Circular Evidence

It's amazing to see progress on a project that hasn't been touched in years - you realize that all you had to do was start. Enter Orange Peel. Once I got myself organized and cut the remaining cream squares that I needed and then set up a system for assembling the blocks, everything seemed to fall into place. You just have to start.

So I'm going in circles these days, making the circular 'sandwiches' with the batting, the four patches and the cream blocks.

So some piles are getting smaller and some are getting taller.

It's tempting to start trimming them but I'm going to try and finish this step before I move along to the the next. The trimming and turning will be a good thing to do while I'm watching TV. Then they need to be pressed, top stitched, and finally assembled. Lots of steps to this one, but because it's quilt-as-you-go it will be a finished quilt when the last circle is added - not even a binding to fuss about.

I've run out of batting squares so it's time to cut more of those before I can do anything else....M

Blowing The Dust Off

My stash sits organized by colour (actually, 'organized' is a very generous description) in open cubbies in a couple of units that fit across one wall of my sewing room. Mixed in with it are a few spots where batting trimmings, backings and WIPs reside, so there are a few projects that I see every time I sit down at the machine. I see them but they don't seem to be feelin' the love much, so I plucked one out to work on. It seems it's time has come.

The pattern is called either Orange Peel or Cathedral Windows. It's a quilt-as-you-go project that I started 7 or 8 years ago (that's my best carbon dating guesstimate). I saw a beautiful version of it at a local quilt show and was intrigued, so a friend arranged for the maker to do a small workshop for me and five friends Things came to a standstill shortly thereafter because I wasn't happy with the top-stitching that I was doing so it was shelved until I got a new machine.

Well, my new machine has been here for several years now so it's time to try again. Everything for the project was in one place - except the instructions - so I've been looking at all the bits & pieces and had decided to take a stab at making it without them, but not before checking my files one more time.

Victory! I found them!! They have confirmed the basic process for me and also contained a few extra helpful hints, so now it's time to get serious about putting it together....M