Sunday, May 23, 2010

Sunstruck


The theme for the third month of So You Think You Can Quilt was 'Circles'. Voting ended last night and I'm happy to say that I'm still in the contest. My entry is a wall hanging, measuring about 25 inches square. To make this quilt I used Caryl Bryer Fallert's free Flying Geese in a Circle paper pieced pattern as a jumping off point, enlarging the pattern slightly on a copy machine. The photo online of the finished quilt indicated that the quilter should trim the circle of geese both inside and out (essentially making a donut of flying geese), but I adapted the pattern so that each of the four quarters was squared off. The four quarters of the circle went together like a dream. I enjoy the contrast of circles and squares in the piecing and continued that with the quilting. I'm pleased with the way it turned out.
Cassidy named this quilt Sunstruck.
I learned a little lesson about continuing to sew when I should be sleeping. As you can see below (partway through my repairs), I forgot to put in some of the black framing and had to unpick stitches and do a little more cutting and sewing. I'm glad I followed through with my original vision, I like it so much better with the black framing crossed at the corners.

Here's a picture of a mama and her little ducklings. This was taken on the day before Mother's Day. It was very windy and the poor little guys were getting blown end over end.

Finally, this picture of mama swan and her cygnets was taken on our Mother's Day walk around the lake on campus. Originally, she was farther away near the little island in the middle of the lake. We were surprised when she came up to the shoreline.