Monster Circles
I play favorites when it comes to shapes. In my opinion, circles are the ultimate geometry. So endless, so perfect, so clean, so serene. Ever since I started quilting, I wanted to include circles. I started out with conventional sizes - 5", 6", 8" - and gradually started blowing them up like balloons until I reached the monster 48" circle on the back of Insight.
Insight quilt inspired by Feng Shui pattern from Fun Easy Design. 6” quarter circles and and 12” half-circles.
48” circle on the back of Insight quilt.
Most of my circles are various constructions of Drunkard's path quarters, but I have also done half-circles, appliqued and inset full circles, precise geometric circles and improv wonky circles.
Dogwood Days. Table runner made with offset 8” half-circles.
Flower Moon. 6” quarter-circles placed to represent rows of flowers.
The Flower Moon pattern is available in my Etsy store.
Cat Pillow. Large pillow made with concentric wonky pieced quarter-circles, the largest circle measured at 20” diameter.
Orbits. Table runner made with mixed 4” quarter-circles and 8” half-circles.
Deep Space. Fussy-cut batiks placed to make up wonky concentric 8” quarter-circles.
Mulberry on display at PAQA-South exhibit in Cary NC. Improvisational pieced circles, half- and quarter- circles, 9” diameter.
Work in progress: Noted Quilt. A modified version of Daisy Aschehoug’s Klem pattern, upsized to 16” diameter half-circles. I’ll post more pictures and add it to my Gallery when it’s bound and completed.
For Drunkard's path quarter circles or small circles less than 10", I usually use circle rulers like these.
Circle rulers: EZ Quilting Circle Cut and Color Girl Quilts Classic Curves rulers.
For larger circles, I resurrect the old grade-school method of drawing a circle with a pencil and string. I create paper templates and use those to cut pieces.
I've never stressed about sewing curves, ever since I watched this very helpful video from Leanne Chahley (@shecanquilt) showing how to sew pinless pieced curves.
I taught a Pinless Pieced Curves class for a few years. Any quarter circle or half circle around 12" or less in diameter, I sew pinless. Larger quarter circles I pin in a few spots, just to keep the large pieces from sliding around.
Very large half- and quarter circles I sew in two passes, from the middle of the curve outward to one edge, then from the middle of the curve outward to the other edge. The reason for this technique is that during a long seam, the top fabric moves slightly slower than the fabric on the bottom fabric, which is grabbed by the feed dogs. By the end of the seam, the pieces could get up to an inch or so out of whack, distorting the final piece. Another consideration is that both top and bottom pieces are on the bias, making it all too easy to stretch them.
Quarter circle curve shown with technique for sewing a large curved seam in 2 passes: from center to one edge, then from center to the other edge. This technique works for half-circles and large curves.
Sewing the large quarter- and half-circles in 2 passes reduces that piece movement and stretch.
Other ideas: Starching the pieces can help reduce the difference, as well as using a walking foot, which grabs the fabric from the top to balance the grab of the feed dogs on the bottom. Some quilters use a walking foot for everything, even piecing.
A lot of quilters like to use glue or lots of pins to hold the curved pieces in place. For me, glue is often messy and pins are a pain (literally!)
Starch, walking foot, and pinless piecing - that pretty much sums up my technique.
For a look at more of my quilts, see my Gallery.
