Monday, April 25, 2011

Back in the saddle again - Celestial Circles

This is one of my favorites so far.  The fabric speaks to me and I hope to the eventual recipient. Plus the colors are fun.  Once concern I have is that the overall color value is pretty close together. I'm hoping that the yellow is enough to pop the circles out - the purple blends a little more than I would have liked, but was definitely better than the teal I also auditioned.





Getting ready...

Because I like the pattern so much and because of the wonderful variety of suns and moons from the panel, I did enlarge the overall quilt. And clearly, I do not envision size well as it is definitely going to be a big one.  The blocks are stacked and ready to start chain piecing together.  11 rows of 9 blocks.  I'm getting better at stacking so that I don't end up having to stitch in odd orders anymore - especially important as orientation matters.  I am also quite thankful that I had a diagram as I got distracted between the stacks and the machine and had to refer back to the design to ensure that I stitched the pieces together appropriately.



One change I made in the stitching was to stitch C1/C2, then C3/C4, then C5/C6, and finally C7/C8/C9 - this made it easier for me to press the seams to the correct side - leaving me to wrestle with fewer flips of the quilt while pressing after joining the four sets together. I'm still working on the coordination.  The other thing I found that in enlarging this project is that it is longer than my ironing board is wide, so I was stacking and restacking sections as I pressed.  Happily, I only ripped out part of one seam yesterday in the process - I wasn't paying enough attention at the end and it was beyond wonky. 

Here is the back before I started joining the rows together.


And the finished product, sans borders. But we are getting closer and closer to the borders class.

There will be three borders on this - the first being the celestial teal to float the circles, the second the yellow from the rings and the third a marvelous print.  I will also piece the back from more of the collection.

I finally photographed the finished Asian Nights variation last night as well.

4 comments:

Mary Ann said...

Wow! Sew much work you have completed!! I love both your quilts!!! I'm getting excited for the borders class and then the quilting class, too! I've been participating in the FMQ Challenge - fourteen days straight in a three week period - it's not too late to join us if you'd like! http://fmqchallenge.blogspot.com/ to follow

Anonymous said...

I'm really liking your quilt top you're making with the Celestial Dreams fabrics. I'm sure it's even more dramatic in person.

And I like the final version you chose for your Asian Nights quilt, as well. Both are going be be gorgeous quilts, once finished.

Dirt Road Quilter said...

May I ask what pattern you are using for Celestial Dreams? I love the layout andI am lookiing forward to seeing Asian Nights quilterd! They are both wonderful quilts!

Quilter Raised in the South said...

these are really beautiful, love how you put them together.