African Circles

Vera told me about Le Challenge which is about "round" this week.  I can't enter Rule Breaking Quilty 365 Circles quilt because the challenge requires a finished project.  Even though it isn't Throwback Thursday, this requires that I go back in time to show a quilt from long ago.  I've made a couple of circle quilts.

It is funny how many themes are recurring from 2010 now in 2016. I was making this quilt at about the same time I was working on the Cheddar Crackers which I finished this year. I made a quilt using circles and African fabrics.

I made this circle quilt out of African fabrics in 2010.  This is one of the first quilts I made without a pattern.  I cut out the circles using a CD as a template, and arranged them on a background.  I found that the busier background helped keep the various African fabrics from competing with each other.

I used straight pins to hold the circles down as I appliqued them onto the background, so they kept pinching me or falling off.  I didn't use any fusible. Once they were in place, I quilted around the circles and a few big random zig zag designs on the quilt. The goal was to follow what I had read about African superstition - that to keep the devil out, you must keep it confused.

This quilt is hanging in my family room right now, so it was easy to think of it when I thought about my circle quilts. It is a good size for a lap quilt.

This one is from 2009. This one is a small quilt.

The background is pieced in alternating colors.  



The circles are needle turned by hand, and I did a chain stitch using crochet thread around each of the circles.  It has the lovely checkerboard border that I always like.

2010 Recap

Even though I wasn't working two jobs, like I did last year, the first half of the year kept me very busy at work, to a point where my mother was helping me with lunches and cleaning.  In the summer, we hosted a Japanese student. Then things slowed down and I was able to finish some quilts. I also reviewed several books for some companies who were willing to send me complimentary copies of their books in exchange for the review. I also did a great deal of genealogy research.

This year I decided to show not just the finishes, but quilty things I have worked on. It makes the recap look better because there is more stuff on it, and it also gives you a better idea of what I have been doing in 2010. Here they are, in no particular order.

The snowflake coasters were my latest little project. I am keeping these for myself. I also turned a couple into ornaments for the tree.

I made these tissue holders as holiday gifts.

This vase was a project that was abandoned before this year, but finished in October 2010.

Four of five quilts I made for the Quilts for Kids charity. The fifth one looked like the red black and white one, with panda bears on it, and was done in 2009. This charity took a great deal of my time in 2010, but apparently I did have enough time to have other finishes as well.

This is the very first oil painting I made. I really enjoyed having the opportunity to paint with my family. I have it sitting on the book, so you can see the inspiration on the right. The color of the water was actually mostly from the turpentine that we were using to clean our brushes.

The pirate map is an unfinished project for 2010. Our Japanese guest helped with some of the motifs.


The little flag wall hanging was started and finished in 2010. It was simple to make, but I am particularly proud of it because of the quote quilted on it.



This is a sample block I made for a big idea I had. The idea will work, once I get started on it. I tried to finish this block into a project, but it didn't work well. I am hoping that like the vase, I will manage to finish it at a later date.



Since joining Kathleen Tracy's small quilt yahoo group, I have been tempted many times with these little quilts. They are really fun to make. In this one, I limited myself to one small scrap box, to give myself the challenge that people in olden days would have had.  I particularly liked using scraps for this one, and remembering where each one came from.

The African Circles quilt was my first project I started and finished in 2010. It was my goal to finish everything I started this year. It hasn't completely come true, but I have made great strides. And I gave myself permission to simply play - like with the red and white kaleidoscope block and the blue and white blocks below. They were never part of a project, and a great start to an orphan block quilt.

One of these blocks started out as a beginning of Kate's round robin. I still want to do the round robin, but the block, and the additional ones I made are now part of the orphan block collection. I will probably make a small quilt out of these.  I think it is amazing at how the same basic shape can look so completely different based on how it is put together.

The Cheddar Cheese and Crackers was started early in the year, and is a work in progress. It is a pattern by Lori from Humble Quilts. It is being hand quilted. The cheddar fabric isn't playing nicely and isn't laying flat, so it has me worried, but hopefully I will be able to quilt it into submission. It has taught me that I am not capable of hand quilting a big project though!

This is my last finish for 2010. I like this one the best of all the quilts I worked on this year.

