Circles- What Works for Me

It seems all of the applique patterns I fall in love with have...ugh!!! CIRCLES!  Like making the Lily Rosenberry Quilt by Susan Garman, over 320 circles.  It was in tackling this quilt I had to figure out how to mass produce circles.  And so, I would like to share "What works for me".

I'm working on a pattern by Brandywine Design, called Brown Sugar Sampler.  All twelve blocks are different applique patterns, most requiring circles.

Here are a few 'tools' I use, when making circles, that make the process more enjoyable. You'll see how each one is handy as we get into the tutorial.  I've included links just in case you want to research further.

Easy Threading needle. 

I don't particularly like threading a needle. The needle eye is separated at the top which makes threading a snap, literally, the thread just snaps in.  When you are doing running stitches on several circles, like 320, this was a wonderful tool to have.

Frixion Pen-  You can use any fabric marker but I love using this pen.  The heat of the iron erases the mark. However, you will want to do further research if you intend to use the Frixion pen for marking your quilt top for quilting.  It works great for this application.

Karen Kay Buckley Perfect Circles- Her tutorial is great, but, I tweaked the process for "What Works for Me"

Let's get started:

Get your pattern and find the right size circle.  If you don't want to invest in heat resistant circles, anything you can trace around will do and make the circles using the freezer paper template technique.

One great thing about applique is you can use fabric scraps.  You will be working with the right side  facing down. 

Using a fabric marker, trace your circles onto the wrong side of the fabric.

Give yourself some space between each one

Cut out the circles giving a 1/4"+edge away from the drawn circle.

Sew a running stitch in between the outer raw edge and the drawn line. I'm using a contrasting thread so you can see my stitches.  Don't  knot the end because you are leaving a long tail, not pulling the thread to the end. Leave a long tail when starting the running stitch and when ending the running stitch cut the end leaving a long tail.  You'll need some length to hold onto to pull the circle around the template.

Starch the outer edge (see my two long tails?)

Place the template in the center and pull the tails to draw the fabric around the template

Press the edge with an iron, holding it long enough to dry the starched edge

Once dried and cool enough to touch, remove the template.  Holding onto the thread tails keeping the circle together.  There are times I will lay the circle back down and press once more if it looks like it loosened up a bit making it all wonky.  You can always put the template back in, pull the strings, add more starch and "turn and burn" one more time.

Raw edge up with the template removed

Finished edge up with template removed- Pretty nice!

Don't cut the tails until you're ready to stitch the piece to the block back.  When you are ready to stitch the circle down snip the long tails leaving enough length to lay with in the circle. No need to pull the running stitch out.

Oh, one more thing. I do ALL of my circles with the running stitch, at the same time.  This allows me the luxury of mass producing them when I'm starching (Turn and Burn).  Because the template is pulled out, it is ready to move onto the next circle  If you have more than one template, you can start on another circle while the first one is drying.  When it's cooled, you pull out the template and start another, while the second one is cooling.  That is mass production.  And you don't need 320 "perfect circle" templates to do the job.

As always....

I'm Sew Happy to Share.

Hugs,   Penny