New Directions for the Going In Circle Quilt

Sharing some changes I've made to my kids version of the Going in Circles quilt from the Modern Art Quilts book (affiliate link) by Sue Bleiweiss.

The first is stitching the strips that make up the circles versus just fusing them. This change helps the quilt hold together after numerous washings by the new mom.

Big, 10" circles were then cut from that strip set, and some little 5" ones too.

Then all circles were cut down the middle, either with the strips or perpendicular to them, and sewn back together.

Just a little note, the perpendicular cut circles need extra width for a seam allowance to give a finished round circle versus one lopsided or smaller than 10".

So, now to get them onto the background. For that to happen, I used a lightweight fusible interfacing, stitching fusible side to the right side of the fabric. 

After a trim of the seam allowance, and a slit in the middle of the interfacing, the circles are turned inside out, and are ready for fusing to the background.

Ah, the background. My first choice was a nice, soft blue, which unfortunately, just looked dull.

Hmm, what other color to choose? Let's take a look at my favorite handy-dandy Ultimate 3-in-1 Color Tool (affiliate link).

It says golden yellow is the complement, so let's see how these circles look on golden yellow.

Hmm. Okay, but still not doing it for me. Next idea is chartreuse, which is in the 5 color complimentary color range. 

Let's see what chartreuse does:

Better! And this chartreuse just happens to have stars on it, which all the blue prints have - win win! And it picks up the bit of green in the prints better than the yellow background. 

Now onto the accent color, which is the little strip that goes in the middle of each circle. Sticking with the 5 color compliment range on the 3-in-1 Color Tool (affiliate link), that would be yellow-orange, which is more orange than yellow. A test piece of it is on the top left of the quilt. I'd say that's a winning combination!

Now that background and accent color are decided, it's time to fuse down those circles, stitch around them, add the accent strips, and move onto quilting. I'll have more to share on Monday.

Have a great weekend quilting!