Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Back to Guild!.....and a circle review.

I know it's back-to-school week here in Ontario....but more importantly for us quilters it means back-to-guild month!

I attended one of my guilds yesterday and there was so much excitement and smiles and sharing. I almost didn't go since I hadn't slept well the night before....but I pushed myself out the door....with a bit of much-needed encouragement from my husband.

I'm so glad I went. Along with the chit-chat with friends not seen since the June meeting, there was an overview of what the year holds for us. I couldn't resist....I did sign up for the guild's BOM for this year.

My other guild is put off for a week this month because of the Labour Day Weekend....so next Monday I'll experience all the excited women again!

If you are a quilter that has never tried a guild....it's worth investigating. It's so inspiring to be surrounded by people with the same love for quilting!

This week I've tried a new technique (for me) of making perfect appliqued circles. As I mentioned in Sunday's post, you can check it out here on YouTube.

I needed about 27 circles and didn't have enough mylar templates so at first I used dimes as my template...
I had gone to the dollar store for elastic bands....you just need the very small ones. Instead of buying the big bag of assorted sizes, I bought the ones that are meant for putting ponytails in little girls' hair. This way I got a nice amount of just the size I actually need.

Turns out, dimes were too large, but note how perfect the circles are!!!...

.....so I switched to washers (the thimble wasn't actually needed, it's just in the picture to show scale)...
.....and prepared all the circles I needed...
....this step went fairly quickly.

Then I sprayed them with starch, and let them dry overnight.

This morning I carefully snipped the circles and washers off...

Luckily, the washers didn't rust. If I buy more in different sizes, though, I think I will pay the extra few pennies for stainless ones.

I used my little curved scissors for the snipping, which makes it a bit easier maybe.

I'm sure mylar templates would be even better since I think coins and washers make for a slightly thicker circle....but they work out pretty good in a pinch!

This morning I actually got a few stitched on...
Perfect!!! This is exciting for me, I guess, since circles has been the most difficult thing for me to master over the years. This technique is definitely going into my bag of tricks.

I am linking today with Lorna over at Sew Fresh Quilts for Let's Bee Social. She mentions she is doing a trunk show this week at the Halton Guild....wish I could go!

Have a great day.....and keep cool!








6 comments:

  1. What a great idea!!! Especially if you have lots of circles. I use Karen Buckley's perfect circles and they work great but you have to hand stitch and gather which is a pain. As i think of it, these washers come in big sizes too! A quilting breakthrough!!!

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  2. Perfect circles! They look just lovely.

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  3. Thank you for this tip! Wish I'd had it 2 years ago when doing many many circles for my "fleurs" quilt... I giggled when I saw the fabric with ponytail holders still on, circles all cut off!

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  4. Hello Sandra! Sounds like you had a wonderful time meeting with all your quilting friends after the summer break. I too had a fantastic evening meeting with the Halton Quilters' Guild last night and am so looking forward to meeting you and your group in June. Your little circles are super cute! It's great to hear you are so excited to be working on these!

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  5. A lot of things going on here! I love your little pear stitchery--your stitches look so nice! And your bread looks yummy...I bet it smelled wonderful! :)

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  6. Neat trick with the washers, will keep that in the back of my memory. Keep cool here isn't a problem this morning at 10:30 is is only 4 degrees....love North Central Ontario!!!

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