Circles of Red

Well ..... here is my circle quilt finished and ready for displaying along with my other red/neutral quilts for Canada Day (July 1).  I do like the diagonal effect you see when looking at this quilt.  It wasn't planned, but happy it turned out this way.

On the chair, can you see my unfinished hexie project?  This has stalled because I still don't know how to finish it.  It can stew for a while and then the light bulb will click on with an idea.

Quilt Details:

Source:  No pattern .... I just like making circle quilts!  If you look closer, this quilt is based on a nine patch block with the center square having a dark red fabric.

Block Size:  each circle square is a finished 3" or a 9" finished nine-patch block.  The circles are 2".

Started:  February 2023

Top Finished:  March 2023

Quilt Finished:  May 2023

Quilt Size:  45-1/2" x 63" (top size before quilting, washing and drying:  49" x 67")

Machine quilted by:  Kathy Wareham using Circle Meander quilt pattern.

Batting:  Hobbs 80/20 cotton/poly

For my binding, I ended up doing a scrappy binding and quite pleased with the way it turned out.  Three fabrics were used and strips of 22" in length were alternated for a pleasing effect.  I don't know why I haven't done this before?  Will it happen again .... absolutely.

Is there still lots of red fabrics in my stash ...... heck, yes!  Time to make a few more red/neutral quilts!

I’ve been having some strange emails lately.  Got one today saying I’ve been hacked and to pay up otherwise they would send a compromising video to all my contacts.  I could view the video by clicking onto a link.  No…… I will not do that!  So, in the event you get an email from me with a video attached, DON’T OPEN IT OR YOU COULD BE HACKED.  FAIR WARNING.

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

Circles is a top!

Yeah me!  I'm so pleased to have this top done.  Do you like my ombre look border?  I love it,  but it was a bit of a pain to do.  Those strips of fabrics were moved around again and again and sewn, ripped undone and resewn countless times.  It was so worth it in the end .... but ..... and I will leave it at that!  LOL

A line of stitching was done around the perimeter of the border to prevent seams popping open while at the LAer.

Notice that all my seams (except for the outer border seam) have been pressed open?  I'm starting to do this more and more.  If I do, my stitch length is reduced (that is why it was more difficult to rip out) to prevent any threads popping many years from now.  This top will need a real good pressing before going for machine quilting.  

So, why do I prefer to press open the seams?   For my quilts that I keep, I actually prefer the look once it has been machine quilted.  Also, with all the white background fabrics, there is an even look on all the seams because those white fabrics are sort of see-through and it would be noticeable to see some seams and no seams (because of being pressed to the darker fabric).   I'm just fussy .... and we can leave it at that too.  LOL

Onto the next project!

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

Rounding up the circles!

I still am not done appliqueing the circles onto some of the neutral square fabrics ..... but couldn't wait and just had to start sewing some of the nine patch blocks together to test out my border idea.   This project is coming together quite nicely!

Before I knew it, all the circles were done!  Time to finish sewing the sections together!

Jack the Ripper had to come out ..... somehow I goofed and switched one half row and sewed it together.  It was only when I started to pin the entire row for sewing that I noticed the issue.  At first, I thought that a lot of ripping had to be done, but after looking closer, I realised that all that was needed was to rip out a row of six circles and turn the block 180 degrees and the issue would be fixed.  Whew, that was easier that first thought.  Fixed and time to carry on!

Now, for the border .... I decided that an ombre effect would be quite nice and different and that is what I'm doing.  There are a lot of red fabrics in my stash and to achieve this ombre effect will be quite easy to pull fabrics.

Life has been busy here lately ..... Dr. appointments for hubby, volleyball games and girl hockey games .... yep, busy, busy, busy!

To my Mother, wherever you are .... happy 105th birthday!  You are truly missed each and every day and we can't believe it has been 15 yrs. since you passed!

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

Circles coming around!

Much progress has been made on my red/neutral circles wall hanging!

Not all the circles have been appliqued onto the neutral squares .... only about 1/4 left to do.

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

Going round in circles

My circles top has made much progress.  It will be a wall hanging, so .... it shouldn't take too long to complete this ..... so says the woman who gets distracted by squirrels!  LOL

What I'm doing is a nine-patch block of circles (no sashing).  The dark red fabric with the lighter circle is the center of the nine-patch.  My layout will be 4 blocks wide x 6 blocks long.  On the wall right now, the far right column is almost complete.

Yesterday, we got another dumping of snow, but didn't get the freezing rain that southern Ontario received.  Lucky for us!  I did have to go out for babysitting .... but once home, it was nice to sit by the fire and have a nice cup of tea and browse the computer for a bit.

