Day 85 – Concentric Circles

I’ve been playing around with circles a lot lately and came up with this design:

I know, I know it looks exactly like Paisley.

In fact, when I was shooting the photo for this design, I looked at it and started wondering why I’d stitched it.

Thinking I’d taken complete leave of my senses, I watched the video and was reminded. Yes, the design looks a lot like Paisley, but it stitches up very differently and much more easily.

Inspiration – I’ve been playing around with circle shapes and snowflakes a lot lately. Something about this time of year makes me love symmetrical shapes and soft curves.

Filler Design Type – Stacking. Technically this design works first like Pebbling with an initial circle that is then filled with concentric circles.

The circle shapes stack together to fill the space evenly so this design should would in just about all areas of your quilt.

If you do place this in small, tight areas, you’ll want to have your circles start a lot smaller so you don’t have to spend a lot of time traveling to make the circles consistent.

Difficulty Level – Intermediate. This is a not-too-difficult design because we so often doodle circles working like this.

Design Family – Stacking. It’s easier to quilt than Paisley because you’re not having to stop and change direction. The circles flow all in one single movement, so it will also fill very quickly as well.

Directional Texture – All Directions. If you stitch this big enough, your eyes will see movement coming from all directions at once. It will definitely add loads of texture to your quilt so make sure to place it in places where you want your eyes to be drawn.

Even stitched in matching thread, like the back of this sample below, you’ll still be able to see the texture and movement of the design.

Suggestions for Use – For some reason, this is feeling particularly festive to me, so I’d say stitch it on red fabric with gold metallic thread for a holiday table runner or tree skirt.

Let’s go quilt,

Leah Day