"Circles" is finished!

Circles is finished?

Well, it's labelled, quilted and bound, which usually means finished, right?

I made these blocks several years ago in the Quilty 365 project, hosted by Audrey at Quilty Folk: one circle each day,  appliquéd onto one square. I chose to do needle turn appliqué, which I'd never done before. Finally I've got 180 circles together in a quilt. I stopped making the blocks in the middle of August that year, and have got a box full of appliquéd circles waiting for another project.

But now, every time I look at this quilt I think it needs quilting inside the circles. I started quilting it that way last year, but it was impossible to get through the "made fabric" with all it's seams.

This circle, for instance, has twenty one different pieces of fabric in it. Twenty one in a 3" circle! What was I thinking?!

I've thought that tying those circles that are too thick to quilt might be a solution. I'll give it a try. If that works I'll quilt the flatter circles by hand.

The blocks might look rather strange: some tied, some quilted. Too bad!
Not just yet, however, I have to wait for the inflammation in my right shoulder to subside.

Meanwhile, it's a finish!

At the end of the week I'll be linking to

 Click on the button to see more finishes.

 Happy Sewing 

Marly

One montly goal for August

This month I hope to make progress on quilting my Circles Quilt, made during the Quilty 365 QAL hosted by Audrey in 2016. I didn't make 365 ( i.e. one a day) circles, as I ran out of room on my design wall in the middle of August, and decided it was large enough. Up until then I had been adding circle to square using the needle turn appliqué technique every evening. The first, on 1 January 2016, took me 3 hours to complete; the last, on 17 August less than half an hour. Practice makes perfect! and quicker!

180 4" (finished) blocks joined in three sections ready for quilting.
Photo from August 2016.

As the circles are all appliquéd by hand I decided to hand-quilt it too. It's taking forever! That's not really surprising as I've only being working on it one evening every two months at the Bee meeting. So far I've only quilted a dozen or so blocks.

although I did stabilise the quilt by machine quilting in the ditch first.

So this month will see a blitz on this quilt. Let's hope practice makes perfect in the hand quilting department too. It's rather too warm at the moment to sit with so much fabric on my lap but I intend to persevere, if necessary sitting on the balcony with the weight of the quilt on the bench next to me. At least the light is good there.

I'm linking to

Click on the button to see more August goals.

Happy sewing

Marly.

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   

       

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

Happy Sewing

Marly.

Quilty 365 July progress and some improv

I started on 1 January so I should now have 213 appliqué circles for the Quilty 365 project hosted by Audrey at Quilty Folk. "Should have" because the aim is to appliqué a circle each day. July is all present and correct, well, nearly correct:

July: 30 of the 31 circles in chronological order, going down the columns from top left to bottom right

There was only one milestone circle this month: my DH and I celebrated our 41st wedding anniversary. This is the only block with a white background, representing my dress, and a larger orange circle, representing my bouquet of orange lilies - 1970's remember!

Since taking the photo I've finished Saturday's and Sunday's (for the space bottom right) is prepared, but not yet sewn down.

and here's number 31

Unfortunately I haven't caught up with any more of June's blocks. I think that may just be a few lost weeks. I have, on the other hand started joining squares with the same background colour in twos as leaders and enders.

Not the same background fabric, but both red. The one on the right will be a transition block between reds

I don't think that will upset the final layout. If it does, then I see unpicking ahead!

The last few days have been entirely taken up by another project of a totally different order: the Cut Cross QAL to be found on Instagram @crosscutquiltalong (sorry I can't install Instagram on my computer otherwise I'd have made that a link) hosted by Debbie at A Quilter's Table . You can see loads of other projects there on Instagram, and you're not to late to join in.

Chopped Sticks

This is my version of the mini quilt (24"square), as it was a couple to days ago. It's now quilted with the binding almost completely sewn down. It has really been a fun project making a really easy mini quilt with an improv dimension.

Now to the binding and to make a start on August's circles!

I'm linking to:

so pop in there to see many more circles (and some non-circular appliqué) 

in various styles and colours.

Happy sewing

Marly.

