Tag: circles

Going in Circles

We left home to run a few errands and I grabbed some quilts.  The day wasn’t especially light filled, but I’ve learned that if I don’t have a camera and quilts, the perfect stage presents itself.  

We visited Seventh Street Salvage in their downtown location…and what did we see but a cart sitting in front of circles?  Well, well, well….I just happened to have a few circles in the car.

Even though I had written about 108, I wanted a photo of it in an outdoor setting.  I had grabbed it and a couple of other quilts with circles and thrown them in the car.  

After we did our shopping inside (the garlic/olive artisan bread is delicious, by the way), we got permission to snap some photos and brought out the quilts.

I love the stars in the circles, the repetition of them in mass (like quilt blocks that way), and I am descended from Wheelers, so there’s that, too.  The stars in the circles are impressive, as well.  I may need to find some quilts with stars to bring back to this spot.  And, make a quilt with stars inside circles???? oh, my, the ideas just won’t stop!

The lone magenta quilt is one I haven’t written about before, Going in Circles.  In 2018, our guild’s challenge was “2”.  We were challenged to make a quilt using only 2 fabrics.  As always, I explored several options, experimented with a couple, but decided to do something totally out of my normal “look”. 

I spliced thin strips of a multicolored batik in a modern sort of piecing layout with a Cherrywood solid fabric.  I drew intersecting circles all over, planning to quilt each defined area with a different motif.  But when I got the circles stitched, I liked the clean look of it, so decided just to add some pearls at the intersections.

To continue the clean modern look, I didn’t bind the quilt, instead faced it with more of the graphic batik.  The backing is a hand-dyed fabric in soft muted colors.  

This quilt hangs on a rack in my sewing room and I see it every day.  But writing about it makes me realize that I need to do more of this kind of piecing.  It was fun – and I love the graphic result!  

I’ve written about the quilt in the center, Dots and Vines, before, and linked to it recently.  But in case you missed it, its story is here.

And, the blue dots on brown is my previous post, 108.

Seventh Street Salvage has appeared before in photo shoots, too.  Here, and here.

A note about the photos. My signature appears on most of these photos, but it is a collaborative effort at our house. I have learned to take photos and do a bit of post processing. But sometimes Jim and I swap cameras depending on where we are standing and which lens we need….and sometimes we forget who took what. And now there’s the issue of a new camera whose photos won’t import on his older computer. But I don’t have some of the processing software he has …so on this shoot more than ever, we’ve passed digital images back and forth to make this wall and the quilts impressive! His masterful touch in the digital darkroom makes everything look good!

108

In the last couple of years, I’ve been obsessed with circles. 

One of my explorations dealt with blue and white circles appliquéd to a brown linen tablecloth.  For all these projects, I didn’t count the circles…just made them until I thought I had enough.  I laid the blue circles on the brown linen until I liked their distribution, pinned them in place, and started appliqueing them.  

I wanted to hand quilt this larger piece using the seed stitch.  I love the texture that stitch gives.  I’ve used it on smaller pieces a lot, but wanted to see it on a big piece.  I used Aurifil #12 thread, stitched a double seed stitch overall though only the top and batting.  Then I added a backing layer (a piece of an indigo overdyed linen sheet) and stitched through all three layers with the same thread around the circles. 

I never had a title in mind for this as I worked – I presumed one would come to me.  My working title was “blue circles on brown”.  That could have worked for a final title.  But as I neared the end of the stitching, I decided to count the circles.  107.  That could work..it’s a prime number and I like those.  But, I needed a label on the back.  If that label was a circle, I’d have a total of 108.  108 has meaning in my life and I love for the quilt title to have meaning.  

I grew up in Turner County.  During the years I was learning to drive, our county’s number was 108.  So, the title of this quilt was born.  

Between 1957 and 1970, county codes were used as part of an auto’s car tag.  The first numbers on the tag were based on the respective population of the county.  Out of 159 counties in Georgia, my home was 108th in population those years.

Notice that on the label, I used some of the trims I’ve recently dyed with black walnuts.  It’s tempting to “save” those precious bits we made or altered, but I’m in the business of using them.  Here the tatting that took the dye so well borders the 108th circle.  Oh, and the fabric circle is cut from the center of the napkin with the embellished corner.

I made Dots and Vines, which you’ve already seen, stitched some circles on a bit of linen for a scarf, and made these blue circles and appliquéd them to a remnant of a brown linen tablecloth. I have lots of prepared circles waiting to become part of another quilt, too. The post on Dots and Vines is here.

I guess this little brown linen pillow with buttons attached fits the circle category, too.

I’ve referenced my love of the blue and brown connection before. One post describing a rolled up quilt exploration is here. And a sweet little case I found that’s blue and brown and toile and bows is here.

This finished quilt measures 40″ x 60″, a lap quilt for reading or watching tv. And, yes, for napping.

Dots and Vines

Yes, I’ve been sewing in this safe-at-home time.  I’ve been busy finishing old abandoned projects as well as exploring new ones.

One of the new things I’ve done is this piece I called Dots and Vines.  Inspired by my grandmother’s quilt on this table in our den, I assembled many many circles appliqued on squares.  

Ollie Jane’s quilt lives on this table most of the year and I continually look at it and think, what a powerful design.  I ought to recreate it.  Finally, I did.

Though it doesn’t look much like her work (nor much like mine, for that matter – it’s rather modern, don’t you think?),  it’s another example of stitching that reflects the love of cloth through generations; a tale that never grows old.

I chose to use Cherrywood handdyed fabrics.  The circles are 1” in diameter, the squares finish at 3”.  I spent many morning hours on the porch stitching these, and many more hours doing the same at night in front of the tv.  Many hours of delicious time thinking and soothing the soul while pulling a threaded needle through cloth.  

There were days when the finished blocks danced all around my design wall, trying to find the right arrangement of color.  Here you see them with several fabrics I considered using as borders.

But the final arrangement has no border.  A nice stripe from Kaffe Fassett’s collection as binding seemed to bring enough closure.

I knew the entire time that I wanted to quilt a meandering vine from variegated thread, so that’s the rest of the title, Dots and Vines, a bit of homage to a book I came to love in college math classes, The Dot and the Line.  I considered August 12, 2020  as its title – that’s the day I finished the quilt and it just happened to be the 225th day of this calendar year.  But that title requires too much explanation in casual conversation, so Dots and Vines it is.

I made many more circle blocks that are waiting another use.  But the 225 that I chose means I have a 45” square finished piece.  I like that size.  It’s good to drape over a chair, take along on a photo ride-about, or use as a table topper.

I continue to stay busy with a variety of things, including nature photography.  But most things are connected to fiber in some way.  Don’t you think it would be interesting to make a textile version of these mushrooms?  I see red thread here.

More about my grandmother’s quilts can be found here and here. Enter “Ollie Jane” in the search box for even more.