SHINE Circles Block 16, EPP Sew-A-Long

October 1, 2015January 6, 2021 Elizabeth E.13 Comments

Radiating Compass Rose
Final Block of Shine: The Circles Quilt

This is the Sixteenth and Final Block for my project Shine: The Circles Quilt. It’s kind of a bittersweet moment, as I spent more than a year designing and sewing these blocks, and have sent them out into the world with a wish and a hope that others may enjoy them, too. And I hope you have!

The patterns for the another set of nine circle blocks (this one included) can be purchased on PayHip, but I have left the tutorials here, as they are photo-heavy. The Finishing Instructions pattern for Shine: The Circles Quilt is also listed on Payhip.

As I did for the fifteenth circle block, I based my design on the fancy compass/North designator of old maps, throwing my ideas into some quilt software, and having fun. There are elements of other blocks in this one, with the undulating narrow blades and the small points.

For this final block, I liked that this design had echoes of Circles Block Four, and that you can see a dimensionality to it.

A circle leftover from another center circle for another block. It worked great here!

To get the blades going the same way as shown in the illustration, lay the printed side DOWN. I include lots of tips and tricks for these circles in each pattern, so if you found this one first, head to the tab up above marked Shine: The Circles Quilt EPP to find the others. The outer points have no direction, so you can place them printing up. . . or down.

All the pieces are glued down to the papers.

I print out a smaller version of the illustrated circle and carry it around with my pieces as I’m working on the project.

Pay attention to which way you sew on that first blade wedge. This is an OOPS! on the right. Un-sew and do it again.

First round all sewn.

Second round all sewn.

Join the blades of the rays together. Because I have such strong color shifts in these pieces, I opted to use different colored threads in each section. Here I’m sewing the teal pieces together, then I’ll switch to other thread and join the next band. . . and the next.

Start joining the units into pairs.

I just thought this was a fun photo of the project tucked into my regular Sew Together Bag. Now I use the Mini Double Pocket Bag (pattern in my PayHip shop).

Okay, back to the sewing. To place the points on accurately, pinch to find the center of the curved edge.

Align that as shown. I use one pin to keep it in place, but start sewing from the point’s outer corner, as shown in the next photo.

Repeat the pinch-to-find-center-action and sew on the next point. I always take a stitch at the point corners to join them to each other.

Here’s how they look when finished. Keep going until you’ve gotten the points on all your ray-pairs.

Join a ray pair together.

Then stitch down the loose yellow point. Repeat with the other two pairs.

Now you are getting somewhere! This looks great, doesn’t it? Don’t sew the two half-circle parts together. Yet.

Time to add in the dark blue outer arcs in between the points. Again, I take one stitch at the outer points to join the arcs together too.

This is what you have so far.

Join the two units, sew down the yellow points, then fill in with the arcs.

Nice work! Here it is from the back with all the papers still in.

Remove all but the outer arc papers. You’ll need those to appliqué the circle onto the background.

Don’t put it on the background just yet. First appliqué the center circle, as in Circle Block #1.

Lay your center circle over the center hole, measuring to get it on evenly, then appliqué with tiny stitches (above). Changing the size of the center circle is just fine; I decided to make it a little bigger than I’d planned.

I trim out the excess.

And then trim more excess–this time the appliqué center, leaving about 1/4″ seam allowance.

Cut a background square 14 1/2″, and as in the other circles, decide the placement of your circle and pin it down. When you come to a place with the seam allowances. . .

. . . first fold in one side. . .

. . . then the other, and keep stitching it to the background.

When finished, cut away the background.

I also trim off some of the more wild ends of seam allowances, as you don’t need all that bulk.

And you are done with all your circles!! Congratulations!!

Now you can finish your quilt. I wrote the finishing instructions in a pattern and put it up on PayHip so you can finish yours too.

I hope you have enjoyed this series. It all started when I wanted something to sew by hand at night to relax, but was tired of all the straight edges of hexagons and such. Just after I started, we visited an ornately painted church in Slovenia, which inspired many of the circle blocks. If you are sewing them, please send me a note by way of comment, or share a photo with me by way of email. I can’t wait to see your creations!

There are now more Shine Circles in that last pattern, so you may have an entirely different quilt from this. If you make this, send me a photo!

Quilts

Rosette #4–New Hexagon Millefiori Hot Mess Patchwork Quiltalong

September 27, 2015September 27, 2015 Elizabeth E.10 Comments

This is where I got stalled on Rosette #4 for The New Hexagon Millefiore Quilt, or as I call it, The Hot Mess. It may not turn out to be that, but we’ll see. I had rotated six of the blocks and it left chunky dark hard edges. Hmmmm, I told myself. Hmmmm.

I tried out the outer rosettes one night on the kitchen table. Shaking of head.

The solution was to subdivide the offending piece. The clunky outer bits are transformed, making what had looked like a snarling traffic circle into a lovely ring of batik-y writing.

