The Circle Game Quilt

My completed Circle Game Quilt

Further to my post the other day, I realised that I hadn't provided any specs about my Circle Game Quilt.

The pattern booklet.  Available through all good quilt shops.

Pattern: "The Circle Game" by Jen Kingwell

Fabrics Used: 

• I have used a mixture of fabrics by the Kaffe Fassett Collective which includes Kaffe Fassett, Brandon Mably and Philip Jacobs.
• The black & white spot is "Spot On" design #14868 by Studio RK for Robert Kaufman
• The grey is "Architextures" by Carolyn Friedlander for Robert Kaufman.  I think it was the "Shale" colour. 
• The charcoal is "Quilter's Linen" screen rint D#9864 by Robert Kaufman
• The Sashing - is a Kaffe Fassett print called "Freckles".  It looks yellow in some photos but it is actually a very pale lime green with flecks of red, pink, brown and green through it.

Techniques: Jen's quilts can be made using a variety of techniques and I am sure that everyone does theirs differently.  I estimate that at least 85% of this quilt was sewn by hand.  There were a few simple blocks which I machine pieced but mostly I hand sewed them.  I did machine piece the borders and the sashing.  It has taken me approximately 12-months to complete this quilt.  

Quilting: I have hand quilted this quilt using Aurifil threads in a combination of 40wt, 50wt and 28wt that I ordered through Ms Midge.

The individual blocks:

Block 1

Block 2

Block 3

Block 4

Block 5

Block 6

Block 7

Block 8

Block 9 - this is one of my favourites

Block 10

Block 11

Block 12

Block 13

Block 14

Block 15

Block 16 - another one of my favourites

The finished quilt top:

Here is the flimsy hanging up above my bed prior to being quilted.

Miss Amity's "schexy pose" - it's a shame I had the window open when I took this photo as the wind blew the right hand side, but Amity's pose is just too cute!

Basting & Quilting:

My mother helped me baste the quilt in the craft room at her retirement village.

About to pin baste

Ironing and basting

These are all the Aurifil threads that I used to hand quilt this quilt.

Hand quilting

Hand quilting

Hand quilting with Aurifil

Hand quilting with beautiful Aurifil threads

When I was too tired to hand quilt, Miss Amity took over for me ;0)

Movement in Squares

Sometimes you see a pattern and immediately you know you NEED TO make it.  That's what I was like when I first saw this pattern - "Movement in Squares" by Wendy Sheppard.  I knew that I HAD to make it!

 

I purchased some gorgeous green & brown prints back in January during the first "Great Aussie Destash" on Instagram (#GreatAussieDestash) and they cried out to be used for this pattern.  I don't have all the selvages, but the ones I found were; "Groove" by Caleb Gray Studio by Robert Kaufman, and "Santorini" by Lila Tueller for Moda.   It wasn't a difficult quilt to make, I just needed to make sure that I sewed straight lines and an accurate 1/4" seam - sometimes easier said than done - but the quilt top was put together in no time.



My completed top - June 2014



That was back in June.  Then it sat. And sat. And sat.  Until October came around and I suddenly got the guilts and decided that I wanted to get this quilt finished before the end of 2014. 

 

I'm not keen on plain quilt backs (unless they are hanging on a wall and you can't see them), so I dug out my left over fabrics and tried to get inspired.  Thankfully a friend was destashing some fabric so I purchased two pieces of extra fabric which coordinated perfectly with my scraps.  When combined they were large enough to create a scrappy back.  With fabric in hand and renewed motivation, a scrappy back was whipped together in no time.

 

The scrappy back

 

Then came the mammoth hand quilting session - the clock was ticking down to the new year, it was WAY TOO HOT to be quilting (summer in Oz), but I was determined to get this baby finished before midnight on the 31st of December 2014.

 

 

 

 

By the time that I was binding the quilt, I was so delusional from lack of sleep that I imagined jelly dinosaurs attacking my Wonder Clips... but I slogged on...

 


T-Rex

 

Stegosaurus

 

Welcome to Jurassic Park!

 

I would've made it, but I had pulled so many all nighters that I actually fell asleep late in the afternoon on the 31st and woke up after 7pm.  YIKES!  I soon realised that I wasn't going to make  my self imposed deadline so I gave myself permission to switch over to Perth time (they are currently 3-hours behind the East Coast so I could make up my lost 3 hours); and I managed to finish the hand quilting at 11.10pm Perth time (2:10am local time) with 50 minutes to go. YAY!  Thanks Perth! ;0)
 

Ok well in fairness I am going to call this my "First Finish".  So far I have only just done basic quilting on this.  I do have intentions to add more detailed stitching into the negative spaces but have not yet worked out what I want to do.  Plus it is way too hot.  It's our summer.  Our temperatures are in the high 30's - mid 40's Celcius (that's averaging over 100 Fahrenheit for you crazy Americans).  But I'm happy with what I've done, for now.

 

The Front

 

The Back



Movement in Squares FREE pattern by Wendy Sheppard. 
Please click on image to download the Free PDF pattern.