Circa 2106 is Finished in 2016!

Circa 2016 blocks

In January I started a mystery quiltalong hosted by Temecula quilts. Every Friday a new block pattern was posted on their blog and eventually this pile of blocks was created. It's magical the way a pile of fabric scraps can become a pile of carefully constructed blocks.

And even more magical, is when that pile of blocks becomes  a quilt top! 

But what is even almost miraculous, is when that quilt is finished within the same year in which it was started!

And here is the finished miracle quilt hanging on my friend's clothesline.
Finished size: 41.25" x 49.25" 

There wasn't an official link up to see other finished quilts, so here are some that I have found in blogland:
Deanna, Karen,  Randy (with an hourglass border instead of the HST) and Joanne (her Circa 2016 grew into a huge quilt). If you know of others, leave a link in the comments and I'll add them.
Thank you again to Temecula for all the fun this year in making this scrappy quilt ... I just love it! The pattern can be purchased here.

Slow Sunday Stitching - Binding!

Welcome to Slow Sunday Stitching! We meet here every Sunday to celebrate the art of all varieties of hand stitching. If it involves a needle (or 2) and thread and stitching taken with your hands, we want to know about it!


Today will find me hand stitching the binding on my Circa 2016 quilt. I love this quilt so much and will enjoy every minute of this stitching.

This is the backing fabric from the "Metropolitan Fair" line of fabric by Barbara Brackman. Like all the fabrics in my Circa 2016 quilt, this is a reproduction fabric from the mid 1800s. It delights me that this 2016 quilt is made of 1800 reproduction fabrics.

Let's get this binding stitched down! I am enjoying visiting with the blocks that were made over the course of the past year as I stitch on by. I feel more relaxed already. 
I probably won't be able to spend too much time on this today as I really should be working on some Christmas presents, but a little relaxation will make everything else run more smoothly don't you think?!?!

What are you hand stitching today? Link up your blog post below and tell us about your project so we can encourage you to keep stitching!

   

    An InLinkz Link-up
   

Circa Progress

The machine quilting of Circa 2016 is going really fast.

Here you can see that I was stitching-in-the-ditch on one of the corners. I am sewing in all the seams around the blocks and am very happy with how flat the quilt is laying. There are no ruffles appearing in front of the walking foot as I go along. Ruffling on the quilt top (and also pleating on the backing) is an indication that the pin basting wasn't done properly, and I used to have that happen quite regularly years ago. But now I am very careful when pin basting to make sure all the layers are taut and flat, and well pinned to prevent any shifting.

This photo shows that I have switched to the free motion foot and am already quilting the HST border. It's almost ready for the binding! I hope to have it ready to finish hand stitching the binding on Slow Stitching Sunday.

More Machine Quilting

Since I decided my Circa 2016 quilt must be finished in the year 2016, it has really lit a fire under me to get going on machine quilting. I am also machine quilting my Votes for Women UFO, so I have two different projects on the go and I can switch back and forth depending on the type of quilting I feel like doing each time I sit down at the machine.

I am starting the quilting in the centre of the quilt as I always do. The quilting will just be stitch-in-the-ditch, which I don't do very often any more because it is boring. But there are so many seams on this quilt to quilt through, and I want it to be a quick finish, so I am tolerating the boringness :) And also it is a wonderful break from the intense machine quilting I am doing on my UFO of the month. 

Circa 2016 Top is Done!

Here it is pinned to the design wall!

The HST border is finally done and I am happy with how it all turned out. Adding that final border was a challenge (although not as big of a challenge as putting together the centre panels).
The side borders went on okay and gentle stretching managed to ease in any excess fabric. But the top and bottom borders were out by half a block.
My choices were:
1) cut off the excess mid block (tempting!)
2) keep all the blocks but take in a few of the seams, making the seam allowances wider in some spots and thus shortening up the border
3) remove one block and let out the seams of other blocks, reducing the seam allowances to 1/8" and gradually lengthening the row until it fit, or
4) remove the side borders, add a coping border, reattach the side borders, refigure the measurements to make a similar coping border for the top and bottom borders (but actually do all this in your mind while the quilt stays in the UFO closet for a few years)


I chose option #3 and was happy with how it all turned out.

