13. Quilt a Rail Fence with Circles & Stairs

Yep, we’re stitching some circles again! A lot of beginners find this shape a bit challenging, so if your circles are a bit wobbly, don’t worry because you’ll be in good company! It took me about 3 years to quilt circles confidently, mostly because I avoided them like the plague. If you actually jump into it and stitch circles more often, I’m sure you will master them much faster than I did!

Just a quick reminder – the piecing instructions for this block and the quilting design are included in the Building Blocks Quilt Pattern. Find this massive 100+ page pattern right here at LeahDay.com

NEW! This block design is now available in a quilting stencil from Quilting Creations International. Use the stencil to easily mark the design on plain fabric, your block, or another fun quilt you’re working on! Click here to find the 8 inch stencil compatible with the Building Blocks Quilt.

Now for the video!

I think I could have won an award with how confusingly I described not stitching in the ditch before you begin quilting this block! Basically just stitch the perimeter, then start quilting the straight lines around the circles and knock out the circles at the same time. Some of these lines will hit the ditches, we don’t want to stitch straight across the whole block to start as we have with the other blocks.

This is entirely a design / esthetic choice and it creates the very beautiful stairs and circles pattern on the back, with no indication that this is a Rail Fence block. In fact, this design would also look beautiful over our Four Patch Block too!

In this situation we’re ignoring the piecing lines as we cover them with a beautiful quilting design. Sometimes I intentionally ignore the piecing design of a block, sometimes I intentionally focus on it and carefully stitch around every element.

These are all little design decisions that you can play with infinitely within every quilt you create. The trick is learning what you like and what you don’t like – developing an opinion.

So often I’m asked “How should I quilt this? Is it okay if I use x, y, z design?” and the answer I always give is “Yes, I think that design looks great, but how do YOU feel about it?“

Developing an opinion on your quilting design is as simple as learning what you like to eat. You taste something new to try it and you either think instantly “Yay!” or “Bleh!” – that’s your gut reaction talking, and your body usually tells you pretty clearly how you feel.

The same can be true for quilting – stitch something out and ask yourself if you like it. Look for the “Yay!” and the “Bleh!” in your reaction – sometimes it’s worth it to stitch something you think you will hate just to know for sure if you hate it or not!

So start developing those opinions! We’ve quilted 10 blocks together now – which are your favorites? Which were your least favorite? Whatever you like or LOVE – stitch more of it!

Just 10 blocks in and already I can see and hear the difference from the quilters posting in our BBQA Facebook Group.

Many members started the year filled with fear about free motion, especially fearful of being judged for imperfect stitches, wobbly lines, or an inability to stitch in the ditch.

Wonderfully, amazingly, this group has developed into an international cheering squad and everyone is gaining confidence and accepting mistakes, and finding that space to be less critical and judgmental of themselves.

The fact is we can make any task feel hard and awful by being mean and hurtful to ourselves.

Or we can make this fun and enjoyable by accepting our mistakes and imperfection as part of the learning process! Don’t pick up your seam ripper – just keep on stitching!

Let’s go quilt,

Leah Day