Going Full Circle

The name of this pattern is perfect for these times. We have gone from going 90 mph to the mindset of "I'll make do" to "I can't wait to get out and do things again".  Pattern/workshop is from Sarah Bond, who can be found on IG under  #slbphilly and she's also on FB HERE.  The pattern is called Going Full Circle and it was offered as a workshop through the PNW Quilt and Fiber Museum in LaConner, WA

If you ever get a chance to take a workshop, either virtual or in person with Sarah, definitely grab a seat.  Her patterns are not available for sale..........yet.  She has some great classes, check her out.

I've been collecting orange prints for some time with the goal to make an orange quilt.  This one morphed into one with purples and fuschias but I couldn't be happier with it.  Sarah has a fantastic sense of color, scale and print.  Her use of dots and stripes encouraged some of my choices here.

Using the black and white setting on my phone was the best way to spread out the values and then I played around with the patterns.  There are three different blocks in this quilt and each one was a learning curve for me. 

Here you can see all three patterns.  Two are foundation paper pieced, aka FPP, and the swirling 2 section block was machine pieced with no paper.  I love each of them and I think a whole quilt out of one block repeated would be fantastic.  Sarah has several quilts that show very different prints and they are delightful and worth checking out on her social media sites.

Close ups of other print/color combinations.  Blocks are about 15" each so the top will finish  at approximately 75" x 75"

A few more.....  I used an orange grunge that has pink/fuschia splotches  and it was the perfect backdrop for these blocks.

This is a tricky block.  Not in the sewing or cutting, but in keeping your strips organized.  I mixed them up a couple of times, and I continued to confuse myself.  The end result was worth the effort.

These dots make you check your eyes, but they were too fun to pass up.

One last look as I headed downstairs. 

Details on making this. 

The workshop was the beginning of October 2019. We made one of each block during our class time, and Sarah has SO many fabric combinations to share with us. 

This piece is primarily FPP and that makes things easy to pick up and put down. I did a lot of cutting in advance, and then made blocks.  I looked at what I had and that drove my next color combination selections. 

Sarah is very "free wheeling" with her FPP method and I found it very liberating. I only worked on this at my secondary studio, aka The Shop. I have an old machine there that just sews a straight stitch, and having a project that can easily be left for over a month at a time was perfect for this new space. 

I sewed the "shoulders" on as directed, but I did trim them down to bring the circles a bit closer together. There are two sizes of shoulders and I went with the bigger size and trimmed. This gave me some leeway on my not so awesome machine. \

There will be no borders on this and the binding will be the background fabric. 

I hope this piece makes you smile as it certainly makes me happy...... and it's a finished top! Whoohoo to that. 

Keep Stitching 

Sharon