It’s still snowing in Seattle which makes for small helpers around and good light. Two futsal games and Super Bowl in a single day gave me some time to finish up the binding on a few quilts including this Free-Wheeling Girl.
I purchased the templates and pattern from Next Stitch.
The pattern I cast aside and went improv on creating the rings. I traced the inner ring template onto paper so that I could foundation piece the bits.
I mixed old and new for fabrics into a combo that started with my box pouch pattern and stuck. Playing with the same fabrics surrounded in different background colors on the design wall creates a dramatically different feel.
Sandie and I loaded it on her long arm and went straight line. I told her I was going to do horizontal lines at which she laughed when we took it off as it is square;)
It’s perfect.
This IKEA fabric I used for the backing has made its way into a few projects including a cover for my pressing station (tutorial here) and some sewing machine covers that I’ll show you soon along with a very easy pattern I’ve created.
A print made into flange finished the binding along with the Essex I used as the background. It was kind of random that I saw the purple on the stash shelf and thought to add it as a flange as there’s none of it in the quilt, but it works.
I realized only after I was done that I’d made the purple too wide and had to redo the whole thing. I cut mine at 7/8″ and I’m glad I redid. I use this easy technique all the time and Jaybird Quilts has a great tutorial.
I’ve added this workshop to the calendar so I can teach all the tricks and tips I learned improvisationally creating the rings and piecing the curves. Any curved ringed template or pattern will do, but I’ll have the curved templates available in the studio too for you to experiment.
My student Maureen has been working on similar in the studio but with the Single Girl Pattern and the templates I made for it years ago. I have to admit I’m a bit more in love with the larger rings, so I’ll be playing with some piecing and making the paper rings for the class and my next sample, be it most likely a pillow;) But you know how I love pillows.
Happy Snow Day from Seattle Peeps!
