Drunken Circles Bee Quilt {Blogger's Quilt Festival}

It's that time of year again! Time for the Blogger's Quilt Festival at Amy's Creative Side.  This is a chance for all of us who can't be at Spring Market to show off what we've bee working on and have a chance at some cool prizes, too.  This year I am entering my Drunken Circles quilt in the Modern Quilts category.

This quilt was made by my wonderful fellow-stitchers in the Nurture Circle of do. Good Stitches.  You can find the tutorial for the block we used here if you are interested.  Everyone made one block and I set them up 3x3 with the extra one on the back.

Such AWESOME prints turned up in everyone's blocks!

For the quilting I chose to try intersecting spirals about 1/2" apart, which was an interesting learning experience! Ended up doing it FMQ and that worked out really well.  I used half a dozen different brightly colored threads for the quilting.

You can see the quilting really well from the back. I used a nice IKEA print for the back along with the extra block.

The quilt got a do. Good Stitches label and a stark black and white print for the binding. It measured 45" x 60" before washing.

After posing for pictures the quilt was shipped to My Very Own Blanket, a charity that gives quilts to children in foster care.

I love being a part of my circle at do. Good Stitches! If you have every considered joining this bee you really must.  Major props as always to the ladies in my circle who did such an awesome job with this quilt.

Be sure to visit the Blogger's quilt festival to check out other entries and check out my other entry in the Scrappy Quilt category here.

"Drunken Circles" do. Good Stitches quilt is done!!

Happy Friday everyone! (I am off work for a 3-day weekend, so it is indeed a happy Friday for me!)  It's time to reveal the January NURTURE circle do. Good Stitches quilt in all its scrappy, bright, modern glory :)

I designed the block for this quilt back in December and called it "Drunken Circles".  (The tutorial is here for anyone who wants it.)  The ladies of Nurture circle took my design and ran with it.  Not one. single. person. complained about sewing curves, they just jumped right in and did awesome!

There are some really cute fabrics in this quilt.  I can't pick a favorite, but I love the black and white dogs with their food bowls.  ...And the tennis shoes.  And the space aliens.  Like I said, I can't pick!  It's all bright and modern and fun.

Everyone got their blocks done on time and they all arrived by February second, so I was able to get started quilting right away.  I set the blocks 3x3 and put the tenth on the back.

Incidentally, for anyone else who regularly designs quilts for bees, I was trying to come up with a block size that would only require each group member to make one block but would yield a good sized quilt. (Usually everyone makes (2) 12.5" blocks. Set 4x5 it yields a 48"x60" quilt).  It turns out that that size is 15.5"x20.5".  12 blocks set 3x4 will make a 60" square quilt or 9 blocks set 3x3 make 45"x60".  So now you know :)

IKEA music backing.  You can see the quilting better on the back

I decided to do spiral quilting with multiple spirals intersecting. I have spiral-quilted successfully before, once on my first do. Good Stitches quilt and more densely on a baby quilt.  However, those were both just one big spiral and it turns out that makes a difference.  With the previous quilts I used my walking foot and as I sewed any shifting of the fabric was just pushed evenly toward the outside.  When I tried to use my walking foot to quilt intersecting spirals I got MAJOR shifting and wrinkling.

So.  After some unpicking and repinning I switched to my FMQ foot, put on the attachment with the measurement guide and finished the quilt FMQ.  Whew! Disaster averted.   I used a cool black and white IKEA print for the back and machine sewed black and white binding to finish the quilt off.

I used at least 5 thread colors in the quilting. One of my Christmas presents was a box of assorted rainbow color threads and I had a blast trying out different ones.  Since the fabrics are so LOUD the multicolor quilting doesn't overwhelm them.

The dense quilting made for great fresh-from-the-dryer krinkle and I love, love, love this quilt.  Thank you, as ever, to the ladies of the Nurture Circle. You guys rock!

This quilt will be sent out early next week to My Very Own Blanket , a charity that gives blankets and quilts to children in foster care.

Linking up to Finish it Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.

Snowy WIP Wednesday

Yes, I said snowy! In Texas! Much as I am not looking forward to driving to working in the slush tomorrow it always makes me smile to see flakes falling down.  The cold weather was a perfect excuse to spend Monday and Tuesday inside sewing. 

All my blocks for the scrappy Country Home Quilt are done. This block was designed by Mihaela and the pattern will be out soon.  I am planning some thin sashing and a string-pieced piano key border for this.  I was trying to steer away from my normal blue/green palette and use some fall/warm colors instead.  I really like how it's coming together.

I also worked on quilting the Drunken Circles do. Good Stitches quilt.  I am trying to do a multi-spiral quilting variation on this.  I have spiral quilted before with success but this time it was thwarting me. After some unpicking and re-pinning I swapped my walking foot for a FMQ foot and we're back on track.

