Square Pegs in Round Holes

In the first quarter of 2018, I last worked on this quilt from a John Flynn pre-cut quilt kit. I had pieced it, assembled it, and prepped the backing for it. Now was the time for the free motion quilting.

Here are my progress posts on it:

• January 10, 2018 where I discuss curved piecing
• February 23, 2018 where I decide on a block arrangement
• March 1, 2018 where I challenge myself to get a backing from too little fabric.

This week (~ six months later) I "rediscovered" the quilt hanging neatly as a quilt sandwich on a hanger in one of my closets. [Quilts in progress are stored in more than one closet, are they not?]  Feeling brave after recently completing the FMQ on a yet-to-be-revealed quilt, I decided to keep the momentum going and FMQ this one. I should have reread my own blog posts first to jog my memory on my status. Having been unusually decisive on the pattern, I whipped the sandwich off the hanger and quilted away on a roughly 12" tall section by the width of quilt before moving on to another area to be similar patterned. Not very far into it, I discovered that this new area had a huge tuck in the backing fabric. Huh?

Apparently I had stored the quilt in a tidy sandwich but had not smoothed out all the wrinkles nor spray basted it. So pleased was I to find a sandwich ready to quilt, that I had totally failed to notice I had left out that pretty crucial step. I set out to smooth and spray baste with one end already quilted. That maneuver involved quite a bit of crawling around on the floor, taping and re-taping, adjusting and re-adjusting, smoothing and re-smoothing. The backing wound up a tiny bit catawampus at the far edges from where I began quilting, but thank goodness not so much so that the front hung over the edges anywhere. Whew! Breathe a sigh of relief. I could have needed to take out that entire band of FMQ but that was not necessary. I only needed to remove a small amount in the center of the quilted section where the seam of the backing was leaned over to one side and not open as everywhere else.

Angela Walter has a book Shape by Shape that I love to use for inspiration.

In it is a design for square blocks that I like to use. I have shown Angela Walters' sequence for quilting in the following diagram.

I adapted it for use in my four-sided blocks using curves instead of straight lines for the center cross. It works for blocks that are concave at the circumference of the circle ( ~wheels)...

... and for blocks that are concave at the circumference of the circle (~webs).

I made myself paper templates that I folded in quarters to help me visualize and mark with a dot the block center where the diagonal lines should cross. This is the template for the "web".

This is the "web" template folded in half, aligned, and marked with the midway point for transferral.

This is the template for the "wheel".

This is the "wheel" template folded in half, aligned, and marked with the midway point for transferral.

I have not yet decided how to quilt these odd shaped blocks that look like steer horns or angular bottomed leafs.

  

These are some patterns I am toying with but I am not thrilled by any of them. The feather one (upper right) would be fun to do but I do not know that it goes with the petals. The loops option (lower left) is within my skill level and could pass for tendrils on plants. The blocks are almost triangular so I may peruse that section of the Shape by Shape book for ideas. Also, if I split each along a "stem line" they do become two three sided sections.

I could echo quilt the shape but my echo quilting is wobbly. Notice how non-smooth this corner quarter circle came out when echoed with simple concentric arcs.

I tried petals as an option for the quarter circles instead, but feel that then there would be too many petals.

Besides if I did petals for a full circle, it would remind me too much of an atom symbol. So the circle pattern is also up for grabs.

Decisions, decisions. I am taking my time. This is slow going for me on my sit-down HQ-16 but that is perfectly fine. I like to decide as I go along and exercise my learned muscle memory in all similar sections at once. I need to come up with a quilt name too. Although Wheels & Webs as a working name is descriptive, I am not fond of spiders. At the rate I am going perhaps Petalmania?  The kit name Carnival does not float my boat. I already named a quilt Out of the Blue. I am seeking an alternative. Until then I am off to share with others at Let's Bee Social #247.