Modern Circles and Squares Quilt

 

It's finished! This queen sized modern circles in squares quilt is done. It may be my favorite quilt so far. I based it off of this baby quilt I made last year and made it bigger and better. You can't see the quilting in this far view, but the quilting is the best part.

 



I thought I'd take you through the process, in case you'd like to make one for yourself!

 

First, decide on how many blocks and what sizes of circles you'd like. For the baby quilt my circles were smaller, but for this one I made 5, 7 and 9 inch cardboard circles.

Next, put the circles on fabric squares and rough cut about 3/4 inch around the whole circle. Cut slits around the circle so the edges will bend nicely, but not very deeply. Then get a piece of tinfoil and layer it like this: tinfoil, then fabric, then cardboard circle. Quickly fold the tinfoil over all the way around and press it flat. Iron well.

And when you unfold the tinfoil, voila! A perfect circle to applique. Continue until all circles are ready.

Applique all of your circles to blocks in random places until all blocks are ready. Then sew together in rows, as desired.

You're ready to start quilting. I didn't mark any circles to quilt, I just eyed it and made as many circles around each as I felt like. I tried to go slowly and treat each block as its own mini-quilt. I did mark straight lines by rubbing a ruler back and forth to make an indent to follow.

 

I added a heart to this one (above). For fun. I used embroidery floss when I quilted inside the circles.
 
This one I quilted as a guitar. Five string. See it?






 The back was red, so it made it's own reverse image and was just as cool as the front!



Modern Baby Quilt Finished!

It's done! Click here to see the beginnings of it and the directions on how to make the applique circles. I'm very proud of this quilt, because it's the first time I've made the quilting part of the design. I used to dislike the quilting, but I'm liking it more with every quilt. As an all-by-hand quilt maker I am usually in a hurry to finish. But not anymore!


Wolf is enjoying it for now, until it goes to my dear friend Sarah.



Here are closeups of the four quadrants of the quilt. I love how the quilting on some of them "breaks the plane" of the square it belongs to and draws the eye away from the block divisions.

I didn't mark any of the quilting. The circles naturally turned out at 1/4" intervals, I think because I'm used to "eyeing" quarter inch seams. For the straight lines I just took a plastic quilting ruler and ran it back and forth on the fabric, pressing down, so I could see the line.


Frog prince!


The owl and the pussycat!


Dandelion moon!


Hope you enjoyed seeing it as much as I enjoyed making it. Cheers!

Modern Baby Quilt Top

Edited to say: click here to see the finished quilt!

The baby quilt top is done! Click photos to see them better. It was fun and easy to do. See the quilt it's based on and my applique circle notes here.



I love this Heather Ross Far Far Away II owl and pussycat circle. I only used three novelty prints, but I made sure they read as solids from far away.



Here's three bunnies dancing in the mushrooms from some Japanese fabric I had. It's Sarah, Matt and the baby, Lilly D. I like how it echoes the Japanese folklore of a rabbit in the moon.

Do you guys like it?

Modern Baby Quilt Beginning

Edited to say: click here to see the finished quilt!

I started a new baby quilt for a dear friend Sarah who will soon be bringing home a sweet baby girl. Sarah chose this design, Sun and Moon from Squareonestudios from my inspiration file. It's all modern square blocks with appliqued circles.

I used the super circles tutorial from Anna Maria Horner's blog, and the tinfoil method worked perfectly! Give it a try.



I edited the photos to show just the blocks, so consider the white of this blog the design wall, and the blocks are thrown up here. Sarah wanted mostly solids, but I made three novelty circles and used a little patterned fabric.

Above is the enchanted frog from Heather Ross' Far Far Away double gauze collection.



Here are some solid and patterny blocks.



The blocks do look like the sun and moon, don't they?



The most fun part is how they change when you put them together in rows. The neighboring blocks give them a different look than they had on their own. I will show the whole top in a few days so you can see what I mean. Click on the below photo to see it better. Enjoy!

Anyone Want to Swap?

Hello All, I'm looking for someone who would like to swap Heather Ross fabrics with me. I have up to a yard of the above matroyshka dolls in cork to swap for some Far Far Away scraps. I am mostly looking for scraps of the three below fabrics:

I don't need to have big pieces, just scraps of FFA including the three above are fine. Please leave a comment if interested!

Heather Ross News Updates

Heather Ross has announced a new collaboration with Spoonflower to reproduce some of her fabrics in different colors and they are on sale now!!! I looked at them and the colors seem way off to what she was showing on her website (above photo). I'll still probably get some. How about you?




In other HR news, it turns out, the new Far Far Away fabrics are NOT double gauze as I had previously reported when I showed the initial snippets. They are "a lovely linen cotton blend, a bit on the heavier side" which is fine with me, I'm going to use them as feature fabrics anyway, to highlight small things, so the majority of the quilt will be regular weight and no one will notice. I can't wait to make some Heather Ross wonky squares again!

You HAVE to click the photo above to see the fabrics larger!

I am sooooo in love with these fabrics, the photo above shows different pieces than I showed before. All I'm sayin' is do you SEE the owl and the pussycat??? Do you SEE those roses in the upper left??? OMG. How could any collection of fabrics be more perfect for a little girl?

Insight into Heather Ross' Creative Process

Featuring the Owl and the Pussycat now coming out in her new line!

She posted it last year but I just found it. Read the whole post and see her original sketches here.

Breaking News! Heather Ross Announces New Line

I'm beside myself! I never did get any of the Far Far Away double gauze that I wanted, but to tell the truth, I like the new line better! The new line is also double gauze and also Far Far Away but with a different cast of characters. Heather just announced it this morning!

This plum colorway below is lovely.



But I also like this meadow colorway.


But the blue colorway above is my favorite!
I love the sleeping princesses and roses! Oh, and moons!

Do you like this one or the original FFA better?

Double Your Fun

Hi All,
I've got a new internet quilt commission! Lovely Amber, together with her mother, wants to get a quilt made for her sister who is having a baby soon. Awwww!!! So sweet. Check out her blog, she's got a funny article about pants up today.

Amber wants the quilt to be super soft and she loves Japanese prints, so she is picking out some Echino double gauzes! Now everyone knows about the Heather Ross Far Far Away double gauzes but not many know about the Echino ones.

Here's an article about using double gauzes in quilts. Will you try it???