Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Circle Quilting Tutorial

Today I thought I'd show you how I did the circle quilting on the Pink Fairy Quilt.


 I started with two different sized glasses, which gave me four circle sizes to choose from.  They were different enough in size that I could always find one that would fit the space.
 I traced them onto the fabric in an order I liked and that would fit.  They must touch each other, or this method won't work.
 For the quilting: Choose one circle to start on, right about the middle.  You are only going to trace/quilt one half of the circle at a time.  When you get to the next circle you are going to switch directions and move onto the next circle.
 When you get to the last circle, you can go ahead the rest of the way around coming back up to meet your previous stitching.  (Red turning to Green)
 Go back along the unquilted sides of the circles, completing them with quilting.
 If you have a smaller circle inside a larger circle, complete the whole inner circle and then travel a bit over previous stitches to continue on the larger circle. (Blue)

I found this method to be pretty fast and I was able to get it done in one nap and one evening sewing session.  The bonus is that you are not stopping and starting and there is a minimum amount of traveling over previous stitches.  It does take a while to trace out the circles, but for me, it was worth it to know everything would fit, and help me sew a more round circle.

I hope you try it in one of your quilts.
As always, feel free to comment or email me with any questions.

5 comments:

Rachel said...

I would love to be able to sew circles on my machine. What sort of foot did you use? Thanks!

JoyceLM said...

Great idea - thanks for sharing.

janequiltsslowly said...

What is your favorite method to mark the circles. This looks great.

Anonymous said...

Thank you! Paola - Italy

Sarah said...

Did you free motion quilt them or use a walking foot?