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

... and another squirrel!

Yes, I did it ..... started another project.  You would think that squirrels hibernate during winter ..... but no, they do not and they stopped by and had a few chats with me!  LOL

It all started with cleaning out some piles of fabrics and papers and that is when I saw this pattern and knew that it just had to be made.

What got me started on this squirrel was a need for a couple more small wall quilts to go with my February red/neutral quilts.  My bins of red fabrics and my neutral/red fabrics were a tad overflowing and viola .... this project got started.  This is my project so far.  If one block a day gets done, then this project should be ready for sashings and borders by the end of this month.  Only nine blocks to go.  So, we shall see ....

In the meantime, this quilt .... which I really love .... has been bugging me.  Why?  I want to make another circle quilt and why not do the same quilt but in red and neutrals?  So, that is what is being done.

This is my progress so far.  Not much to see, but in time there will be more blocks.

There have been two more squirrels that got made into tops this month.  They will be shown on another post.  It has been a productive month so far!

There may be another new squirrel or two, but nothing has been done with those yet!

Oh squirrels .... just go and stay away and leave me alone!  LOL  Can't really complain as it does help with clearing out stash and helps to keep the creative juices flowing!

Our winter has been up and down lately.  Bitter, bitter cold and warm balmy days around 0C.  Our winter has been too warm lately because bears have been coming out of hibernation.  This week, there was a report of a bear around a few schools in the east end of our city and the schools had to go into lockdown.  There is no food for bears right now and a child would be just a tad too tempting to pass up for a meal.

This week, we had freezing rain followed by snow and it left our backyard looking like a wonderland.  For those of you enduring very hot temps ..... here is some ice and snow for you to drool over!

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

"Dotty Dots" and a slice of Pi

I just couldn't think up a better name, so "Dotty Dots" it is.  After seeing my friend, Darlene make a circle quilt, it inspired me to make one too.

Since it is National Pi Day .... this is the perfect quilt to show.  Lots and lots of circles.  So why pi and circles?  Because pi is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter and now you know why there are lots of quilts with circles being shown today.  To celebrate,  we will have meat pie (tourtiere) and a salad for supper tonight and perhaps a round cookie for dessert.

Quilt Details:

Design source:  my own layout

Block size:  3" finished with 2" finished circle

Quilt size:  42-1/2" x 59-1/2" (top size before quilting, washing and drying:  44-1/4" x 62-1/4")

Started:  June 1, 2021

Top Finished:  Aug. 10, 2021

Quilt Finished:  Feb. 20, 2022

Batting:  Hobbs 80/20 cotton/poly

Machine Quilted by:  Kathy Wareham using Circle Meander quilt design

Below is another pi quilt to look at.  I have lots more quilts with circles on them, but you can go to my files at the top of my blog and peruse them and see how many have been done over the years.

Cherish your day, cherish your life .... because like the people of Ukraine, we will never know when our lives could be shattered!

Circle End

Odd title, isn't that?  Anyway, my circles are now a top!  It is a small lap:  44" x 62"

I'm thrilled with it and it used up a lot of charm squares from my stash.  Win-win!

I had to pull the plug on comments being left on my blog.  Huge quantities of spam from the same person being left on different posts on the same day.  That means they have to be deleted from my email plus being marked as spam on my blog.  A lot of work and it has been happening a tad too often lately.  So, the plug has been pulled.  I'm sorry to those of you who wanted to leave a genuine comment for one of my posts, but know that it is appreciated anyway. 

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

Circle Borders

A few more rows have been done on my circle top.  The bottom section is done, but not sewn together yet.  There may be some moving around after all the circles are sewn.   Also, a few more pieces were added to the borders.  This project will see me to the end of cottage season.

I seem to be on a piano key border kick lately.  This is such a good way to use up my stash!

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

Power out!

Our area experienced a bad storm on Tuesday this week.  What do you do when the electricity flickers on/off and then goes out for about 3 hrs. and all you have is the natural light from the window to see?  Well ..... applique, why not!  That is exactly what I did.

Six rows are now done on my circle top.  For some reason, I just can't get a good photo of this project on the design wall.

Oh well ....

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

Cottage Days

My sister and I were recently at our family cottage for a few days.  The weather had warmed up a tad and the rain finally stopped allowing us to take a trip out.  We are extremely grateful for the rain because our area has been quite dry and we were fearful of some forest fires breaking out.

While out there, the hummingbirds kept us entertained by the hour.   You can just barely see a tail on the left hand side of the feeder.  They come and go so quickly.  We have two feeders hanging off our screened in porch and the birds had our heads going back and forth.  Too funny!