Here’s the magic piece.

The finished rosette. This is number four, and the tenth month of the year starts in a couple of days, so that makes me only. . . eight months behind. This one was hard, not only because I was doing a lot of it during my recovery, but also because I got stuck at the traffic circle dilemma, and it took me a while to find a solution. But I feel pretty good about it now.

Next!

Quilts

Breaking the Summer Stranglehold

September 25, 2015 Elizabeth E.9 Comments

The good news is that the first mini from my series of four mini-swaps arrived: a delectible circle of houses from Diana in Virginia for the Kaffe Fasset Mini Quilt Swap. [I’m sending out *this* one.] I immediately placed it on my kitchen table where I can see it every day, crowned by my new Zulu-inspired woven basket I picked up at Visions Quilt Museum.

I think they are a perfect fit.

So why the post’s title? “Summer Stranglehold” sounds so ominous, like spooky stuff is happening and it’s not even Halloween. The spooky stuff is the ongoing I-Don’t-Feel-Like-Myself sort of body that I live in these days–it’s sort of mine and sort of not mine: maybe “not mine” because I want my old energy level back–a working brain would be helpful too. I realize that at a certain age (or sometimes certain stages, like pregancy, or nursing a baby) the body is dragging you around and you are in service to it, rather than the other way around, which is not how I think it should be, in my perfect world.

But I also was struck by how tired I was of the quilty stuff I’d been doing when I made the bee block for my bee-mate and I how I needed to break out a bit to freshen things up. The idea of Get The Stuff Done had taken priority over Enjoy Making the Stuff. So it was time for a break. . . a Mental Health and Creative Brain Break (which I even doubted I could do in my somewhat diminished condition).

So we drove to San Francisco to visit my brother.

I gave myself an assignment: Notice.

Notice new flavors, new shapes, new landscapes. Dig into the moment, and not let it go whizzing by, like the cool series of inverted triangles in the curved head of the oil pump, two pictures earlier, which can remind a quilter of this:

(from here)

It was time to break out a bit (thank you, National Park Service, for this apt metaphor). So the second assignment I gave myself was to Notice Pattern.

The three above photos are snaps taken at my brother’s house. My sister-in-law is an amazing decorator.

The above is a star and currents map from an exhibit about the Southern Sea inhabitants; all of the above other photos are from the Oakland Museum. (The quilt is from a collection gathered by Eli Leon.) Then of course, I had to Notice Color, Notice Taste.

Celebrating our 26th Anniversary at Chez Panisse Cafe in Berkeley, California. A peak experience.

And to Notice Something Unusual. Like street art. Because we used to live there and have done everything on the Tourist Top Twenty lists, my sixteen-year-old niece suggested finding murals around San Francisco. Above is Clarion Alley. SFO_13 Then we wandered down through the Mission Area of town, finding single murals, before happening onto “Meeting of Styles” where multiple street artists were in the process of painting their art on Lilac and Osage Streets, between 22nd and 24th Avenues. The link takes you to an interesting video with prominent artists in the area. I loved watching them hold their rough-drawn sketch with one hand and executing it with a spray can of paint in the other. Maybe like cutting without a ruler in the improv quilting world?

(from here)

(The last two are the same painting–just a couple of days apart. The second is from *here.*)

And the last assignment was to carry something home with me that would force me encourage me to keep noticing, such as fabrics from two fabric stores we visited.

My father has a saying, oft repeated: “The place that seems most dangerous is exactly where safety lies.” It took me a minute, but I finally figured out what this piece of street art said. In a creative world, perhaps breaking out of the summer stranglehold means being a bit dangerous, leaving careful behind.

Quilts

Sewing, Tasking, Listening, Remembering

September 11, 2015July 2, 2024 Elizabeth E.12 Comments

Sewing This: Sometimes you just need a new direction when you are sick of your own sewing. ~~The free tutorial for this block, from Sew Kylie, is found *here.* My bee-mate chose it for her month, and it was a lovely change. UPDATE 10/18: The pattern in three sizes is now found on Craftsy.~~

UPDATE June 2019: The pattern is no longer found on BluPrint/Craftsy, however it is now found on PayHip. This is her newest version, which includes three different sizes.

Here are four blocks together. The photo is from her previous blog.

Tasking This: Mostly I just sit around and stare at my Get To Work Book calendar (realizing that most pages have one entry on each: “nap”), but occasionally I can produce. Above are a few recent successes (a label from my Mini House Swap that my partner received–made in June–and yes, she loved it!), two Dumpling Pouches (which take all of 45 minutes each) and a re-working of a quilt square (made in 2006–I simply backed it, quilted it simply and bound it) into a flat pillow to cushion the pulling of the seat belt when I drive. Doesn’t that all look so productive?

Listening to This: Louise Penny’s tenth Inspector Gamache book. Number 11 (The Nature of the Beast) was released this fall, so I still have another to savor. Here’s the order of the books (better to read them in order):