Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Raw Edge Circle Quilt

I'm back after almost 4 months and a lot has happened.

I doubt that most people are interested but because this is kind of a diary blog for me, I have to list events.

1.  My oldest son, his new wife, her son and Martin's two sons and his one daughter came to visit and it was wonderful to see them all.  Lora is wonderful.  They have just celebrated their first anniversary and are buying a house now in San Diego...with a view of the ocean!
2.  I had another birthday and my kids had a nice backyard party with lots of kids, dogs, chickens and badminton games. It was fun!
3.  My brother's lovely dd had her baby on August 30th.  I had already started a quilt for him so I've spent some time finishing it up.
4.  I celebrated with my grandson in September as he turned 13 years old.  He's well read, polite and talented, the perfect companion.
5.  Can't fail to mention that we had a long, hot summer and fall.  I was looking forward to cold weather.  And we've had a lot of rain in November. lol
6.  And, last but not least, I'm now 33 lbs. lighter than I was in March when I started on My Fitness Pal.

So, this entry is to show the making of Gavin's baby quilt.  I actually visualised him using the quilt at pre-school or as a floor mat more than a quilt.

 Always willing to lend a paw, Jules was there throughout the process....









 Lots of different fabrics were needed for this quilt and I tried to find lots of blues and greens.














But lots of lighter colors were needed to keep the quilt bright.


Half of the fabrics were cut into squares and the other half into circles.

 I finally figured out that it was much easier and quicker to use a circle template that I cut out of cardboard, and my rotary cutter.
I put four to six fabrics together, pinned them securely, then cut on the drawn line.
 Then a circle was matched with a square and sewed on.  It took some time to determine which fabric circles looked good with each square.

 Then the circles were sewn onto the squares and then..... the square with the attached circle was cut into quarters!










And finally, the circles were sewed back together
so that no circle looked the same.


I got my daughter to help with arranging the various circles.  The colors had to be mis-matched everywhere and just when we thought we had it, we would find a couple of touching fabrics that were the same.  Mostly it was only a matter of turning the offending block but it took some time.

Jules was a trouper


 The edges of the circles were raw so after I washed it, I added more circular stitching to be sure the edges wouldn't shred.

To quilt it, I sewed each square just to the side of each seam.









The quilt, unbound above and with multi-colored binding below.

 The back of the quilt showing the white embroidery thread that was used to quilt the circles...in the middle and again around the outside edge.  Both white and dark blue embroidery threads were used depending on how it showed up on the backing of the quilt.

So that's how I made the Raw Edge Circle Quilt for my new nephew.  I liked the wrinkly look of it after washing a couple of times.

Jaik is still hanging in and has put on a few pounds but he's not looking so good....bony boy is what I call him.  But he chased the laser light the other night so I have high hopes that he'll recover to live a little longer life.
Jaik, my bony boy
Ta ta, and thanks for reading.  Hope you enjoyed my long post.