Circular Stuff

Claudia and Denise were here yesterday and the class focus was circular piecing. Denise is actually the one who requested the class. So I went digging. Years and years ago I made a quilt using circular templates most typically known as Drunkard's Path. I still have that quilt top hanging in the closet.

The photo above is an early layout of the blocks. At this point, apparently, I'd only made the 7" blocks. In the photo below you can see that the finished top includes some smaller blocks. I have added 3 borders - light blue inner border, a narrow batik pieced middle border and a navy outer border. It's not a large quilt - probably a short twin.

But I digress. The focus yesterday was teaching these gals how to cut and piece these blocks. I also threw in a quick lesson on making a set-in circle just for variety's sake. I will get to that in a bit.

We started with cutting Drunkard's Path blocks and sewing them. I had several made ahead for them to see in 7" and 3.5" sizes.

After our introduction to this type of piecing, I showed them a nifty method for setting a circle into a piece of fabric. This was a technique I recalled learning back in '07 when a group of us went to a Ricky Tims seminar. I'd never done one myself, but they made it look effortless. A few weeks ago, I dug out my book from that seminar and made my sample.

The last time Claudia and Denise were here I used this sample to practice my free-motion quilting.

After they tried setting in a circle, they both opted to continue with making the Drunkard's Path blocks. I recommended doing a few of the larger 7" blocks to get the feel for making them, then doing a few 3.5" blocks - the smaller size it trickier; it helps to have the practice on the larger ones.

Between the machine quilting we did last time and the circular piecing we did yesterday, I think it's safe to say they want to do a lot of practicing. I can see them growing more and more confident as we move through some of these more difficult parts of quilting. They are willing to give just about any technique a try! Willingness is half the battle.

Happy Quilting, Friends!