to take a photo, but I got them all in there somehow, with a lot of overlapping.I had clearly enough for a lap quilt, so decided to call it a day! I still have about 20 in a box, that didn't make it into this project.

Anyway the one that got away is in here somewhere:
180 4" (finished) blocks joined in three sections ready for quilting.
I started the layout with red in one corner and blue in the opposite corner (would you believe I have never been to a boxing match in my life?!) Then added green and purple in the other two corners. I wanted  a rainbow effect, but also wanted to have the lighter fabrics in the middle. So yellow went in the middle and then it was a question of filling in the spaces while keeping the colour gradation as much as possible. This took the next 10 days or so! Not helped by all those overlapping blocks falling off the wall!



I made a few more light green blocks to put between yellow and blue (and forgot to take a photo; I was so absorbed in my layout!). For some reason I had enough orange, so on the red side the problem didn't arise.

I joined the blocks into 12 rows of 15 blocks each, and then joined the rows together in groups of four. I shall be quilting them with the walking foot, and then joining them by a QAYG method that I used before here.

I'm pleased with the result so far, and hope I can get it quilted by the end of the year!

I'm linking up to   

Grab button for http://quiltyfolk.blogspot.com/     Quilting is more fun than Housework  http://www.conniekresin.com/2016/09/linky-tuesday-september-5th.html  Sew Fresh Quilts

Hop over there to see more lovely on-going projects.

Happy Sewing

Marly.

21 comments:

Ruth said...

Looks fantastic. I love a rainbow colour scheme and this is beautiful!

Julierose said...

Hi Marly--LOve that rainbow effect--just a beautiful project...And I like those pieced circles a lot...hugs, Julierose

audrey said...

Beautiful! I wonderful about doing something similar but settled with dull and boring.:)

Mystic Quilter said...

What a beauty, I am a colour freak - the more the better, so this quilt ticks all my boxes. Congratulations on a wonderful quilt.

PaintedThread said...

That looks awesome!

Karen's Korner said...

Gorgeous circles and I love your layout....something I need to tackle very soon.

Quilting Babcia said...

Great circles and a lovely layout for your quilt. Maybe the extra circles could be made into a coordinating pillow. Have fun quilting!

Vireya said...

I love it, too! Beautiful arrangement of the colours. It will be a beautiful and memorable lap-quilt.

Chantal said...

I am in love with your quilt. You know so many people are making this quilt that, at one point I was kind of tired of looking at circles in every blogs. Yours is so beautiful, colourful and playful that I just LOVE it. Love to see some circles are from one piece, others are pieced, the dark on light, the light on dark ... it all adds charm to the quilt and keeps the eye entertained. To top it off beautifully, there's a rainbow in the background. WOW! Wonderful work Marly! Just GOOORRRRGEOUS!! Congrats! ;^)
P.S. I added it in my Pinterest page. :^D

Kaja said...

Fantastic! Your colour arrangement works so well you could have planned it like that all along. I absolutely love this.

Angie said...

Wow! Love the layout and all the colors playing so nicely together!

The Joyful Quilter said...

The pieced circles and a rainbow layout makes for a very interesting design. Love, love, LOVE it!!!

Cynthia Brunz Designs said...

Marly, this is amazing! I love the layout you came up with. Thanks so much for sharing your lovely project with Oh Scrap!

Miaismine said...

You have created a cheerful work of art! I love your circle quilt! I'm getting more and more tempted to begin one! :)

Mari said...

This looks so great! I love the colorwash effect. So much to look at!

LA Paylor said...

how interesting this is Marley
Very impressive... so much to see

The Cozy Quilter said...

Wonderful! I love the colour gradations! So fun to look at all the fabrics you used!

Rachel said...

Very pretty! Great circles and the layout is lovely!

Sarah Goer Quilts said...

Your color placement is so effective. I love how it brings them all together. A very beautiful quilt! Stunning!

claudia said...

WOW! What a great quilt!!!

Miaismine said...

Your time was well spent in planning your layout! It's stunning! You certainly planned it well! I love the rainbow theme and colors! I'm pinning to my Quilting - Quilty 365 board! Absolutely stunning!