I can't wait to show you this one all done!  Linking up to WIP Wednesday.

Finding my motivation..

For a while there, since New Years, I kind of lost my get-up-and-go.  January is always a slow time of year for me.  It seems the train may be back on the tracks, though :)

The do. Good Stitches blocks continue to roll in and rearranging them on the design wall never ceases to get me inspired.  (Tutorial for the block is here in case you haven't seen it before.)

Then I saw this blog post on quilter blogs and decided to see how the pattern would look with a charm pack and some solids.  As you can see, it turned out pretty great.  Can't wait to get this one bound and have an honest to goodness finish again!

Linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

The WIPs are multiplying...

Nothing make my day more than going to the mailbox and finding quilt-y things.  I love when it's my turn as the queen bee in my do. Good Stitches circle and the blocks start coming in. Every time I get a new one I have to rush in and put in on the design wall with the others. 

So far I have 4 blocks here.  (I am aiming for 12 but can make do with 9 for the finished quilt.)  These were made with the Drunken Circles tutorial.

The other thing I accomplished this week was coming up with a cute new layout for a charm pack.  I took pictures and wrote down measurements along the way so I can put a tutorial on the blog for y'all later.

Here's hoping this next week is a little more productive!  Linking up to Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times.

Drunken Circles {January do. Good Stitches Block}

Hello Good Stitchers, and Merry Christmas!! I am posting the instructions for the January block a bit early in case any of you want to use some of your holiday vacation to get a jump on the sewing.

(See the finished quilt here!)

This month's block is one I am calling "Drunken Circles."  Now before you freak out about the circles, don't worry! We are only making one block each and I have complete confidence in all of you. If you have never tried sewing curves before you are going to be amazed at how easy they are!

First things first, you needs to choose six black and white fabrics and six bright prints which read as solids and cut a 6.5" square from each.

Mark your curves on your fabric

You'll need to mark a curve with a 4" radius on each block. I recommend using a compass (like this one). This is seriously one of my most used quilting tools and you can get them cheap just about anywhere.  To use it set the point at 0 on one of your rulers or cutting mats and extend the leg out to the 4" mark.  Then just set the point at the corner of your fabric blocks and sweep the marking leg across in an arc.  Then cut along the marked line.

Alternative ways to mark your circle include finding a pot or bowl 8" in diameter to trace or using a pencil on a string.  If you use either of those methods I recommend making a template out of cardboard or a plastic milk jug to trace around.

I created a template you can hopefully download from here.  When you print it be sure you are printing "actual size" (may need to uncheck "fit to page" or "scaling" in the print menu.)  Double check that the 1" square is actually 1 inch before using it. In any case, your quarter circle should have straight sides 4" long with a smooth arc between them.

Mix up your curve pieces, matching colored and black and white pieces into pairs.  I can't find the original tutorial I learned how to sew curves from, but I am linking up to several below as well as demonstrating my method.  First I fold the two pieces each in half and finger press a fold right in the middle.

Match up the folds with the fabrics right sides together. I begin to sew from this point, sewing from the center out to one edge.  There are two schools of thought with sewing curves. The first is to pin, matching the outside corners first, and ease in the excess. The second is to sew from the center and let the fabrics end where they will, then trim off the excess. Obviously I subscribe to the second method.

The trick to sewing curves without pins is to maneuver both pieces of fabric simultaneously so that they are lined up just as they pass under the needle. It's impossible for me to take a picture of what both my hands are doing when I'm sewing, so I definitely recommend you watch the videos below to see what I'm talking about in action. Your inside piece will be shorter than your outside piece, don't try to make them match.

After sewing the first half of the curve flip it over and sew the other half, starting in the middle again and sewing out.  Press the finished block, pressing the seam to the outside. I don't notch my seams and have never noticed any problem from it.

Trim the blocks to 5.5" square by first aligning your ruler with the 3.75" mark falling right on the seam of the two fabrics. Trim the outside of the curve first.

The picture below has more description of what you're looking for.

Arrange your finished blocks randomly in a 3x4 layout. Make some whole circles, some 3/4, some halves, and some lonely quarters. Be sure to leave some "open" blocks on the outside edges so your block will be able to match up with another one.  Sew the blocks together and press. The finished block should measure 15.5"x20.5".

Here are some more resources for sewing curves.  For sewing easy curves withOUT pins (!!) there is a great video here.  And here's another tutorial at She Can Quilt with a video.  If you want a little more security and don't mind pinning, Jackie of Tallgrass Prairie Studio has a tutorial with lots of pictures here.

(See the finished quilt here!)