Quilty 365 circles in June

Towards the end of last year Audrey at Quilty Folk offered a challenge to appliqué a circle on a square each day. My response to that was positive: that wouldn't take long each day, and I could teach myself (with a lot of YouTube assistance) to do needle-turn appliqué. I started on 1 January and for five months kept on schedule.

Then June was an eventful month in several ways, and this is literally all the sewing I did!

I crocheted a string bag (handwork, but not sewing) but no other sewing:

no 1939's Farmer's Wife blocks,

no improv, 

no Rainbow Scrap Challenge. 

Now you know all the projects I would have been working on, if ....
In my previous post I explained why. I'm now itching to get back to the sewing machine, but the "only sitting with my feet up" rule still applies. I can now stand for long enough to cut fabric so there's no valid reason for not making a lot of circles this month. I'm getting there!

That's enough time writing about almost nothing, so here's going back to exercise and then the needle and thread!

I'm linking up to 

so pop in there to see more - a lot more - appliqué circles

Happy sewing

Marly.

Turquoise in June, and not much sewing done!

Each month Angela at Soscrappy gives a colour and a lot of quilters round the world look out their scraps in that colour and make something with them. This month's colour is turquoise, and most people will have just about finished their scraps by now. Not me, however, this is as far as I've got.

I looked out these pieces in the first week of June, but two weeks ago I had hip replacement surgery and haven't looked at the sewing machine since. It's not that I'm bed-ridden, but my machine is in a cabinet and there isn't enough space to put my foot up! I'll have to give turquoise June a miss, and work twice as hard in July! Instead of my sewing machine being my best friend, this has been my constant companion!

I was in hospital for just two and a half days and in that time used some other blue/ turquoise scraps to make this

I thought it would be useful to carry bits and pieces around while I was using crutches, but, apart from practising going up and down stairs with the physiotherapist in the hospital, I haven't used them. Moreover I don't crochet as fast as I thought I did, and the bag wasn't finished until the day after I got home!

I'm doing hand sewing , and have done three Quilty 365 circles this week, but my goal of one a day, has not been met. I have a few more prepared and they will be the focus of my attention for the next week.

I was back at the hospital for a check up yesterday morning, and everything is healing perfectly. The dressing came off, and stayed off - hooray! I can walk very short distances without any support which is quite a relief as manoeuvring the walking aid in my tiny kitchen was a real challenge. My return to the sewing machine is not far away!

I'm linking to

  

so pop in there to see what all the super active quilters have produced 

with their aqua coloured scraps in June. 

Happy sewing

Marly.

Quilty 365 May circles

Since 1 January I have participated in the Quilty 365 Challenge set by Audrey at Quilty Folk. On the first of each month, a group of quilters world-wide share their circle blocks of the previous month.

My May circles in chronological order: not all sewn down yet.

The circles are appliquéd onto squares, and there are no rules about the type of fabric we use, nor the appliqué method we use. Some of my circles are just one fabric, but many now are randomly pieced form my scrap bin. Most of the circles are 3" in diameter, and yet one has 21 pieces!

Until May I didn't have much trouble in keeping up, but this last month I somehow didn't manage. One evening last week I was so tired I fell asleep with the needle in my hand, and woke up with a start when I dropped the needle. Fortunately, I was still holding the thread! Definitely a sign that it was time to call it a day!

I've chosen to do needle-turn; a technique I'd never tried before. The only preparation I do is to draw a circle on a piece of fabric, cut approximately 1/8 to1/4 of an inch around it, and then sew! As I go round the circle I turn the next 1/4" under (up to the circle line) with my needle, hence needle-turn, and sew it down with an invisible ladder stitch about 1/16" long. At first that was very laborious, but I find it much easier now. I learnt how to needle-turn following a Google search and watching several videos. What would we do without the Internet?!

What would we do without the Internet? Not much new I suspect. Aside from the fact that I'm going to publish this on the Internet and someone, I hope, is going to read it, there wouldn't be anything to write about if it weren't for Audrey and her challenge, and her decision to do her circles using the needle-turn technique. Her decisions triggered me to take part and learn a new skill. You're never too old to learn, and there's nothing like a challenge for beating old age!

I'm linking to 

 

Hop over there by clicking on the button, and see the great variety of 

styles and materials that are being used in this challenge.

Happy sewing

Marly.