Circles

(Day 8 of a 31 Day Series)
Circles are super easy with a walking foot. Circles add so much movement to a quilt and soften a “rigid” quilt pattern. The larger the circle is, the less pivoting you will have to do.
Target:Each circle in this design is stitched separately. That means that you will have to tack your stitches every time you start and stop a circle. To save time you don’t have to stop and trim your threads every time you finish a circle. Simply raise your needle and presser foot, move the quilt over an align your self with your previous line of stitching, lower the needle and the foot, tack your stitches and quilt the whole circle. Once you are done with the whole quilt you can go back and trim the threads between your circles.
The great thing about this design is that you only have to mark 1 circle. Don’t even worry about marking the teeny tiny circle in the middle. Simply find a large circle in your home, (like a dinner plate, a glass lid to a pot, or a coffee can) carefully center it on your quilt and mark the quilt top. Once you have stitched this first circle you can then work in to the center from it and out from the center of it.
Don’t forget to play around with this design, you can get a more organic and whimsical feel by varying the spacing between the circles.
Here are some fun variations:
A) Snail: You can always turn the design into a spiral and you won’t have to start and stop at all! To mark this design use a small round item to guide you in marking the first spiral (like a cup, a spice bottle, etc.) Once that first spiral is marked you will just follow your stitching lines.
B) You can quilt random “targets” and let the lines cross over some of the outer rings. ( I really like the way this looks and may have to try it out sometime!)
C) You can quilt “targets” and NOT let the outer rings cross. You would start with one “target” then start another one a little ways away. Once that second “target” is going to run into the first “target” you can start and end the rings where they intersect the first “target.” You don’t have to make all of the “targets” have the same number of rings. You can make small, medium, and large targets.

Have you ever considered quilting circles with a walking foot? Are you willing to try them now?
~ Norma