I was so happy in fact that I got it in my mind to finish this quilt in the same year it was started. Say what?!?! 
I briefly glanced at my UFO of the month that is calling out for attention, and decided it can wait another month or two. 
Circa 2016 has to be finished in 2016!
I got out the pins and my favourite Kwik Klip tool, and got to work on basting the quilt.
And also today I am excited that the new mystery quilt is starting over at Quiltville! I love starting a new quilt!!

Circa Update

The Circa quilt is still on the radar. The HST border is being constructed this week. I decided I liked the light side of the blocks facing toward the centre of the quilt and have sewn the blocks together in four border strips to go around the quilt. I just have to figure out how the corners will be and be brave in sewing the borders onto the quilt. The last border added will be black.
Maybe it will be done by next Friday?!?

Circa Update

Work is continuing on the Circa 2016 quilt project. All the HST blocks were constructed, then sewn into twosies, then foursies, and now they are mostly in sixies (not a real word!)
Time to figure out the math and see how these blocks will attach to the main quilt, and whether a coping border will be necessary. If the math is too hard, some coping beverages may also be necessary!

Today is Remembrance Day in Canada. We pause at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month to remember those courageous individuals (and their families) who have fought, and continue to fight for the privilege of living in a peaceful and safe country.

Twin Circas

My friend Sandy and I have both followed along with the Temecula Circa 2016 mystery quilt. When she came to visit this week she brought her project so the two Circa quilts could meet.

My scrappy version is on the left and Sandy's red and neutral version is on the right. You will notice that she has already put on a coping border around the quilt, which makes it the same size as my quilt is without it's border! My quilt is about 2" larger than Sandy's. 
Hmmmm... darn that 1/4" seam allowance!
Anyway, the sampler blocks are together and I spray misted my quilt top and pinned it to the carpet to dry. It dried fairly flat, so I'm happier with it now. 
The next border is made of HSTs, so we are busy sewing those this week. This is the production line - 30 done and about 100 more to go. I'm still loving my BlocLoc ruler.

Circa 2016 blocks are together

After working on this project all year, the quilt blocks are finally sewn together!

This is a major accomplishment for me since my block sections surrounding the centre medallion did not fit together. Any changes to the seam allowances would result in mutilated blocks, so I had to figure it out differently. I resized the black coping strip border around the centre medallion and used a thousand pins to make everything fit together. It doesn't lay very flat, but I'm hoping all those little waves will "quilt out"!

I am so excited to have the quilt to this stage! Next up is the HST border which might require another coping strip border to be added, but that's okay. 

Circa Struggles

I love most parts of the quilting process. I love buying fabrics, using the rotary cutter, piecing blocks, and enjoy both machine and hand quilting. But the one thing I dislike the most is the math. Measuring. Calculating. Re-measuring and trying to figure out how to adjust quilt pieces when the quilt does not produce the right numbers.

My seam allowance is usually quite consistent, but these Circa sections are not coming out to the right size according to the instructions. Here I am using three different rulers to try to figure out how to trim this section. To get the right measurement, I would have to cut off the block points and I'm not doing that! Or I could unsew and re-piece the sections using a bigger seam allowance to reduce the size of the unit, but I'm not doing that either for the same reason.
So I have to recalculate how to fit these pieces together.

Here I am using the tape measure to figure out what size the side panels need to be trimmed to. There is just so much seam matching in this layout and it all has to magically work out. So far it's not, and it's giving me a headache. 
So I will try to figure out the numbers another day.

Today I am going to the London Friendship Quilters' Guild quilt show. I hope to see some blogland friends and am looking forward to being inspired by their wonderful quilts. 

Design Wall Monday

The Temecula mystery quilt called Circa 2016 finished up last week, and I am eager to get this quilt top together. This is how it looks so far. The 3 centre panels are made but not trimmed to the correct size yet. They need to be trimmed and joined together.
The right side panel is well underway. It's been a while since I sewed a quilt with an on point layout, and it's a bit of a challenge for my brain.
To see more design wall postings, hop over to Patchwork Times.

Circa 2016

This is just a reminder to anyone who has been sewing the Circa 2016 from Temecula Quilts that the pattern will be removed from their blog today. So if you are missing any block patterns, or haven't studied the construction of the final layout, today is the last day to do that. You will be able to purchase the pattern if you want the entire PDF but now is your last chance to get it for free.
The first step was to border the centre medallion. I chose a black fabric like the sample quilt has.

