STITCHED CIRCLES PAGE

 I worked on more of my embroidered pages for the 100 Day Stitch Book.  I finished the circles page.

STITCH PAGE WITH CIRCLES

 I'm a bit behind with my 100 Day Stitch Book pages.  Here's one I made for the prompt "circles".

It still needs to be stitched down.  The one with the stitching is when I was practicing the Organic Blanket Stitch.

WORKSHOP WITH MARIA

 I attended the zoom workshop called "Half Circles with Lines" with Maria Shell this morning.  It was a fast and furious workshop with lots of information and advice. I used her method and cut my pieces without using a ruler.

I will be watching the replay in order to absorb all it.  Fascinating!

CIRCLE QUILTING

 I attempted to stitch around the circle and really messed it up.  Unfortunately, the circle is too big to fit in the work area, so it will have to be done in sections.

CUTTING A HOLE

 I drew out a circle on freezer paper to use as a template.  Then, using a heat erasable pen, I traced the circle onto the quilt top.

Then I cut the circle out.

After finding the perfect solid green fabric and cutting a half inch from the previous circle template, I traced it onto fabric.

Next step was to pin and glue it onto the cutout circle.

Sew and press it flat.

Using a ruler as a guide, I cut the border at 3/4" all the way around.

Sewing the rest of the top onto the cut-out circle was a little more difficult.

But, it was all worth it.  Here it is - the finished top.

TWO LEAVES

 I've finished the second leaf and sewn it to the first!

I'm not wanting to start on the second two leaves because I'm still thinking about what fabric to use around the outside of each.  (more on that later)

So, I started sewing the top part of the quilt together.  It's going together very easily.  TG.

I'll take it in to the house tonight to sew a few more circles around the petals.

APPLIQUEING CIRCLES

 Since my B770 sewing machine is not working right (aaaarrrrgh!) I'm left with doing something else.  So, I'm appliqueing the circles onto the petals - which is a good thing!  This needs to get done eventually, so now is a good time.  

I've made a bunch of cardboard circles and am in the process of wrapping them with the fabrics.  I'll have to press them before I remove the cardboard and applique them down.

Christmas Day:  We were planning on going to Mandarin Gardens for lunch today and getting take out.  But, they are closed!  This is the first time in years that they haven't been opened on Christmas.  Bummer.  We picked another restaurant that was open and ordered lunch to go from them, Ho Ho Seafood.  It was no where near as good as Mandarin Gardens - it was a disappointment, to say the least.  

The cold and the snow begins.  Winter is here.

LOTS OF CIRCLES

 I'm hand appliqueing circles onto my flower petals.  Lots of circles, nine for each petal.  I think that makes 45 circles.  Oh, my.

FREEZER PAPER SEWING

 I didn't think about reversing the pattern when I drew it out on the giant freezer paper, so now I'm having to add the registration marks on the front (in the seam allowance).   This is the opposite of how I've done it in the past.  Live and learn.

I've settled on the colors and started cutting and sewing.

and it begins

Half way.

PATTERN MAKING

 Using the giant roll of freezer paper, 48" wide, I added more to make the 62" width.  I found a heat proof tape (golden) that make this process a lot easier.

This quilt will be 63" wide by 84" length.

I drew the pattern on the freezer paper, using a trammel to draw the circle's arcs.

It worked great (other than having to tape it to the floor because I don't have a table big enough).  Of course, the dogs wanted to help and I had to keep chasing them off.

BIGGER STILL

 I sewed together half of the quarter section of the Rhythm in Blues quilt.

Just one fourth of the quarter left to do then I can sew the quarters together.

This is the backside - seams pressed open.

HALF DONE

 I've got the two quarter pieces done.  That means I'm half done with the Rhythm in Blues quilt.

CHANGING CIRCLES

 I finally got around to changing the color of the circles on my Flowers quilt.

Now it's ready for quilting.  

QUILTING BEAR PAWS

 I'm quilting stitch-in-the-ditch around each Bear Paw block with a circle in the 'palm'.  It's almost fun.  I love this Hobbs Tuscany 80/20 cotton/wool batting.  It's making this quilt look really good.

GETTING READY FOR CLASS

My Design Class meets tomorrow and I have been busy finishing up some of my projects.  I've been hand appliquing the circles onto this abstract flower block.  I love it.

They are looking good.  What's next?... I want to make some more flower blocks in different styles - enough to make a quilt.  I still have to make one that is 'realistic' looking.  

I also finished sewing the rows together to get this little quilt top ready for class tomorrow.

MAKING CIRCLES

I got the little circles ready to applique onto my Abstract Flower block.