A lot many visitors, a short vacation, a couple of sicknesses – life has been quite topsy-turvy at this end. Finally got to do some quilting on the second panel of the quilt.
The second quilt-as-you-go panel …
A glimpse of the back…Don’t you love the backing fabric? Tina Katwal of The Square Inch found it for me!
The quilt back! I got a gift of Sulky threads from my son ; am really enjoying fmq now!
I am a bit undecided about the outermost dark blue. How do you think I should quilt it? And then, should the quilt thread be a shade lighter that shows up the quilting or a matching dark blue that merges into it? What do you suggest?
While you decide, here is a closer look at the two blocks I quilted last week.
Evening at the PondCard Trick Block
The third panel is all basted – I hope I can get some quilting done tomorrow too! Happy quilting to you!
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!
Please note that the downloadable patterns and instruction files for the Dreamcatcher Round the Year quilt blocks are being migrated to my store MadsPatch and will not be available for download for free from 15th November 2020 onwards.
I see to have hit some kind of a mental block trying to do calculations for the Layout Option 3 for the Dreamcatcher Round the Year Quilt. So I decided to share the real blocks that people have been making, using the free Block of the Month patterns on this blog! Links to the patterns for these blocks are given towards the end of this post.
A few of the Dahlia blocks had been shared earlier, on this post. Here comes some more magic…
Anuradha Ramesh’s Rainbow lights up the Evening at the PondDevi Nair’s Peaceful EveningDiptee Raut’s geese circle a green-blue algae infested pond against the pink sunset!Jaya Parker’s gorgeous colour wheel!Vicki Trerotola’s purple evening…
Here are blocks 3 and 4 by Vicki…
Vicki Trerotola’s Card TrickVicki’s Sapphire Fire – actually, her Amethyst block!
This is the test block that Anuradha Ramesh did for me , Block 4, Sapphire Fire.
Anuradha Ramesh’s Block 4
After Anuradha finished this block, I came across a picture of a gemstone that is uncannily similar to her block – the Ametrine.
The Ametrine – a gemstone
Isn’t that amazing?
Please note that the downloadable patterns and instruction files for the Dreamcatcher Round the Year quilt blocks are being migrated to my store MadsPatch and will not be available for download for free from 15th November 2020 onwards.
Before I sign off to do more calculations on the third layout option for the quilt, I will let you have a peek at what I am designing…
Layout Option 3 – inspired by the Chopsticks Quilt by oneworldfabrics.com
The pattern and piecing instructions for the Card Trick , the third of the blocks in my BOM quilt Round the Year were posted by me a few days ago.
Incidentally, there are 26 templates and 14o pieces in this block…just so that you can boast about it!
Assembly
1. First, lay out all the pieced templates using the master template as a guide.
Pieced templates arranged using the master template as a guide
2. Assembling the Inner Circle
– Pin together each triangular ‘card’ to the corresponding wedge . If one makes a mistake and joins wrong pieces together at this stage, the ‘trick’ will not work, so follow the master template strictly!
For accurate piecing, I find the alignment markers and crosses on the printed templates very helpful.
‘Vertical’ pin pushed through marker before securing the templatesAll inner templates ready for pinning together in pairsSecured with pins…
3. Sew to join together, removing pins as you are a stitch or two away.
Fix the thread as you begin…pulling out the pins as you approach themChain piecing saves time and thread!
Remove extraneous paper – from the seams and pieces without alignment markers. When the seams are pressed flat, some paper at the corners will go under the upcoming seam, and will be near impossible to remove later. Take care of that. Tweezers help, as well as the ripper.
Remove paper from seam …Paper torn off from seam corners, leaving alignment markers intact
4. Referring to the master template, join the segments in pairs, aligning on the markers with vertical pins pushed through. When securing with pins, I ensure that the head of the pin is either on my right ( since I am right handed) or towards me as the fabric goes under the needle. This makes it easy for me to pull out the pin slowly , without any fear of getting poked!
Refer to the master template …
5. Join segment AI to CK to form a quarter circle.
6. Join segment EM to GO to form a quarter circle.
This is as good a time as any to flip over to the fabric side to check if you have got everything in order! The little coloured piece on the wedge should be the same colour as the adjoining segment on its left.
7. Join the 2 quarters at edges C and E to make the top half circle.
Top half of circle is ready!
8. Join segment BJ to DL to form a quarter circle, and finally
9. Join FN to HP to form the last of the quarter circles.
10. Join these two quarter circles along edges D and F and the other half of the circle is done!
11. Now to assemble the arcs. There are only 6 arcs, so they will be joined in threes for the top and bottom halves.
QRS makes one half of the ring, and TUV makes the other, moving anti clockwise as you look at the printed side.
Joining the arcs
12. Finally, the final step for assembling the circle! Joining the ring half to the circle half. Do not spare the pins at this stage! I put pins on every seam joint and on some alignment markers too!
Pin copiously!Ready to stitch
13. I find it cumbersome to stitch a curved seam with the paper attached !
It is cumbersome to stitch a curved seam with the paper attached
Knowing my arc is securely pinned and correctly aligned to the circle, I can afford to tear away bits of paper on the seam. I also have a 1/4″ stitch on my Hasina, my HQV machine so I am assured of an accurate seam!
You will notice I do not remove all the paper, as I will need the alignment markers on the outer edge of the arc when I join this to the background.
Paper removed from under the seam area eases sewing
Here is one half of my circle assembled, the other half awaits its turn!
Time to gloat!
14. Once both the half circles are ready, we can move to the background. Using the template W ( made of 2 paper pieces glued together) we had cut 4 fabric pieces a bit larger on the long straight edges . We join these in pairs, W to X and Y to Z.
15. Join one half of the circle to WX and the other to YZ.
16. Join the two block halves together to form the full square block, and trim it down to 1
An alternative method for joining the circle to the background is to join the two halves of the circle and appliqué the circle on to a background square, using your favourite method. If using this method, cut your square about an inch larger and trim to size after appliqueing.
There is also a freezer paper method for joining a circle to a background square, for which several free tutorials are available online.
I hope you will enjoy making this block which comes up so magically! Do share a picture of your completed block on my facebook page, the like button is on the side bar to the right!
I have just corrected the link to the instructions for the Card Trick quilt block ( Block Three of the Block of the Month Quilt, Round the Year) posted earlier today in the main blogpost.
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