The next step was organizing the blocks and sewing them together in sections. It has been fun to revisit all these wonderful blocks made over the past few months. I chose a beige print as the background fabric (the sample quilt uses grey). Here is one section of blocks which are sewn on point.

To use a directional fabric like this for a background fabric means you have to be okay with the lines going every which way. If I tried to cut the fabric to get all the lines to be vertical, the squares would all have bias edges, which could be a nightmare of stretchiness. I opted for the less distressing option, which is lines that go various directions.
When you stand back far enough, you don't even notice it!
And here is the second section of blocks sewn together.

There are two more sections to construct and then I can put the 5 pieces of the quilt top together. The last step is to add two borders, but one of the borders requires 120 HSTs so that will take a bit of sewing time.
This will be a wonderful scrappy quilt and I have enjoyed every bit of working on this project. A huge thank you to Temecula for creating and sharing this fantastic project!
Do you think I will finish it in 2016?!? The name implies a bit of pressure to do so!!

Circa 2016

I have finished sewing all the blocks for the Circa 2016 project!  Last week the posted pattern was 4 patch blocks, and I altered mine a wee bit. I may have said this before, but I love these little blocks and could see myself making a whole quilt of them!

Today we will begin the process of turning the blocks into a quilt top. We started making these blocks in January and added a few every week. 

This is my pile of blocks. I am hoping it will turn itself into a really great quilt! Do you remember the centre medallion of the quilt that we made in February?

Hop over to Temecula to see how these blocks will work with the centre medallion!

Circa 2016

Here are the Circa blocks that were posted last week. These are perfect blocks for using up small scraps. 

This week's blocks are the last in the Circa 2016 series. I started making these blocks in January of this year and next week we start putting our quilts together. It will be exciting!

I'm so happy that it's Friday... this week has felt like I packed in two weeks of work. I didn't, but it sure felt like that! The good news is that I have time to sew tonight! I have my projects all lined up and am ready to go!

Friday's Circa Installment

Last week's Circa block was a half square triangle (aka HST). I just didn't think that simple block would feel happy being with all the other wonderful blocks we've made for this quilt, so I decided to make some broken dishes blocks. I am making 80 of these blocks for Barb's block swap, so what's a few more?!? 
To see what's happening with the Circa sewalong this week, hop over to Temecula.

Friday Circa Blocks

Here are my most recently made Circa 2016 blocks. These are easy 9 patch blocks, all made from scraps. I made one extra "just in case".
Hop over to Temecula to see what blocks we will make this week.

Circa 2016

It's Friday!
Here are the blocks for last week's Circa 2016  installment.
These are 3" sawtooth stars with a 4 patch centre block.
I adore them! I think I want to make a whole quilt of these little babies!
We need 3 for the Circa 2016 project and I made an extra block "just in case". But one of the blocks is kind of a dud... the one with not enough contrast, and it might be voted off the island!
Have a fabulous friday!

Circa 2016

Here are the latest Circa blocks fresh off the sewing machine. 

This week we made easy peasy pinwheels. I made an extra block to make up for last week's fail. I really like the one with the brown stripes, which are all oriented correctly. 
However the pinwheels are creatively spinning in various directions, which I am not unhappy about!
Hop over to Temecula to see what we are sewing this week to add to our quilt.

Sort of Circa 2016

Well last week's Circa 2016 block went right off the rails over here! It was the rail fence block and it just did not appeal to me. It looked too big for this project, and I got the brilliant idea to make a smaller block since that worked out so well for me last week. But once I got started I had trouble with the math, and started slicing it up, and it didn't turn out anything like a rail fence. I didn't love it, so didn't make another one like it! We were supposed to make 3 rail fence blocks, so I will have to make up 2 more blocks somewhere along the way.

Here is a small sampling of some of the blocks I've made so far for my Circa quilt. 
Pop over to Temecula to see what we're supposed to be sewing this week.

Friday Circa

Here are the latest blocks I've made for my Circa 2016 project. The pattern called for two 3" hourglass blocks, but after all the little hourglass blocks I've been making for Clarissa, the 3" size just seemed enormous. So I made 2 sets of 4 smaller hourglass blocks and sewed them together. 
Much better!
To see what we are sewing today, hop over to Temecula Quilts. They are hosting the Patchwork Olympics this week with lots of interesting projects posted.