The Simply Squares quilt was an impulse quilt made from newly purchased fabric. The top is made.  I was going to try to finish this one for 2010 as well, but I think my quilts look quite impressive for the year, so I won't stress myself out trying to finish it this year.

Quilt Festival

It is Quilt Festival Time at Amy's Creative Side, and she has asked us to show a quilt. I have decided to show you a quilt that is keeping me cozy as the days are getting colder.  This is the last big quilt I have finished - I have done a couple of wall hangings since then, and have progressed on other ones, but this is the last big finish.

It is different from anything I have ever done.  The circles are all African prints that I bought at a quilt show.  They were cut using a CD as a template, and are raw edge appliqued to a big background fabric.  I added pieces for the border, and quilted it using my walking foot.  The quilt is designed to keep evil spirits confused enough to stay out.  I think I will eventually add more quilting to it. It is finished now - it is bound and labeled, but I reserve the right to add more quilting stitches.



The quilt with its beige background fits in anyplace, yet has lots of interest and zing. I like the shiny fabrics!  It is "different" and may not appeal to everybody, but it does appeal to me. It doesn't have that instant "pretty" factor, but it's like the ugly duckling that I've just grow to love.

If you are here from Amy's blog, welcome. Please feel free to take a look around.

African Circles

I just love the Quilt Reveal label. I put it on this post before I even started writing or adding pictures. This is my first finish of the year, hopefully the first of many. The binding is done on the African Circles quilt. This quilt is very different from my normal style, and I didn't even think I had one, and took me out of my comfort range. The African fabrics are busy, and I added a background that was also busy, but hopefully tames and brings them together. I know that the circles are arranged symmetrically, which wasn't the plan, but I had to put them in a pleasing arrangement, and symmetry is pleasing to my eye. Just as a reminder, I used an old CD as a template, and the circles are attached raw edged with a zigzag stitch. They are also quilted with a zigzag stitch around each circle. According to some sources I've read, Africans make their quilts busy to avoid evil spirits from getting into them. Somehow to my logic, it seems that busy quilts would trap the evil spirits in a quilt, which is still somehow a good thing. In either case, I added some quilting in a zigzag pattern on the circles on the side for the evil spirits. They may see that they will be treated like pinballs in this quilt, and avoid entering. The border also has zigzag stitching, to create a diamond pattern. Although it didn't need more quilting, since the circles are quilted, it did look like it needed more quilting design, so I looped around the middle circles. It was hard, because I wanted to make sure I wasn't causing any lumping as I created the loops. I didn't, even though the photo shows a crease. I'm not sure I like the circular quilting. I might take it out and add diagonal lines joining some of the circles. I'm just not sure the diagonal lines would look any better, and not sure it would make an overall difference in the quilt. Please let me know what you think. For now, I'm calling it done, and reserving the right to redo the quilting. I've added this blog post to Blue Cricket Design's show and tell Wednesday, and Amy Lou's Sew and Tell. Feel free to click on the links to see what other crafters are up to.

Binding

I'm working on sewing down the binding on the African Circles quilt.

Progress on African Circles

When I showed you the picture from the archive, I realized that I hadn't taken a recent picture. Because this quilt isn't made with blocks, I was thinking progress pictures wouldn't be able to show very much, but there has been a border added that doesn't show in the photo, and circles quilted that probably won't show in the photo. Only four left! I folded over the green backing fabric on the right so you can see it. Parts of the extra batting was borrowed for the holiday gifts!


I am still quilting down the circles. Since I wasn't able to free motion, I am zigzagging them, which requires turning the quilt all the way around under the machine for each circle. It feels like there are many more circles than you can see. Makes me think of the toy Sit and Spin. Remember that I already zigzagged them down to the top, and now I am quilting another zigzag round the same way. After this, I will try to free motion again, with my fresh brand new pack of needles.

When my shoulder muscles are tired of going back and forth turning the quilt around in the machine, I am taking a break and letting my shoulder muscles go up and down putting up more plastic in the windows. I have lots of old windows, and it is really cold outside. I've had this on my to-do list since October 1, but there is something about really cold weather to motivate me to do this task.

New Year - New Quilt

Picture from archives

I've seen a couple of blogs where the quilter resolved to start a new quilt for the New Year. Tempting. Very tempting.

