Day 123 – Angles and Circles

I’m feeling much better today and ready to finally quilt my Super Quick Wholecloth quilt. I basted this big guy and I really want to quilt it just for fun to see if my new quilting setup really works.

But before I run off to start quilting, let’s learn this cool variation of Lollipop Chain called Angles and Circles:

So what have I changed about my quilting setup? I’m still sewing on my Arrow flatbed sewing table and have positioned a 4 ft x 2 ft table to the back.

On the side I have 2 – 2ft x 18″ tables to the left. These tables are extremely necessary to expand the size of the table so the weight of the big quilt can rest either to the back or to the side of the machine.

The problem I’ve been having is the Arrow table is just ever so slightly shorter than my regular folding tables and on small projects the difference in height can snag my quilt.

So I was at Office Max the other day and saw their office chair mats. These are big sheets of thick plastic that typically rest on the floor under your office chair to make your wheels roll better.

But I saw a different use! What if this chair mat could instead be used to even out the surfaces of all my different tables?

I took my chair mat home, flipped it over to the smooth side, cut it to fit with utility scissors, and taped it onto my tables. So far it looks like it’s a perfect addition to my quilting setup, but I haven’t tried it out yet on a really big quilt.

I’ll definitely let you know how it goes tomorrow, but for now let’s learn how to stitch Angles and Circles:

Inspiration – I’ve been playing with angles a lot lately. When I first started quilting, I really hated all angles and sharp points because it was jarring and distracting to stop and change direction constantly.

The flow if designs like stippling felt a lot more natural and I could easily get into the “flow” of the design.

Now I’m finding that changing direction and forming sharp points isn’t as distracting as it used to be. It’s opening up a whole new avenue of designs now that I feel comfortable with this.

It just goes to show that you’ll always be learning something new with free motion quilting!

Difficulty Level – Intermediate. This design is really very easy – it’s just angles and circles!

Design Family – Edge to Edge. This design is stitched from one edge of your quilting space to the other, but you can easily free-form with this design as well, so it can really go in any area of your quilt.

Directional Texture – No Direction. The lines and circles really seem to be coming from all directions and it gives your quilt a very geometric feel, but from a distance this filler will read as very flat and directionless.

Suggestions for Use – For some reason this design keeps reminding me of the very early video games like mind trap, puzzle pipes, and pong.

I think this design will work great stitched over a funky, cheerful kids quilt! The big bold shapes of the circles and angles add a lot of fun interest and any kid is sure to find this texture fun.