All those circles . . .

OK, more info on making all those circles.  Here is a link to Quilters Haven "less Than Traditional" method of making the circles.  "Charlie" in the video created this method, she passed away several years ago and Raylene, her daughter comes to the Rusty Barn expo's in Albuquerque.  She travels with her wares to vend all over the states.  At each of the events she demonstrates the technique and tools used to make all the different items.  The second year I attended an event I bought the medium size package that makes about a 7" circle.  This one started with making four patches, layering them with the Hobbs Thermore Ultra Thin Batting (you can find it on Amazon) and the front fabric with the circles drawn on each square.  I used a nice white muslin on mine.   Next I stitched around the circle on the line, trimmed a quarter inch away from the line and turned them through the slit, talked about in the video, in the muslin fabric.  

Press into nice even circles and start stitching them together.  The kit comes with a circle and square template and a ruller and cutting arc tool.  The arc is used to trim away the excess around the circles.  

Next the square template is used to mark the sewing line parallel with the slit in the muslin.

Layer two circles, print fabric sides together and stitch on the drawn line.  I used pencil to make the lines since all markings will be closed into stitching lines when finished.

Once you have two circles sewn together, do two more.  Then add them to the first two to make a section of four.  Use the ruler to mark the lines to sew the two sets of two together.

Once you have a set of four, topstitch around the petals to anchor them down.  

From this point you keep making sections of four, stitching the petals and attaching them to the others.

I kept building until I had four sections four circles wide and six circles deep.  It is easier to work with the bulk by working in sections.  

That is a very rough description of putting this thing together.  Once I had four sections of the four across and six deep I sewed two sections together to make eight across and six deep.  Then I sewed two more sections the same way.  All that was left was to sew the two larger sections together into an eight across and twelve deep quilt top.  After attaching each of the sections the petals have to be stitched down, working in smaller sections was the way to go.  

The finished quilt looks like this:

Front

Back

And some close ups

This was a fiddley quilt to make but as each section was built and put together it is finished, no binding to do at all.  It is a quilt as you go kind of thing.  I hope I explained it fairly well, it is easier to understand when actually making it.

I love the finished quilt but I don't think I will ever make another one!

I have a couple more projects to show off in the next blog post.  Hope everyone is having fun with your own projects!