Circular – May Make it Modern project

Circular is my May project for the Island Batik Ambassador program. The theme for May is Make it Modern. Modern is just the thing for me. I love the free-form, unconstrained design aesthetic of modern quilts. I had several ideas for May but this simple design won out.

The fabric for this quilt was provided by Island Batik and the batting was provided by Hobbs Batting as part of the Island Batik Ambassador program.

I’m glad May has 31 days. This was a very busy month for me. This is the only sewing project I was able to work on, and the only blog post for the month. The piecing and quilting was completed a couple of weeks ago but it has taken me a while to get pictures and write up this blog post. It still needs a hanging sleeve and a binding, which will be done this week.

For this project, I wanted something with simple piecing so I can spend some more time quilting. I picked out a few squares of turquoise and orange Island Batik fabric and backed them with fusible web. I cut out concentric quarter circles of different sizes. Then, I mixed up the pieces, fused them on to background squares and used a blanket stitch to sew them in place. I tried many interesting layouts for the squares but in the end, I decided on a somewhat symmetrical setting similar to a New York Beauty quilt.

In my Island Batik ambassador box, there were several rolls of batting from Hobbs. Most were Hobbs 80/20 blends that are my usual choices for baby, throw and bed quilts. There was a new kind of batting (new to me) called Thermore. I used a bit of it in my February mini project.It is very thin but I love how well the quilting shows with it. The quilting lines have very good definition. I wanted to use Thermore for this quilt as well. In addition, I also used a Hobbs 80/20 batting. I believe using two layers of batting makes the quilting stand out.

For the quilting, I wanted to try something new. The main quilting theme is closely spaced vertical lines along the length of the quilt. The lines are broken up by the turquoise and orange circles as well as islands of heavy free-motion quilting. I marked circles and squares using a Hera marker at random locations. Some of them touch and overlap, and others stand on their own. In each quilting island, I used a different design/motif – McTavishing, feathers, spirals, pebbles, wish-bones, horizontal lines and a combination of them all. It was very hard to stitch in the ditch around the circles on my long-arm because these circles are quite large and I didn’t have a ruler to help me draw a good circle.

I took the quilt off the frame and quilted the outlines of the circles using a walking foot on my domestic. See the before and after pictures above – what a difference it makes!

Details:
Size: 44″ x 52″
Fabric: Assorted Island Batik squares in Turquoise and Orange
Background: Island Batik solid grey fabric
Batting: Hobb’s Thermore and Hobb’s 80/20 cotton/polyester blend.

Here’s a list of all the 2019 Ambassadors. Checkout their awesome May projects:

Carolina Asmussen ~Carolina Asmussen

Gene Black ~ Gene Black

Pamela Boatright ~ PamelaQuilts

Connie K Campbell ~ Freemotion by the River

Anja Clyke ~ Anja Quilts

Tina Dillard ~ Quilting Affection Designs

Becca Fenstermaker ~ Pretty Piney

Jennifer Fulton ~ Inquiring Quilter

Barbara Gaddy ~ Bejeweled Quilts by Barb

Dione Gardner-Stephen ~ Clever Chameleon

Sarah Goer ~ Sarah Goer Quilts

Vasudha Govindan ~ Storied Quilts

Lori Haase ~ Dakota City Quilter II

Joanne Hart ~ Unicornharts

Mania (Magdalini) Hatziioannidi ~ Mania for Quilts

Carla Henton ~ Creatin’ in the Sticks

Stephanie Jacobson ~ Steph Jacobson Designs

Connie Kauffman ~ Kauffman Designs

Joan Kawano ~ Moosestash Quilting

Kim Lapacek ~ Persimon Dreams

Emily Leachman ~ The Darling Dogwood

Leanne Parsons ~ Devoted Quilter

Bea Lee ~ BeaQuilter

Toby Lischko ~ Gateway Quilts & Stuff

Bill Locke ~ Studio Bill Locke

Denise Looney ~ For the Love of Geese

Leah Malasky ~ Quilted Delights

Sally Manke ~ Sally Manke

Maryellen McAuliffe ~ Mary Mack’s Blog

Kathleen McCormick ~ Kathleen McMusing

Carol Moellers ~ Carol Moellers Designs

Karen Neary ~ Sew Karen-ly Created

Lisa Nielsen ~ Lisa Lisa and the Quilt Jam

Jackie O’Brien ~ If These Threads Could Talk

Laura Piland ~ Slice of Pi Quilts

Michelle Roberts ~ Creative Blonde

Vicki Schlimmer ~ Vicki’s Crafts and Quilting

Gail Sheppard ~ Quilting Gail

Sherry Shish ~ Powered by Quilting

Anita Skjellanger ~ Quilt in a not-Shell

Laticia “Tish” Stemple ~ Tish’s Adventures in Wonderland

Jennifer Strauser ~ Dizzy Quilter

Jennifer Thomas ~ Curlicue Creations

Terri Vanden Bosch ~ Lizard Creek Quilts

Alison Vermilya ~ Little Bunny Quilts

Sandra Walker ~ mmm! quilts

Suzy Webster ~ Adventurous Applique and Quilting

(Debora) Anne Wiens ~ Seams like a Plan

Geraldine Wilkins ~ Living Water Quilter

Janet Yamamoto ~  Whispers of Yore

Linking to these linky parties:
Put your foot down – a new link-up at fortheloveofgeese.com
Needle and Thread Thursday
Friday Foto fun
Freemotion Maveriks
WhoopWhoop
TGIFF
May monthly @ MeadowMist