But when I was doing my annual recap of 2009, I realized that I have to take the opposite approach. You see, I've been trying to get away from feeling bad that I don't have a lot of finishes to show you. I have been telling myself that it isn't about the quantity. I should make the quilts that I find beautiful, and not worry about how long it takes to make. So many of the projects I like have piecing and applique, and I am very, very slow when it comes to applique.

I am not going to make resolutions this year. It seems like when I tell myself that I can't do something, or that I must do something, I become very disobedient. No one tells me what to do, not even myself!

Instead, I am trying to think of this positively. I have lots and lots of quilts in the works. It's like with your taxes, they tell you to save up and use it all in the same year so you can get the most bang for your buck. If you are expecting a big medical expense, do all your medical things the same year, so that you can itemize and get a big refund. I didn't have any big finishes last year, but that only means that I have a lot of quilts that are close to completion. This means I can have double the finishes this year. I have lots of quilts that have made good progress, that it shouldn't take to much more to take them to completion this year.

Does this mean there won't be a new quilt this year? Absolutely not. There are lots of kits that are calling my name. But hopefully, I'll get a couple of older quilts finished before they start jumping up and down and screaming.

Santa's Workshop

Santa has decided that my vacation is over. I was able to take Thanksgiving and Black Friday off, and now, even though it is the weekend, I must work, work, work, in order to make gifts for 10 people.

During my vacation, I did manage to come up with some gift ideas of what these 10 people (well actually 7, still need to figure out the men) would appreciate getting. So, I've set aside the African Circle quilt - not too far away, I want to get back to it right away.



I didn't have a good recent picture to add to the blog, so I looked back for one I hadn't shown you, and it seemed like I kept looking back and back (each upload is in its own folder). So I decided to show you one from late November last year. Since there was a new crane made for Thanksgiving this year, I thought I should photograph that for you as well. It seems to be slightly incomplete. The picture at the top of the page is this year's edition. And already on the camera was a picture of an African circle, so I threw that in the post for you as well.

Circle time, continued

I'm still working on the circle quilt. At this pace, I should stick to much faster projects! The circles have all been applied, and I am working on the last of the border. I decided to do a simple border, and let the fabric tell me what to do. That is, I sewed the leftover fabrics together in the same size they happened to be. So they aren't blocks or improvisional, just strips of fabric strung together. It'll be okay though.

When I first laid out the circles, I imagined that I let everyone in the family decide which craft project they wanted, and this one was the one that most people wanted, and not just because their other option was a luggage tag. Looking at it yesterday though, I had a "What was I thinking" moment. It is really busier than most things I make, and since I have been looking at modern quilts, with simple lines, and lots of white background, this one seems outlandish by comparison.

I really do hope I get it done today, because I have many more gifts to make!

The picture is of the first layout, when I really liked the quilt.. I pinned some circles down, but was afraid those pins would poke me, and cause problems with movement on the sewing machine, so I didn't do them all. I went back and did the rest, and then some of them fell off in process, and I threw those back on without careful measurement, so they don't look like this layout anymore, but it's a good approximation. I did press all the fabric before starting, but this must have been after some of the circles were sewn on. I'll have to be sure to press the whole thing again before quilting.

Circle Time!

I finished my sashiko. I will show it to you after I wash it. You know what this means, right? This means I can move on to another project. I didn't want to spend a lot of time thinking and debating, so I moved to the first one that crossed my mind. It is Circle Time quilt that Amanda Jean showed on her blog. She used old CDs as a template.

Remember when America Online and Prodigy and CompuServe were sending CDs in the mail, to get you to use them as their internet provider? I thought I would be clever and use the CD as a template for a quilt, but I never got around to it. I find it hard to do nice circles. And when I was cleaning out my basement, I found said old CDs that I was saving. You know, because CDs are so hard to find.

Then I saw the quilt, and it is so beautiful, and she uses the word "casual". Such a beautiful word. I can make a casual quilt. And then I can throw away my old CDs!

I think the key to making this quilt is to use beautiful fabric. Yes, I have cut into my African fabric stack. I cut out all the circles yesterday, and did the layout and a some of the zig zag stitching today. This is going to be a quick quilt, except maybe for the borders. My border idea may take some time, if I follow through with it. I am hoping to make lots of maverick blocks. I've read that the Africans like complex patterns so the evil spirits get confused and can't get into the quilt.