An oldie, but goodie ufo got pulled out and worked on.  These are the last two leaf blocks to do and then the corner stones are up next.  More on this later as this is my next ufo to finish up.  If you are impatient, you can go to my label (at the bottom of this post) called "Almost Amish" and scroll through my posts on them.

Oh dear, I may have started a new project!  LOL  

Lastly, hubby and I got our second Pfizer vaccine shot!  Now, all members of our family (except one)  are fully vaccinated.  We will still continue to wear our masks and keep our distance when out in public and amongst others that we don't know.  This covid is not over yet.

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

Can't let this go

I called this top finished.  Almost two years ago.  It was always my intention to put applique in the side setting pieces.  Instead of just doing the applique, it sat on a shelf as it.  A finished top.  It was back in July 2017 that I last blogged about this top.  Done as far as I was concerned.   Really done?

No.  I just couldn't let this one go as is.  It really needed something to make it better.  Applique flowers as I had originally intended.

That is what is being worked on these days.  Applique flowers.  So, into my drawer of leaf templates and my drawer of circles I go.  A bag of circles that were the correct size and ready to be sewn on was a bonus find!  I just had to make one more circle and that didn't take long at all to do.

Almost half way there.  The difference is pleasing and I'm finally happy with this top.  A smile is on my face as I look at this photo.

This will be my third top that has this flower on it.  Like my stars that show up on a gazillion tops and quilts, this flower applique keeps showing up too.  My signature items to make my quilts my own.

Same flower with more circles added.  These give my borders that extra touch of special.  Don't you agree?

Here is my drawer for circles with leftover circles from past projects.  Those little containers on the right hold all my different sized cardboard circles.  Very handy to pull whatever is needed.

My drawer for leaves and fabric odds and ends to use for making leaves.

All extra leaves from various projects over the years get tossed in here.  This is where I go look first when a leaf is needed for a block.  Very handy indeed.

I'll just tuck that leaf template and leftover circles back into their drawers because one day .....

Have a great day!

Linking to:  http://www.esthersquiltblog.com/

Going around in circles

I want to thank all of you who sent me comments about my blog and your advice.  So, I will be testing the waters over the next month to see if the spammers come back or not.  In the meantime, changes will be permanent on my blog.  From this point on, my posts will be truncated and no comments will be permitted.  99% of you are wonderful and so supportive.  It is the 1% that are abusive and take advantage of honest bloggers. 

There is still a lot of information in me that I do want to share and I'm not ready to give up my blog just yet.  A number of you have asked how to do certain things and if one person wants to know, then there are others who want to know as well.

So, today, I will be talking about circles and how mine turn out so good.  It took me a while to figure out a routine and it works for me.  Here goes ....

Using cereal or tissue cardboard boxes and a green plastic circle template (bought at an office supply store), whatever size of circle that are needed are made and cut-out, the size is marked on each one and put into an individual baggie and stored away until they are needed.

I use Crayola Washable Markers (Ultra Fine) for marking my circles on the fabric (here for cutting them out and directly onto my block that will have the applique sewn onto it).  Just be sure to NEVER, EVER use a permanent ink marker with your plastic green template.   I do like to have about an 1/4" of fabric all around the cardboard circle.

A running stitch gathers up the fabric and once tightened, forms a perfect circle.  I used to use the same colour thread as the fabric, but  not anymore.

Once a whole bunch of circles have been made, then to the ironing board they go for a good pressing.  Use a hot iron without steam.  I like to tighten the thread and place it under the iron and keep a good grip on the thread while pressing down on top of the circle with the iron.   I just don't want the thread to loosen up and the circle to become wonky.

 Someone is paying very close attention to my instructions.

 Perfect circles all in a row.

 Let your fabric and cardboard cool before removing the cardboard.

  On my fabric block, the actual size of circles that are needed are drawn onto the fabric using the green plastic template and Crayola Washable Markers (Ultra Fine).  This is the exact place where my circles are to be sewn.

 

 

After my circles have been made, the cardboard circle is removed and a cut in the gathering thread is snipped.  There is a reason for this and the next photo explains why.

When my circles are being pressed, there is a chance that the fabric will shrink.  Some of my red circles did shrink and they did not fill the drawn circle.  It wasn't noticable at first but as I stitched around the circle, suddenly it appeared to have shrunk on the last section of the circle.   Since the gathering thread had been snipped, I take my needle and ever so gently move out a bit of the red fabric towards the drawn circle line and finish sewing the last bit. 

Here they are .... all done. 

Have a great day!