Small projects

Portrait challenge

The August challenge at the VMQG was to do a portrait.

I had started a face quilt years ago, so I pulled it out and added a back that has my hair style and it became my portrait.

 

Neither side really looks like me, so I really just used the challenge to finish a UFO.  Just have to bind it and it's done.

Circles - Beach Balls

I decided to tackle circles and first made a beach ball block that's now a beach quilt that's ready for quilting.

I pieced the triangles together to get stripey octagons and hexagons, then used my compass cutter thingy to cut them into circles.  I didn't use the centre of the block as the centre of the circle so that's why I think they look like balls.

I made the back look like a towel I had when I was in elementary school.  Yes, the wrinkles are built in.

Circles in Circles

Then I tried circles in circles.  I had seen several quilts so here's my inspirations:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/latifahsaafir/5772048865
http://www.flickr.com/photos/peppermintpinwheels/5789125060
http://www.funquilts.com/gallery/patterns/patterns.html  (the Roundabout quilt)

Here's what I came up with.

 Hmmmm.  Same background colour, but off two different bolts.  Make sure you have enough on hand before starting a quilt!

 The back used the other half of the big blue circle.  Below is a close up of the random sort of straight line quilting I did on the yellow background.  I still have to do something in the blue circles then bind it all in orange.

Here's my tips for circles:
Cut the hole with a 1/2 inch smaller radius than the radius of the circle.  Set your seam guide (that thing that screws into the flat table of your sewing machine exactly 1/4 inch back from your needle and be consistent with your 1/4 inch seam.  Use your squirt bottle or lots of steam when you iron the seams and you should get it nice and flat.  I iron the seams open for an really flat look, so I do clip the seams every 1 1/4 inch.