Category: Round the Year quilt

Final Countdown- Midway Break

Eight of the blocks are done today. I now take a break, till I get the lighter blue fabric for the centre blocks.

Eight blocks done!
Eight blocks done!

I modified Sobana’s porthole method to join today’s block circle to the centre. This is what I did.

I marked the seam line 1/4″ inside the circle edge.

Mark the seam line on right side of circle.

I pieced the background on the freezer paper template.

Prepare the background on the freezer paper template of 18.5
Prepare the background on the freezer paper template of 18.5″ square from which a circle of 7.5″ radius has been cut out.

I now made tiny snips on the inside circular edge till about 1/8″ of the paper. I will use  Sobana’s pics to show you what was done next!

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Snip the inner circular edge to within 1/8″ of the paper edge.

Press the snipped edge over the paper.

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Fold the seam allowance back on the paper. Sobana suggests glueing it lightly on to the paper to hold it in place. I skipped this – I did not use glue.

I applied glue on this folded -back seam allowance. Now, I did the opposite of what Sobana did! Here is a reminder of what she did. In her own words

” Centre your finished circle on the freezer paper again on the wrong side, making sure it is evenly placed.  Apply glue again along the edge of the folded back fabric snips and press your circle in place with your iron. … Remember to keep your finished circle right side down.”

She placed both pieces right side down and glued the seam allowances together!
She placed both pieces right side down and glued the seam allowances together!

I placed both pieces right side up, the circle below the background. I ironed the two together, but the glue from the glue stick had dried by now, so this did not work!

Now I applied glue on the circle edge –  I used washable liquid school glue instead of the glue stick. I pressed the background on top of it, using the seam-line marked with pencil on the right side of the circle as a guide.  This eliminated the guesswork out of correct placement of the circle! I removed the freezer paper now and stitched the two pieces together using the crease line on the background as a guide, like for the other blocks.

Here is my Winding Ways Wheel block…

Perfectly matched points at the edge of circle!
Perfectly matched points at the edge of circle!

I am wondering if I should finish the chopsticks while I wait for the fabric. I am more inclined to start on a brand new project instead! Insane? Yes, Nearly Insane! I have the fabric chosen and ready for the 6″ blocks, which contain 70 to 229 pieces! Care to join me?

Final Countdown- The Spiked Dresden Completed

 

The prettiest completed so far?
 
I wrote a whole big blogpost explaining how I attached the Pixellated circle to the centre of thIs, the Spiked Dresden block…and then,  I hit the ‘trash’ button instead of the ‘save’! The post is untraceable now. Right now, I am …like …grrrrrr!

I will get back to that when I am in a better mood. Meanwhile, I do think this block is the prettiest of the seven completed so far. What do you think?

Final Countdown – That is Half a Dozen Done.

Two more blocks of the Round the Year quilt done today, using the porthole method described  by Sobana Sundar in a previous blogpost. 

The first was Card Trick, Block Three, which got done quickly. 

 

The Card Trick block was not tricky at all! joined to the background using the ‘porthole ‘ method.
 I used the points on the triangles on the edge as a guide to glue the background to the circle. 
The other block that I did was Wedding Ring, which gave me a lot of trouble as I did not glue the background correctly. The resultant seam ranged from 1/8″ to 3/4″. I had to rip it and re-do it. 

 

This block gave me a lot of problems!
 
I was not very happy with the end result. For the next block, I will do something different. I will mark the seam line on the front of the circle, and glue the background accurately from the top, using the seam line as a guide. I will take pics to clarify what I mean. 

Meanwhile, I had promised to show you how I stitched the background with no fabric wastage. 

In the normal course, one would stitch together two rectangles 9.5″x 18.5″ in the two blues ( along the longer edge, and end up with an 18.5″ circle. On this one would mark a 7.5″ circle and cut about 3/4″ inside that. 

What I did was this…

 

I added a circular strip on the inside edge of the freezer paper template to increase the seam allowance to about 1/2 ” .
 
I ironed the templates on the background fabric and cut out a further 1/4″ inside. I also took an extra 1/8″ on the outer long edges. I will trim the blocks to accurate size once they are done. Remember, NOT to take and extra allowance on the small straight edge! That has to be exactly 1/4″.

This method saves fabric!

You need 10.5″ x 12.5″ fabric for 2 quarters as above. Which means that for one block you need either 10.5″ x 25″ or 21″x 12.5″, depending on how you place the templates. 
 

Piece the full backgound directly on the freezer paper.
 
I then cut out the freezer paper template described by Sobana in her post – an 18.5″ square with a 7.5″ radius circle cut out of the centre. I pieced my background using two light blues and two darks directly on this template.

You will need to probably refer to Sobana’s post on setting circles onto background squares to understand exactly what I did differently here…

If you have any questions, please feel free to seek clarifications! 

Final Countdown – A Dozen More…

The first four completed blocks. In all of these, the background is pieced to circle wedges/ quadrants.

A quick photo post to share the four Round the Year blocks completed.
Clockwise, beginning from top right, these are

Block Four – Sapphire Fire

Block Two – Evening at the Pond

Block Five – Venus at Dusk

Block Thirteen – Feathered Star

You want to make your own blocks? You can find the links to the free patterns from the Round the Year page.( Link above) 

Final Countdown! And Then There Were Two…

 

I used glue on the final seam, near the centre , to get a perfect finish!

 Today, I joined the Sapphire Fire circle (Block Four of the Round the Year BOM quilt) to its background. When I had pieced this block, I was not very happy with the pale blue I used and even thought I would replace it, but now quite like it. I think it adds a glitter to the Sapphire! 
I joined the block in eighths, which was not such a good idea, I believe. There were too many points to match on the bias. It would be better to first join the adjoining one-eighth wedges of the circle to make quadrants and then join them to 1/4 squircles ( my term for square minus circle). 

When joining the dark background half to the lighter half, I pinned the circle edges together and began at the edge of the square, moving toward the centre and stopping just short of it. Similarly from the other end. I then put a thin line washable school glue On the seam allowance, tugged the halves to match the centre point, pressed and then sewed the seam at the centre. Result? Perfect centre! I also pressed all eight seams in one direction to make the centre lie flat. 

For the Venus block ( Block Five), I have joined the eighth wedges to make quarter circles. I have finished pinning Venus as well as Evening at the Pond ( Block Two) to their background pieces.  I will share my learning on the best way to attach the circles to the background after completing these blocks, hopefully, tomorrow!